The Alps

The Alps are Europe's great mountain barrier — a 1,200 km arc of glaciated peaks, deep valleys and high passes curving from the French hinterland of the Mediterranean through Switzerland and northern Italy into Austria. They gather the headwaters of the Rhône, Rhine, Po and Inn, and for centuries their watershed has shaped borders, languages and trade routes across the heart of the continent.

For travellers the range is less a single destination than a shared high country stitched across four nations. A short journey can carry you from French-speaking Chamonix to Italian-speaking Cortina or German-speaking Innsbruck — each valley keeping its own cuisine, architecture and mountain culture while sharing the same skyline of snow and rock.

This guide treats the Alps as an experience geography rather than a country. Use it to understand the whole massif, then follow the links out to the resorts, valleys and administrative regions that make up your trip.

The range runs broadly west to east and is highest in the west, where Mont Blanc (4,806 m) on the French–Italian border is the summit of the Alps. It steps down through the Pennine and Bernese Alps of Switzerland to the pale limestone towers of the Italian Dolomites and the lower, forested ranges of the Austrian Tyrol.

The Alps have two clear travel seasons. High summer, roughly late June to September, opens the hiking trails, cable cars and mountain huts, with long days and meadows in flower. Winter, from December to March, brings the ski season, when the same valleys fill with snow and the resorts run at full tilt. The shoulder months of spring and late autumn are quieter, with many lifts and huts closed.

The Alps have no single entry point — most trips begin at one of the ring of international airports around the range and continue by train or car into the valleys. Geneva and Zurich serve the western and central Swiss and French Alps, Milan Malpensa the Italian side and the approach to the Dolomites, and Munich the Austrian Tyrol.

Once in the mountains, Switzerland and Austria in particular are threaded by excellent rail — scenic lines such as the Glacier Express link the major resorts — while valley roads and high passes (many closed in winter) carry the driving routes. Distances between countries are short, but mountain terrain means journeys are measured in hours, not kilometres.