Swiss Alps self guided motorcycle holiday

Today you will continue the Swiss Alps self-guided motorcycle-tour and head towards the lakeside town of Interlaken. You’ll ride through the French countryside along some beautiful highways and byways. 

As you approach the Doubs Nature Park, you can stop for lunch in Goumois. It is a small border town on the river Doubs. The restaurant has a lovely terrace overlooking the river and the bridge over it.

Continuing your ride through the rolling hills, green pastures, dense forests and eventually mountains, you’ll arrive at your comfortable hotel in Interlaken. It is a fantastic base for seeing some of the best of Switzerland’s magnificent scenery while enjoying the comforts of a modern and yet traditional lakeside town.

You’ll be surrounded by tourist attractions and spoiled for choice. There are countless boat tours on Lakes Thun and Brienz. You can also opt for some thrilling train journeys and funicular rides to the spectacular surrounding mountain peaks. 

Today the choice is yours. You might opt to follow our suggested itinerary and visit the magnificent Oberhofen Castle. Or you are free to create your own agenda. 

Dating from the fifteenth century, Oberhofen Castle is one of the most beautiful castles in the Alpine region. It is furnished with period antique furniture, personal artefacts and carpets. It is also decorated with the most impressive paintings and murals. The castle is set in one of the most magnificent gardens in Europe. 

To extend your day trip, you can continue your ride around the lake Thun and head towards Lauterbrunnen. Here you can visit Trümmelbach waterfalls that tumble and cascade down inside the mountain. 

Another option here is to take a cable car to Schilthorn – featured in the James Bond movie “On Her Majesty’s Secret”. It overlooks the entire valley and offers the most stunning views of the three highest peaks – Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. It is also a great place to have lunch at the famous Piz Gloria 360° revolving restaurant. 

This is about the halfway point of your Swiss Alps self-guided motorcycle-tour. And, today, except for the mileage, everything else is big. It’s a big ride, big mountains, big passes, big glaciers and hopefully a big lunch. You’ll arrive here via two big passes. The Furka and Grimsel are back to back ascents and descents. It will provide you with a few hours of guaranteed smiles on your face. 

Both passes have many convenient places to stop and take photos. Also, on your way up Furka pass, you can stop and take a walk inside the glacier tunnel. This is an excellent place to have “the big lunch” as well. The mountain scenery around here, for some reason, appears to be more stunning than anywhere else in the Alps.

If you remember, when you get to Furka pass, have a look downhill over the car park barrier. There is a colony of jolly marmots forever disciplining the youngsters or sorting out their family disputes. 

You’ll arrive at your hotel just in time to get ready for an evening meal.

The Swiss Alps and the Engadin valley, in particular, are a place of outstanding beauty, mountain charm and unrivalled biking roads. However, today it is usually all about one specific ride. 

You can take a ride over the Ofen pass to the medieval town of Glorenza. From here, you can extend your trip and ride the mighty Stelvio pass. At this point, you’ll have a choice of taking a shorter route and descend via the twisty Umbrail pass back to Switzerland. Or you can opt to stay on the Italian side and extend your ride. This route will take you back via the glitzy ski resort of Bormio and the town of Tirano.

In an instance, the weather is not that good; you can turn in the opposite direction and ride to Lago di Como via Maloja pass. 

Whichever way you decide to point your bike, you’ll end up with a great ride.

From Switzerland, you’ll continue the Swiss Alps self-guided motorcycle-tour. Your journey is a mixture of mountain passes and country roads, some big and some small and some fast and some slow. 

You’ll start with a morning ride over the twisty but enjoyable Flüela pass. On a nice day, it is worth stopping on top of the pass to have a coffee on a terrace overlooking a mountain lake. From here, you’ll descend towards Davos, slowly leaving the Alps behind you. For the rest of the day, you’ll wiggle your way through the Swiss countryside and cross the border with Germany.

You’ll arrive at your hotel in the Black Forest just in time to have a drink before dinner. Time permitting, you can pop to Titisee for a little stroll or a short boat ride around the lake. 

If you wish, extra days can be arranged to extend your stay in the Black Forest.

Once again, country-hopping is the order of the day. You’ll leave Germany by riding towards the Roman spa town of Baden-Baden. Then you’ll cross the border and briefly enter France. 

The last few days of your journey might feel like a Grand Tour of European bakeries. But the bakery La Minzbrueck in Scheibenhardt is one of our regular lunch stops. It serves the best fitness chicken salad ever. Also, one portion would easily feed a small army. This is where it gets interesting; if the bakery car park is busy, you can park your bike in France, cross the river and have your lunch in Germany. How international is that? 

From here, you’ll spend the rest of the day crossing Germany. Just before the end of the ride, you’ll cross yet another border and arrive at your hotel in Luxembourg.

Even good things must come to an end. So does this fantastic Swiss Alps self guided motorcycle holiday.

Enjoy your final day’s ride back to the UK, and we hope that you’ll RideWithUs again next year.

Thank you.