planning a trip : switzerland national routes, need advices!
 

Hello guys!

I'm planning 10~14 days bike trip this summer (early July), and need some help!

What I want to do is mostly bike, camp, and sightseeing the most since I love seeing nature, lakes, and mountains.

and there are many routes as 9 total if I read correctly.

what routes would you recommend for 10~14 days?

some more informations.. It will be full load with panniers but I want it to be pretty relaxed.

If I stay at beautiful camp ground I might stay one more day, just reading a book, look around town and taking some photos as well but

also I'm able to ride 50~80km a day.

please share some of yours thoughts!

Thanks in advance :)

I am also in the early planning stages for a similar trip in July. You may find some helpful information here. http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...ggestions.html

Keep in mind that in addition to the national routes, there are regional and local routes. I'll be making some decisions soon as to flights and itinerary, and will update my thread when there are updates. Right now, mainly focused on getting my travel bike frame in my hands and built.

I've lived in Switzerland for 11 years and have ridden my bike across it several times and have done some bike tour guiding. The Swiss National Route 5 is the easiest of the official national routes. Routes 4 and 9 are the most scenic, but involve some long climbs (no problem with the right gearing and right attitude even if you're not used to it). I expect that you've already found this site that has an interactive map showing all routes:
https://map.wanderland.ch/?lang=en&r...31750&Y=189000
Click on the selector buttons on the left to turn on and off the regional, local, or national routes.

All the Swiss national routes take quite convoluted ways to get to places so that they can stay on the quietest roads possible. There are often other nearby roads that are not busy but are far more direct and flatter. After a couple of days of religiously following the marked routes, many people start using the rest of the road network for some sections to make travel more efficient. Swiss drivers are generally courteous. Personally, I've very rarely used the official bike routes and prefer to choose roads to use based on looking at standard maps. Strava Heat Map is also a good resource that shows the routes that cyclists use most frequently: http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#8/7....1313/gray/bike

Switzerland is generally more expensive than the rest of Europe. However, regular products in stores, including food, are not that much more expensive, but services where the majority of the cost is Swiss labor is where things are really expensive, meaning restaurants and hotels. Swiss people themselves don't camp much, but there are campgrounds in all major tourist spots to serve the foreign visitors. I'm not a big fan of organized campgrounds, so when I camp, I normally wild-camp; because I try to be stealthy, I've never been approached by anyone when doing so.

My few days there last year confirms Chris_W's comments. Also note that trains (at least some of them) require reservations in advance for the bike. Also, go ride the steepest roads you can find in the Green Mountains to prep for the Alps ;). One more thing....even if only planning on riding in the daylight, have good lighting for the tunnels. Beautiful country to ride a bike in.

Besides the advice above, keep in mind that southern and eastern Switzerland is alpine with routes limited by the natural passes, and involving long sometimes steep climbs. Northern and western Switzerland is more gently rolling, with more farmland and a much denser network of roads.

To get a sense of the country you'll probably want to do some of both, so plan accordingly to mix it up.