Susan

We will be driving from Luzern to Montreux in mid-June. It looks like the most direct route is to drive via Bern. Does anyone have an alternative recommendation? We're not in a rush to arrive, so if you know if a route that is prettier or more interesting, I'd love to know. Thanks!

Bob Brown

There is a more scenic route that you can take than going by Bern. I presume you are thinking of heading northwest from Luzern and joing the autobahn between Z&uuml;rich and Bern. <BR><BR>The alternative is to head south from Luzurn over the Br&uuml;nig Pass to Meiringen. Then turn west to Interlaken. You will need to make a decision as to which route you take near Spiez. You essentially have 4 choices.<BR>1. Go to Kandersteg and ride the train auto ferry through the Tunnel to Gopenstein. From there wind down the mountain to Sierre where you soon join the autobahn route to Montreux.<BR>2. Continue to Bern and then turn south to Montreux. This route is all autobahn.<BR>3. Drive south from Luzern as far as Sarnen. From there head cross country on secondary roads to Langnau to Bern. <BR>Continue on to Montreux on the autobahn route from Bern.<BR>4. Take off across country so to speak from Spiez through Zweisimmen. You can make sub choice near Chateau d'Oex.<BR>You can drive through Gstaad and go by Les Diablerets or continue on through Chateau d'Oex. The 3rd choice is perhaps the most scenic, but also the slowest. I drove it two years ago and it took me about an hour longer than I thought it would. The road winds through several villages which slow you down. Expect to average about 30 mph.<BR>The other two routes are faster because of the roads. I think the ride through the tunnel is interesting, and the ride down the viaducts to the Rhone River is scenic. This approach also brings you in via Lake Geneva. <BR>If I had to do it, I would take the route via the Br&uuml;nig Pass to Meiringen to Kandersteg and ride the train ferry under the mountains.<BR>On second thought, the temptation for me on that route would be to turn south to Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald for a good look at the Jungfrau would be too great. I might not make it to Montreux.<BR>

Susan

Bob, thanks so much for the detailed reply. It was really helpful. My husband is concerned that if we go a non-autobahn route the roads will be very mountainous and difficult to drive. Did you find that to be true?

Bob Brown

In my opinion, the non autobahn routes I described are not difficult to drive; they are just slow. The routes, other than the Br&uuml;nig Pass, are fairly easy in terms of hills and twisting roads, except for the one I discussed where you leave the main road at Sarnen and head west toward Bern. On that route, there is a steep ascent out of the valley as you leave Sarnen, but the view over the lake is really lovely. <BR><BR>However, bear in mind that driving a well engineered mountain road carries about the same risk as a heavily travelled autobahn full of heavy trucks and high flying drivers. (In Austria and Germany it is not uncommon to be doing 90 mph and have a BMW or a Mercedes go by like you were parked.)<BR><BR><BR>The route from Luzern to Meiringen does descend the Br&uuml;nig Pass, but as Swiss mountain passs go, the descent is fairly mild. The major concern you will have is the trucks, but the drivers are skilled and, except for the tightness of a few curves, it is not anything out of the ordinary. My wife was driving at that time we descenced the Br&uuml;nig Pass, and her response to the question I just how asked her was "Just another mountain road." Compared to the Furka Pass, the Br&uuml;nig is mild, but not nearly as scenic.<BR><BR>Once you have descended the Br&uuml;nig Pass, the route to Interlaken and Spiez is relatively flat because it is along the bottom of the valley.<BR>The road from Spiez to Kandersteg is also flat, but relatively slow. There may be a short wait to drive your car onto the rail car for the ride through the tunnel, but the trip is relatively short.<BR>Once you drive off of the car ferry at Goppenstein, there is a winding descent to the Rhone, but the road is well engineered and the view of the Rhone Valley is very scenic.<BR><BR>Soon after that, you reach the autobahn type of route near Sierre, but it winds around too!!<BR><BR>The cross country route via Les Diablerets is pretty, but the road is a little more of a challenge, but there are no steep passes that I recall.<BR>It does wind a bit, and it is narrow in places. Also, it goes through quite a few villages.<BR><BR>Of course, you must realize that for my wife and me, passes in the USA like Loveland, Monarch, Wolf Creek, Molas, Red Mountain, the Sun Road in Glacier, and even Tioga in Yosemite are not anything to fear. My wife also handled the Furka and Grimsel passes in Switzerland with aplomb. I drove over the Gross Glockner Hochalpenstrasse last year and found it to be a bit of a challenge, but that was mainly because that diesel Astra I was driving lacked the horsepower to gain much speed going up hill. Coming downhill, the gearing was sort of odd because second gear was too slow and forced the engine rpms up near the red line while third gear let the car roll fast enough that I had to apply the brakes constantly. So, your equipment plays a major role in how comfortably you can negotiate any of those roads. <BR><BR>I think your choice depends mainly on what you want to see and how you want to get there. Actually, I find most of the autobahn routes more bothersome because of the heavy traffic than I do most of those mountain passes. <BR><BR>If I had to do it this summer, I think my choice would be the route via the Br&uuml;nig Pass to Spiez to Kandersteg, through the tunnel, and on to Sion, Sierre, and Montreux. That route provides some scenery but does not lead along roads where the average speed is like 30 - 40 mph for long stretches.<BR><BR>Incidentally, there is a difference between green and blue roads when going through the cities. I cannot recall now if blue is the main route and green is the business route, or vice versa.