Switzerland by Car 4D/3N

Dear Forum
We are planning a short 4Day & 3 Night tour of Switzerland and the Swiss Alps in the first week of June 2012. I would appreciate some suggestions on the route to take by car as we would love to see the beautiful mountains of the Swiss Alps. I believe that there are some gorgeous passes that we could drive through.
My thoughts so far are:
Day 1 - Leave from Lake Maggiore and head to Thun & Interlaken. Which is a scenic route? Any passes that we could drive through?
Day 2 - Drive to Berne and overnight in Basel
Day 3 - Drive to Lucerne and explore surroundings
Day 4 - Lucerne back to Milan.

I know this is a rather tight timeframe for us to explore all that Switzerland has to offer. Any suggestions as to driving routes to take would be appreciated. Many thanks

Hello 28dragonred,
Here are some ideas to consider:

Day 1: Lots of options, but a great one would be though the Nufenen Pass (Passo dello Novena) and the Grimsel Pass (optionally take a part of the Furkapass here to visit the Rhone glacier Belvédère).
Day 2 & 3: No Alpine passes here unless long detours are an option, but you could skip the highway for better scenery. An option for day 2 would be to drive along the North shore of Lake Thun, rather than the quicker south shore. A large detour on day 3 could be to drive via Langnau im Emmental.
Day 4: It would take a while, but you could drive through the Brünig Pass, Susten Pass, Schöllenenschlucht (Andermatt) and the Gotthard Pass.

Please keep in mind that passes may be closed due to snow, although it's quite rare in June. You'll need to be prepared to take a detour, tunnel or car train instead.

I hope this helps!

Hello Annika,
thanks very much for your suggestions. I have been googling maps and pictures and your recommendations are very sound.
We have decided to do Nufenen Pass and Grimsel pass on Day 1. And Furkapass (time permitting).
I have been searching on roads to take and googlemaps keeps putting me on the A2, then exit 40 towards Andermatt, then route 19 and then on to the Furka-Basistunnel train. This appears to be a bit of a roundabout way as I note that there is a road that we could take that goes via Zona Fontana, Allacqua. Would this be a better route for us to take as this appears to take us directly to Nufenen Pass and from there we can head north to Grimsel Pass?

With the car trains, I am assuming that we just buy the tickets for the train when we get there?

Many thanks

Hi 28dragonred,

You should take exit 41 (Airolo) at the A2 and drive directly to the Nufenen Pass from there. I think if you put "Paltano" as an in between stop in Google Maps, it will show the correct route.

As for car trains: you don't need them unless the suggested passes happen to be closed. Some car trains need to be booked in advance, but many will take last minute travelers. You can best check their websites for information. They're linked from our various link pages such as this one.