Guide
The best driving roads in the Alps
No mountain range concentrates great driving like the Alps. Stacked hairpins, glacier-fed valleys and passes that top out above the snowline, all within a day’s drive of each other. These are the finest Alpine roads in our catalogue, across France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia, each one mapped from real geometry and fact-checked.
Ötztaler Gletscherstraße (Sölden Glacier Road)7 mi · 17 min · 2,818.8 m summitView the roadbook ›
Summit
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1
2,819 msummit
Ötztaler Gletscherstraße (Sölden Glacier Road)
Nothing else on this list goes this high. The Gletscherstraße spurs off the valley at Sölden and grinds thirteen kilometres up the Rettenbach valley in tight switchbacks to the glacier ski stations, finishing through the Rosi Mittermaier tunnel near 2,830 m, often cited as the second-highest paved road in Europe. It is a dead end, so you are here for the climb, not the flow: a sustained gradient touching 13 per cent, thirty-odd corners, and properly thin air at the top. Go in summer or autumn and still expect snow lingering at the edges and weather that changes abruptly. It is a toll road and the gate keeps seasonal hours, so check before you set off. Pair it with the Timmelsjoch, which leaves from the same village: glacier in the morning, over into Italy after lunch.
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2,757 msummitStelvio Pass
The one every driver dreams of, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked up the mountainside on the Prato side, a 2,757 m summit, the second-highest paved pass in the Alps. Climb it from Prato: the 48 count down above you as you work through them, which is the whole theatre of the thing, and you would rather have the engine managing that gradient than your brakes. It is exposed, it is busy with cyclists and bikers, and it is utterly unforgettable, so drive it early in the day and treat the drops with respect. Summer and autumn are the windows; it is closed and snowbound in winter. Pair it with the Gavia, its untamed neighbour from the same town, or take the Umbrail up and save the 48 for dessert.
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2,757 msummitCol de l'Iseran
The highest paved pass in the Alps, 2,764 m, and it feels it. The D902 links Val-d’Isère with Bonneval-sur-Arc, climbing through bare, glacier-scoured high country to the cross at the summit. Drive it from the Val-d’Isère side, because the descent is the reward here: long, rhythmic sweepers with glaciers glinting off to the side, all the way down to the stone hamlet of Bonneval. It is a summer road, generally shut from early November until early June, and the hazards are exactly what you would guess at this altitude: thin air, weather that turns without warning, and cyclists grinding up the long ramps. Pair it with the Galibier, the other big French summit on this list, and you have covered the best of the high French Alps in one trip.
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2,747 msummitKaunertal Glacier Road
The other great Tyrolean glacier dead end, and the longer one: twenty-six kilometres from Feichten up the Kaunertal to the glacier edge around 2,750 m, gaining about 1,500 m through 29 hairpins before the road runs out at the cable car. It is one of the longest glacier access roads in the Alps, and the point is the sheer accumulation of it, bend after bend after bend with the ice growing in the windscreen. Like the Sölden road it is a there-and-back, so there are no direction decisions to make. It is a toll road and strictly a summer drive, with high-altitude weather and ice waiting for anyone who chances the shoulders of the season. Pair it with the Ötztaler Gletscherstraße, the number one on this list: two glacier climbs, back to back, to settle which you rate higher.
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2,742 msummitCol Agnel
The quiet one. The road climbs out of the Queyras past Molines and Saint-Véran, one of the highest villages in Europe, to 2,744 m on the French-Italian border west of Monte Viso. Go up from the French side: the stone villages build the drama in stages, and the Italian descent toward Pontechianale is the wilder, narrower half, better taken downhill with your speed already in check. It is a long high-altitude climb that narrows in its upper reaches, with ramps to 10 per cent and weather that changes fast, so treat it seriously. Summer and autumn only; snow closes it for much of the year. Pair it with the Col de la Bonette, its fellow giant to the south: together they make the backbone of a serious southern French Alps run.
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2,701 msummitCol de la Bonette
One of the highest paved roads in the Alps, and the strangest: the D2205 climbs between Jausiers and Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée, and the loop around the Cime de la Bonette at 2,802 m is genuinely lunar. Lonely, bare, unforgettable. Start from Jausiers: the climb saves the moonscape for the top, the loop reveals itself at the summit, and the long descent into the Tinée valley unwinds it all gently. It is a big day out, 29 miles and over an hour of driving with 55 corners along the way. Go in summer or autumn, carry warm layers whatever the valley says, and watch for livestock wandering the open road; they treat it as theirs. It closes in winter. Pair it with the Col Agnel for the lunar spectacle here and the quiet border country there.
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2,618 msummitPasso di Gavia
The Stelvio’s untamed neighbour, and the one that stays with you longer. A narrow, often unguarded ribbon climbing to 2,621 m between Bormio and Ponte di Legno, with sheer drops and stretches where two cars can barely pass. The gradient touches 16 per cent and our tightness score is a nine out of ten, the highest in this guide. Climb it from Ponte di Legno: the southern side is the narrow, dramatic face, and it is far better taken uphill, where you can see what is coming and give way early. The asphalt is rough, the barriers are mostly absent, and every patient corner earns the view: tight switchbacks past silent tarns and stone meadows. Good weather and daylight only. Pair it with the Stelvio itself, and learn the difference between theatre and wilderness in one day.
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2,611 msummitColle del Nivolet
The Italian Job hairpins. The SP50 climbs to 2,641 m above Ceresole Reale, a spectacular dead end through the Gran Paradiso to a chain of high mountain lakes. It is short at eleven miles, but they are dense ones: forty corners, narrow and exposed, with unguarded edges and plenty of walkers and cyclists sharing the tarmac. It asks for patience rather than pace, and rewards it with the lakes at the top. Being a dead end, direction is not a decision: you climb, you stare, you come back down. Summer and autumn are the seasons, and note the park restricts cars on the top section on summer weekends, with a daily permit cap in high season, so check the current scheme and book ahead. The nearest big name to pair is the Iseran, over the border in France, and the two make a fine high-altitude weekend.
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2,507 msummitGrossglockner High Alpine Road
Austria’s grand toll road, and the only road here that was purpose-built for drivers. The Hochalpenstraße curls up through 36 numbered bends to the foot of Austria’s highest peak and the Pasterze glacier, immaculately surfaced and gloriously scenic the whole way. Drive it from Bruck: the climb through the Fuscher Törl is the classic reveal, and the Heiligenblut side saves the church-and-glacier postcard for the end. It is a toll road that earns every euro. At thirty miles it is also the longest drive in this guide, with 12 per cent at the steepest. Summer and autumn, and note it closes overnight as well as in winter, so no sunrise runs without checking the gate times. Watch for marmots, tour coaches parked across the bends, and weather that changes in minutes. Frame it as an Austrian week with the Timmelsjoch and the Ötztal glacier roads; the transfers are long but the trio is unbeatable.
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2,498 msummitUmbrail Pass
Switzerland’s highest paved through-road, and the connoisseur’s way up to the Stelvio. From Santa Maria in the Val Müstair it climbs roughly 34 hairpins to 2,501 m, then drops you onto the famous Stelvio road a few kilometres below its summit. Fully asphalted only since 2015, it is far quieter than its neighbour but shares the same high-alpine drama. Do not mistake quiet for easy: the thirteen-kilometre climb averages about 8.5 per cent and touches 14, with narrow unguarded sections and hairpins that use the full width of the road. Direction is built in: climb from Santa Maria and you emerge onto the Stelvio near the top. Summer and autumn only; snow shuts it roughly October to June. Pair it with the Stelvio, obviously: take the Umbrail up, join the big road near the summit, and save the 48 hairpins for dessert.
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2,487 msummitColle Fauniera
Rough, narrow and gloriously empty at around 2,500 m, a summer-only crossing of bare summits between the Stura and Grana valleys with no barriers to speak of.
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2,475 msummitTimmelsjoch
The border crossing with a sense of theatre. The Hochalpenstraße climbs out of green meadows at Hochgurgl into bare, snow-streaked high country, crests at 2,474 m, then tips you over from Austria into Italy’s Passeier valley. Smooth tarmac, relentless rhythm, sweeping ramps and a stark summit. Drive it the way we map it, from Sölden over into Italy: the long Italian descent is half the experience, and it goes on and on, so pace yourself and mind your brakes. It is a toll road and strictly summer, gated shut outside the season, with proper altitude at the crest. Pair it with the Ötztaler Gletscherstraße: both leave from Sölden, so the natural day is the glacier dead end in the morning and the crossing after lunch, which is about as good a one-day, two-country itinerary as the Alps offer.
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2,472 msummitNufenen Pass
The highest paved pass that lies entirely within Switzerland, at 2,478 m, and the loneliest-feeling of this list’s Swiss trio. It links Ulrichen in the Goms with the Bedretto valley down to Airolo, and the character is open and windswept rather than hairpin theatre: bare high country, big sky, and a summit wind that is the thing everyone remembers. Climb it from Ulrichen, where the steeper Valais ramps do their work early and the Bedretto side unwinds long and flowing toward Ticino. It is strictly a summer pass, closed in winter with snow lingering either side of the season, and short enough at eight and a half miles that you will want to string it into a bigger day. Which is exactly what you should do: pair it with the Furka, both reachable from the Goms, and build a proper Swiss passes loop.
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2,456 msummitGreat St Bernard Pass
The historic Alpine climb of The Italian Job’s opening titles.
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2,445 msummitFurka Pass
Bond drove it in Goldfinger, and that is not why it is here, but it does not hurt. The Furka links Gletsch and Realp at 2,429 m, a sweeping high Swiss road that runs past the Rhône Glacier, which still stops you in your tracks. Open hairpins, forty-two corners, big views the whole way: pure theatre. Drive it from the Gletsch side, the way the cameras did, so the glacier and the old Belvédère hotel arrive mid-climb and the eastern descent to Realp finishes the show. Summer and autumn; it is closed in winter and the weather turns quickly at altitude even in season. The hazard nobody warns you about is the postbuses, which own the tight bends by law and by custom, so give them the road. Pair it with the Nufenen for two high Valais passes in a single morning.
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2,407 msummitCol du Granon
One of France’s highest paved cols, a steep dead-end above Briançon.
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2,386 msummitFlüela Pass
A bare, beautiful pass between Davos and the Engadin.
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2,361 msummitCol d'Izoard
A legendary Tour de France climb through the Casse Déserte.
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2,347 msummitCol de la Lombarde
A relentlessly twisting border climb above the Isola 2000 ski resort, famous for its near-continuous ladder of hairpins.
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2,326 msummitPasso del Bernina
A high glacier pass between the Engadin and Valtellina.
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2,313 msummitAlbula Pass
Quiet Graubünden pass shadowing the UNESCO Albula Railway viaducts.
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2,308 msummitForcola di Livigno
A 2315 m border pass linking Livigno to the Bernina, long straights through a craggy glacier-rimmed valley.
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2,305 msummitTre Cime di Lavaredo Toll Road
Steep tolled hairpin ramp from Misurina up to Rifugio Auronzo beneath the Three Peaks.
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2,290 msummitJulier Pass
An ancient, fast Roman pass into the Engadin.
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2,287 msummitPasso del Foscagno
The high pass guarding the duty-free enclave of Livigno.
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2,273 msummitCol de la Cayolle
A wild, gorge-and-meadow pass in the southern Alps.
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2,251 msummitCol du Sanetsch
Reputedly the most demanding climb in Valais, Sion up to the 2250 m col and Lac de Senin.
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2,245 msummitPasso Sella
A Dolomites pass beneath the sheer Sella massif.
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2,243 msummitPasso Pordoi
Flowing Dolomite hairpins on the legendary Great Dolomites Road.
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2,241 msummitCol d'Allos
A narrow, hairpin southern-Alps col above Barcelonnette.
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