Alps, advice on my route please

[half_empty1]

off on a trip with the lady last week in august, on the honda blackbird.
it will be her first touring trip on a bike and she would like to see some great mountain scenery,
but i dont want to torture her by doing too many miles

rough plan:

Thurs 23rd August, leave on morning ferry from dover-calais, ride to troyes/dijon for overnight stop

Friday, ride to annecy stay overnight

Saturday, ride to bourg st maurice, ride the little st bernard pass to aosta and then up to martigny, stay in martigny or push on to chamonix depending on time.

Sunday, ride to thonon les bains, check out the lake and geneva poss stay for 2 nights

Tuesday, head back to calais stopping off for a night in reims.

Wednesday, catch ferry back to blighty

i would like to have a 2night stop in one of the locations,
so we can have a day off the bike,

where is best, annecy, chamonix or thonon les bains for a day off the bike?

i can rearrange the order we go to annecy, chamonix or thonon les bains to suit the best place for a 2night stop.

i was gonna try and incorporate the swiss passes loop,
but i think its gonna be to much and i want the trip to be reasonably relaxing
and not chasing miles/time trying to do too much in the days we have.

any advice greatly appreciated

 

[twig]

hi, ive just got back from french alps. we stopped in chamonix area, les houches to be exact, for 2 nights so we could have a day off bike and went on the aguile du midi, cable car which takes you to viewing area near summit of mont blanc. views were awesome, fantastic trip then had aft in chamonix, busy town but plenty to see. this is only any good if weather is clear on the mountain or all you will see is cloud. just an idea.

 

[Allan Davies]

Hi!
I'm off (plus Three others) to France(Arras), Germany(baden baden B500), Austria(Lech Valley then Eagles nest)),Dolimites(Gardena Area), Aust(Pfunds), Switz(Mermingam-Sherlock Holmes died there???), Germany(heart of the Black Forest on B500), France(Metz then Arras again) Leaving the same day as ewe but on the 1430 chunnel and coming back on Sunday the 2/3Sept.
If you haven't booked hotels etc you are welcome, aiming to do all the big passes and bendy bits 200 miles ish a day with stops for sticky buns etc on route . we are also picking a mate up in Baden for three nights, he is then going back to Calais for the ferry two nights later.
As i said PM if you are interested as all the routes are completed are on Mapsource V9 (95.5% A/B roads) Hotels booked aswell, V-hard to find accom in some places late evening as has been the case more times than I care to mention. Especially with more than one bike

Enjoy

 

[dah]

If you get to Aosta, don't hang out there, exciting it ain't. Go to Courmayeur which is en-route to Chamonix. It's a wonderful little ski resort, some great cafes/bars. One day and night should be enough. Then head to Chamonix. only twenty minutes ride through the infamous"Mont Blanc Tunnel".
Chamonix is full of life, seemingly busier at this time of year than during ski season. I was in Chamonix on the bike a few weeks ago just for a few hours, we stopped for a coffee and to run into the North Face shop to buy another fleece as we were freezing along with the p.....g rain. But I have been there several times on ski trips, grat bars and restaurants along with brilliant walks/hikes and you can even go skiing this time of the year a few miles down the road in Argentiere. Enjoy.

 

[dah]

If you go to Thonon, you should check ot the local Medieval Village.
About 30 minutes away is Evian, home of the mineral water, lots of life there, you can get the 30 minute ferry over to Lausanne.

 

[Wapping]

Annecy is not a bad place. Attractive big lake and parts of the old town are not too bad. Go on one of the boat trips perhaps, or try the swimming pool built into the lake?

But, if your main hol's are in the mountains, I would make your two day stop over in the mountains, so after Annecy, if you see what I mean.

 

[half_empty1]

Hi!

If you haven't booked hotels etc you are welcome, aiming to do all the big passes and bendy bits 200 miles ish a day with stops for sticky buns etc on route

Enjoy

hi Allen, think the major swiss alp passes are gonna be just a bit too far consider my time frame. think the mont blanc and geneva area is all i am gonna manage without it feeling like hard work. but who knows i may see you over there somewhere. have a great trip

many thanks for all the info guys

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

Have a look at THIS SITE

It's reliable informationform peopel who have ridden inthe Alps for far longer than is healthy. There is a section on the areas you're looking at. There is also a useful forum if you're interested.

 

[Bateman]

I wasnt too impressed with the little st bernard and that whole Martigny - Aosta - Bourg route. Its a lot of effort when there are much nicer passes to ride in terms of scenery and roads. However, the grand st bernard was nice and you may have limited options to get from Bourg round the back of Mont Blanc

A great run from Annecy to Bourg will be to head up the col des aravis and then onto Beaufort and up the Comet de roseland and over the top, coming down into Bourg.

With 4 complete days in the Alps, have you considered the Routes Des Grandes Alpes - it is a wonderful ride through some of the most scenic passes in the alps - ending down on the med and with a great run up the route napoleon before heading back?

Here is the trip i did last year, including a great hotel I stayed in near Annecy.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74689

 

[Bateman]

Also worth getting hold of a copy of john herman's motorcycle journeys through the alps - its the bible of Alps riding and has a great route around Mont blanc described in detail.

 

[Hustler]

Have a look at THIS SITE

It's reliable informationform peopel who have ridden inthe Alps for far longer than is healthy. There is a section on the areas you're looking at. There is also a useful forum if you're interested.

That looks very useful, thanks for posting that.

 

[half_empty1]

A great run from Annecy to Bourg will be to head up the col des aravis and then onto Beaufort and up the Comet de roseland and over the top, coming down into Bourg.

looks like a great run, thanks for that

i did consider route de grand alps and route napoleon, but decided it wouldn't be a relaxed pace in the time frame we have. so i just decided to base us on the french(cheaper ) side of the alps and tour from there.

 

[half_empty1]

Have a look at THIS SITE

It's reliable informationform peopel who have ridden inthe Alps for far longer than is healthy. There is a section on the areas you're looking at. There is also a useful forum if you're interested.

That looks very useful, thanks for posting that.

if you like alpine roads, you will like this site too, if you haven't seen it already. someone posted it in another thread, you can see what its like to ride the alpine passes

the green dots have videos and pics, the red and blue just pics or info

http://www.bikecam.ch/karte.htm

 

[Hustler]

Also worth getting hold of a copy of john herman's motorcycle journeys through the alps - its the bible of Alps riding and has a great route around Mont blanc described in detail.

I have just, as at 5 minutes ago, ordered this through Moto-Bins.
Thanks for that young Bateman.
And thanks for the link half_empty, I'll study that later on today.
I feel a little trip coming on and as we'll be living in the Charente from next month I'll be nearly there.
Well OK probably 300 or so miles away but pretty close anyway.

 

[NeilF]

I shortened my route which originally included Mont Blanc / Geneva to take us in to Interlaken ( 2 nights, including the mountain railways up the Jungfrau) and then on to Andermatt, from where you can do most of the high passes easily in a day). Then we came out through the Black Forest.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83706&highlight=switzerland

Cheers,

Neil.

 

[half_empty1]

I shortened my route which originally included Mont Blanc / Geneva to take us in to Interlaken ( 2 nights, including the mountain railways up the Jungfrau) and then on to Andermatt, from where you can do most of the high passes easily in a day). Then we came out through the Black Forest.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83706&highlight=switzerland

Cheers,

Neil.

thanks for the info neil, great pics,especially like this one