Cycle Touring in Switzerland

The nine cycling tours in this guidebook are for road and touring bikes and are based on Switzerland’s national cycle routes. Also includes tours from Interlaken and three very demanding alpine tours. All routes graded and divided into day stages. With info on itineraries, accommodation and tips for cycling in Switzerland.

Swiss maps are wonderful – works of art and precision instruments combined – so they are expensive. A particular favourite is the 1:301,000 scale Kümmerly & Frey Switzerland Tourist Cycling Map with all of the Veloland Schweiz and other routes and GPS data (ISBN: 3 259 00533 1). In addition, the 1:200,000 Michelin map 551 Suisse Nord covers almost all of Switzerland except the extreme west, south and east (for about £5 in 2007). Companion maps 552 and 553 cover the ‘gaps’ with lots of overlap. These are certainly adequate for planning and even have some city maps of cities such as Zürich and Luzern.

For those who want more detail, Swisstopo (Swiss Federal Office of Topography) 1:100,000 Composite maps that cover the routes are listed in each route description. Experience shows that only the 1:100,000 maps for the immediate local area are easy to buy locally, so if you decide that the maps are essential, you should buy the maps beforehand. They are stocked by Stanfords in the UK and cost £14.50 each (www.stanfords.co.uk), by omnimap.com in the US at US$23.95