Hotels near Airolo

Aiolo is probably beautiful in the snow and it has superb trails up behind in the countryside with Swiss cows wearing bells and mountain goats. Lovely old houses and probably once a delightful place. Sadly now dominated by a huge concrete factory and all the noise and dust that entails. Better to stay at the San Gottardo hotel probably, which is actually ON the pass itself, or above the pass.

nice ski resort, bit hidden from the rest of switzerland but great for a weekend, especially when there has been a dump. Airolo itself has seen better times. There are a couple of restaurants in the street in front of the station, not much to see otherwise

Who in their right mind would want to go to Airolo? Usually travellers that use the Gotthard-tunnel in northerly direction. We decided to dodge the traffic jam and stay the night as near to the tunnel entrance as possible. For those that want to stay the night and travel on through the tunnel the next morning: make sure you’re on time! (Certainly before 9AM and preferably earlier) During peak-season the northbound entrance to the motorway at Airolo is blocked during the day, to prevent cut-through traffic. If that happens you have to backtrack on the old road to entrance nr 42 at Quinto and join the motorway queue north all over again. When you arrive in the afternoon and there are long queues for the Gotthard, don’t join them until you reach exit 41 at Airolo, but leave the motorway at the earlier exit at Quinto and make your way to Airolo using the local road.