Stage by Stage
Green badge = matches the brochure closely. Red badge = a real, meaningful gap worth knowing about before you drive it.
1 · Zürich → Appenzell
Already driven
Real driving
159 km · 2.7h
Matches well
2 · Appenzell → St. Moritz
Tonight — Davos
Real driving
226 km · 4.8h
+13% — the Val Müstair detour
Swiss National Park and the Müstair convent sit in the Val Müstair side-valley, past St. Moritz. There's no through-road out of there — it's a genuine out-and-back from Davos/St. Moritz, not a routing mistake. That's most of today's extra driving.
3 · St. Moritz → Lugano
Real driving
333 km · 7.5h
+48% — plan a full day
This stage crosses two major passes back to back: Julier Pass toward Viamala/Thusis, then San Bernardino Pass down into Ticino. That loop north before heading south is correct — it's the real road, not a mistake. Stop order fixed too: Montagnola, Morcote, Meride and Mendrisio now come before Lugano instead of after — the stage is titled "→ Lugano" and Stage 4 starts there, so the day needs to actually end in Lugano, not 25km further south in Mendrisio.
4 · Lugano → Zermatt
Real driving
265 km · 5.4h
Matches well
Zermatt is car-free — you leave the car in Täsch and take the shuttle train in, then view the Matterhorn from Zermatt/Gornergrat. The checklist lists "Matterhorn" as a highlight for exactly that reason; it's not a separate driving stop.
5 · Zermatt → Lausanne
Real driving
195 km · 3.2h
Close enough
6 · Lausanne → Neuchâtel
Real driving
190 km · 3.6h
Fixed — was +160km
This stage used to route back down to Geneva and up again before continuing to Neuchâtel — about 100km of pure backtrack, largely to a place already visited on a previous trip. Removed from the checklist; the stage now runs directly via Col du Marchairuz.
7 · Neuchâtel → Bern
Real driving
333 km · 8.7h
+32% — the longest day
This is genuinely the biggest day of the trip: Gruyère country, Gstaad, Niesen and Beatenberg all sit off the direct line, and Jungfraujoch itself is reached by train from Interlaken, not by road. Stop order fixed — Lake Thun now comes before Interlaken instead of after (was backtracking 30km). Still worth budgeting a full 8-9 hour driving day; consider whether Jungfraujoch deserves its own overnight instead of being squeezed into this stage.
8 · Bern → Zürich
Real driving
249 km · 4.6h
Fixed — was 266km
Lucerne now comes before Hallwyl instead of after — the old order drove past Lucerne, out to Hallwyl, then backtracked. Saves 17km.
How this was worked out
Every place name in the checklist was geocoded against OpenStreetMap, then routed stop-to-stop in the exact order the checklist lists them, using OSRM's public driving router. This gives real road distance and drive time — not a straight-line guess — so it reflects actual backtracking, not just how far apart two towns are as the crow flies.
One limitation: a couple of checklist entries are viewpoints, not driving stops (Matterhorn's summit, Jungfraujoch's train station). Routing straight to those points produces meaningless numbers, since there's no road there — the figures above route to the real departure town instead (Zermatt, Interlaken) and treat the summit/station as what it actually is: a highlight you reach from that town, not a place you drive to.