MOTORCYCLE TRAVEL IN Switzerland

Riding the Furka Pass by motorcycle means climbing the most famous curve in action-movie history: in 1964, the car-chase scene from Goldfinger with Sean Connery was filmed on a bend on the east side, today officially marked as "James Bond Strasse," complete with its own lookout point and parking area.

The pass connects Gletsch (Valais) with Realp (Uri) at 2,429 meters above sea level, with grades of up to 11% and a series of numbered switchbacks climbing in zigzag from the valley floor.

Just below the summit, the Hotel Belvédère gives access to the Rhône Glacier ice grotto, which retreats 30 to 40 meters a year — every season the 100-meter tunnel carved into the ice has to be dug out again because the glacier has already moved.

At the summit station, the Furka-Bergstrecke also runs: a volunteer-restored steam cogwheel railway reviving the original 19th-century line that was abandoned when the base tunnel opened in 1982.

Crossing Grimsel Pass by motorcycle means riding over one of the most ambitious hydroelectric engineering feats in the Alps: the first carriage road was finished between 1891 and 1894 by local and Italian laborers, but the current road wasn't fully complete until 1986, after nearly 15 years of staged widening between the cantons of Bern and Valais.

The road winds alongside the Grimselsee reservoir, one of the dams the utility Kraftwerke Oberhasli (KWO) built between the 1920s and 1950s to power much of Switzerland — the turquoise water contrasts with grey rock polished smooth by glaciers.

A few meters off the route the Gelmerbahn funicular also starts, the steepest incline in all of Switzerland, climbing straight up to the suspended Gelmersee reservoir.

It's the mandatory link between the Furka and the Susten: together, the three passes form the most-ridden alpine circuit among motorcycle travelers in the whole country.

Riding Susten Pass by motorcycle feels different from the rest of the alpine passes: it was the first mountain road in the entire Alps designed specifically for motorized traffic, not a converted mule track.

Construction began in 1938 and, despite interruptions from World War II, it officially opened in September 1946: 46 km of wide curves, 26 bridges and tunnels carved into the rock between Wassen (Uri) and Innertkirchen (Bern).

That engineering shows on the bike — the curves are long and well-cambered instead of the tight switchbacks of older passes like the Klausen, which made it a favorite among sport riders from day one.

On the descent toward the south, the Stein Glacier stays in view for most of the ride, one of the few alpine glaciers still visible from a paved road.

Climbing Gotthard Pass by motorcycle via the Tremola means riding the original carriage road, built between 1830 and 1832 by engineer Francesco Moschini and preserved almost intact: 15 km of granite cubes (not the rounded cobbles of other European routes, but machine-cut "setts") through a series of numbered switchbacks climbing the Airolo side.

The Gotthard is known as the "king of the Alpine passes": crossing it has been strategic since the year 1200, and in 1799 the Russian army under General Suvorov crossed it in the middle of the war against Napoleon, in one of the most cited mountain marches in European military history.

Today most traffic runs through the base tunnel opened in 2016, so there's almost no car traffic on the Tremola — just motorcyclists and cyclists seeking the real experience, riding slowly because the cobbles turn slick and polished when wet.

The north side, from Hospental, is standard pavement: the mix of both worlds over 24 km is what turned this pass into one of the most cited cult routes in all of Switzerland.

Crossing Nufenen Pass by motorcycle means touching the 2,478 meters above sea level of Switzerland's second-highest paved pass, just behind the Umbrail.

The current road only opened to motor traffic in September 1969 — before that there was only a bridle path between the Ulrichen valley (Valais) and the Bedretto valley (Ticino), historically the shortest route connecting Brig with Airolo.

From the summit, the Gries Glacier stays in view to the south, and to the north the full Bernese range unfolds, with the Finsteraarhorn as backdrop.

It's almost always paired in the same day with the Gotthard, since both start and end in Airolo — the perfect closer for the "four passes" circuit any motorcycle traveler builds when passing through the canton of Uri.

Riding Klausen Pass by motorcycle means covering the course of one of the most prestigious mountain races in European history: the Klausenrennen ran from 1922 to 1934 and drew more than 450 cars and motorcycles per edition, with up to 40,000 spectators along the route.

The outright course record went to Hans Stuck, driving an Auto Union, in the 1934 edition, for the nearly 22 km climb through tight bends and over 1,000 meters of elevation gain.

Since 1993 the race has been periodically revived as a historic event for vintage vehicles — the next edition is announced for 2027 — and during those weekends the pass closes to regular traffic.

Outside those dates, the Klausen remains territory for motorcyclists chasing genuinely technical curves, without the Susten's long straights or the Gotthard's tourist traffic.

Crossing Oberalp Pass by motorcycle is the mandatory gateway to the area's other legendary passes: Andermatt, at the western end, is the crossroads where the Furka, the Gotthard, the Susten and the Oberalp itself all begin — the only village in the Swiss Alps where four historic passes converge.

The current road was built in 1862-1863, though the original track was a medieval path connecting to Disentis Monastery, one of the oldest in Switzerland.

A few meters off the route, a two-hour hike leads to the Lai da Tuma, the glacial lake that is the official source of the Rhine — the same river that, 1,200 km downstream, empties into the North Sea.

It's also the highest point on the Glacier Express route, Switzerland's most famous panoramic train, so it's not unusual to cross paths with the train winding along parallel to the road.

Riding San Bernardino Pass by motorcycle means taking the road partly financed by the Kingdom of Sardinia in the 19th century — which is why it's still known as the "Italian road": the carriage road opened in 1770 and was widened between 1821 and 1823 with Sardinian funds, seeking a direct connection north across the Alps.

The pass connects the Hinterrhein valley (Graubünden) with the Mesolcina, already in the Italian-speaking territory of Ticino, also marking Switzerland's Italian-German language border.

Since 1967 a 6.6 km tunnel has absorbed almost all heavy traffic, leaving the high-altitude road almost entirely free for motorcyclists and cyclists looking for curves without trucks.

At the summit, the small Lake Moesola (2,053 masl) crowns a pass that gets up to 5.2 meters of accumulated snowfall per season — among the snowiest of all the Swiss Alps.

Climbing Flüela Pass by motorcycle from Davos means 17 curves ranging from tight switchbacks to long, stretched-out straights — that variety is what made it a favorite among Graubünden motorcyclists.

The road crosses the drainage divide between the Rhine and Danube basins, cresting at 2,384 meters next to the Flüela Hospice, between two mountain lakes, Lai da la Scotta and Lai Nair.

Since the Vereina rail tunnel opened in 1999 (19 km under the mountain), the high-altitude road stopped being the only winter route into the Engadin, freeing it from most heavy traffic and leaving it almost exclusively to tourism and motorcycling.

It's one of three paved passes connecting the Engadin with northern Graubünden — alongside the Albula and the Julier — and the most sought-after variant for riders setting out from Davos.

Crossing the Great St Bernard Pass by motorcycle means literally following in Napoleon's footsteps: in May 1800 he moved an army of 40,000 men and their artillery across in single file, 6,000 soldiers a day, to surprise Austrian forces in Italy — the scene was immortalized in David's painting, today an almost pop-culture icon.

At the summit, 2,469 meters up, the hospice founded in 1049 by Saint Bernard of Menthon still stands: this is where the Saint Bernard dog breed was born, documented in paintings since 1690, bred for centuries for snow rescue. The hospice sold its last dogs in 2004, but dedicated foundations keep the breed alive in the area today.

The pass connects Bourg-Saint-Pierre, in the Swiss Valais, with Aosta, already in Italy, and can only be crossed in summer: temperatures down to -30°C and snowfall up to 10 meters keep it closed the rest of the year, which is why a tunnel opened in 1964 to carry winter traffic.

It's the only pass on this Top 10 that ends in another country, making it the perfect side trip to add Italy to the itinerary without stepping outside the logic of a Switzerland motorcycle trip.