Alps Virgin Advice Welcome

RW1102

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Hi Guys

Heading down to the Alps this year first week in September for the first time,

looking at staying at Baden-Baden on the way down and taking in the b500

Then intending to stay at Landeck as a base and take in some of the below routes as posted by Wapping.

Question's are

1 I've just read a thread by The Gray One who has mentioned the cost for the Grossglockner will be 22 euro this year, how much will I need to budget for pass costs for the below routes,

2 Has anyone done these routes before and what are they like

Route 1: The Stelvio (Stifserjoch) About 310 km

Route 2: Otzi-tour - Timmelsjoch pass - Brenner pass. About 310 km

Route 3: Lakes tour - All the big lakes. About 320 km

Route 4: Swabian tour. About 260 km

Route 5: Sivretta - Arlberg tour. About 160 km

Route 6: Six passes tour. About 420 km - Longer if you tack the Stelvio onto the end, too.

:JB
 
Only one of them, the Stelvio:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=247181

Why not use a couple of bases to make some routes shorter?

200 miles in the Alps can be a long day, my trips this year had average moving speeds of 32 - 38mph making a 300km trip about 5-6 hours riding, by the time you have taken pictures and had some grub that makes for a fairly busy day.

I have been breaking my Alps trips into 3 base tours with 2-3 days at each base, and in two tours in I reckon I have still only done about 1/3 of what I want to and probably less than 1/10th of what is there.

For the B500 I would highly recommend Pension Williams as they are on "the best bit" and good value.
 
Landeck, Austria

We stopped at the Hotel Enzian whilst in Austria,well known motorcycle hotel with good facilities and planned /escorted rideouts if required.
Take a look;

http://www.hotel-enzian.com/

We enjoyed stay.
 
We did route 5 (Silvretta) in 2010 whilst based in Fiss, Austria. This was my favourite route and enjoyed it much better than Stelvio,.You used to be able to down load the routes from the Hotel Fernblick web site. :beerjug:
 
I have probably ridden the lot in one form or another. Sometimes in the circular 'ride-out' fashion, sometimes more in the going from A-to-B-C type of thing. They are all good rides, without a doubt.

Most of the passes are free, with some limited exceptions. If you Google up the passes you intend to cross you'll find those that make a charge. I can't recall dipping my hand into my wallet every ten minutes, if you get my drift.

Landeck is reasonably central. To be honest, it's not a particularly nice town and if it wasn't where it is bods wouldn't go. There are better and cheaper places. If you are thinking about the Enzain hotel.... Well, it's OK in that it's easy and doesn't require much thought. It's not in the greatest part of town view wise and, for sure, there are better choices about. A hunt about in Google will find you something.... It's a big winter sports area, so the hills are littered with hotels... none of which will lob you out just because you arrive on a motorcycle, I promise.
 
We did them all last year - 5 were fantastic - three lakes tour wasn't as good i downloaded all the routes from wapping on here - he did a fantastic job
- we stayed at the Enzian for 10 days - used it as a base - great food :beer jug:
you will have a fantastic time - are you on face book i posted loads of pics from the trip :thumb2 - the biggest trip is definitely the best one
 
Thanks for all the info chaps, sounds as though i'll be having a good time.

Not booked into digs yet so will have a look around at other options in that area.
but still wanting to stay central

Rob
 
Rob, Fiss is a nice town close to Landeck. I stopped at the hotel hubertushof it was superb. Also there's the biking hotel, hotel Fernblick just down the road.There are plenty of bars and restaurants to go at too.
www.hubertushof-fiss.at is the web site :beerjug:
 
Last edited:
Buy a paper road map of the Alps, open it up on the table and start linking passes together. Check out alpineroads.com for info on passes (good/bad/ugly) and decide which ones you want to ride. As Wapping said pull up at most hotels in't Alps and haggle a price for a room, lots of ski type ones have sauna/jacuzzi and pools foc. Stelvio is a pass just to tick and say you've rode it, in my opinion it's a crap ride. The Grossglockner is worth the money if you do a touristy run and late lunch then wait till it quietens off and play time trial between the toll booths. B500 is a good road for sports bikes do it before you get to the alps, I did it on the way home once and it is good but after the Alpine passes it was like having your pudding before your main meal. There is a handfull of passes you have to pay for but theres 100's of free ones that kick ass, Timmelsjoch is a good road. Livigno is a tax free town handy for fuel, fags and cheap night.
Enjoy
Dave.
 
Thanks Guys,

Got my Alps paper back and maps,

all advice has been greatly appreciated

Rob
 
TBH - Alpineroads.com should be for first stop

If you clump them together you have the Austrian passes, the east of Swizzie and Italy passes. Middle Switzerland, West Switzerland /Italy / France and then maritime passes ....

Try and fit in Grd St Bernard/Pett St Bernard - cos you get to ride around Mont Blanc, and do three countries in couple of hours. Then you can hack over to col d'Iseran.

Middle Switzerland - Grimsel, Furka, Sustan, St Gotthard (old) Nufenen are all do-able ina day , with the Klausen thrown in for good measure. Then hack of to Davos for the Fuela and onto Stelvio ....
 
Livignio?

Dont dismiss Livignio in Italy as a base..

A few people on here (me included) have stayed there at very reasonable prices...

Google Hotel Alpi, owner is a guy called Maurio who speaks fluent English and will allow you to park bikes in his underground garage FOC. Central location in the town and as the place is tax free the fuel is about 85p a litre (Summer 2011).

You may think Italy is too far out but Livignio is well in the Alps and spit distance from Austria and Switzerland borders.

Roger..
 
Besides the obvious Michelin maps, you might consider The "Die Motorrad General Karte" map series. Though you`ll be hard pressed to find all 5 austrian maps, 4 of them are still available either through mapsman, amazon.de or amazon.co.uk. these laminated maps have motorcycle friendly routes highlighted
 
G5RJO said:
Dont dismiss Livignio in Italy as a base...
Click to expand...

We stayed here in 2010, good value at about £80 for a double room at hotel champagne which was a small family run hotel, it was very clean and tidy and great value, right by the pedestrian zone which was handy for eating out.
 
G5RJO said:
Dont dismiss Livignio in Italy as a base..

A few people on here (me included) have stayed there at very reasonable prices...

Google Hotel Alpi, owner is a guy called Maurio who speaks fluent English and will allow you to park bikes in his underground garage FOC. Central location in the town and as the place is tax free the fuel is about 85p a litre (Summer 2011).

You may think Italy is too far out but Livignio is well in the Alps and spit distance from Austria and Switzerland borders.

Roger..
Click to expand...

Agree with you and Rasher on this....

The hotels towards Bormio (on the way to the Stelvio from Livigno) are a little cheaper but you can't beat the cheap petrol, cheap food and cheap booze that Livigno has to offer :thumb

Rashers tip on Pension Williams in the black forest is a goodun as well ;)


For what it's worth.... and only if you have got good speed broadband here are a load of pics from my 2010 trip.... http://www.boxhill.co.uk/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21534&start=75 you need to scroll down quite a bit but it helps illustrates my point that there's more to biking holidays in the Alps than just tarmac ;)
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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