Motorcycle roads in Haute-Savoie

A department made of passes, with the traffic that comes with it

The density of mountain road here is unusual even by Alpine standards. You can link four passes in a 150 km loop without riding the same road twice, and the main cols are wide, properly surfaced and maintained for winter access to the ski resorts. Nothing is remote: fuel, food and a mechanic are always in the next valley.

The cost of all that is company. Haute-Savoie is one of the most visited departments in France, and in July and August the valley roads towards Chamonix and around Lake Annecy back up from mid-morning. Saturday is changeover day for holiday rentals, so it is the worst day of the week to be on a valley road. Start early, favour the secondary passes, and treat the big-name cols as something you ride before nine in the morning.

When to ride

The mid-height passes such as the Aravis and the Colombière are usually open from late April to November. The higher access roads and the high valleys open in May or June. The Cormet de Roselend, just over the boundary in neighbouring Savoie, tends to open towards the end of May, and it is worth checking before you build a route around it.

June and September are the two best months: everything is open, the pastures are green or gold, and the traffic is a fraction of high summer. If you are booking a trip from abroad months ahead, those are the weeks to aim for. April and October still ride well, but north-facing slopes stay damp, and shaded hairpins above 1,200 m can hold ice at eight in the morning even on a clear day.

Three loops that work

The department suits a single base and a different loop each day, so you can unpack once and leave the luggage in the room. Annecy, Thônes, Cluses and Morzine all put you within twenty minutes of a pass.

• Aravis loop (about 150 km / 93 miles): Annecy, Thônes, Col des Aravis, Flumet, Col des Saisies, Le Grand-Bornand, Col de la Colombière.
• Chablais loop (about 200 km / 125 miles): Thonon, Morzine, Col de Joux Plane, Samoëns, Col de la Ramaz, Giffre valley.
• Mont Blanc loop (about 250 km / 155 miles): Annecy, Megève, Saint-Gervais, Chamonix valley, Col des Montets, back down the Arve valley.

Getting here, and riding in France

Geneva is the obvious entry point for a fly-and-ride: the airport sits on the French border and Annecy is about 45 km (28 miles) away, so you can be on a mountain road within an hour of landing. Lyon Saint-Exupéry is the fallback at roughly 150 km (93 miles). Riding down from the UK, count around 800 km (500 miles) from Calais, which is one long motorway day or two relaxed ones with a night near Dijon or Beaune.

The motorway route south is tolled the whole way. Motorcycles fall into a reduced toll class in France, so it is cheaper than for a car, but many barriers are unstaffed: carry a chip-and-PIN card and keep it somewhere you can reach with gloves on. If your route dips through Switzerland around Geneva, motorway use there needs a vignette, and it applies to motorcycles too.

• Ride on the right. Dipped headlights are compulsory for motorcycles day and night.
• CE-approved gloves are mandatory for rider and pillion, and you must carry a reflective vest to wear if you stop at the roadside.
• Limits: 50 km/h in towns, 80 or 90 km/h on rural two-lane roads depending on the department, 110 or 130 km/h on dual carriageway and motorway, all reduced in rain.
• Fuel: most staffed stations in the valleys close on Sunday. Unattended pumps sometimes reject foreign cards, so fill up on Saturday.
• Low-emission zones in Lyon and Grenoble need a Crit'Air sticker. Order it online before you travel if your route passes through either.

Planning a Haute-Savoie trip with Waver

Waver is a route planner and riding app built for motorcyclists, currently in open beta and free. The web planner routes you along the winding roads rather than the fastest line, lets you avoid motorways and tolls, and imports or exports GPX so you can bring tracks you already have. Save a route and its page gives you the elevation profile, which is useful when you are guessing whether a pass will be clear in early June. Folders and the roadtrip mode keep the days of one trip together instead of scattered across a list.

On the road, the Android app gives voice-guided navigation, records the ride with distance, time and elevation stats, and can share your live position with people at home; on an iPhone, the planner and your saved routes work in the browser. If you are travelling as a group, group rides with a shared chat keep everyone on the same route. Be clear on what is not there yet: there is no offline map mode, so you need mobile data in the valleys, there is no weather along the route, and Waver does not do crash detection. It is a planning and navigation tool, not a safety device.