The best driving roads in Swiss Alps

The Swiss Alps are the most concentrated good driving terrain on Earth. Inside two hundred kilometres you can drive the Big Three (Furka, Grimsel, Susten) in a single day, ride the Klausen and Pragel as the warm-up, and finish on the Sustenpass back to Andermatt by sunset. No other region puts this density of world-class roads inside a single base camp.

The character is precise and engineered. Surfaces are uniformly excellent. Hairpins are well-cambered. Sightlines are honest. The Swiss approach to alpine roads — keep them open as long as possible, maintain them properly, sign them clearly — produces the most predictable high-quality driving environment in Europe. The trade-off is traffic on the famous passes (Furka in particular) on summer weekends; drive midweek or early.

Andermatt is the obvious base. Its position at the confluence of the Furka, Susten, Gotthard and Oberalp makes it the alpine equivalent of being parked at the centre of a steering wheel. Interlaken works for the western end (Grimsel, Sustenpass, Brünig). For the eastern Alps — Bernina, Albula, Flüela — base in St. Moritz or Davos.