Best route by car from Zermatt to Lucerne

Hi.. we will be driving from Zermatt to Lucerne on Sunday, Aug. 30th, 2015, and are wondering which would be the best route. Is it via Andermatt or Meiringen/Brunig, or other suggestions? Any idea about Sunday traffic or return from vacation in the south at that time? We will be taking a train from Lucerne to Lugano later, so we will see the view to/from Goeschenen. Thanks.. Bruno

<<"Any idea about Sunday traffic or return from vacation in the south at that time? ">

Plan on heavy. The Brunig will be slow. Don't know the traffic on the others, but weekends are bad news at this time of ear.

Slowpoke

Hi Bruno,

Although school holidays will be over almost anywhere in Switzerland, the expectation is that there will be very heavy traffic that weekend (See: www.tcs.ch/de/auto-mobilitaet/verkehrsinf o/prognosen.php and download the PDF "Schulferien und Staukalender" - it will be clear although it is written in German).

First of all, try to avoid the Gotthardtunnel: traffic jams in both directions (Andermatt and Airolo) because of ongoing road works between Göschenen and Andermatt will most likely give you long delays.

I can think of three important routes between Zermatt and Luzern. They are all beautiful and they will all take about half a day (if there are no extra delays because of heavy traffic).

1. Train to Täsch - Visp - Rhône valley direction west - leave Rhône valley near Steg in direction of Lötschental - Goppenstein - Car train through Lötschberg Tunnel (frequent connections) - Kandersteg - Frutigen - Spiez - Interlaken - Brienzwiler - Brünig pass - Sarnen - Alpnachstad - Luzern

This is the easy route. The Brünig pass is relatively low and quite easy to drive.

2. Train to Täsch - Visp - Rhône valley direction east - Brig - Oberwald - Gletsch - Grimsel pass - Guttannen - Innertkirchen - Meiringen - Brienzwiler - Brünig Pass - Sarnen - Alpnachstad - Luzern

This route adds the Grimsel pass which is a serious Pass (altitude 2165 m.)

You can drive via Andermatt if you prefer, but there delays are very probable :

3. Train to Täsch - Visp - Rhône valley direction east - Brig - Oberdorf - Nufenen pass - Airolo - Gotthard pass - Hospental - Andermatt - Wassen - Stansstad - Luzern. An alternative is - Oberdorf - Gletsch - Furka pass - Realp - Hospental - Andermatt - etc.

This route has two serious passes: the Nufenen pass (altitude 2478 m.) and the Gotthard pass (altitude 2108 m.) Or just the Furka pass (altitude 2431 m.)

If you are an experienced driver who loves to drive a car in the mountains you can just choose.

If not, I suggest you take route 1., especially as very heavy traffic is expected. Maybe studying these routes on a map can help you decide.

Wandermann