I’ve been working on this tour (part of 44|5’s Project Trans Alps) for a year now, so I’m pretty excited (and hopefully ready) about finally running it next week. HighRoad Swiss Alps will be my first real foray into Switzerland with clients and, other than the trepidation about exchange rates and astronomical prices, I’m feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Sometimes tours just sort of create themselves and have a certain natural coherence that makes for a good week. Nice starts and suitable finishes also help, which is certainly the case here. This is the start:

On the eastern end of Lake Geneva sits Vevey, home to Nestlé and (formerly) Charlie Chaplin. We’ll just be here long enough for a shake-out ride along the lake and into the vineyards before starting our journey west. Vevey is in the French speaking region of Switzerland.

Our next stop for two days is Spiez, just down the road from Interlaken.

You’ll notice a lake theme starting to form, I hope. Our hotel is near this port and our first night’s dinner is right on it. From Spiez (now firmly in the German-speaking area of the country) we’ll do what I’m hoping will end up being one of the best mountain loops I’ve ever done: Gross Scheidegg:

Our next destination is high-altitude Andermatt, but we have to climb a couple of mountains to get there, including Sustenpass.

From Andermatt we will ride what I hope will be an even better mountain loop than two days previously – the famous Furka / Nufenen / Gottardo trinity.

Another big passo (Oberalp) brings us into Italian-speaking Switzerland and Locarno, chic-ly situation on the glimmering shores of Lago Maggiore.

Our last 2 nights are here, with one more climb to do along the shores of the lake and dipping briefly into Italy in the process. A simple 1.5 hour transfer to Milan Malpensa Airport on our final morning brings this one to a smooth close…fingers crossed!