Aosta Valley offers a wide range of accommodation options: hotels, farmhouse accommodation, B&BS, campsites and mountain huts.

Visitors coming to follow the race are advised to choose accommodation located at the bottom of the valley, so as to make travel easier. For athletes coming on a reconnaissance visit before the race, the best options are the mountain huts and the accommodation facilities located in the individual municipalities the Tor des Géants runs through: Courmayeur, Valgrisenche, Rhêmes-Notre-Dame, Valsavarenche, Cogne, Donnas, Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Ayas, Valtournenche, Ollomont and Saint-Oyen.

Book a hotel in Courmayeur or book a stay in Aosta Valley using the free on-line booking service provided by the regional tourist office.

Daily bus services link the side valleys with the valley bottom and the town of Aosta, and a specific urban bus service also runs through the latter.

The rail line only serves the main valley from Pré-Saint-Didier to Aosta and from Aosta to Turin.

A new dial-a-bus service, TrekBus Giro parchi, covers the Aosta Valley side of the Gran Paradiso National Park, guaranteeing connections between the municipalities at the bottom of the valley (Aymavilles, Villeneuve, Introd and Arvier) and those in the Gran Paradiso Valley (Cogne, Valsavarenche, Rhêmes-Saint-Georges, Rhêmes-Notre-Dame and Valgrisenche).

The Aosta Valley region remains closely linked to agriculture and traditions. Four products from the region have obtained Protected Denomination of Origin recognition from the European Union: Fontina, Fromadzo, Jambon de Bosses and Arnad Lard.

 

Other specialities include Toma from Gressoney, réblèque, salignon and goats cheeses; raw, cured and cooked meats (Motsetta, Saucesses, Teteun, Jamon à la braise de Saint-Oyen); apples and honey, as well as a range of liqueurs and wines that provide the perfect accompaniment to the fine local recipes. The DOC-label wines of the region include Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle, Torrette, Nus Rouge, Chambave Rouge, Arnad-Montjovet, Enfer Arvier, Donnas, Chambave Muscat and Nus Malvoisie. Also well worth a try are the Chardonnay, Muller Thurgau, Petite Arvine, Pinot Gris, Fumin, Gamay, Petit Rouge, Pinot Noir and Premetta.

The "Saveurs du Val d'Aoste" sticker, featuring a cup of friendship, is displayed in shops and restaurants where visitors can purchase or taste local produce and traditional regional recipes. Traditional crafts are deeply rooted in the rural culture of the Alps, where the mountain folk once grew crops, bred animals and made their own tools for use at home and in the fields, using wood, copper, iron, wool, stone and hemp. Today's craftsmen are veritable artists, who carve wood and fashion the traditional woollen "drap" fabric in the Valgrisenche, the "dentelles" lace in the Cogne valley and the hard wearing hemp fabrics in the Champorcher valley. Every year, a thousand or so of these artists show off their creations on 30 and 31 January, during the ancient Sant'Orso Fair, as well as the numerous other fairs held mostly in the summer.