The Grand Alpine Tour: 14 Days, Five Countries

Fly into Zurich and let Switzerland's superb trains carry you to Lucerne in under an hour, no car needed for these opening days. Walk the wooden Chapel Bridge with its painted gables and the medieval old town, then let the lake and the backdrop of Pilatus and Rigi settle the jet lag. Resist the urge to do too much: a trip this big is best begun at a gentle pace. Pick up a Swiss rail pass if you have not already, it pays off fast over a journey of this length.

Make the classic Mount Rigi round trip, your gentle on-ramp to the high country: a historic paddle steamer across Lake Lucerne, then Europe's oldest mountain cogwheel railway up to the Rigi summit for a panorama over the lake and a ring of peaks. Come down a different way to close the loop, by cable car and a second boat leg. It is all walkable, scenic, and entirely doable on rail and lake transport, so leave the car for later in the trip. Go on a clear day if you can choose: the summit view is the whole point.

Take the scenic rail south through Interlaken, between its two lakes, and up into the Lauterbrunnen valley, a deep glacial trench walled by cliffs and threaded with some seventy waterfalls, the Staubbach among the tallest in Europe. Settle into the village that is your base for the Jungfrau region and let the sheer scale of the place sink in. Travel light here: trains and cable cars do everything, and a car is more hindrance than help in these car-restricted valleys. Watch the forecast tonight and earmark the clearest day ahead for going high.

Ride the cable cars and mountain trains up to the car-free balcony villages of Wengen and Mürren, perched on opposite shoulders of the valley with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau standing face to face across from you. The walk along the Mürren side, or up to the Birg and Schilthorn viewpoint above it, gives you the whole wall of peaks at eye level. If the forecast hands you a flawless clear morning, this is the day to spend it on the Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe, instead, so stay flexible and let the sky decide. Either way, go up early before the cloud and haze build over the ridge.

One of the trip's best rides, and a pure rail day: down out of the Bernese Oberland and across to Zermatt, the car-free village at the foot of the Matterhorn. You leave any car in Täsch, the last town with road access, and ride the shuttle train the final stretch up, so plan that handoff if you have picked up a vehicle. Arrive with the afternoon free to wander the lanes and find a terrace for an evening apéro and your first look at the most famous mountain in the Alps. Watch it catch the last light: the Matterhorn at sunset earns its fame.

Catch one of the first cogwheel trains up to Gornergrat, the high ridge that delivers a front-row panorama of the Matterhorn and a sweep of glaciers and four-thousand-meter peaks, at its clearest and least crowded early. From there, walk down the celebrated 5-Lakes trail, where on a still morning several of the tarns hold a perfect mirror image of the Matterhorn, Stellisee being the famous one. It is a downhill, well-marked hike that most people end up remembering as the day of the trip. Start at sunrise for the calm water and the best light, and carry layers, it is cool up high even in summer.

Cross into France today, your second country, transferring west to Chamonix beneath the white dome of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. The mood shifts here: Chamonix is bigger, steeper, and more serious mountaineering town than polished resort, with the glaciers hanging right above the streets. This is a travel day either way, whether you drive or piece it together by train plus a road transfer, so do not overplan the afternoon. Settle in, scope the lift stations for tomorrow, and keep watching that forecast for your clear-morning window up high.

On the clearest morning, ride the Aiguille du Midi cable car to a terrace at 3,842m, about the closest you can stand to Mont Blanc without a rope, with a glass Step into the Void box for the brave and a panorama that silences people. Reserve a timed slot ahead and book an early cabin for the clearest air before cloud builds, and bring a real jacket, it can be below freezing up top even in July. In the afternoon, take the little red Montenvers rack railway to the Mer de Glace, France's largest glacier, and its ice cave carved fresh each year. The high terrace in the clear morning and the glacier as the light softens make a perfect pairing.

The trip's one big travel day, and we will not pretend otherwise: a long haul that crosses into Italy, your third country, and tracks east across the north of the country from the western Alps to the eastern. Break it up, lean into the changing scenery from glaciated peaks to Italian lakes and valleys, and treat lunch as a proper stop rather than a service-station grab. Start early to get the miles behind you with daylight to spare. You arrive in Ortisei, in the Val Gardena, gateway to the Dolomites and, to many eyes, the most beautiful mountains of the lot.

Ride the cable cars from Ortisei up to the Seceda ridgeline, where the tilted grass slopes drop away to the jagged Odle spires in what is the most photographed skyline in the Dolomites. Then make for the Alpe di Siusi, the largest high-alpine meadow in Europe, a vast rolling plateau with the Sassolungo and Sciliar towers rising straight out of it. Note that the road up to the Alpe di Siusi is closed to daytime car traffic in season, so use the cable car from Ortisei, which is the easier way anyway. Go up in the morning for the cleanest light on the pale limestone, which turns rose and gold at the edges of the day.

A driving day on one of Europe's legendary roads, the Great Dolomite Road, looping over the Sella and Pordoi passes in a ladder of hairpins, past the glaciered Marmolada, the range's highest peak, and down to glamorous Cortina d'Ampezzo before circling back. This is the leg a car truly earns its keep, so take your time, pull over often, and let passengers soak up the towers from every angle. Start early to drive the passes before the day-trip traffic thickens on the switchbacks. Build in a long lunch on a sunny terrace, this is a day to savor, not to rush.

Drive north over the Brenner Pass, the historic low gateway across the main Alpine chain, into Austria, your fourth country, and down to Innsbruck, a real city wedged dramatically under the peaks. One night is plenty to walk the old town to the Golden Roof and the imperial sights, then ride the Nordkette funicular and cable cars straight from the center up to a ridgeline that towers right over the rooftops. Time the Nordkette for late afternoon, when the light on the Inn valley below is at its best. It is a satisfying change of register: an elegant city evening between two stretches of pure mountain.

Cross into Germany, your fifth and final country, dropping down to Berchtesgaden in the deep south of Bavaria, a pocket of mountains almost ringed by Austria. The set piece is the Königssee: one of the silent electric boats that have run for over a century glides you down this emerald, fjord-like lake walled by cliffs, pausing so the captain can sound a trumpet against the rock for the echo. You land at the onion-domed chapel of St. Bartholomä, set on a meadow beneath the sheer face of the Watzmann. Aim for a later boat so the light goes soft on the water, and check the last return time before you set out.

Spend the morning at the Eagle's Nest, the stone lodge on its rocky perch reached by a special bus up a dramatic mountain road, now a sobering historical site with a vast view over the Berchtesgaden country and into Austria. Confirm the Eagle's Nest road is open, it is seasonal and weather-dependent, before you bank on it. Then choose your finale just over the border in Austria: Salzburg's baroque old town and Mozart streets, or Hallstatt's impossibly pretty lake-and-spire postcard, each within about an hour. Fly home from Salzburg or Munich, a fitting close to a journey that ran the whole length of the Alps.