Schwangau to Salzburg: Grossglockner of Alpenstrasse?

[drand]

On May 6th my wife and I will be leaving Schwangau for Salzburg. I am having a tough time trying to decide if we should go through Innsbruck through Brenner Pass and then over to Lienz and then up through Grossglockner or if we should stay north and take the Alpenstrasse? I don't care about time or distance - all I care about are the views and driving experience.

First, will we have any weather problems if we go through Brenner Pass and Grossglockner? If we do take this route are there other waypoints I should use?

Has anyone driven both and have recommendations for one over the other?

[APailthorp]

Be sure and let us know when you find out. I do know that Google Maps will not draw a line across the pass along 107. See below link for an example. My Nuvi 670 GPS does the same thing. The map appears to show a through road, I can't tell when it might be open or closed, but the route will not use it. Zoom in for a closer look...

http://tinyurl.com/2o5c6e

[HemetKid]

I looked at the web site for GG pass and it said that the pass would not be opened until early May.

[drand]

I looked at the web site for GG pass and it said that the pass would not be opened until early May.

I know that there is a chance that GG won't be open, I don't know at this point if it is worth trying or just dropping the idea entirely and going for the Alpenstrasse.

[Northcar]

On May 6th my wife and I will be leaving Schwangau for Salzburg. I am having a tough time trying to decide if we should go through Innsbruck through Brenner Pass and then over to Lienz and then up through Grossglockner or if we should stay north and take the Alpenstrasse? I don't care about time or distance - all I care about are the views and driving experience.

First, will we have any weather problems if we go through Brenner Pass and Grossglockner? If we do take this route are there other waypoints I should use?

Has anyone driven both and have recommendations for one over the other?

Heading to Innsbruck I have taken both the Brenner Pass and an alternative tunnel route. The pass is spectacular and can be a white knuckle type drive when the weather is anything other than perfect. We encountered rain on the downside and that was enough to keep things interesting.

[keebs64]

I know that there is a chance that GG won't be open, I don't know at this point if it is worth trying or just dropping the idea entirely and going for the Alpenstrasse.

I am in the same boat as you. I will be picking up on May 9th, and I would love to drive the Stelvio Pass in Italy. The Pass doesn't officialy open until sometime in May, but I have read stories and have seen pictures of trips in April (last year) with no snow.

To drive the pass I would have to go a bit out of my way, so I am trying to decide how to plan the rest of my route. I guess I will give it another few weeks and see how the weather is looking :dunno:

[GOFASTR]

We went the opposite way last July (Salzburg to Fussen via the Grossglockner). We entered the GG at Zell am See, went through, came out at Lienz, then drove into northern Italy. We went down to Cortina and planned to drive all the way over to Bolzano, but we ran short of time, so we backtracked and crossed the Brenner Pass, headed through Innsbruck and then on to Reutte/Fussen. We left Salzburg around 9AM and took our time, ate lunch by the glacier in the GG. We rolled into Reutte around 8:30PM.

This was by far the most scenic driving day we had the entire trip. If the weather is nice and you don't have any time constraints, I would really encourage you to go this route. See my link below for pics. Hope you have a good trip.

BTW, FWIW, on our upcoming ED this June we're going to drive the Alpenstrasse from Berchtesgaden to Oberammergau, but the comparison won't help you in time for your trip.