Traveling to Saas Almagell

Saas Almagell is the last village of the road. This is where Switzerland ends. After that, its mountains, and the only way to get beyond Saas Almagell is by food and walk to Italy 🙂

Furusandstrasse 9
3905 Saas Almagell 
Switzerland
Google Maps

By car

Use Google Maps or your favorite navigation app and just follow instructions. To give you some sense of duration, from Zurich, Basel, Geneva, or Milano Malpensa is about a 3.5 hour drive.

Here are a couple of important things though:

Road tax

Every vehicle driving on the Swiss highways must pay highway tax (CHF 40). You can do this here online. or buy them at a gas station before entering Switzerland.  

Car trains

Its likely you will have to take the car train go through the mountain (and cut off the lengthy and curly mountain pass). You drive your car on the train while you remain in your car during the trip. Look at the BLS route planner) to time your ride (the car trains do not go 24/7) and will cost you about 25 CHF per car.

• Form Bern you take Lötschberg route (Kandersteg-Goppenstein)
• From Milano the Simplon route (Iselle (IT) – Brig (CH))

Winter tires from October to April

Winter tires are not legally mandatory in Switzerland, but they are strongly recommended. If you’re driving in winter conditions (snow, ice, or slush) and you have an accident while using summer tires, you may be held responsible for any damages due to inadequate equipment, especially in the mountainous regions, and fines may apply. In addition, your insurance compnay might not cover an incident. Snow chains are also fine.

Parking

The house has space for 3 or 4 cars, and otherwise there is paid parking (±10 CHF per day) at walking distance.

By Public Transport

By train

Take the train to Visp and then the bus to Saas Almagell. Visp has direct connections from all major (and often minor) cities in Switzerland. So if you come from abroad, choose Basel, Zurich, Bern, Geneva, etc. as your main station, to transfer to Visp.

In Visp you hop on the bus 511 and transfer in Saas Grund after 30 minutes for the last 10 mintues towards Saas Almagell. Get off on the Dorfplatz and from there its a 150 meter walk.

The SBB (which is the Swiss Federal Railway Service, or  Schweizerische Bundesbahnen in German) has excellent plannning tools online sbb.ch, or mobile for iOS or Android.

Swiss trains are notoriously expensive. Locals own a ‚travel card‘ which gives a 50% discount on tickets. Without such card, a trip from will cost you about 110 CHF, one way, per adult. With some effort you might find some good deals online though.

By flight

If you come from further away, take the airplane to Zurich, Geneva, Basel, or Milano Malpensa. From there you either rent a car or take a (direct train to Visp). When renting a car, make sure to tick the ‚winter tire‘ option or make sure they add snow chains.