Austria and Switzerland: Alpine Altitude

Thirteen nights from Folkestone to the Austrian Tyrol and the Swiss Alps, built around five of the great Swiss passes. Riders bring their own bike from Folkestone, or rent one in Paris and join there.

The outward leg crosses France on the Route d’Epinal to the edge of Lorraine National Park, with Verdun and a walk on the battlefield. The ten-month battle fought there in 1916 cost the French and German armies something close to a million casualties between them, and the ground is still visibly deformed by it, which makes for a sober first day.

The Tyrol foothills then carry the route to a base near Zell am See for two nights, with a rest day that offers a genuine choice: the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, the highest surfaced pass in Austria, with three dozen hairpins and a toll, or a day trip to the Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden, the mountaintop lodge built for Hitler’s fiftieth birthday and reached by a lift driven straight up through the rock.

The route then runs west into Switzerland for the passes, the St Gotthard among them, whose old road, the Tremola, is cobbled for most of its length through a stack of hairpins and is one of the few pieces of historic road surface still open to traffic in the Alps. The price is quoted per rider. Thirteen nights with the ride down included makes this a full Alpine fortnight rather than a flying visit, and the option of joining in Paris on a rental removes two days of motorway for anyone short of leave.