My friends and I are going to be making a pilgrimage to this area in January.
Does anyone have it mapped out in terms of the exact roads to drive, where to start and where to finish? Also, for anyone who has done this stretch of road before, about how long did it take?
We're going to be coming from Innsbruck, Austria, so I initially thought we'd do it in reverse, but given that I don't think the Stelvio pass would be nearly as good going downhill, I think we will try to loop out and around in order to come in from the Davos end.
Any information would be appreciated!
Are you sure it's open in January? If you go to
http://www.passostelvio.net/ and check the webcam pics, it's totally covered in snow.
I went there in July this year (there was snow at that time too), there were some signs saying on which time the road is open, and if I remember right, it was closed for winter months (don't remember which months exactly).
Anyway, if you want to experience the Top Gear run of Stelvio Pass, here's some interesting points. Even though you get the impression from the show that the epic run clip in Stelvio Pass is done from Davos -> Stelvio, actually they drive it starting from Stelvio and running it up to Bormio. So, when the guys are standing at the mountain viewing the road and Jezz saying "Should we do it?", they have actually already done it, or then went down to Stelvio and climbed back up.
I would suggest the same, starting from Stelvio and going to Bormio (it's a "straight" road), it's very great run up to Pass point, from there to Bormio it's a little more relaxed, but still oh so full of win. So if you're coming there straight from Innsbruck, you're doing it the right way. I video'd the run up and down, took around 200 photos and it was alot of fun. In total it took around 6 hours for us, but it includes enjoying alot of the scenery, stopping to eat and goofing around at the mountains.
My suggestion to experience the area would be in following order: Stelvio - Bormio - Valdidentro - Livigno - Zernez - Susch - Davos.