Grand Saint Bernard Pass - anyone driven over it (not through the tunnel)

[Pocket Rocket]

Hi - we are considering driving from Switzerland to Italy tomorrow over the Grand Saint Bernard Pass (Martigney to Aosta). We have a small Ducato PVC with the new 140bhp auto gearbox.

Any advice about this route? We’d love to stop over on the top of the pass so don’t want to go through the tunnel, but not sure about if our van will get over the pass OK. Anyone else driven it in the summer?

 

[Dorwyn]

Yes, it was much better than through the tunnel, and easy. Thinking about it, that was pre covid, so at least 6 years. Doesn't time fly!!

 

[MisterB]

We did it in a 7.5m Adria with comformatic gear box, selected manual most of the way, don't try to take sharp corners, go as wide as you can, even crossing over to the other side of the road at times, sometimes waiting for oncoming traffic to go past. Take your time and don't be rushed .... Its not a difficult route so enjoy the scenery

 

[Nanniemate]

It's beautiful go for it

 

[suavecarve]

As above. Pre COVID crossing. Well worth it. Martigny has a car park you can park for free overnight then pay up to 4 hours. Aosta has an aire that someone likened to a prison camp on s4s !!! I wasn't wrong

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[Dorwyn]

Yes, it was much better than through the tunnel, and easy. Thinking about it, that was pre covid, so at least 6 years. Doesn't time fly!!

I think with modern vehicles mountain passes are not so challenging as they used to be. I'm not too sure of which passes I went over when I was 17, on a motorbike, or later in a Healey Sprite, so the early 60s, but when you got to the top the road would just disappear, you were just driving over gravel. Like being in a quarry. I had brakes fade on the way down (pre disk brakes) clutch go (Allegro) etc. No comparison to today's cars and roads. Then it was an extreme adventure, today it's a lovely drive in fantastic scenery

 

[garry55]

Yes - but on a motorcycle. It's worth it!

 

[Dorwyn]

Yes - but on a motorcycle. It's worth it!

I remember going with a small group of motorcyclists, looking at the map just this side of the San Gothard and declaring, oh we can make it to Cannes before dark! The roads were just tracks, no road Signs, map was useless! We're talking of 1960s.We could not find a campsite up in the mountains, surprise surprise! And it ended up with the three of us lying at an angle of 70 degrees upright on some face rock face in the gutter of the road covered only in the tent as a duvet! A passing motorist woke us up as the sun just appeared, thinking we were all dead!! But the meditaranean smells of fauna and spices as we dropped down into Cannes was amazing!

 

[Minxy]

Not difficult at all and as a bonus you might get a view of the naked St Bernards ...

Coming home through Switzerland?

I wondered what the consensus is for doing Nice to Calais through switzerland? Via Aosta and Turin. We met some swiss campers who said the roads are always kept free of snow and as we had come up to Lemone Piemonte to ski it woyld make sens to hold this route. What di you seasoned...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[DDJC]

We found that cyclists on the Swiss sider have no concept of danger or death! Give them a wide berth, because the Swiss car drivers don't!

The roads and the barriers improve greatly on the Italian side!

You'll be fine in a PVC.

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[PlacidoD]

Yes - but on a motorcycle. It's worth it!

Ditto!!

 

[Pocket Rocket]

Thanks all! We made it! Overnight at the top of the pass at 8000ft for the summer solstice - quite a lot of snow up here!!!

 

[Dorwyn]

Thanks all! We made it! Overnight at the top of the pass at 8000ft for the summer solstice - quite a lot of snow up here!!!

Well done for timing! Isn't there a quite reasonable cafe at the top?

 

[Pocket Rocket]

 

[Pocket Rocket]

Our current view from the van - watching the sun go down over the mountains, looking out over the lake and St Bernard Monastery.

Yes, really good restaurant here too

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[JaG]

I think with modern vehicles mountain passes are not so challenging as they used to be. I'm not too sure of which passes I went over when I was 17, on a motorbike, or later in a Healey Sprite, so the early 60s, but when you got to the top the road would just disappear, you were just driving over gravel. Like being in a quarry. I had brakes fade on the way down (pre disk brakes) clutch go (Allegro) etc. No comparison to today's cars and roads. Then it was an extreme adventure, today it's a lovely drive in fantastic scenery

That brings back memories. I crossed over there in the late 70's with a Datsun Bluebird 180B. I remember the stunning scenery. There was still snow on tbe ground in June and I have a photo somewhere of our 3 year old sat next to a Pyrannean Miuntain Dog. Memories eh.

 

[ericonabike]

Definitely doable

 

[delia]

Came over the Col deL’lsteron ,highest paved pass in the Alps, the other day in our Carthago tag axle, no problems. full tanks etc.

 

[Donnieliz]

Hi - we are considering driving from Switzerland to Italy tomorrow over the Grand Saint Bernard Pass (Martigney to Aosta). We have a small Ducato PVC with the new 140bhp auto gearbox.

Any advice about this route? We’d love to stop over on the top of the pass so don’t want to go through the tunnel, but not sure about if our van will get over the pass OK. Anyone else driven it in the summer?

Almost 60 years ago myself and my now wife went over that pass in a Old Ford Anglia van heading for Turkey on the hippie trail from memory one part was not tarmac and me and another hippie French guy with a C4 had to reverse up this very steep section as it wouldn’t take it in first gear. Happy days

 

[buzz1]

We did it in A class 7.5 very easy.
But check weather 24 th June 2024 this was taken,
but they kept pass clear but not always possible ?
See picture this is just across the Italy border at a pizza restaurant
Gt St Bernard in the back ground.
We was very popular with our dog as they usually had 5 x St Bernard in kennel there,
but was none when we visited.
Only ours

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[Mad dog]

Interesting, I guess this is the road from Aosta to Martigny? How long did it take roughly?

I remember going through the tunnel a couple of years ago, towards a hundred euros from memory... I just paid & told the better half once we were in the tunnel. Love Chamonix though, although it's getting very exclusive.

 

[Rollingwheels]

That brings back memories. I crossed over there in the late 70's with a Datsun Bluebird 180B. I remember the stunning scenery. There was still snow on tbe ground in June and I have a photo somewhere of our 3 year old sat next to a Pyrannean Miuntain Dog. Memories eh.

Reading this about your Datsun made me laugh my mate had one of those and the window trim came adrift so he bought some then new superglue and managed to glue his lips and finger to the window and trim, he didn’t think it would stick skin.

 

[Pocket Rocket]

As an update and hopefully some useful info for anyone else wanting to drive over.

We found the road very busy with motorbikes, sports cars, and normal cars. Most drivers were OK, but far too many were pretty dangerous - overtaking on blind bends, cutting corners etc.

We stayed overnight at the top, asked the bar / cafe for the OK to use their carpark (fine as long as we left before 9am).

It was very busy and noisy at the top - we had hoped it would quieten down by about 6pm, but it remained very noisy with motorbikes and cars until about 10pm.

Unfortunately overnight there were a lot of vans and cars arriving in the car park - lights flashing, music, loud voices, plus some dodgy guys going round the vans at about 2am. This carried on all night, so I got zero sleep. Given how busy the road was, and the dangerous driving, we abandoned our plans to go hiking and left to drive down the pass at 7am.

Would I go back - no! Scenery was spectacular but road was too busy and overnight carpark too stressful and disruptive

 

[Minxy]

That's a shame but to be fair picking a Friday is probably a bad day as people are more likely to take that day off for a long weekend (only likely to be worse on Sat/Sun), doing it mid-week would probably have been easier, same with the overnight stop, Friday and Saturday nights are generally the worst ones for such places.

 

[Pocket Rocket]

Yes, I suspect you are right. It would probably be a lot quieter mid-week.

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[shaunandjean]

We crossed from Italy to France over the Col de Mont-cenis . Great views and a straight forward drive. It avoids the Frejus tunnel, and the cost. SS25 on the Italian side and D1006 on the french side.

 

[Backlanes]

We had planned to drive over the pass on 2nd June on our return leg from Italy but found it long-term closed on the Italy side with construction work going on. We had to retrace our steps and take the tunnel.