Introduction: European Scenic Drives Roadtrip

Most of the trips people do are to visit new cities or a new country. This time I want to share with you a trip we did almost a year ago which was fantastic and the main purpose of it was to drive some of the most beautiful roads in Europe.

Driving these scenic drives are definitely breathtaking, it’s just way too beautiful to be true. On top of that, we did this whole tour on a Ferrari, which was the cherry on top of this awesome trip.

We planned this trip about a month in advance where we defined the route we would follow on this 9-day trip, which seemed like we drove a whole lot, in fact we did, but it wasn’t tiring at all since we drove 3 hours a day maximum.

This is the route….

This is the trip report of the roadtrip we did through some of the most beautiful scenic drives in Europe through Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and The Netherlands.

1. Introduction: Our Scenic Drives Route
2. United Airlines Business Class ORD – LHR
3. Day 1: Luxembourg…. Our starting point
4. First Night in a “Spa Town” – Baden Baden, Germany
5. Day 2: Driving The Black Forest Route 500 Germany – Switzerland
6. Day 3: Breathtaking! – The Swiss Alps scenic drive
7. Day 4: Breakfast in Switzerland, Lunch in Italy, Dinner in Austria.

A Roadtrip though Europe

When traveling, I would normally stick to one or two places a at time to make sure I get to know the place well. In the past, we have done several roadtrips in Europe but they were normally within a region in a country or two. That’s what made this trip so different to me.

This time instead of staying in a single city, we were driving on a car through 7 different countries during 9 days. It’s clear to me that it might not make sense to most of the people and would look like a crazy tiring trip. People told me why I didn’t stay longer on these places or why so little time, but let me tell you a little more about the purpose of this trip.

One of my travel mottos has always been that I rather stay 1 week in a single place and get to know it well, than just stop by to take a picture and rush through 3-4 different places in a week. So let me say that we have been in most of these places before, which are extremely nice, but this time the purpose is not to visit those cities again, though we will be driving through them.

The main goal of this trip was to drive through some of the most beautiful scenic drives in Germany, The Alps, Italy, and Austria. Yes, the ultimate goal is only to enjoy those stunning landscapes while we drive through this roads which have been rated worldwide as some of the most beautiful to drive.

Our Scenic Drives Route

Here’s a map of the route we followed on this ~1,400 miles road trip (~ 2,200 km), it may seem a very long trip, but surprisingly we drove only 3 hours a day on average.

These routes are ranked by Ultimate Drives as the Top 10 Greatest Driving Roads. So here’s our itinerary:

1. Luxembourg – Starting Point
2. Baden-Baden, Germany – Black Forrest
3. Zurich, Switzerland – Klausen Pass, Driving through the heart of the Swiss Alps
4. Andermatt, Switzerland – Furka Pass, Swiss Alps. Made famous by the car chase in James Bond Goldfinger.
5. St. Moritz, Suiza –  San Bernardino Pass y Albula Pass.
6. Innsbruck, Austria – In our way we will cross the Stelvio Pass, the second highest point in the Alps.
7. Stuttgart, Germany – Coming from Innsbruck will do the Hahntennjoch / Austrian Alps pass.
8. Nürburg, Germany – After visiting the Porsche & Mercedes Benz museums in Stuttgart, we will head to the famous Nürburgring, a Formula 1 Circuit where you can drive your own car and test yourself.
9. Rotterdam and Amstedam, Netherlands – Good bye and back home.

What’s special about this?

As you can see on the map, the whole routing we are doing it’s not the fastest. Most of these scenic drives have been now replaced by highways, so it’s even better because traffic is way less. Nowadays, people who drive these roads are mostly the ones who are looking to do some outdoor activities in the summer, car enthusiasts (just like myself) or people who love natural beauty.

Even though this trip had no purpose of staying at big cities or getting to know new ones, we just took advantage of the ones in our route to enjoy local food and a great beer or wine. Trust me, it was a fantastic trip!

Have you done any scenic drives?