Detour #94: Oberalp Pass, Switzerland
The Swiss are spoilt for choice when it comes to amazing mountain roads. Start with the Oberalp Pass and you can easily tackle a quartet of challenging drives in a single day.
Set your satnav for Andermatt and you’ll find yourself at the beginning of some of the best driving in Europe with the Oberalp Pass being first on the list. Think of it as a gentle warm up as its gentler gradients and wider radius turns aren’t quite as intimidating as some other Swiss passes.
A sequence of nine open hairpins will take you from Andermatt climbing up with the Furka Oberalp, a historic narrow-gauge railway which then vanishes into a tunnel on its way to the top. After this initial ascent the road straightens, stretching out through the valley and, while it may be tempting to put pedal to metal the Swiss are notoriously harsh on speeders, so throttle back and enjoy the views.
From here you can see the Furka Pass, which you can get to later in the day. For now you’ll want to keep going at least as far as the Gasthaus Piz Calmot on the banks of the Oberalpsee alpine lake, where you can stop to take in the view and some Swiss hospitality.
Then it’s a run down through another set of switchbacks and a straight-ish shot to Disentis. Head south on the lovely Lucomagno pass to Biasca, then you can pick up the motorway north for a few miles before taking on the Gotthard Pass and the Furka Pass for one awesome alpine day out.