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Holiday itinerary
Eight days in the Central Alps, built around the Three Classic Passes from Meiringen. You sleep in Lucerne and Interlaken first, then take Grimsel, Furka, and Susten in one unhurried loop — glacier viewpoint, hairpins, a café at the top. If the Gotthard Tremola cobbles are open, they are a gift, not a requirement.
Season: Furka, Grimsel, and Susten typically open late May or June through October. The 131 km three-pass loop is one driving day; start with a full battery.
Landmarks
Furka in the thin air, the Rhone Glacier just off the roadPhoto: Cooper.ch / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
Grimsel’s reservoirs like dark glass between the granitePhoto: Alchemist-hp / Wikimedia Commons (FAL)
Interlaken held between two lakes and the JungfrauPhoto: W. Bulach / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Chapel Bridge over the Reuss, Lucerne in the blue hourPhoto: Ikiwaner / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Tremola cobbles climbing the old GotthardPhoto: Patryk Hejduk / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Andermatt in the high bowl, waiting for the next passPhoto: Lutz Fischer-Lamprecht / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Susten’s clean line of hairpins back toward MeiringenPhoto: Norbert Aepli / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
Holiday itinerary
- Day 1 · Lucerne
Chapel Bridge in the late light, then a steamer if you have the hour. Charge overnight at the hotel; tomorrow the lakes pull you south.
- Day 2 · Interlaken
The Jungfrau sits at the end of Höheweg as if the street were aimed. Between Lakes Thun and Brienz the air smells of lake and cut grass; this is the pause before the passes.
- Day 3 · Meiringen
Reichenbach Falls still throw Sherlock’s ghost into the spray. Sleep here: in the morning the official three-pass loop starts at your hotel door.
- Day 4 · Andermatt
Grimsel at 2165 m, then Furka at 2431 m with the Rhone Glacier viewpoint — a slow day, not a race. Andermatt sits in the bowl; Susten at 2264 m closes the loop in the morning.
- Day 6 · Lugano
If the Tremola cobbles are open, take them; if not, the tunnel is honest. Either way Ticino meets you with palms and a different light. Lugano is the reward for the granite days.
- Day 8 · Lucerne
Home on the A2, a motorway charger near Basel if the climbs took more than you budgeted. Lucerne again, the lake familiar now.