From Gotthard Pass to Airolo next to the Historical Tremola Road

Wednesday June 24, 2026 -- This is the day for our usual mid-week hike, but the heat is exhausting. Nevertheless, we still have options to head into the mountains in the hopes of cooler air. But we don't want to do a lot of climbing, as it is just too hot for that. But the disadvantage of starting high up and heading down is that you do get into the hotter part of the day at lower levels.

As the Postautos have started running to the mountain passes as of last weekend, we chose to travel to the Gotthard Pass this day, which is actually very close to where we hiked on Sunday (photos HERE) and can be reached in less than two hours by train through the original Gotthard Tunnel (15 km long, completed in 1882) and then by bus from Airolo on the south side of the Gotthard Alps. From the pass (where it was almost too cold at 13 degrees!) we hiked all the way back down to Airolo, with superb views of the spectacular old Tremola Road (the original road to the pass, built at the start of the 19th century and later paved with hundreds of thousands of granite cobblestones between 1937 and 1941) and views into the upper Leventina and Bedretto Valleys all the way to the Nufenen Pass.

There were only a couple of places where it was a bit warm (on the leeward side of the hill), but otherwise we had cool breezes all the way, and even our last sprint through Airolo to catch the train wasn't too extreme. Having started early again, we were on our way back home just before 1 p.m., and back home for a nap by 2:45 p.m.!

Leaving home early again at 6:15 for the two-hour trip, this is the 6:45 a.m. lighting on Lake Lauerz, just south of Arth-Goldau train station

At shortly after 8:00 we switch to the Gotthard Pass bus in Airolo. The bus goes up the new winding highway that you can see on the mountainside, and heads to the pass on the right. The bus ride to the pass takes 23 minutes.

On the lower part of the road, the bus travels on a section of the old Tremola Highway as there are military facilities along this section which are serviced by the bus.

We then head up along the "new" highway in the Bedretto Valley, with the view of the Gotthard Alps. Up ahead you can see how the switchback in the highway is built out over the mountainside.

Amazing highway construction: To provide for the curve in the road, it is built like a bridge out past the slope of the hillside.

View into the Bedretto Valley from the highway at the location of the parking area and the kiosk/restaurant, which we then also passed on foot on our way down later.

By 8:35 we were up at the Gotthard pass (which is technically on the other side of this lake at 2106 m a.s.l.), and there was a very cold wind blowing! The temperature at this point was about 13 degrees! We didn't stay up here long, as I wanted to get down to "lower and warmer" altitudes! (Ironic on this hot day).

We didn't need to stay up here long, as we have been here often. For example, in August 2024 we started here at the pass and walked northwards down the valley to Hospental (where we had been a couple of days earlier) and also having come up via Airolo at that time.

This side of the pass is in Canton Ticino (the blue-red flag) but just a few kilometers to the north is the canton border with Canton Uri, which is the yellow flag. The bus stops here at the hotel and restaurant buildings (also a museum) but the actual pass is slightly further to the north.

We headed off right away along the top part of the fabulous old Tremola Road, which was built at the start of the 19th century and later paved with hundreds of thousands of granite cobblestones between 1937 and 1941.

We first did a detour to a small chapel called "Capella dei Morti" (i.e. "Chapel of the Dead") with a view on this lake of the same name (Lago dei Morti, i.e. "Lake of the Dead"). Across the lake and over the dip is a lake called Lago della Sella, and further on is the Sella Pass, which we hiked to in August 2023.

Heading off our our hike now, which starts next to the main road that the bus traveled up on.

Trail no.7: Via Gottardo, and Trail no.55: Via Suvorov both follow the old Tremola Road, which is a hike I did on my own in October 2019. This time we are following Trail no.62, a newly created themed trail called "Walserweg Gottardo", which was also part of my October 2019 hike, but in the opposite direction.

Starting at the Gotthard Pass hotel at about 8:30 a.m., we descended the Val Tremola with views of the fabulous Tremola Road, and then crossed the valley to continue to Airolo, which we reached just before 1 p.m. We were home again before 3 p.m., and again we didn't have to deal with too much heat.

A look back at the buildings around the Gotthard Ospizio (Mountain Hotel).

The wind turbines are spectacular. They are fairly "new", having been erected in 2020. We did four hikes here between 2013 and 2018, without these wind turbines.

We start on our hike by heading toward the highway (galleries) which we had passed through by bus. The trail follows along the gallery, then changes to a mountain trail to the place with the arrow, before we then descended and crossed the valley.

There is a "Grand Tour of Switzerland" frame here, but from this distance you can't even see the Tremola Road!

First sighting of the Tremola Road through the "Grand Tour of Switzerland" frame!

Panorama view of the Tremola Valley and the magnificent old Tremola Road.

Heading out on the trail, which is part of Trail no.62: "Walserweg Gottardo", starting out next to the vehicle gallery.

View eastward across the Tremola Valley to the Tremola road.

After walking the stretch next to the vehicle gallery, we reached a very nice mountain path.

Ever-changing view of the switchbacks on the old Tremola Road. You have to imagine the work it took to pave that road with granite blocks (four years it took, from 1937 to 1941, and all by hand!)

View down the Tremola Valley, and further on down the Leventina Valley past the city of Airolo where we are ending the hike. The place at the arrow is where we later met up with the Tremola Road when we descended from the right, and continued along the hillside on the left.

A great view to the north toward the Gotthard Pass, as we continue on a wide "road" with a steep drop on one side!

Zoomed view of the wind turbines up at the Gotthard Pass.

The walls they had to build to support the switchbacks are just as spectacular as the road itself.

This view shows the steepness of the cliffs and the fairly level trail we walked on the left.

Enjoying a view we never get tired of.

Happy-looking flowers! (There are not a lot of flowers at these elevations!)

Then we reached some of the military buildings, where we had also descended to when we did the spectacular hike from the Gotthard Pass over the Lucendro Pass in July 2018.

Down below us is one of the major switchbacks in the Gotthard Pass Road (it is called Pian Secco), where there is a large parking lot for tourist buses (for the tourists to take a break), a kiosk/restaurant and a view-point, and a bus stop for the Postauto Bus which we took when we ended the Lucendro Pass hike here (and where I also started my solo hike along the Tremola road in 2019). We are now headed down to the place at the arrow where we had a coffee break....

Always a pleasure to see the blue gentians in the mountains.

And lots of blossoming alpine roses, such as the ones we had seen on the north side of the pass a few days earlier.

Our favourite landscapes on alpine trails above the tree level... Right behind me on this photo is where we descended from the Lucendro Pass back in July 2018.

A look behind us as we descend from the parking area and past the interesting roadside "restaurant"

Here we are now at the look-out point below the large car-park. You could really recognize the people who were in the tour bus taking a break here! There was a nearby picnic table in the shade and we also took a break there.

View down toward Airolo, where we are ending the hike. This whole area is a military training ground. After descending the hillside below and crossing the valley to the left, we are continuing along the path with the arrows....

From our shady spot at the picnic table, a view up the Bedretto Valley, and the Gotthard Pass road which we had come up on in the bus.

The zigzag path down from look-out point was quite overgrown, and here it got warm as the hillside is protected from the breeze.

Stunning bridges

More overgrown paths!

We've now reached the base of this part of the Tremola Road, which we would also have reached had we taken the alternature route from the pass, i.e. the one that follows this road (which is the hike I did in October 2019.)

Having crossed the valley now, we are following a less-used trail that we saw from further up (upper left on photo), and had to use our GPS a few times to make sure we were heading correctly!

That bridge looks way too delicate to hold anything up.

This is not an "official" trail we are walking, but rather a path used by cows when they are out here on this hillside, but with our GPS we were able to pretty well stay on track!

And now we get a good look at the hillside across the valley where we had come down from.

Having reached a little cluster of farmhouses, we met a local there who indicated to us that we could take this shortcut down to Airolo, which would save us at least 30 minutes of walking compared to what we had mapped out. As the day was getting warm, we were very glad for the advice!

First we had to walk through a herd of cows, which Urs is never comfortable doing, but look at them! They are all resting.... It's now 11:45, and we are going to look for a shady place for our lunch break as well.

Down below is the city of Airolo at the very north end of the Leventina Valley. It is here that the train then enters the "older" original 15-km train tunnel, which was also the longest train tunnel in Europe for a long time, built at the end of the 19th Century.

Along the way we now can see all the way up the Bedretto Valley to the Nufenen Pass.

By 12:15 we had to settle for a spot on a large rock in the shady forest to eat our picnic lunch. After a short break we hurried on, because we realized we could just make the 12:57 train... otherwise we'd have to wait another hour in the heat....

A brand new water trough/fountain in a bit of an out-of-the-way spot, but very welcome in this heat!

Filling up our bottles with lovely cold water.

Last stretch now... our trail heads through a space in what looks like a city wall, and then down past the church to the train station further below.

It's 12:50 now, only 7 minutes to go, and Urs is rushing down the steps because he wants to buy a cold refreshment at the kiosk before getting on the train.

I, on the other hand, need only two extra minutes to pop into the church and take a couple of photos, before continuing down the steps.

Very stunning interior in this church called "Church of Saints Nazario and Celso". It is a fairly new build from the early 20th Century, as the original church with ancient origins (6th to 7th Centuries) was lost in the fire that devastated Airolo in 1877.

The artwork is from the early 20th Century. Only the bell-tower is still the original from the 12th Century.

Final steps at 12:53 (the train station is the yellow building across the street), and still four minutes till the train comes!

As is so often the case, we got to the platform as the train was pulling in.

What our ca. 3-hour hike from the Gotthard Pass to Airolo looks like on Google Satellite Maps. In 2019 (purple trail) I walked down the valley along the old Tremola Road.

These are all the hikes we have done in the area around the Gotthard Alps, upper Leventina and Bedretto Valleys to the south, and the Urseren Valley to the north (where we were three days earlier).