Four motorcycle tours in Switzerland: motorbike trips and excursions

Once you have arrived in Gletsch in the Canton of Valais, you will continue seamlessly with the third pass of your journey. Many well-developed curves lead up to the top of the Grimsel Pass at Lake Totensee. At the end of your motorcycle tour, follow the course of the Aare via Guttannen back to Innertkirchen.

Whether as a starting and finishing point or as a highlight in the middle of the route: riding along Lake Brienz and Lake Thun is an experience in itself. The area in and around the city of Thun offers a scenic and cultural contrast on this circular tour, whose sights – including Thun Castle and the Schwäbis river lido – invite you to take a look, swim and rest.

After climbing the Schallenberg, you will have another opportunity to stop at the Gabelspitz restaurant before you find yourself on the impressive panoramic road after the descent. It runs for 17 kilometres from Sörenberg (Lucerne) over the 1600-metre-high Glaubenbielen Pass to Giswil (Obwalden).

Towards the end of this section, still on an elevation, you have clear views of the third lake of this circuit: Lake Sarnen. Interesting detail: Lake Sarnen was once part of today’s Lake Lucerne. Over many millennia, it was separated and raised by shifts.

At 2,478 metres above sea level, the Nufenen Pass is the highest road pass in Switzerland. The circuit over the Nufenen, Gotthard, Susten and Grimsel Passes is peppered with other superlatives. The restored, cobblestone Tremola is considered the longest monument in Switzerland and is also referred to as “the curve wonder”. On the south side, it leads next to the new mountain pass road to the historic Gotthard.

The Susten Pass is much younger, but also of historical importance – for example as a barrier for national defence. Today, it is one of the most popular passes in Switzerland because of the attractive route and the rich variety of experiences. A highlight: the Tällibahn cable car takes you up to the foot of the Gadmer Dolomites, which include one of the longest sport climbing routes in Switzerland and offer spectacular panoramic views.

After this detour, there is also the Grimsel Pass, which connects the Bernese Oberland with Valais. This motorcycle tour not only inspires nature lovers, but also those interested in history.

On this tour, you will visit five cantons over almost 180 kilometres and cross four passes and Lake Lucerne. If you start in Bern, you first go from Willingen via the Chirchen Pass to Innertkirchen. Via the Susten Pass, you continue to Wassen in Uri, from where you will pass through the Maderaner Valley, before leaving Uri at Sisikon and arriving in the Canton of Schwyz.

There, the ferry departs from Gersau across Lake Lucerne every hour. In the middle of the lake, you will cross another cantonal border: the border to Nidwalden. From the jetty in Beckenried, the tour continues to Dallenwil via the Ächerlipass to Kerns in Obwalden. Before the circular trip ends and you arrive back at the starting point, you go over the Brünig Pass to Meiringen and finally to Willingen in the Canton of Bern.

Two tips for excursions on the route: the Tellskapelle in Sisikon, a historic site in Uri, or the Golzernsee in the Maderaner Valley are worth seeing.