As I'm putting together our plans for our summer trip to the Alps in Switzerland/Austria/Germany, I keep coming across references to the crowds and the autobahns that shouldn't be driven on Saturday's due to the long delays. Our plans right now start 7/14/09 in the Interlaken area and end 2 weeks later around Berchestgaden/Salzburg. Can someone give me an idea of just how crowded the Alps are in mid-July? I know that's a relative term. For us in Michigan, everyone heads up north for the summer. It's much more crowded than winter, but still manageable. Crowded to me, is the shopping mall parking lot at Christmastime. Is that what we are talking here? Any places that draw bigger crowds that should be avoided? Where and when do most of the Germans go on vacation? Any comments are appreciated.

Well, the Alps are in close reach of several million people in Central Europe, and many just go there for a weekend getaway.
That's why not only the motorways to the Alps tend to get jammed Friday afternoons and back from the mountains on Sunday afternoons. Actually, Saturdays are not always the worse option.

But very popular routes like the Grossglocker alpine road, I would avoid on weekends completely.
But it's not necessarily so that you will drive bumper to bumper on ALL mountain pass roads. People like to exaggerate a bit.

Busy on weekends also means more motorcycles - which prefer to drive the roads at a slightly different pace than yours.

Some of the more famous places like St.Moritz, Kitzbühl, or Berchtesgaden get quite full on weekends - but these places often handle even more tourists during the winter season.

You should look for a trip report from a Fodorite named hausfrau.
I think it was last summer when she did a long trip thru the Alps and her report had lots of great infos on driving and road conditions.


Summer breaks are organized state by state in Germany. There is no one single month or time. Many people go when their kids have vacation. So these dates sort of determine the peak travel times.
Those two states bordering Switzerland and Austria, i.e. Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, won't have vacations until July 30 and August 3, respectively. So not much day-tripping from that direction, except on weekends.
Yet, many other states will have summer break during that time when you will be traveling, so you can expect some heavy traffic on weekends, especially on A8 eastbound in Germany (the motorway going from Munich to Salzburg), and on A93 southbound to Kufstein, and further south to Italy via Innsbruck. Also the A10 southbound in Austria, going from Salzburg thru the Tauern tunnel towards Carinthia, should be avoided (but that area won't probably on your agenda anyway, I guess).

In most parts of the Alps and also on the Italian coast, accommodation, especially holiday apartments, is rented weekly and the usual day of change is Saturday. Highways will be jampacked on Saturdays during the summer holiday season (late June to early September).

Hi dr_sub,
Here is the link to my August 2007 trip report:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35110299

I think July is actually a little better than August - August seems to be when most Europeans take their summer vacations. We didn't have much choice in the timing of our trip, but we didn't regret it at all. We are also from Michigan so I know what you mean about going up north! The only time we ever ran into anything like I-75 on a Friday afternoon was coming down out of the mountains into Interlaken on a Sunday afternoon - see my report for details.

There's a lot of terrain to cover and if you go a little off the beaten path you should be fine. Maybe our trip will give you some ideas. Whatever you decide, I wouldn't let the threat of crowds deter you. Just pace yourself and don't try to cover too much ground in any one day. It's a beautiful region to explore and you will have a great time!

Swiss Alps in the summer:

The worst place for traffic jams is at the entrances before the Gotthard tunnel.

Uri, Central Switzerland side:
Expect to be in congested traffic before the tunnel every Friday evening/Sat. morning before entering the tunnel going down to Tessin.

Tessin side:
There will be a long traffic jam before entering the tunnel to go to Zürich/Lucerne every Saturday and Sunday afternoon/evening.

In the summer, you can avoid these jams by driving over the Gotthard pass.

The other Swiss alp passes are indeed very busy on beautiful weekends. You'll find cars, motorbikes and mountain bikes all enjoying the roads and scenery. However, I've never been in a traffic jam going over the passes because the traffic usually flows smoothly. What you might find a bit terrifying is the way cars and motorbikes pass each other in places they shouldn't.

In the end, it all depends on which pass you are driving on, the weather conditions of the day and if it's a weekend or not. During the week, there's not much of a traffic problem in the alps.

Thanks to all for their responses. This forum is the only way to go when planning a trip!!!! I'm tweaking our plans a bit to avoid some of the roads and the weekend travel.