Driving the Alps - Dream Itinerary
 

If you had the opportunity to drive the entirety of the alps, from one end to the other, what would your dream itinerary be? Not talking about hotels and such, just routes and stops and great driving roads. The time it takes and the cost of rentals/etc isn't an issue.

We are working on a dream vacation plan, to save up for, and this is my husband's lifelong dream so I wanted to get some input since all he knows is that he wants to drive in the alps.

Take the <i>route des grandes Alpes</i> from Nice to Chamonix, essentially taking the roads closest to the Italian border. From there proceed to the Rhone valley and o the Rhone to Andermatt with a detour over the Grimsel, Furka and Susten pass. From Andermatt, go down the Rhine valley to Lichtenstein and then in Austria take the Silvetra (sp?) Hochstraße. The end of this itinerary is Innsbrück.

bmk

I might do the driving equivalent of this:

http://www.via-alpina.org/en/page/237/the-red-trail

I would want some cultural interest and good food and wine as well a scenic thrills. And for scenic thrills, I would want more than just the highest peaks most famous driving roads. I would want a variety of Alpine scenery --- villages, lakes, rivers. The one thing I would not want to miss is the Dolomiti and I would not want to miss the chance to hike some days in fine weather.

Great driving route through the Dolomites: From Cortina d'Ampezzo, over the Giau Pass, Falzarego Pass then through the Alta Badia and over the Gardena Pass into the Val Gardena.

The Timmelsjoch Pass between the Italian Sud Tirol and Austria's Oetztal. Then there's the Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse between Zell am See/Bruck an der Grossglockner and Heiligenblut, Austria.

Actually, with the drives I mentioned, you could drive a big loop trip from the Salzburg area, over the Grossglockner, drive through the Dolomites, around Bolzano and then over the Timmelsjoch back into Austria.

This may be of help in your planning:

http://www.alpineroads.com/alpmap.php

You probably noticed already that many of the most spectacular roads in the Alps are the mountain pass roads which usually go North-South rather than go parallel to the Alps East-West.
So a trip that covered many of the most scenic drives would probably take a zig-zag course, crossing the Alps a few times.

From Innsbruck (via Silvretta pass road), you would continue sort of straight East on the Gerlos Alpine Road via the Krimml Falls road (very scenic) to Bruck.
http://www.nockalmstrasse.at/en/

Then go South on Grossglockner Alpine Road (probably one of the Top 5 or Top 3 drives in the whole Alps) as already mentioned.
http://www.grossglockner.at/en/

Go further South to cover the Dolomites with Cortina.
Go back into Austria near Kötschach-Mauthern, to Villach.

Cross the Tauern range on the B99 (with an option to travel parts on the Nockalm Road
http://www.nockalmstrasse.at/en/

And end in the Halstatt/ Salzburg area.

<i>From Innsbruck (via Silvretta pass road), you would continue sort of straight East on the Gerlos Alpine Road via the Krimml Falls road (very scenic) to Bruck. </i>

According to the Google map, the Silvretta Hochstraße is <b>west</b> of Innsbruck.

Not only according to Google maps but it also was still west of Innsbruck when I drove it last time :-)

It was a bit unclear as I meant: If you went from Switzerland to Innsbruck (via Silvretta-Hochalpenstraße), you would continue sort of straight East (and so on)...

Hr