Do it. I could leave it at that. It is like 37 Euros and you will go up like 30 hairpin turns.
And yes bicycle riders are on this insane, beautiful , breath taking road. You will go on roads that
here in the US would probably have high guard rails, well not there. Oh they have granite pieces sticking up
but well. just stay on the road not easy to not let your eyes wander all over when you are going to eventually end up at a glacier.
The road is very well designed, the engineering miracle it took to build in the first place. They put many pull offs along the
road so you can get out to take your photos or just stand and realize nature is endless in it's appearances.
the road goes to a height of 8,200 feet. The peak of Grossglockner was covered in clouds but all else was clear for us.
Just google it, look at the photos and go. It does take about 4 hours with many photo stops along the way,
And even at the end, South of it you go through Heiligenblut and one of the most photographed church steeples in all of
Austria i bet. We ended up going up to Bad Gastein to spend the night before heading to Salzburg. You use the train through the tunnel, which runs only once an hour. You do drive your car up onto a train of covered flat cars , then walk up to a coach car to sit in while you take the 10 min trip through the tunnel. You will see a lot of trains in Austria. Passenger and especially freight. They didn't abandon that mode of transportation as another country did. ......
Posted by
Bay Area, California
1632 posts
Thanks for your report. Were there enough spots at rest stops or viewpoints for all the cars?
30 hairpin turns sounds scary to me, but I want to see the views.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
We drove the Grossglockner from the north to the south and then went on into Northern Italy. I can honestly say the south side of the Grossglockner just north of Lienz, Austria is perhaps the most beautiful place I've ever seen. And there are a bunch of really nice B&B's in the area too.
Posted by
Southeast US
4044 posts
Thanks for the report. It‘s on my list of things to do in 2020, and this makes me even more excited about it!
Posted by
Prince George, BC, Canada
444 posts
We drove this road a few years ago in mid October as a day trip from our B+B on the outskirts of Salzburg. It was a magnificent trip - the weather was beautiful and quite warm for early/mid October. Yes, there were lots of bicyclists and you definitely had to keep your eyes on the road, but I remember there were many places to pull over and admire the view. There is a self directed auto-tour along the way with many story boards about the development of the road, ecology and geology. Very interesting and well worth the time. We only went as far as the Kaiser Franz Josefs glacier and then returned to Salzburg.
Posted by
681 posts
Sounds fascinating and yet eerily frightening. Course I am afraid of heights which may have a little to do with the scary part.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
okay, sorry I am late in getting responses to some of you...
Yes there were lots of parking spots at the major rest spots.. But there are many other pull offs on the way up. the road was well designed in that area, however those handle maybe 4-5 cars..Also please note when we were there..This road I have read Gets almost bumper to bumper in Summer..
So at those times parking may not be enough..The toll booth at the entrance has like 8 lanes wide, there was only one lane open with us and no line...so....plan accordingly. And yes it is closed in Winter.
On heights.... yes there are some parts of road that have very steep drops.. don’t ride on the passenger side would be one suggestion. But take a deep breath by the turn offs, the views of these valleys is simply breath taking...it’s the reason for the trip.