Quote Originally Posted by QB1 View Post
I'm thinking of taking a little trip to the Alps next year and hoping for some tips from others who've done it.

I don't think I can get away for more than a week and wondering if that's not long enough? I'm happy to do 400-500 miles a day in the UK so not worried about a long days riding.

Any other tips, passes to do and routes to take etc would be much appreciated.

Thanks
A week is sufficient, I did a trip back to Italy a few years ago and and I got to Switzerland in just over a day.

Left Oxford right after work on a Friday, stopped in Dover for the night as I have friends there, left in the morning not too early and was in Switzerland around 8pm, mind that I lost a huge amount of time as it poured down all the way through and when it stopped my radiator fan jammed and blew the radiator around Colmar, wasn't fun... but without that problem I would have probably made it there by mid afternoon.

Considering a day and one back you've got 5 days to enjoy there.

Stelvio is lush, it obviously isn't a fast road, take it nice and easy and enjoy the scenery. Then it depends what you're after... With a week I would go through Belgium, stop in Bruges, go south through Saarbrucken and the Black Forest, get into Switzerland, Stelvio, lakes (Como, Lugano and Maggiore), then off to the Matterhorn and back through the Mount Blanc, which is a bit of a rip-off, I think they charged like £20 to go through, might be more.