Halfway between Bourg Saint Maurice and Courmayeur (27km from each of the towns), separating the Tarentaise from the Val d’Aoste, the Col du petit St Bernard is a high plateau perched at an altitude of 2188 m, swept by the winds and covered of snow 4 months a year. You can reach the Hospice du Petit Saint-Bernard by a beautiful mountain road, from the beginning of June until the first snows of November. In winter, the pass is at the heart of the San Bernardo area, a vast Franco-Italian ski area between the ski resorts of La Rosière and La Thuile.
For this year, the Hospice closed its doors as the winter season approached and will re-open on June 1, 2025!
A visit to the pass is an opportunity to a cycling feat, to circle around the enigmatic Cromlech, to bow before the statue of St Bernard perched on top of a Roman column, playing the toy soldier around the ruined Redoubt or on the ancients breakwater blocks of the pass, to make magnificent walks in the heart of the mountain pastures very close to the imposing Mont-Blanc massif, to tread on remarkable moors and wet meadows…
Come and visit the hospice!
But above all a Stop at the hospice is essential for visit the permanent exhibition on the pass and the Tarentaise valley, to get all the practical information about your stay in Haute-Tarentaise, to learn about the region in the well-stocked bookshop at the reception desk, to visit the temporary exhibition that changes every summer, but also and of course to eat there, drink a coffee on the terrace, or why not spend one or more nights there in one of the rooms of the inn, as thousands of travelers have done since the Middle Ages.