I know the last option should be the way to go, but not having done either of the tunnels would I be missing anything?
Yes, The Point - Entirely!
The GSB Pass is fantastic, the tunnel bypasses all of the Italian side and most of the French side.
From the French side coming in from Martigny the road starts quite fast (By Alpine standards) and sweeping with a pretty decent surface, you then enter a long snow shed for a couple of k's before a turn off lets you escape up the pass instead of going through the tunnel.
From here the road tightens and narrows and is a fairly knarly climb up a barren rocky mountainside, not too tight though and none of the stacked hairpins that can ruin a ride.
At the top is a few shops and cafe's and a great view back down the mountain.
Over the border the Italian side is fantastic, it was being resurfaced in parts when I rod eover it last year and the year before so they may well have finished by now.
The road back down (or up if your coming the other way) is predominantly wide and grippy (new tarmac) with a constant string of tight (but not too tight) bends all the way back down.
A very underated pass IMO, I have only ever ridden it in this direction and would love to go again some time and run over it in the other direction.
As stated unless the weather is awful then take the pass
