Driving Switzerland & Italian Alps in October?

Weather is always a concern when driving or touring the Alps. You may have bad days, or occasionally very bad days even in the middle of summer; but generally summer is good for touring. At some time the summer weather pattern will give up to a wintery pattern, usually some time in the middle of October, but nobody knows when. I have seen snow in Switzerland as early as September 22nd - on the contrary, some years it is not snowing not even at Xmas time. So the earlier you go the better, but nobody can tell anything for sure.

Some observations:
- you will not be allowed to drive into Zermatt. The best you can do is park your car at the last village before Zermatt and take a shuttle train to Zermatt;
- the drive between Zermatt and St. Moritz will be extremely long; I would not try it in bad weather, but even in good weather will be long and tiring, if glorious driving. You may need to transit the Nufenen or Grimsel passes that are among the first passes to close, usually in October but nobody can tell it in advance;
- even the drive between St. Moritz and Neuschwanstein, while easier, is very slow and occasionally on narrow roads.

A more general concern: the tourist seasons on Alps are summer and winter. The intermediate seasons may be quite dead. You will be touring the kind of luxury summer/winter resorts in the wrong season, so I wonder what you will be going to do there. October is too late for hiking and too early for skying. Neuschwanstein - being an historic site - and Riva - being a lakeside station - are exceptions, but I wonder if will be driving whole days just to get from an half-closed resort to another one.

Something that is hard to remember sometimes: designate 'Travel Days', ie days that you check out of one hotel, drive to next city, and check into next hotel. If you don't take these travel days into account your trip is all about traveling and not enough about enjoying where you are.

Drop Zermatt, of course. When you read 'Zermatt' think New Orleans, Bourbon Street, Friday night, but with fondue and the Matterhorn in the background as you walk, shoulder-to-shoulder through the streets. If you still want to do Zermatt then do Saas Fee instead. You turn left at the split to go to either Zermatt or Saas Fee and travel down the entire Saastal. Fewer people, parking right at Saas Fee (Saas Fee is pedestrian only as well). Same area, basically the same mountains. Stay at Weissmieshuette or the ski hut above it.

Drop another destination (probably Milan, leave directly from the airport for Chamonix, that saves a day). Maybe St. Moritz? Take the extra days and make sure that you have enough travel days between locations and enough time in each place to make it worth it. Is there any reason that you plan to fly into Milan and not ZRH (I am partial)?

I have never been in October but many of the huts that I frequent, which would be at the higher altitudes of your trip, close about September 20-30 for the season. Sometimes they are literally taking the outside tables apart and packing them up while we are hiking away!

Bon voyage! and remember to count travel days ;)

October is iffy for sure re roads. Consider changing your routing a little and use public transit. Trains function beautifully for most of your itin, As was noted no cars are allowed in Zermatt anyway. We were there last month and trained in easily. Book your hotel now for zermatt it is very popular and a walkable village
Plan.
Heck one July summer while we were in Chamonix and it snowed for 3 days.
Could not even use the ski lifts as they were shut down due to the storm.

I have driven the road between Chamonix and Martigny (the route you will take to get to Zermatt) many times. If there is snow I would not recommend doing this. The first part, just north of Chamonix, is not bad but going up over the top of the pass and then down the steep, hairpin turns going through the vineyards on the slopes above Martigny, would be terrifying if there were ice or snow.
I would suggest taking a train for the Switzerland portion of your trip just in case there is snow, which can happen by this time in Switzerland.
Also, Cortina is a ski town (think Aspen) and you are going during what is shoulder season. The mountains are nice but you'll have a much nicer experience if you go to the Val Gardena. Again, it's shoulder season but it's not so geared to skiers in that area. Just beautiful villages and mountains with spectacular views!

Hi Jean,

We've been to the Dolomites a number of times from early to late October. Personally never saw any snow. Our experiences were chilly to even warm days and chilly to cold nights and early mornings. It's certainly not too late for walking and hiking in the Dolomites. Skip Cortina d'Ampezzo. Stay in the Val Gardena, in either Ortisei, St. Christina or Selva. These are just minutes from one to the next. The Mont Seuc/Seiser Alm cable car, in Ortisei, runs until Nov. 2, 2016. The passes, meaning the Gardena, Sella, Pordoi, Campolongo, Falzarego and Giau Passes, are all spectacular drives and are all easy day trips. You can easily do a few in a day. You can also park and walk or hike among the peaks.

We also stayed in Wengen, Zermatt and St. Moritz in mid October. Wonderful, although we'd skip St. Moritz if we went back. Didn't care for it. Again, similar experiences with weather here as in the Dolomites.

IF you skipped Neuschwanstein, there are plenty of castles in the Val Venosta/Vinschgau area of the Sud Tirol between the Swiss border near Mustair and Meran/Merano in Italy (Sud Tirol). This would be directly on the way from St. Moritz to the Val Gardena and the Dolomites. Castles include: Churburg, Kastelbell, Tirolo, Juval and more. There's even the small, intact, medieval walled town of Glurns/Glorenza.

Paul