Kartbahn Kappelen

In Kappelen, in the Bernese Seeland, the Kartbahn Lyss lays out an outdoor layout of seven hundred and fifty metres, seven metres wide along its whole length. Its special feature: a tunnel section, unique in Switzerland on a karting track, that spices up every lap. On its longest straight of one hundred metres, the karts reach sixty kilometres an hour, and you can drive there in an electric version as well as a petrol one.

The alternation of curves and straights makes it a varied layout, where it is a pleasure to string lines together and take on the clock. The track welcomes individual drivers as well as groups, and has a restaurant from which you keep an eye on the race during a break. It is a real open-air track, open to beginners as well as to fans out to drive among friends.

Kappelen lies near Lyss, in the Seeland, the market-garden plain of the canton of Bern, a short way from Lake Biel and its terraced shore. The bilingual town of Biel and the federal capital are not far. The Kartbahn Lyss adds a dose of open-air motorsport there, in a green region of the Swiss Plateau.

The tunnel and the constant seven-metre width let you overtake and fight wheel to wheel in safety, which makes a change from narrow tracks. The choice between electric and petrol karts widens the fun depending on the mood. The Seeland, with its lakes of Biel, Morat and Neuchâtel linked by canals, lends itself to boat trips and cycling, easy to combine with a karting session.