Hi!

I'm aware of restrictions when driving on roads in Switzerland.
But I'm curious how it looks when it comes to offroading?
Are there any 'green lanes' like in UK to drive around Switzerland?

Regards,
Jack

Hi Jack,

There are no "green lanes" over here, all you have are some very few and far between unpaved roads where traffic can actually go. I have done quite a bit of searching and came up with 2 of any worth.

Look in france for "chemin rural" but you still need to research them as not all chemin roads are open access, forget anything that goes thru a forest.

Italy is a different matter all together though and offers properly marked routes.

In CH a decent one is at Saas Balen, cross the train tracks at the station and the road zig zags up the mountain side to the glacier, you can see it in google earth

I would love to be part of this. Are there any groups that do this often?

Good question I don't know how in Switzerland, but in east of Europe and UK off-roading is pretty popular
I'm sure there are lot of travellers who drive 4x4 around the world, but I never heard of any 4x4 team who races in off-road rallies.
Well, except one polish-swiss crew who race mostly in desert races, but not in Switzerland.

Is this covered by the ban on motorsports? Could also be a green thing, the swiss don't seem too keen on motors in the mountains (among other places), you have similar problems with off road motorbikes and snow mobiles.

That's what I thought. Untied Europe is so restricted and unavailable for free off-roading. Tarmac everywhere for everybody and high penalties for anybody who gets off from tarmac.

Anyway I plan to go through Europe using only rural roads. It would be fantastic to drive Switzerland this way too.

There's no shortage of pretty mountain roads to drive along, that's for sure.

Then I'll switch from my Patrol to Mountain Goat

Sounds like a great idea and I really don't want to dissappoint you, but: I know some Swiss guys who have ATVs. They load them on trailers and drive to France before they even think of leaving a paved road.

I would need to look it up, but one of the guys told me that it is generally illegal to go off-road and as soon as you are more than 50 Meter in a forest, the fines get steep. And "steep" means in Switzerland typically something more than anywhere else...

So people in Europe only offroad in bikes??'


lame...



^^^^^^^^I'd love to see one of this here

Yep I guess it's like you said and all trip around Switzerland will be done on black tarmac roads. Generally driving in forest is illegal actually everywhere in EU, unless there are roads leading to villages but this also is not a general rule.
It looks like it's better to go far east (Russia, Mongolia, Kazachstan etc.) now and leave trips through europe to later days when I get old have kids and money for hotels, nice family van and $$$ for fuel

if you would like to organise a trip towards portugal, i know of a very nice route that is an offical road, but unpaved.

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233619 a ride report

excellent route in france is the col de parpaillon - youtube or wikipedia offer good ideas of the road.

Liguria line is another route in italy.

Sweet

Lucky I can play from time to time in such events like this:
mekka4x4

We make far nicer ones in Europe, for example this one:



But there are rather few places around here where you can really use them. So go to Northern Africa (if you like riots and kidnappings) or Southern America instead.

pff dream on!


who uses windshields while offroading btw??? that is t3h ghey...

Imagine getting caught doing this on the Uetliberg ...Jail time..

The type of people that win the Dakar...

I'll take the guys at Baja any day...



specially since I met some of them

Two completely different types of races. The Baja is basically a very loooong sprint while the Dakar is much more about endurance and consistence in very different environments over a exhaustingly long time.

You met a guy who raced the Baja? I once met a woman who won the Dakar

(... there is just one, so yes, Jutta Kleinschmidt)

Men and woman, there's a reason for the ouch in ouchboy