Passwerk Club
SWITZERLAND · URI & VALAIS

Swiss Passes

Four of the great alpine passes meet within an hour of one village. Andermatt sits in the middle of Furka, Grimsel, Susten and Nufenen — so the week is driven as loops from two hotels rather than a suitcase-shuffle across half of Switzerland.

Days
5
Distance
≈860 km
Summit
2,478 m
Group
4–9 cars
Season
July – September
START Andermatt→FINISH Lake Lucerne
THE ROUTE

Two bases, four summits, no repeats.

Projected from the real coordinates of every pass and stop. The amber line is day two — Susten, Grimsel and Furka run as one loop from Andermatt, the day the week is built around.

AndermattSchöllenenGotthard2,106 mNufenen2,478 mGrimsel2,164 mFurka2,429 mSusten2,224 mKlausen1,948 mVitznauLucerne50 KM
The high triple · day 02Everything elsePass above 2,000 m

The four passes

Uri · Bern · Valais · Ticino
Nufenen
2,478 m — highest wholly Swiss pass
Furka
2,429 m
Susten
2,224 m
Grimsel
2,164 m
Gotthard
2,106 m, cobbled over the Tremola
Klausen
1,948 m

Season

When the gates are open
Open
Roughly June → October
Reliable
July and August
Risk
A first snowfall can shut a pass in hours
We run
July → September

Character

What the cars find
Surface
Immaculate, except the Tremola setts
Barriers
Continuous — unlike the Carpathians
Traffic
Motorcycles, coaches, cyclists at weekends
Enforcement
Swiss speed penalties are severe. The guide sets the pace

Every one of these roads is seasonal. The gates usually open in June and close in October, and a single early snowfall can shut a summit within hours — which is why this week runs July to September and why the guide car carries the pass-status radio.

DAY BY DAY

The week, in order.

The Devil's Bridge in the Schöllenen gorge below Andermatt
The cobbled Tremola road on the old Gotthard pass at dusk
Photos: Wolfgang Moroder CC BY-SA 4.0 · Samuel Ferrara CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
01
HANDOVER

Andermatt, and the gorge that guards it.

Andermatt→Andermatt

Your car comes off the transporter at the hotel. The shakedown runs down the Schöllenen gorge to the Devil's Bridge and back up the old Gotthard — the Tremola, 24 hairpins of granite setts laid in 1830 and still the surface you drive on. Cobbles first, on purpose: it tells you what the car's dampers are going to do all week before anything is at altitude.

  • Handover at the hotel
  • Schöllenen gorge and the Devil's Bridge
  • The Tremola cobbles, 24 hairpins
  • Route briefing over dinner
≈90 kmAfternoonSchöllenen · Tremola
The Susten pass road and its glacier headwall
The Totensee at the top of the Grimsel passThe Furka pass road switchbacking down towards GletschThe Rhône glacier below the Furka, with the Belvédère road cut into the rock
Photos: Uwelino CC BY-SA 4.0 · Philipp Ramseier CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nikater Public domain · Daniel Reust CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
02
THE POINT OF THE WEEK

Susten, Grimsel and Furka in one day.

Andermatt→Andermatt

The high triple, anticlockwise: Susten first while the tarmac is cold and empty, then the granite shelf of the Grimsel with the Totensee at the top, then the Furka down to Gletsch and back up. Three summits above 2,100 m before dinner, and the only day of the week we start before the cable cars.

  • Susten, 2,224 m
  • Grimsel, 2,164 m, and the Totensee
  • Furka, 2,429 m
  • Rhône glacier ice grotto at Belvédère
≈180 km7 h with stopsSustenpass · Grimselpass · FurkapassFurka · 2,429 m
Hairpins on the southern side of the Nufenen, the highest pass entirely in Switzerland
The upper ramps of the Furka on the Valais sideThe cobbled Tremola road on the old Gotthard pass at dusk
Photos: Paebi CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nikater Public domain · Samuel Ferrara CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
03
THE SOUTH SIDE

Over the Nufenen into Ticino.

Andermatt→Andermatt

Furka again to Ulrichen, then the Nufenen — at 2,478 m the highest pass that stays inside Switzerland, and the quietest of the four. Down the Val Bedretto into Italian-speaking Ticino for lunch, and back over the Gotthard. Two languages and one border-less country in an afternoon.

  • Nufenen, 2,478 m
  • Val Bedretto to Airolo
  • Lunch in Ticino
  • Gotthard summit on the way home
≈170 km6 h with stopsFurkapass · Nufenenpass · Val BedrettoNufenen · 2,478 m
The bare granite of the Grimsel summit
Vitznau on Lake Lucerne beneath the Rigi
Photos: Simon Eggimann CC BY-SA 2.0 de · Matthias Böhni CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
04
DOWN TO THE WATER

Susten again, the other way, to the lake.

Andermatt→Vitznau

The one day the luggage moves. Over the Susten westbound — a different road in that direction, and worth doing twice — down through Meiringen and along the water to Vitznau on Lake Lucerne. Altitude gives way to lake steamers and a hotel with its own jetty.

  • Susten westbound
  • Meiringen and the Aare gorge
  • Arrival on Lake Lucerne
≈210 km5 h with stopsSustenpass · Brünig · A2
The Klausen pass above the Schächental
Vitznau on Lake Lucerne beneath the Rigi
Photos: böhringer friedrich CC BY-SA 2.5 · Matthias Böhni CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
05
LAST ROAD

The Klausen, then the transporter.

Vitznau→Vitznau

The Klausen is the local secret: 1,948 m, no through traffic to speak of, and a surface that flatters a fast car more than any of the famous four. A loop out through the Schächental and back to the lake for lunch, then the cars are loaded and you are on a boat.

  • Klausen, 1,948 m
  • Schächental
  • Lunch on the lake, cars away
≈210 kmFull dayKlausenpassKlausen · 1,948 m
WHERE YOU SLEEP

Two hotels, five nights, one move.

Switzerland makes this easy in a way Romania does not: the beds are as good as the roads. Because all four passes radiate from the same valley, you sleep three nights in Andermatt without repeating a road, then move once, to the lake.

The Devil's Bridge in the Schöllenen gorge below Andermatt
Nights 1, 2 & 3

The Chedi Andermatt

Andermatt · Base hotel

The reason the week works from one village: a five-star house in the middle of the four passes, with covered parking and a kitchen that will feed you at the hour a driving day actually ends. Three nights, no repacking.

Visit the hotel →
Vitznau on Lake Lucerne beneath the Rigi
Nights 4 & 5

Park Hotel Vitznau

Lake Lucerne · Lakeside

A turreted five-star on the water at the foot of the Rigi, with its own jetty and a wine cellar that people fly in for. The point of ending here is the contrast: two days of granite, then a boat.

Alternative: Villa Honegg above Bürgenstock, smaller and higher, with the more famous pool. Site →

Visit the hotel →

Where you eat

The Restaurant, The Chedi →
Andermatt

Four open kitchens under one roof, and the only serious dinner in the valley that keeps late hours. Where the briefing happens.

Grimsel Hospiz →
Grimsel pass

A hospice on the dam wall since 1142, rebuilt as a hotel with a restaurant hanging over the reservoir. Lunch on day two.

Park Hotel Vitznau →
Lake Lucerne

Two restaurants and one of the deeper cellars in central Switzerland, twenty metres from the water.

A Bergrestaurant at 2,478 m
Nufenen pass

Soup, rösti and a view down two valleys. No booking, and no reason to hurry back down.

THE EXTRAS

Things you would not book yourself.

ICE

Inside the Rhône glacier

A grotto cut fresh into the ice every summer beside the Furka road, because the glacier moves far enough each year that last year’s tunnel is gone. It is also the clearest look at what these passes are losing.

Details →
STEAM

The old Furka line, under steam

The railway the road replaced still runs over the mountain on summer weekends, restored and driven by volunteers. Worth an hour of anyone’s day off.

Details →
HYDRO

Inside the Grimsel

The mountain under the pass is hollow: a hydro system with tunnels, a funicular built for the dam crews and a hospice on the wall. You go in through the rock.

Details →
DAWN

The Tremola with nobody on it

The cobbled Gotthard at first light, before the tour buses start up from Airolo. Twenty-four hairpins of 1830 granite, and a photographer at the top of them.

WATER

Lake Lucerne by steamer

Paddle steamers still work this lake on a timetable. The last afternoon is spent on one, while the cars are being loaded.

Details →
FREE TIME

Within reach of where you are staying.

The passes are done by mid-afternoon on most days, and the last two days are deliberately light. This is what is close enough to fill the rest.

From Andermatt

The Devil's Bridge in the Schöllenen gorge below Andermatt
Devil's Bridge, Schöllenen
3 km

Three bridges stacked in one gorge, the oldest medieval, plus a Russian war memorial cut into the cliff. Ten minutes from the hotel door.

The cobbled Tremola road on the old Gotthard pass at dusk
Gotthard summit museum
18 km

The pass museum at the top of the Tremola, on what was the main road between north and south Europe for seven centuries.

Oberalp and the source of the Rhine
12 km

East over the Oberalp pass to the small lake the Rhine starts in — a short, empty road most groups never bother with.

From Lake Lucerne

Lucerne old town →
20 km

The Chapel Bridge, the Rosengart collection and a lakefront built for exactly this kind of afternoon.

Vitznau on Lake Lucerne beneath the Rigi
Rigi by rack railway
From the pier

Europe's first mountain railway, from Vitznau to a summit with a view over thirteen lakes. It leaves from beside the hotel.

Bürgenstock →
25 km

A cliff lift, a hotel terrace and the most photographed swimming pool in the country, on the ridge across the water.

Book the road.

Tell us the car and the week. We confirm within 48 hours with a route plan, hotel list and the handover address.

DEPOSIT · 20% · REFUNDABLE 30 DAYS OUT
GROUP SIZE · 4—9 CARS
FROM · €4,900 PER CAR / TWO PEOPLE
ROUTE