Help help and help again please !
 

Hi everyone, Sorry to say that i am a virgin to this touring lark but i have seen the light atlast, i have never planned a trip or been abroad on my bike before and i am planning to go from Scotland to lake Garda over a two week period with my wife. I would like to visit Austria, Switzerland and then into Italy taking in some great views and roads, can anyone give me help or advice on routes, ideas where to stay or where to look for help please, all replies will be greatly appreciated, thanks !!!:confused1:

Hi Salty, Well, I can't help much except for Switzerland and even not a lot except to say that if you are entering for the west, just after crossing the border, make a left onto the county highway. You have to pay a whopping $30.00 USD to use the expressway, whether you ride for one hour or one week. If you chose the expressway, After Lausanne, turn south to Mouthey. Stay on that road until you are 50? miles from Klosters. There is no road across the Alps into Austria at Klosters. You need to turn south before then. At Andermatt you turn south. Don't pass on through Andermatt without going to the big church on the left. It has a magnificent organ. You can reach the same place via secondary roads. just takes longer. If you are on the secondary, you will go through one bodacious tunnel and just before that, across one freaking scary bridges about a million miles of nothing below except a great two second view before your nerves collapse and you have to look at the road again. If you want a photo, park at the end of the bridge and carefully go out far enough to shoot. there is no walk way.

sorry I can't do anymore, back then I didn't take notes.

joe

Thanks
 

Cheers joe, i shall keep all information and try and remember to take a rope if i go over the bridge !!

Edelweiss Tour or Beach Alps tour? :innocent:

Not so bad for a newbie. They do all the best roads and cover most of
the area you want to see. The two companies above are
well established and very good at what they do. The missus will
love it, trust me. Nothing left to chance.....of course you pay for that.

Patrick:scooter:

germany
 

I have made a couple of trips down through Germany on the ZRX to switzerland, 2 up.
I cannot reccomend the route highly enough. the people are great ditto scenery. ( beer's good too).
Monschau is twee, expensive but well worth a visit, from there S.west, past the Nurburgring (well worth seeing), use the run down the mosel, strewn with good b&B as is a popular cycle route, good wine area, lots have converted spares rooms for cost effective overnight. Blackforest etc. Rhinefalls are great. Bodensee is posh and expensive like the med, but with even more Germans. the boat over to switzerland followed by some amazing passes was one of the highlights of my life.
Pm me if you want a chat. Try it, You wont regret it.

i did a route a few years back down through germany into switzerland then into italy.
in germany try and get into the black forest, the roads are great and the scenery is stunning. lots of pubs restaurants ect. in switzerland head for the alps lots of roads are dead ends and end up on tops of mountains, i went in autum and it wasnt too cold but glacial ice was forming. lots of dirt tracks to explore as well, keep your eyes peeled for swiss army, theyre everywhere on manouvers. you can cross through the alps by putting the bike on a train, forget exactly where but it saved me a few 100kms and didnt cost much. try and get in a trip over mont blanc. it was wet and horrid on italian side but as soon as i droped out the clouds on french side it was lovelly weather,
switzerland is a bit pricey.

Your trip planning...
 

Got to agree with the guys above. Also, if you have the time, go back via Fuessen (Germany), with its world famous Neuschwanstein Castle, get on the so-called "Ronatic Road" wgich will take you all the way to Wuerzburg, and then head back home (of course you can also go vice versa, i.e. along the Romantic Road to Austria and so on). If I can help you with anything else (even though I am living in Japan, I AM a native German and toured the described area quite a lot), just send me a mail.

Take care, safe riding and CU, Klaus

Big thanks
 

Just like to say thanks yo all that have replied, i will probably mail most of you once i try to start and finalise a route, thanks again for your help !!

Salty

Buy "Motorcycle trips through the Alps & Corsica" By John Herman.

It's a good start to a trip and will surely get the juices flowing!
Take a few of the smaller side roads the main Alpine passes do get busy with big speed variations between the busses, trucks, cyclists, sport bike riders and locals on Suzuki Bergman's!

Phil

Hi, touring by bike you wont regret it, trouble is you might get hooked!

Check out the "route des alpes" about 5/6 hundre kilometers of blinding mountain roads from the med coast near menton to geneva, just inside the french side of the french italien border, rising to 2802mts at le bonnet. superb!

have fun and good luck.

Nobody mentioned Austria yet, so when crossing the Alps from Austria to Italy, either take the road through the Oetz Tal via Timmelsjoch Pass or further west via Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse, which takes you up to 2,500m. Both are very scenic, but for both you gotta pay toll :-(