Driving route from Lucerne to Zermatt to Chamonix in late October

In october the mountain passes will be closed so the route will have to be Luzern - Zofingen - Bern - Montreux - Visp - Täsch to Chamonix is via the Montets pass, which is normally open, but which might not, in which case you'll be looking at a big detour here as well.

Don't know more about the rest of your trip, but Luzern - Zermatt is going to be significantly easier by train. Are you operating under the correct assumptions? I fear you might end up maximising cost and inconvenience...

I was going to say that a car from Luzern to Zermatt to Chamonix hardly gives flexibility. Zermatt to Chamonix by train is to Visp to Sion to Martigny to Vallorcine to Chamonix. Hourly departures.

The Montets pass barely closes anymore, a single-lane rail/road mixed tunnel keeps it open, and snowfall at 1,400 metres is rare in October anyway.

For Luzern -Täsch you could probably use the Furka or the Lötschberg Autoverlad (car-trains) for the novelty of it.

Thank you for the advice and information on road closures that I couldn’t find anywhere readily! I have read that trains are better than driving in Switzerland; however, we will have a car anyway as we are using to travel to some off the beaten path cities to do family genealogy research in France and Switzerland. We also don’t want to have to lug baggage around for 3 weeks as seniors.

Would it make sense to park the car somewhere in Lucerne and do a day trip to see the Zermatt and Matterhorn?

Our draft itinerary is as follows: fly into Geneva—>Lausanne (3 days) >Murren/Berner Oberland (3 days)>Bern/Lucerne (2 days)>Zermatt-(2-3 days)>Chamonix(1 day)->Annecy (2 days)>Lyon (2 days)>Beune area/wineries. (4 days)—>Geneva(2 days) (fly home).

What would you do?

Thank you!

Well, I don't think I'd do a day trip to Zermatt from Luzern. By the time you get there, it may have clouded up and you won't see the Matterhorn. Make sure you rent a car in the Swiss sector of GVA to be sure you will get a car with a vignette already attached.

Thanks all for your quick tips! I did find this website helpful to show the road closures so sharing with you all- https://www.myswissalps.com/travel/car/traffic-info/

Based on your advice we may take the train instead of drive for the Swiss Alps part of our trip..

Most likely this is not in play, but note that the Mont Blanc tunnel is totally
closed from Sept 2nd thru Dec 16th. It means that the option to go south
at Martigny and come to Chamonix via Aosta won't exist, but that would
not be the first choice anyways.

Based on your advice we may take the train instead of drive for the Swiss Alps part of our trip..

Sounds like a good plan! If you do decide to drive, I recommend this website for the most up-to-date road conditions:

https://www.tcs.ch/de/tools/verkehrsinfo-verkehrslage/aktuelle-lage.php

They also have an app.

The website you provided seems to be created by tourists to Switzerland. Since you need to sign up to access detailed information, I couldn’t compare it directly. However, TCS is known for providing accurate and reliable road conditions, so I’d recommend using TCS to ensure you have the most trustworthy information if you decide to drive.

Thanks for all the great advice! If I were to drive from Luzerne to Tasch via the Furkapass or the car-train, where would be a good place to stop and stay along the way? Andermatt?

Andermatt is not very interesting IMO. It is mostly known as a freeride skiing destination.
My usual recommendation is Bettmeralp but it is basically closed in autumn.
I would just press on to Zermatt, it is not a long day.