Grande Route des Alpes: Passes, Order and Best Time to Go

The Grande Route des Alpes is not a single road but a signposted chain of mountain pass roads. It begins at Lake Geneva in Thonon-les-Bains and ends on the Mediterranean in Menton. In between lie more than a dozen passes winding through Savoie, the Dauphiné and Provence. The landscape shifts from meadows and ski resorts to bare high mountains, and then to lavender, pines and sea views.

Important for planning: the route is paved and can be ridden or driven on any motorcycle or car. What makes it hard is the length, the hairpins, the weather and fatigue, not the technical difficulty. If you treat it as a race track, you miss the best part of it.

We don't currently have our own OVERCROSS departure in the French Alps. What you read here is planning knowledge from our work with mountain pass roads. Please always check closures and opening times with the official offices of the départements.

The classic direction is from north to south. You ride from Lake Geneva into the mountains and roll down to the sea at the end. That makes the right drama: the route builds up, and the finish is a destination, not an abrupt stop.

• Savoie, the opening act: Col des Gets, Col de la Colombière and Col des Aravis. Green slopes, cowbells, a view of Mont Blanc if the weather plays along.
• Cormet de Roselend: One of the most beautiful roads on the route, with the reservoir as a backdrop.
• Col de l'Iseran: The highest pass on the route and often the last one to open in summer. Here it gets bleak.
• Télégraphe, Galibier and Lautaret: A block that is easy to ride in one day and comes with the legend of cycling.
• Col d'Izoard: The Casse Déserte, a moonscape of scree and rock needles.
• Vars, Bonette, Cayolle, Allos: The southern high-mountain section. The Bonette is among the highest paved roads in Europe.
• The descent: Through the Maritime Alps down to Menton, with warmer air in every hairpin.

The order is not a dogma. If you prefer to ride from south to north, you start warm at the sea and have the sun at your back on the southern ramps. For the feel of the route, though, north to south is the better reading.

One particularity: the route doesn't follow a strict line. In several places you can take detours, for example to a reservoir or into a side valley, and some sections come in two variants. If you have the time, take the quieter road, not the better-known one.

The high passes are closed in winter and open after the snow has been cleared, usually in early summer. Exact dates vary from year to year, so don't rely on a calendar in an article, but on the current road reports of the départements.

Roughly, you can tell three phases apart:

• Early summer: The route is still quiet, but individual high passes may be closed, and there is leftover snow up top. In return, the meadows are in bloom and traffic is light.
• High summer: Everything is safely open and the days are long. But you share the road with cyclists, motorhomes and day-trippers. In the afternoon, thunderstorms build up.
• Early autumn: Often the best mix of clear air, less traffic and stable weather. The first passes close again, though, as soon as the first snow falls.

It's better to plan so that you're at the top early in the morning. The air is clearer, the road emptier, and thunderstorms catch you less often.

You can ride the route in a few days. You shouldn't. If you ride many hairpins and a lot of altitude every day, you're finished by evening and see little of the landscape. Plan for several relaxed stages, with time for breaks and at least one buffer day for bad weather. The passes lie in places where a rainy day reduces visibility to zero and a rest day saves the tour.

In practice, that means: stay overnight in places like Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Briançon or Barcelonnette instead of commuting for days. Don't ride a stage that you can't finish with an hour in reserve.

One idea that helps many riders: split the route into three sections. Savoie up to the Iseran, then the Dauphiné massif up to the Izoard, and finally the Maritime Alps down to the sea. Each section has its own character, and after each one you can decide whether to keep riding, take a day off or shorten the route.

The weather is the biggest uncertainty. Between the valley and the pass summit there is often a temperature jump that catches you in a T-shirt below and freezing above. Pack layers, even in high summer, and a rain jacket you can reach without rummaging. On a motorcycle this counts double: cold hands make you lose concentration, and wet hairpins in shaded spots are slippery.

Fill up before the long high stretches, because fuel stations are rare in the Maritime Alps and often closed on Sundays. Plan lunch breaks so that you don't start the next climb hungry. And expect oncoming traffic in the hairpins: cyclists descend fast, motorhomes cut corners. If you ride calmly and look ahead, you arrive more relaxed than someone who uses every gap.

Finally, a word on the group: the route is at its best as a pair or in a small group. In a large convoy, every viewpoint turns into a jam, and the breaks get longer than the riding time. Agree on a destination and a meeting point in the morning, not an order.

If the Grande Route des Alpes appeals to you because you love riding passes and high mountains, it's worth a look at other tours in our program. None of them is in the French Alps, but each one works with mountain roads.

• Luxury premium journey through the Carpathians in Romania: The return leg leads over the Transalpina, Romania's highest panoramic road. One review calls it demanding for advanced riders.
• Guided 4x4 off-road journey through Morocco: One section of this trip leads through the Atlas Mountains, with hidden valleys and Berber tents.
• Sardinia 4x4 off-road SUV journey: Gravel tracks and coastal roads in the Gennargentu and Supramonte massifs, for drivers with some experience.

This is no substitute for Alpine passes, but it shows how we organize mountain roads: small groups, a rider briefing in the morning and stages that suit the route.