The Grossglockner before breakfast, the Route Napoléon in October, the Stelvio when the coaches have gone. How to drive Europe’s best roads properly.
There are perhaps thirty roads in Europe that justify a car on their own, and most of them are ruined between ten in the morning and five in the afternoon from June to September. The skill is not finding them; the skill is being on them at seven in the morning in October, with a good hotel behind you and a long lunch ahead. These three are the ones we return to.
The Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Austria
Forty-eight kilometres, thirty-six hairpins, a summit at 2,504 metres and a toll of around €40 that keeps the casual traffic away. Open from May to early November, at its best in late September when the larches turn and the first snow sits on the peaks. Stay in Zell am See or Heiligenblut, be at the gate when it opens at six, and drive it twice: north to south for the views, back again for the corners. The Edelweissspitze spur is worth the extra ten minutes for the cobbles alone.
The Route Napoléon, France
From Grasse to Grenoble, 325 kilometres along the road the Emperor took north from Elba in 1815. Not a mountain pass but a grand touring road: long sweeping corners, fast straights through lavender country, villages that have not noticed a century passing. Drive it in October when the heat has gone and the traffic with it. Two days, with a night in Castellane or Sisteron. The section from Castellane to Digne is the best road in France that nobody talks about.
A great road driven at the wrong hour is a traffic jam with a view. Timing is the whole art.
The Stelvio Pass, Italy
The famous one, and famous for a reason: forty-eight numbered hairpins stacked up a wall of rock to 2,757 metres. Also the most crowded road in the Alps from July to August, with cyclists, coaches and motorcyclists competing for every apex. Go in the last week of September or the first week of October, stay in Bormio, and be on the road by half past six. Then take the Umbrail Pass down into Switzerland and come back over the Ofen Pass, which is emptier and nearly as good.
How to drive a pass
Slower than you think, smoother than you think. Look through the corner to where you want to be, brake before you turn, keep a gear that lets the engine hold the car on the way down. Pull over for faster traffic and for the view; a pass is not a race and the men who treat it as one are the ones you read about. Fuel up in the valley, carry water, and keep a coat in the car even in September. At 2,500 metres it is ten degrees colder than where you had breakfast.
The car
Lighter is better. An MX-5, an Alpine, a Boxster or a Cayman will be more fun than anything with more than 400 horsepower, because you can use all of what they have. A grand tourer such as a Bentley or an Aston is the right car for the Route Napoléon and the wrong car for the Stelvio. If you have only one car, take it; the road will be kind to it.
Try the tool
Drive MatchThree cars for the driving you actually doPacking ListOne bag, packed in twenty minutesQuestions we get asked
Do I need winter tyres in September?
No, but the passes can close briefly after early snow. Check the pass status the night before and have a lower alternative in mind.
Is a rented car acceptable?
Entirely. A rented Boxster from Munich or Milan for four days costs less than the fuel for your own car from the north, and you fly home rested.
What about speed cameras?
France and Italy have them everywhere on the approach roads and nowhere on the passes themselves. Drive the valleys at the limit and enjoy the mountains.
