Driving from Füssen to Interlaken, Switzerland
 

Any suggestions for the best driving route from Neuschwanstein in Füssen to Interlaken, Switzerland? We will be coming from Garmisch to Füssen and prefer not to backtrack unless this is the fastest route.
Thanks for any suggestions

It will be sort of a convoluted route--there is no "as the crow flies" in that part of the world!

Take E352 NW out of Fussen to Kempten--East on 12 to Lindau--202 around the east end of the Bodensee--N1 to Zurich and on to Bern--N6 to Interlaken. You could drop down to Luzern out of Zurich, then across the mountains to Interlaken--but no time saved. Probably 4 hours plus driving time.

Don't forget--you must purchase a vignette that allows you to drive the Swiss motorways (autobahns). Purchase as you cross into Switzerland.

Cheers,

Jinx Hoover

Do you want the fun way through the good high mountain passes and past grea glacier lakes, or the boring highways through the valleys? Let me knonw.

At the very least, take the "drop down" past Lucerne mentioned above as at least you will get to drive the Brunig Pass which while not very high is at least pretty and much more interesting than the very boring highway via Bern. Driving the smaller roads and passes in Switzerland is the only reason, IMO, the have the car, otherwise take the train and save on gas and the hassle and expense of parking. . . .

A beautiful scenic drive from Fussen to Interlaken, almost none of which would be on highway, would be as below. The route is about the same or just a tiny bit longer, but much much more scenic, than the highway via Bern, and is on nice two lane roads as opposed to 4 lane divided highways with trucks, there should be much less traffic than the highways and you will have the glorious Alps almost the whole way. In June you will have daylight from about 6 am until 10 pm or later, so you can get a lot of driving and sightseeing in and still get to Interlaken in time for twilight if not sunset.

I can provide specific route details if you want to do this drive, this is a general description. (You can route this yourself on something like Map Quest Europe, which I used to estimate the time from Fussen to the Wallensee as I have not done that drive; I find their time estimates to be accurate for drives I actually know, so I rely on that site for things like this. Use the town names I have listed as end points, otherwise, Map Quest will take you round by the highways. A real map is actually better IMO. )

Fussen – Weesen (on the Wallensee, a lake south of Lake Constance)

2.5 hours, will skirt west part of Lake Constance, could stop here at Bregenz, could take more of a detour and go to St Gallen which has a wonderful old town, or further up the lake to a place like Konstanz. (These would take 2-3 hours to really see, a pretty significant detour). Have lunch on the gorgeous Wallensee (I can recco a good simple hotel restaurant on the lakefront), take a ferry ride on the lake to admire the jagged tooth mountains. Enjoy being the only Americans around, because when you get to Interlaken, that won't be so. . .

From here the fun begins as you head up into the mountains

Wessen – Burglen

About 1 hour, you go through little villages, some short tunnels, up and over the Klausenpass with great views (about 2500 metres/7500 feet) and down into Burglen.

Here you have to make a choice:

1. You can continue down to Fluelen, and then take the E 35 highway/tunnel around the edge of the Urnersee and Lake Lucerne and connect up with the main road into Interlaken (mostly tunnels and a pretty valley floor as you approach Interlaken), time would be just about 1.5 hours. So total drive time from Fussen with this option with no stops to eat or gawk at scenery would be about 4.5 hours.

2. Take the mountain road up and over the fantastic Sustenpass (2224 meters), a great drive. The pass is not especially tricky to drive, there are not a lot of twists and turns compared to something like the Furka Pass (see below) but offers great views. One of the better pass drives IMO as the approach and descent are quite long compared to other passes (hard to describe adequately, hope you get my point, if you have driven the Julier pass you might). You will come down into Meringue where meringue was allegedly invented and discovered by Napoleon on his march through to Italy. To do this drive, from Burglen, follow signs for the towns of Erstgeld, Intschi, Meien, and the Sustenpass; you want to stay on the local two lane mountain road, and do NOT want the E 41 highway leading to the St Gothhard Tunnel. From Burglen to Interlaken without stops should take about 1.5 hours. So total drive time from Fussen to Interlaken via this route with no stops would be 5 hours. It is however much more scenic than Option 1 which is actually through a number of long tunnels.

If you really want to have fun and have time, go a bit further and drive the even more fun combo of the Furka Pass (2400 metres) and Grimsel Pass (2200 metres), from Burglen this would take something just over 2 hours, so from Fussen overall something more than 5 hours. You can get out at the top of the Furka and go see a glacier which is the source of the Rhine. The Furka has an unbelievable amount of sharp turns, and the Grimsel has several green glacial lakes. You could of course do just these two passes easily another day from Interlaken would take maybe 2-3 hours to go up to the top the Furka and back to Interlaken.

One caveat, the above passes all open June 1, weather permitting, so you have to check. As your trip is in early June, there is a very slight chance that snow melt may not have been adequate, esp. at the Klausenpass which is the highest. This is quite unlikely but of course possible. As you approach the access roads, you will see signs whether they are open or closed, but you should check in Weesen, as you don't want to take the road in if the pass is closed. The road leading in from Wessen should in fact have a sign indicating whether the pass is open or not.

Finally, if you want to just do the Brunig Pass from Zurich to Lucerne, I can recco a wonderful restaurant with great views just past the pass. Let me know

Taking my itinerary of last June in reverse:

Fuesen - Reutte - Weissenbach (on the German B-314/Austrian B-198); Weissenbach - Oberjoch on the Austrian B199. Oberjoch - Hindelang - Immenstadt (I grew up there) - Oberstaufen - Lindau on the B-308, part of the Deutsche Alpenstrasse (German Alpine Highway)

Lindau - Bregenz (Austria) - St.Margrethen (Switzerland)- Swiss Autobahn N-13 (Get decal before you get on it, at border crossing). N-13 to the Autobahn N-3; N-3 west to the exit at Weesen. Take the B-17 (Klausenpass) to Altdorf. Take the N-2 south to Wassen (it's a very short stretch) Take the B-11 (Sustenpass - one of the most gorgeous pass routes)to Innerkirchen - Meiringen, and the autobahn along the south side of the Brienzer See to Interlaken.

If the weather is not good, then you can continue on the N-3 past Weesen to Walleran, on the B-17 to Altdorf and the N-2 to Altdorf, and see above.

Thank you all for your help. I will carefully study your suggestions and get back to you if necessary. Of course I prefer the scenic route over the Autobahn even though it takes more time, but my wife and I are traveling with a couple who want to see the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau before they return from Frankfurt and they are the ones short on time.

By the way treplow, would Immenstadt have anything to do with Immensee? I read Immensee by Theodor Storm many years ago in a German class.

Thanks again,
schweizerkerl

No connection between Immenstadt and Immensee.

In your hurry to get to see that trio, you are going to miss some of the most beautiful parts of Switzerland. As I have long said, the Bernese Oberland does not have better mountains, just better PR. . . .boy oh boy you had better pray for clear weather when you are there or you will have rushed for nothing. . . .

The scenic route doesn't really take much more time. Also, having just checked Map Quest, the first part of my recco'd itinerary to the Wallensee is in fact the way that the highway route will take you, and is part of the same route suggested by jinx above when he talks about taking the N1 from the Bodensee (also called Lake Constance to English speakers) to Zurich, although that highway is called the A3 in Switzerland. (As you will discover, road numbers are essentially meaningless in Switzerland, town names are used as locators. Also my directions said you will go by the west end of Lake Constance, sorry that was supposed to say east end.) So if you decide to take the highway most of the way, you could still stop for lunch in Weesen. Also, I don't see any reason to go all the way to Berne, the route via Lucerne would be faster than going all the way to Zurich and then backtracking via Berne. Take a look at the map.

If you want to get an idea of what the Klausenpass is like, take a look at some pictures at http://www.montivagus.de/chpkla.html#textbild1. The text is in German, but the pictures speak for themselves. This ain't the road from Lucerne, Berne or even the Brunig Pass (which is quite pretty but nothing at all like the high passes above the treeline.)

If you could convince your friends it was "worth it", and though I have not done it myself, I imagine a spectacular drive from Fussen would to drive down throuh Austria via the passes and then down through the Engadine to Chur (I have done parts of this and it is beautiful), and then on via the route I have described. I can't estimate time, but can't imagine it would take more than a full day to do this, as the distance is not that great.