Will be driving from Zurich to Zermatt in April to skifor 4 days, then to Grindelwald for 4 days. Has anyone done this trp? Is there a tunnel to go through? Any info will be appreciated.

Judi, The train cuts thru the mountains at Kandestag to Goppenstein near Brig. It will also take you in your car---a long dark tunnel. From Brig, you can either drive to Tasch, the town before Zermatt, to park or park in Brig and take the local train. You cannot drive to Zermatt. You would take the reverse to get back to Grindelwald. I love to stay in Kandestag--a cute village. However, Thun is also a good place to spend the nite and not far from Kandestag the next morning. Good luck--sounds like fun

Bob the N is as usual right on target.<BR>I have ridden through that tunnel a few times myself. You drive your car onto a rail car and sit in your car for the ride through the tunnel. It is indeed dark!! And I don't recommend it for the claustrophobic!!<BR>An alternative route to Zermatt, one that is longer but a heck of a lot more scenic in my opinion, is to continue from Spiez east to Interlaken, Meiringen, and Innertkirchen. From Innertkirchen take the road over the Grimsel Pass to Brig. From there continue on to Visp and turn south to T&auml;sch, where you park your car for Zermatt. The average tourist is not allowed to drive to Zermatt. <BR><BR>Now, saying that about the scenery on the road to Zermatt does lead to exceptions!! The Kanderstegg route to Zermatt can be made quite scenic if you stop in Kandersteg and ride the Sesselbahn (open chair lift)to the &Ouml;eschinensee. It is awesome, particularly if you expend some energy and walk up the trail and get a view over the lake from about 300 meters above it. <BR>On the other side of the tunnel from Kandersteg, the descent from Goppenstein to the Valley of the Rhone is spectacular, but not as awesome as the Grimsel (my view of course). <BR><BR>In Innertkirchen, just before you turn right and head up the road to the top of the pass, there is a small bakery on your right. It has the best baked goods I have found in Switzerland!! They make a delicious sticky bun in sort of a pinwheel shape. We drove down there once from Lauterbrunnen just to stock up!!<BR>A little whimsical, but what is a vacation for if you don't break out of the mold and go do something just for fun??<BR>If you want to throw a wrinkle into the drive, take the "other fork" out of Innertkirchen and drive over the Susten Pass to Andermatt. From there, continue over the Furka Pass to Brig. That way you get in two passes. The route is longer, however. <BR>The Furka takes a steady hand at the wheel!!

Judi: Bob the N. is right, people usually take the route via L&ouml;tschberg-tunnel. It is a railway tunnel, so don't be afraid of bad accidents like happened in the Gotthard-, Mont-Blanc- and Tauern-tunnels. But if you dislike tunnels generally you can drive from Zurich via Bern-Fribourg-Vevey (Lake Geneva)-Martigny-Visp to T&auml;sch. This route takes not much more time than the L&ouml;tschberg-route. In T&auml;sch you have to park your car and take the train to Zermatt. Zermatt itself is car free. If you want to rent a car in Zurich to go to Zermatt and Grindelwald it is worth considering to do the trip by train. The Swiss railway system is excellent!<BR><BR>Bob Brown: In APRIL the passes Grimsel, Furka and Susten are closed! They are not open before early June!<BR><BR>Judi: What is the reason to visit Grindelwald in April? At this time Zermatt is definitely better for skiing!

Judi,<BR><BR>Can you believe I have even one more suggestion?? But I do. Do I remember correctly that you will be flying into Switzerland from Paris? If so, consider flying into Geneva rather than Zurich. Air France has flights to Geneva just about every hour, and driving from Geneva to Zermatt would be faster and easier. Then you can continue on to the Berner Oberland and fly out from Zurich.<BR><BR>Well I hope you are enjoying all of this planning; planning is almost half the fun!!<BR><BR>s

I did not pick up on the date. I could have saved myself some typing strokes!!<BR>My guess is that the top of the Grimsel would still be 30 feet deep in snow!!<BR>I have seen the drifts on the Beartooth Highway in Montana on the day the road was opened in very late May with snow plows. They were fully 20 feet thick and the snow fall was light last year!!<BR>So Goppenstein and the L&ouml;tschbergtunnel it is. But, I bet that bakery still is operating!!<BR>