Booked: Hairpin Turns in the Swiss & Italian Alps (With Stops in Como & Vienna)
The inspiration for this trip was a bit random. On the plane during my last trip, I watched a documentary about the world’s most dangerous roads. This led to a rabbit hole of reading about not just dangerous roads, but interesting roads to drive on. One of the ones that came up often was the Furka Pass in Switzerland, which features a high-altitude mountain pass with dramatic twisting hairpin turns, stunning glacier views, and the iconic abandoned Hotel Belvédère (made famous by the James Bond film Goldfinger).
Thus, I put together a Swiss road trip itinerary that took us through not just the Furka Pass, but several other highly recommended passes from the Grand Tour of Switzerland route, including:
- Furka Pass
- Grimselpass
- Albula + Fluela Loop
- Umbrail Pass
- Stelvio Pass
A “mini grand tour” of Switzerland hitting multiple of Europe’s best driving roads.
As we were positioning ourselves in the southern part of Switzerland (and Stelvio in fact is in Italy), we also took the opportunity to incorporate a visit to Italy into the trip.
Trip Overview
Although I’ve been to both Switzerland and Italy before, this time around would be very different with the focus on road travel through the alps. I also arranged to stop in a few gorgeous towns in Switzerland and Italy to break up some of the driving, before visiting Venice and then returning home via a stopover in Vienna.
The itinerary for the trip consists of the following stays:
- 2 nights in Lucerne, Switzerland
- 1 night in Lauterbrunnen
- 1 night in Grimselpass
- 3 nights at Lake Como, Italy
- 1 night in Zernez, Switzerland
- 2 nights in Verona, Italy
- 3 nights in Venice, Italy
- 3 nights in Vienna, Austria
The trip includes a fair bit of moving early on as we drive the various passes before slowing down as we ditch the car in Verona. Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be significantly cheaper to book two rental cars, one in Switzerland and one in Italy, to avoid the fee for dropping off in a different country.
Read on to see the flights and hotels we booked to make this trip happen.
Flights
We booked a flight directly from Montreal to Zurich using Air Canada Aeroplan points on Swiss Airlines, operated by Edelweiss Air. We connected to Montreal on Porter using cash. I also used cash to book an economy connection on Austrian Airlines from Venice to Vienna. For the flight home we booked KLM business class using Flying Blue miles, routing from Vienna to Amsterdam and then directly home to Edmonton.
I tend to like to fly the national airline of a country I’m visiting, which I was able to do last year on our Portugal and Morocco trip, flying Royal Air Maroc and TAP Air Portugal. However, Austrian Airlines availability was sparse at the time of booking which is why we went with KLM instead.
Flying on a more modern SWISS business or first class would have also been ideal. But I was happy enough with the itinerary with all things considered, and the direct flight back to Edmonton not requiring a connecting flight in Canada was a real plus.
YUL-ZRH on Edelweiss Air
I was initially interested in the YUL to ZRH route for the potential to fly the new Swiss Senses business or first class on the A350. However when searching for availability, only Edelweiss was available, on the A340. I booked this as an option with a flex fare for 148,000 Aeroplan points and $238.82, for two.
As we planned our trip around this date and things became more solid, I didn’t end up finding any better flight options that wouldn’t require a ton of rebooking, and so decided to stick it out with Edelweiss Air, saving Swiss Senses for another trip.
I expect the Edelweiss A340 to offer a dated “good enough” hard product but a soft product matching Swiss with good service and solid dining. I am looking forward to the experience.
VIE-AMS-YEG on KLM
For our returning flights back to North America, I was very happy to secure KLM Business Class from VIE to YEG via AMS for 157,000 Flying Blue miles + $667 USD in taxes and fees for two people. This was fortunately booked prior to the fuel surcharge increase by KLM so not an absurd price to pay in my opinion.
The long haul flight would be on KLM’s Airbus A330, featuring their older B/E Diamond 2-2-2 seating. I expected this to be fine, and at least as good as Austrian Airlines’ business class product, so I admittedly didn’t put too much effort into finding alternative flight options close to our departure date.
Plus I’ve never flown KLM before so I look forward to collecting my first miniature dutch house!
Total Cost & Value
For our longer multi-country trips like this, I enjoy calculating the total costs saved through miles and points, especially when compared with the face value cost of these expensive business class flights. I tallied up the retail value in the table below using prices from Google Flights. All values are in Canadian dollars.
| Flight | Route | Class | Points Cost | Cash Cost (taxes/ fees) |
Retail Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PD 378 | YEG-YUL | Y | – | $908 | $908 |
| LX 87 | YUL-ZRH | J | 148,000 Aeroplan | $238 | $9,023 |
| OS 544 | VCE-VIE | Y | – | $192 | $192 |
| KL 1902 & KL 675 | VIE-AMS-YEG | J | 157,000 Flying Blue | $936 | $819 $6,936 |
| Total: | $2,274 | $17,878 |
While $17,000 in full-priced business class flights is outside of what I would personally pay for, I like doing these calculations to demonstrate the extreme cost savings and experiences that can be derived from utilizing miles and points.
Hotels
Switzerland
Knowing we’d be arriving on a red-eye flight to Zurich with potentially subpar sleep, we planned to have a few nights in either Zurich or Lucerne to rest and also check out an urban center in Switzerland before traversing the more remote and rural towns on our itinerary.
I generally planned to use Marriott/Hilton points and Hilton certificates where possible, while filling in other stays with Expedia/Hotels.com bookings, as many of the places we planned to visit didn’t have major hotel brands.
Read on for the booking details.
Hotel Villa Honegg, an SLH Hotel
Although I mentioned wanting to stay in Zurich or Lucerne, we actually ended up staying in neither. Instead, I found a unique SLH property, the Hotel Villa Honegg in nearby Bergenstock. Bergenstock is located between Lucerne and Fronalpstock, the latter which is a hike and alpine adventure area we wanted to check out anyways.
The hotel is an intimate five-star boutique hotel perched on a hill above Lake Lucerne, known for having panoramic alpine views and a heated outdoor infinity pool. With just a small number of rooms, it aimed to offer us a quiet, upscale retreat.
I actually wasn’t able to immediately book this property, as the standard rooms were all taken and the cash rate was out of our budget. I booked the Hotel Lucerne, Autograph collection as a stopgap with Bonvoy points, and set an alert for standard room availability via Rooms.aero. Fortunately, about a week before our trip, an alert came to my email and we were able to get two nights booked at the Hotel Villa Honegg using Hilton Honors Free Night Certificates.
Hotel Oberland, Hotel Grimselpass, Hotel Baer & Post Zernez
As we had planned a relatively complex road trip, we picked a few small towns to stay at, chosen primarily for convenience to break up the driving. To fit with our planned itinerary, we needed to stay around the Interlaken area, around the Grimselpass, and later on in the trip, around the Stelvio Pass.
Thus, we chose to stay in Lauterbrunnen at the Hotel Oberland, right at the peak of the Grimselpass at Hotel Grimselpass, and in Zernez at Hotel Baer & Post.
Lauterbrunnen was a good hub location to visit some of the surrounding quaint swiss alps towns, including Wengen, Murren, Grindelwald, and Gimmelwald, which was something we had wanted to do.
All of the hotels were one-night stays. I booked two in cash using either Hotels.com or Expedia for around $300-$500 Canadian dollars per night, which is a fairly standard pricing for hotels in Switzerland. The last I booked using the Chase Travel portal to make use of my $100 Chase Sapphire Preferred credit, which I typically didn’t bother to use back when it was only $50 USD earlier this year.
Italy
Grand Hotel Victoria Concept and Spa, Lago di Como, an SLH Hotel
There were nice luxury hotel options in the Como region, but a clear favorite for us was the Grand Hotel Victoria Concept and Spa, SLH. This was a five-star property located in the small town of Menaggio, right on the shores of Lake Como. It is a restored 19th-century villa with modern luxuries. It is known for having an impressive 1200 m2 spa and is a great location for exploring nearby small towns of Bellagio and Varenna. I’d heard great things about the property from other miles and points people and also blogs like FrequentMiler that had raved about their stays here.
Unfortunately, there was not a standard room available for the three days we planned to stay in Como and I wasn’t prepared to pay the nightly cash or points rate. Once again, Max My Point alerts came in clutch for me, as I was able to one-by-one find availability to book each night we needed using Hilton Honors Free Night Certificates.
Until we had all three nights secured, I’d had a backup booking on points at the Hilton Lake Como, which was honestly a decent option at only 100,000 points per night. But we were very happy to get the SLH property that we’d had our eye on in the end.
Moxy Verona
For our stay in Verona, we booked a simple two night stay at the Moxy Verona for around 40,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, which was honestly not a bad price considering the cash rate was around $400 per night.
I can’t say a lot of thought went into this booking. We just needed a place to stay and with just two days in Verona, I knew we wouldn’t spend much time at the property. There weren’t a ton of options available with points at any decent price anyways, so this decision just kind of made itself.
Although I’m not the biggest fan of the Moxy brand, I can say it’s very consistent and you know what you’re getting every time you check in, which isn’t a bad thing for some stays like this.
JW Marriott Venice
The JW Marriott Venice on the other hand was an aspirational property that I wanted to stay at above anything else in Venice. This is a five-star luxury resort situated on its own private island, Isola delle Rose, in the Venetian Lagoon. I was particularly drawn to the unique private island setting, which offers a different experience from staying at a traditional hotel in central Venice. A complimentary 20-minute boat shuttle connects the resort to St. Mark’s Square, making it relatively easy to explore the city while enjoying a quieter retreat away from the crowds whenever it was needed.
I was actually somewhat surprised to find availability here for one night at an industry rate, and the other two nights for a reasonable price of 105,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night. Especially considering that our stay coincided with the Venice International Film Festival, I think we lucked out.
Austria
Ritz-Carlton Vienna
For our final three nights in Vienna, we chose The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna, a five-star luxury hotel located along the famous Ringstrasse boulevard in the heart of the city. The hotel occupies four beautifully restored 19th-century palaces, highlighting the Viennese architecture. Amenities include an indoor swimming pool and a rooftop bar offering panoramic views over Vienna. The central location was a major selling point, with attractions like the Vienna State Opera, Stadtpark, and St. Stephen’s Cathedral all within walking distance.
We figured this would be an excellent base to experience Vienna’s history, architecture, and cafe/dining culture before flying home.
I was fortunate enough to find this at an industry rate of around €300 euro per night, which was steeply discounted from the rack rate. I’d never stayed at a Ritz Carlton before, so looked forward to seeing whether the brand would live up to its esteemed reputation of luxury.
Total Cost & Value
| Hotel | Nights | Points Cost / Rate Details | Out Of Pocket Cost (CAD) | Retail Value (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel Villa Honegg, an SLH Hotel | 2 | 2 Hilton Free Night Rewards | $0 | $3,650 |
| Hotel Oberland | 1 | Hotels.com Gift Cards | $0 | $565 |
| Hotel Grimsel Passhohe | 1 | Cash (Expedia.com) | $400 | $400 |
| Grand Hotel Victoria Concept and Spa – Lago di Como, an SLH Hotel | 3 | 3 Hilton Free Night Rewards | $0 | $5,679 |
| Hotel Baer & Post Zernez | 1 | 10,000 Chase Points + $100 CSP Credit + $138.59 USD | $195 | $515 |
| Moxy Verona | 2 | 41,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points | $0 | $820 |
| JW Marriott Venice | 3 | 310,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points | $0 | $4,237 |
| Ritz Carlton Vienna | 3 | Industry Rate | $1,381 | $3,231 |
| Total: | $1,976 | $19,097 |
As you can see, through the power of miles and points, we were able to stay at some astronomical properties that would otherwise be once-in-a-lifetime splurge for us.
Conclusion
It always feels great to have all the big items like flights and hotels in place and booked for an upcoming trip. After that you can get to the other fun part of planning activities and your daily itineraries.
This was my second year in a row visiting Europe after Portugal last summer, so it seems I’m starting a bit of a trend. I look forward to seeing what Switzerland and Italy would be like after nearly a 10 year hiatus, and enjoying some of the more hard to reach places and local driving experiences in Switzerland especially.
Keep an eye out for my reviews of the aforementioned business class flights and luxury hotels later this year!
