Munich airport to St Anton - best route
Started by Wanderer in Ski Chatter 06-Mar-2018 - 7 Replies
Wanderer posted Mar-2018
1. Down the 95 and then over the Fernpass (through Garmisch and Lermoos). This the shortest, by a long way, but not much is on motorway and involves a windy road up over a high mountain pass.
2. Down the 8 and 93 motorway down through Kufstein and Innsbruck or
3. Across to the West on the 96 through Memmingen and then down through Bregenz.
The first option is most direct but presumably is prone to weather issues and getting stuck behind slow moving traffic with no passing possibilities ( I know it is still a good bit away but the current long term forecasts are suggesting that there could be heavy snow that day) :cry: . The 2nd seems most straightforward but this route does seem to suffer from very heavy traffic at the weekends. I don't know anything about the 3rd option.
Is anyone familiar with the journey and can offer advice on which is the best route to take?
Also will be heading back on Wednesday, 21st around 3pm. Any advice on the return route also appreciated (bearing in mind that traffic should be less of an issue mid-week). :thumbup:
Edited 2 times. Last update at 06-Mar-2018
Far Queue
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
I have been driving down to Austria and Italy for the past several years and can give some comments on your routes.
I have been over the Fernpass about four times in either direction, and tbh it can be an absolute nightmare if the traffic is heavy. Never had any issues with snow, but on 3 out of 4 of the journeys the traffic simply had a habit of grinding to a complete stop for up to an hour at a time. Never really found out why, but we strongly suspect it is due to a number of tunnels on the road that need to be vented if the traffic is heavy.
You are correct about the motorway route down from Munich, I don't think I have ever had a clear run through when using this option. However, one year we did do a detour from this and went over the hills via Bad Tolz and Achensee. Fantastic route and perhaps one of the most scenic drives you can do, but again it did get very slow once past Achensee and down to rejoin the motorway. Having driven that route I have promised myself a return to Achensee one summer though, beautiful place.
Finally the Memmingen and Bregenz route. Never done this myself, but my brother and a friend tried it out this year after stopping overnight in Memmingen en route to Italy, and they said it was one of the best crossings they have done and would definately use that route again.
Hope this helps, and let me know which one you take and how you get on please.
Have a great trip. FQ :)
Edited 1 time. Last update at 06-Mar-2018
Daved
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
Anvi
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
It took just under 4 hours both ways with short coffee break.
Wanderer
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
Sounds like there is no obvious choice but that the Memmingen routing may be the best bet even if it is somewhat of an unknown quantity. Intuitively, it looks like a routing that would serve less ski destinations and therefore should not suffer as much from "changeover Saturday" traffic chaos :shock:.
Certainly, I could not bear sitting in static traffic for lengthy periods as seems to happen from time to time on the Fernpass route plus the small windy roads look like a lot more work for the driver (i.e. me) :twisted: .
Flat country skier
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
Flat country skier
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
Wanderer
reply to 'Munich airport to St Anton - best route' posted Mar-2018
Locals in St Anton reported regular issues with the Kufstein route with the border controls in particular regularly causing delays ranging from a few minutes up to half an hour. Interestingly, there are no border controls (for private vehicles anyway) on the North West route.
Topic last updated on 22-March-2018 at 11:04