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WHAT A $28,052 GROUP ALPS DRIVING TOUR ACTUALLY GETS YOU! · Performance Car Ownership with Gary

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just spent eight days on an organized driving tour through the Swiss Alps with 12 other couples.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've already told you about the car I drove in my previous Alps tour video, and I've got new videos coming about the passes.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: This video is about the tour itself.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Was handing that much control over to someone else actually worth it?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Here's actually what I'm covering.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Every cost and what we got for it, the route we drove, including some of the highlights along the way, what worked well, what didn't work so well, what genuinely surprised us, how to prepare if you're thinking about doing this yourself, and what to check before you book one of these fantastic trips for yourself.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new here, I create honest numbers-driven reviews, no sponsorships.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a PCA national track instructor, so I do know a little something about performance cars.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: All right, before we talk money, you need to understand who you're actually traveling with because it's a wider range of people than you might expect.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: We had 12 couples, two American couples, one couple from Australia, and the rest were Canadian.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Ages ranged from probably about the early 50s to late 70s.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, the Canadian tour planner came along with her husband and the Swiss driving tour team.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: The cars were just as mixed, a BMW M3 and M2, one Porsche Spider RS, two Caymans, and the rest 911 Carreras, mostly Cabriolets like ours.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: There were a couple of coupes.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: One of the members of our group uh rented a Spider RS, and they hit 305 kilometers per hour, which is about 190 miles per hour on the Autobahn.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Against my 261 kilometers per hour, which is what, about 162 miles per hour in that red cabriolet that we rented.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's over 120 more horsepower than we had.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, outside of the one Autobahn run, I doubt they needed more horsepower than my Cabrio offered on the Swiss roads and those mountain passes.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Though I'm sure they appreciated driving a car that was nearly two inches narrower than ours on some of those tighter passes.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Width makes far more difference than you think.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the driving backgrounds of the participants varied much more than the cars did.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: From casual street and group fun run drives to some track use to a full-fledged Porsche Cup car racer.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The expectations from the drive would have varied considerably, but as long as we can East Drive independently, no problem.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: But more about that later.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of it like a ski trip where everyone bought the same lift pass.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Some people are there to cruise the green runs and enjoy the view.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Some are heading for the double diamond runs.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're all on the same mountain at the same time, and a tour like this, you know, it definitely has to accommodate everyone.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: That matters because it shapes almost everything else in this video.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: $28,052.57, US dollars, all in for two people for an eight-day tour.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now that includes seven nights in luxury four-star hotels with breakfast daily, three dinners, including Oktoberfest in the actual Hofbra house in Munich, and three of the best lunches on the road I've ever had.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when we break down all the costs, we can see that the tour fee for the 2026 911 Cabrio that we drove was$16,044.49.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now keep in mind all these costs are for two people and they're uh in US dollars.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Trip insurance was$2,656.76.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Airfare, premium economy, round trip from Toronto for two people,$7,085.47.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Airport parking,$149.88.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Gas uh while we're on the tour,$501.83.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh three extra nights stay in Munich a couple nights before and one night after,$768.07.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Meals that weren't included in the tour,$583.38.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Miscellaneous expenses,$272.69 for a grand total of$28,052.57 US dollars.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: One more number worth knowing before you book at car pickup, we had to put down a deposit of almost$6,000 US dollars.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's your maximum liability per car if anything happens.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: We had zero damage, so every cent came back.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But that's real money tied up for the length of the trip.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's worth planning your cash flow around.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Think of that deposit like the whole the hotel puts on your credit card, you know, for incidentals.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Except instead of a hundred dollars, it's six thousand dollars.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of three nights, it's held for over a week.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And here's my honest complaint about that deposit.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The options for lowering that deductible weren't clearly explained in advance or even at the time of pickup.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you book one of these, ask directly before you arrive.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when it comes to the route itself, we picked up the cars and started the tour at that amazing Amaron Motor World, which is just outside of Munich.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: They have a sports car rental provider conveniently located on site.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Everything was arranged long before we arrived.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Within an hour of leaving, I was on the Autobahn achieving my top speed of, like I say, 261 mile uh kilometers an hour or about 162 miles an hour.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I've got a couple of deep dive videos uh coming soon about driving the Autobahn and those mountain passes.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: You definitely want to subscribe to make sure that you don't miss them.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now we made a stop at Castle Liechtenstein before continuing on to that very cool uh Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then it was off to Zurich, stopping at Hohenzollen Castle and Rhinefalls along the way.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you'll have to excuse my pronunciation on some of these words.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's not part of my regular vocabulary.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, really got a sense of driving and enjoying that beautiful Swiss countryside along the way.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Our next day was promised to be likely one of the greatest driving days of your life.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: It definitely was 100%.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: We were tackling Switzerland's big three mountain passes, the Siston, the Grimsold, and the Furka, all in one day.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not only was the scenery spectacular and impossible to fully describe in a video like this, but the driving was incredible.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was genuinely shocked to see how much the road and the scenery changed from one kilometer to the next.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Those very narrow roads with the most minimal of guardrails between you and a huge rock was intimidating to see the least.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: But you can still drive as quickly as you dared on those unfamiliar and I'm sure very unforgiving road.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't cover many kilometers of road that day, but it was exhilarating and exhausting all at once before spending the night in Andermatt.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: We left Andermatt in the fog and then rain, heading for St.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Moritz, first driving the Oberlap, then a little later the Julier Pass, and enjoying the Kurvach cable car and an excellent lunch at restaurant uh 3303 at an elevation of 10,000 feet while we watched the snow slowly falling around us.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: The next day, leaving St.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Moritz, we had a significant change in our schedule.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, we never got to drive the Stelvio Pass that was to be included in the original itinerary.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just weeks before our tour began, a new rule in Italy stated that groups like ours aren't allowed on it anymore.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it was closed the one day we could have gone for a bicycle race anyway.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the tour substituted the counter tall Glacier Road instead.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: After the cows welcomed us to their Glacier Road.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Full story on that drive coming soon.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to subscribe to make sure that you know you don't miss it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Our last driving day saw us leaving Seafeld, Austria onto the Hontenyuk Pass.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: This pass was just as exciting to drive as the Big Three we drove just a couple days before that, and it had significantly less traffic, and the scenery was even more breathtaking.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Strangely, I found the taller guardrails at the very edge of the road without any shoulder whatsoever made the drive feel more intimidating than the Grimsville and Furco passes that had almost non existent protection from going over the edge.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: On the trip back to Munich, we stopped for lunch at the scary Highline 179 suspension bridge.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Many went up to check it out, but very few walked all the way across.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's talk about what worked really, really well.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: The tour operator ran three dedicated cars among us, not just guides, but working support.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Think of it like an outrider on a cycle race, you know, scouting the road just ahead of the Peloton.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: That lead car shared on WhatsApp things like speed camera locations, police sightings, debris or rockfall on the road, last-minute route changes, and then flagged us straight into the pre-arranged accessibility ready parking at every single stop.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a small thing.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's a genuine constant layer of problem solving happening ahead of you that you never have to think about.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: One car ran out ahead of the group the whole day.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: There was another car in the middle of the group to help where we need it, and then the car at the tail or sweep that would make sure to loosely keep the group together or if necessary, find anyone who became lost.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: They also kept in constant contact with us all by using WhatsApp.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: That customer service genuinely was way above expectations.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't just pre-book uh hotels and restaurants, they had someone physically arrive at every stop before we did to direct us into the best parking and to make sure my wife's wheelchair access was handled without us having to ask twice.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of service that's impossible to replicate planning a trip like this for yourself.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this wasn't a nose-to-tail 15-car convoy.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was rally style.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: We were sent a link through WhatsApp for a route each morning and could drive it in small groups or completely alone at our own pace to the next meeting point.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now think of it being closer to a scavenger hunt than a parade.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: You get the clues and the checkpoints, the most scenic route to follow, and you decide how quickly you want to get there.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what let me break away within the first hour of starting the tour and chase my own top speed on that Autobahn.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: That same freedom is exactly what let me drive the countertowel alone later in the same week.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what didn't work?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, carPlay.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Repeatedly, both wireless and wired car play failed multiple times for us and at least one other couple during the week.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: On a rally style tour where the root sheet was the map, that wasn't a minor annoyance.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's the equivalent of a paper map blowing out the window at the exact moment you need to find the next turn.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Except it happens at highway speed.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: In a country where you don't read the road signs natively.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: The other problems we encountered with the root system was mostly due to neither Cheryl or I had any experience with WhatsApp or Google Maps, or especially integrating the two for a drive like this.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: The mapping was set up to work as follows.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Each morning we would go into Google Maps, select and download the approximate map area where we would be driving today to be able to use the maps offline during the day if we needed to.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: We would then download the root link provided by the tour operator.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we were leaving the hotel, we pressed the start button and follow the directions.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: We shared our location and WhatsApp with the group for the day so that the tour operator could monitor our location.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if we were lost, they could come and rescue us, you know, which did happen on occasion.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Cheryl and I noticed the problem by the second turn of the very first day.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Our guidance was telling us to turn left when everyone else was being told to turn right.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Several days later we found out that some of us had our navigation settings set to a map will suggest fuel efficient routes by default, turned on while others didn't, causing Google Maps to suggest different routes and caused significant confusion amongst the group.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that that setting even existed.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: The other concern was with the waypoints.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Each day there were several waypoints during our route that weren't actually stopped on the route, but when reached, we were to keep going while waiting for the prompt to ask us if we wanted to continue.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then it was up to us to press continue, usually within five to ten seconds of it popping up.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if the passenger, also known as the navigator, missed it due to gawking at the scenery, the navigation would then send you back to the previous starting point unless you manually went in and changed some of the settings.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes that waypoint was in the middle of a curve, and the passenger had significant difficulty reaching over and pressing that continue button with the car moving within the allotted time.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: When all worked as designed, it worked perfectly.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, most days, for at least part of the drive, that wasn't the case for us.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just to be clear, this didn't ruin our trip at all.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Accessibility was well below North American standards.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this one thing surprised me the most, honestly.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Automatic door openers were rare at stores, hotels, and almost non-existent at restaurants.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Ramps were few and far between.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in a travel wheelchair like my wife, cobblestones are difficult to absolutely impossible to negotiate.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: For a tour that handled my wife's mobility needs so well logistically, the physical infrastructure in Europe just wasn't built up the way it is here in North America.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: In terms of driving in the Alps, there was a number of things that surprised us every single day.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Driving discipline in all three countries is far above what you see routinely in North America.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: I found myself trusting other drivers more to stay in their lanes, and it encouraged me to be more disciplined, you know, with my driving too.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: You don't see very many cool cars out on the open roads.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was hoping to see Lamborghinis or Ferraris on the passes, but our Porsches were definitely the most exotic cars we saw there.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Those Italian supercars were likely too wide for the mountain passes anyway.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was a few smaller frustrations, like speed limits in small Swiss towns are very strictly enforced.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the very well hidden speed cameras have been known to ticket only a couple of kilometers an hour over that posted speed limit.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's no air conditioning in Swiss hotels, so even in late September, when we were there, it resulted in warm rooms day and night.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now the windows were openable, and uh but that was the only way available to help with the heat.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Really makes you wonder what it would be like if you were there in July or August.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: One hotel night in downtown Stuttgart landed us in the middle of a major street reconstruction zone, which made simply reaching the hotel a genuine nightmare of a drive.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Food and restaurants across all three countries was expensive.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Budget more than you'd expect for meals outside of the tour.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: Gas ran close to ten dollars and fifty cents, and we're talking US dollars here per US gallon.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Budget accordingly if you're driving as much as we did.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to watch for bicycles on rural roads and going up and down those passes.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They are far more aggressive than what we're accustomed to in North America.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a genuine safety note.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of near misses happened in our group when drivers cut corners on blind curves with oncoming traffic.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know the lack of sturdy guardrails on the outside, especially on roads with huge drops, keep you away from the outside.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: But you need to stay wide on every curve every time.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: It costs you almost nothing in pace, and it's the single easiest habit that keeps you from colliding with another vehicle head on.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Motorcycles were a factor on nearly every pass.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're fast, they're aggressive, and willing to split the gap between you and oncoming traffic to pass you.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: More than once I didn't even know there was a motorcycle behind me before they blew past me.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: The locals clearly know those roads intimately.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't drive like it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: In general, roads everywhere are much narrower in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria than in North America.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Keep that in mind when choosing what car you're renting.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: Couple of inches less in width makes a huge difference.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'll write the verdict.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: So$28,000, eight days, 30 new friends who became genuinely good company.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: By the end of the week, was it worth it?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not a hesitant, yes, a real one.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: The gaps are real, and I've told you all of them.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: The car rental deposit confusion, the accessibility shortfalls, car play and navigation letting us down at the worst moments, none of that changes the bottom line.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: What tipped it for me wasn't the driving alone.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was everything the tour operator handled that I never had to think about.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: The lead car watching the road ahead, the parking sorted out before we even arrived, the safety net of our location being monitored throughout, a substitution that turned into one of the best drives of my life when our first choice fell through.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's not something you can fully plan your way into on your own.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: So who should and who shouldn't do this?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if the idea of researching permits, hotels, and mountain pass logistics across three countries sounds exhausting, this is exactly what an organized tour like this is for.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're looking for more or less days driving on, for example, just mountain passes, be sure to ask ahead of time to make sure your tour meets your expectations.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots more mountain passes that we didn't drive.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you need fully accessible accommodations, add hard specific questions before you book.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: The tour company can often arrange support, but the underlying lack of accessibility infrastructure in Europe may surprise you.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely suggest you ask exactly how navigation will be handled and if possible, see if they have any video guidance that you can check out ahead of time.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's one specific road or pass you're dreaming about, realize that nothing is guaranteed on the route.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Ours wasn't for the Stelvio and that mattered, but if a substitution needs to be made, trust your tour operator to make the best choice for you.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you're genuinely into performance cars, this is definitely a must-have trip.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: For us, it was the trip of a lifetime.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's the real itemized answer.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you want the car comparison, the individual passes, or the full counter tall drive story, they're either already here or will be available in this playlist soon.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe for the rest of the series, and I'll see you in the next one.