Austria / Italy · Tirol, Dolomites, Hohe Tauern · Premium route guide
Grand Alpine Loop (Innsbruck → Dolomites → Grossglockner → Innsbruck)
730 kilometres, seven high passes, two countries, and the best week of Alpine riding you can string together from a single base. Innsbruck to the Brenner, the Dolomite Sella-Pordoi-Falzarego, Cortina, then back via the Grossglockner and Kitzbühel. Full route on the map, GPX for your GPS, rider-vetted stays throughout.
- Distance
- 733.2 km
- Peak elevation
- 2,511 m
- Elevation gain
- 16,336 m
- Best months
- Jun–Sep
The route
A three-day loop out of Innsbruck: south over the Brenner Pass, through Vipiteno and Bolzano to Val Gardena and the Dolomite cols (Sella, Pordoi, Falzarego), over to Cortina d'Ampezzo, north via Misurina and Sillian to Lienz, up over the Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße into Salzburg province, then back to Innsbruck via Zell am See, Kitzbühel and St. Johann. Pins are motorcycle-friendly stays other riders have vetted.
13 verified stays within 30 km of the route. Click a stay pin to see details. Know one that should be here?
Works with Garmin, TomTom, BMW Navigator, Calimoto, Kurviger, komoot, MyRouteApp. Import as a track to ride the exact line. Road data from OpenStreetMap (ODbL); elevation from SRTM.
Track vs. route, how to load this into your GPS
What you are downloading is a GPX track, a dense, road-snapped breadcrumb of the exact line, with elevation on every point. It is not a GPX route (a short list of turn waypoints your device re-plans between). Tracks preserve our road choice; routes let the device pick its own way and can send you down a boring motorway shortcut.
How to use it on your navigator:
- BMW Navigator / Garmin Zumo / zumo XT: import as a track, then Convert to Route (or Trip Planner, new trip from track) if you want turn by turn prompts. Keep Recalculation off so it stays on our line.
- TomTom Rider: import the GPX in MyDrive, it loads as a track / itinerary. Enable Follow the exact route so it does not re-plan.
- Calimoto: open the GPX and choose Import as tour, Calimoto follows the track line.
- Kurviger / komoot / MyRouteApp: open the GPX and pick Import as track to keep the road choice. Only choose Import as route if you want the app to re-plan for your bike profile.
- Google Maps / Apple Maps: these do not read GPX. Use the map on this page for turn cues, or import the file into a GPX capable app first.
Rule of thumb: if your device asks "track or route?", pick track to ride our exact line, pick route only if you want the device to re-plan.
Elevation profile
From ~275 m at the base to 2,511 m at the top, 16,336 m of total climbing across the route.
This is the itinerary a lot of European riders build a whole summer around, and it's honestly better than any single-country loop you could design. Three nights minimum - Bolzano or Val Gardena, Cortina, Zell am See - but four or five is better, because every one of these passes rewards a slow ride and a coffee at the top.
The order matters. Doing it counter-clockwise (Innsbruck → Brenner → Dolomites → Grossglockner → Innsbruck) puts the technical Dolomite cols in the middle of the trip when your rhythm is best, and saves the Grossglockner for the run home when you know what a great Alpine pass feels like.
The road, honestly
Seven passes on this loop, and every single one is on someone's top-ten list. The Dolomite cluster - Sella, Pordoi, Falzarego, and by extension Gardena and Giau if you loop them - is the densest concentration of great pass riding in Europe. The Grossglockner is Austria's finest engineered road. And the Brenner, ridden on the old SS12 rather than the autostrada, is a proper mountain road in its own right.
Traffic is the trade-off. The Sella Ronda in July and August is genuinely busy with cars and coaches; the Grossglockner north gate at 10am has a queue. Ride the top passes before 9am and after 5pm to have them mostly to yourself.
Where to sleep along the way
The three-night pattern: Bolzano or Val Gardena (Ortisei) after day one for easy access to the Sella cols in the morning; Cortina d'Ampezzo after day two once you've done Sella / Pordoi / Falzarego; Zell am See after day three so you're set up for the Grossglockner south-to-north the following morning.
For a five-night trip add Corvara (in the middle of the Sella Ronda) after Ortisei, and Kitzbühel or St. Johann at the end for a rest day before Innsbruck. Both towns have serious rider culture and bike-friendly hotels.
Passes, tolls and closures
The Grossglockner is toll (€28 for motorcycles, cash or card at the gate, open May–Oct). The Sella cols are free but each has a small "Dolomiti" nature-park pass sticker sold at petrol stations that lets you park at the summit lay-bys - optional but useful. The Brenner has a free old road (SS12) parallel to the autostrada; take it.
All these passes are properly Alpine - clear in June, best in July–August, marginal in early October. Snow can close the Grossglockner and the higher Dolomite cols overnight into September; check grossglockner.at and dolomitisuperski.com before committing.
What to see along the way
- Brenner Pass (1,370 m) - The Alps' most-crossed road pass. Ride the SS12 side-by-side with the autostrada - quieter, prettier, free.
- Passo Sella (2,244 m) - The prettiest of the Sella Ronda cols. Sassolungo massif filling the sky above the summit café.
- Passo Pordoi (2,239 m) - Long, open, and the natural back-to-back with Sella. Cable car up to Sass Pordoi if you want the full 3,000 m Dolomite view.
- Passo Falzarego (2,105 m) - Drops you into Cortina down some of the finest hairpins in the Dolomites.
- Cortina d'Ampezzo - The Dolomite capital. Overnight, aperitivo in the pedestrian street, and dinner that costs what dinner in a ski resort costs.
- Grossglockner Hochtor (2,504 m) - The summit of the Grossglockner Hochalpenstraße. See the dedicated Grossglockner guide for the full pass detail.
- Kitzbühel - Ski town in summer with a serious motorcycle scene. Good coffee, good roads, easy last-night stop before Innsbruck.
Rent a bike
Rent a motorcycle or scooter for Grand Alpine Loop (Innsbruck → Dolomites → Grossglockner → Innsbruck)
Flying in? Pick up a bike near the start of the route. We've pre-filled the pick-up city with Innsbruck / Cortina d'Ampezzo - change it if you're basing elsewhere.
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Verified stays within 30 km
Automatically selected by proximity to the traced route, no editorial cherry-picking. Sorted by how close they are to the road.
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