Advice for next year
 

Hello all,
I know everything for the foreseeable future is subject to this dastardly pandemic that's buggering everything up, but next year I'm going to hit the big 50, and want to do a 3-4 week bike trip to celebrate. I have several things rattling around in my head, but I'd like to hear ideas from those more well travelled than myself. I'm not a novice to biking in Europe, so basic advice isn't required, but if you had to do a trip starting and ending in the UK with my time frame, where would you go. I'm self employed so can pick my time as I see fit, and although my birthday is in late September, I'm open to doing it at a different time of year if the destination climate dictates. I'll be riding a Honda Varadero 1000, most likely 2 up.

Many thanks in advance,

Lee

North to Norway in summer, south to wherever you can get to in shoulder seasons (Portugal, Spain, Morocco, former Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey...). Don't forget possibilities for shipping your bike to avoid a lot of time spent getting to and from.

You don't say anything at all about what qualifies as a celebration in your mind. Cities? Rural areas? Twisties? High speed cruising? Exploring different cultures? Music festivals? Beaches? Blind drunkenness? Etc. etc. etc.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Across to Czech then down through Slovakia,Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria to Greece.
Back via Albania, Montenegro, Bos/Hertz, Croatia and Slovenia.

That’s where I would/will go - hopefully see you somewhere along the way.
Happy holidays

Down through France and Spain and across to Morocco. If you’ve not been to Morocco before it’ll be quite an eye opener and there’s so much to see / do there you can easily fill the time you have available. Plus, if you go in September you’ll just be missing the worst of the high summer heat.

September will still be Hot !:scooter:

Absolutely - it's still hot (by British stds!) there now, but I like hot climates which is why I'll be there (Covid and mechanical catastrophes notwithstanding) next August.

we saw 50 degrees early September last year, the 3 years before that saw big storms and flooding during September.

But a great place to explore but 3 or 4 week trip will only give a small insight into Morocco and leave you wanting more

3/4 weeks will see most of morocco,................ but you need to spend a far few weeks to really understand it !
Try and get away from the "hot spots " and see the real Morocco ..Sidi ifini + Tiznit etc :scooter::scooter::scooter:

Agree with Markharf, heading north in summer is very viable and also fits a plan I have to head up through the Baltic states to the Nordkapp then back down through Norway via Iceland. My timescale for this is 2 months but I plan to take my time, and the Iceland section could be cut out if you were tight on time.

Otherwise, last year I headed east and south through Germany and down to Croatia, then ferry Dubrovnik-Bari and back up Italy. That was 5 weeks but again I stayed around holidaying and you could easily do it in 3 if you didn't mind being on the road more.

Another option is head south through Spain and over to Morocco. Will be stonking hot if you go in summer of course, and all the above will be dependent on covid travel restrictions, which I suspect will still be quite strict until at least the autumn.

Keep in mind that he is riding a Varadero, and two up.
Allthough I would normally second three weeks in Morocco as a top of the top destinations, I'm not sure I would reccommend it for someone riding two up on a varadero. Although it can certainly be done in an enjoyable manner, I would reserve it for a time with a more suitable set up.

Norway is a good option for a three week round trip. Riding with your GF in Italy or France, maybe a bit in the Alps - could probably be more romantic. Or maybe going very slow West-East on the Castle Road through Germany, stopping over at every pictoresque dorf/town to drink beer on street side bars and cafe's, with other bikers - could also be good.

A bit of feedback from Lee (the OP) would be helpful, but he did say "I'm not a novice to biking in Europe" so my guess was he's done the nearby stuff - say a 1000 mile circle from Calais. Heading north - Norway for example - is a good suggestion but even in summer it can be a hit or miss weather wise. For me there's enough of that in the UK to want to face more of it in Scandinavia. Head south for the sunshine Lee. If Morocco doesn't appeal then down through the Balkans to Greece, or even over the border into Turkey. All Covid permitting of course. :(

Go North in the summer
 

Norway: atlantic coast. Lofoten. One way. (Skip North cape)
Sweden: inland. Not the east coast. The other way.
Look for MC events that happens every evening and every weekend
Finland: Åland archipelago and all the lakes.

Thanks all
 

Two things that I've been thinking of doing have popped up here more than once, Norway and Morocco. I also like the look of Serbia/Monte/Croatia......Too much bloody choice !!

Morocco in the spring !
Will open your eyes to the way some people live
+ some fantastic roads and cheap as chips ! cold !
Hotels £10 food £3
Been a few times !!

Ride down to Venice and use the ferry to either Patras or Igoumenitsa in Greece, then ride home..or do it in reverse.
I'm recently back from doing something very similar, except that I used a shipping company ( Kamikazi Motorcycles ) to get the bike home from Athens, saved a whole load of time slogging back on motorways !
If you only have a few weeks and want to maximise your time where you want to be and not where you have to be, then seriously consider shipping.
George and Spiros from Kamikaze are top blokes and proper bikers, can't recommend them highly enough .

Mike.

But getting to and from (wherever that may be) is part of the fun in my opinion.

Sure, I agree...except in this case the OP has barely time to get to and from the destinations under discussion, leaving little time for touring. With limited time, I'd rather spend it in Morocco, Turkey or the Balkans than riding across Europe (which it sounds like he's familiar with anyway).

In any case, I'm not telling anyone what to do--merely suggesting possibilities.

Mark

Hi Lee:

That's a tough question, because it all depends on what happens with the COVID pandemic.

If COVID is still a concern in the fall of next year - meaning, if countries are still at risk of imposing lockdowns & quarantines - then I suggest you don't travel to a place that would put you more than one border crossing away from getting back home to the UK. In other words, you can get directly back to the UK from Spain (ferry), France, from the Netherlands, possibly from Norway if there is a ferry service - so you might want to consider those countries, or others that allow a direct return home. I would not want to go to (for example) Turkey under those circumstances, because you would have to cross about 4 borders to get back home, and any one of them could suddenly present a impermeable barrier.

If COVID is no longer a concern, I suggest you look south. It can be cool in the Nordic countries in the fall, but it is usually very pleasant anywhere south of the Alps or Pyrenees. Warmer weather means you don't have to carry as much riding gear & clothing.

For what it's worth, this is the voice of experience speaking - I was in Tunisia in March & April when the pandemic lockdowns and border closures started, and I wound up getting stuck there for a month and barely managing to escape home to Canada on the one and only direct flight operated between Tunis & Montreal. If I had missed that flight, I would not have been able to get out of Tunisia until July 2020 when travel between Tunisia and the EC reopened. My motorcycle is still in Tunisia - I'm not sure when I will be able to go back and get it, but I suspect it won't be until sometime in the second half of 2021.

Michael

Norway
 

If you're looking for great roads and magnificent views, you could do much worse than Norway. Western and Northern Norway are among the most wonderful places in the world with winding paved roads and great scenery. Getting there is the problem. Even South-Eastern Norway (where I live) is kind of boring, unless you know the small roads. (Feel free to ask!)

The best would be to ship your bike to Stavanger or Bergen and fly in. It may cost a bit, but if you compare it with the cost of driving there yourself, including accommodation and food? Probably not the worst deal, at least for one direction.

Western Norway should be ridden across the direction of the fjords. You get a nice variation of crossing mountains and driving around fjords, or getting a coffee break on a ferry. Distances are fairly short, so a trip should be easy to plan. Avoid planning more than around 300 km per day, and make sure you have time to take the scenic route. Maybe 5-6 days in Western Norway is plenty, and allows for some backtracking to get to all the best places.

Then head north. The E6 is boring, but luckily you can ride along the coast, following county road 17. I have not yet had time, but it is known to be amazing. In the main season there are a lot of RVs on the road. Make sure you have plenty of time, maybe 4 or 5 days? If you plan to sleep in hotels, booking ahead is required in the tourist season. This is a good time to stop at a boathouse for a couple of days and do some fishing or coastal exploring.

https://www.visitnorway.com/places-t...veien/?lang=uk

When you get to Bodø, you can take the Ferry to Moskenes at the end of Lofoten. Take a couple of days exploring Lofoten, but keep in mind that it is a pretty small place! I would make sure to also explore the other islands near Lofoten.

Vesterålen is great, and I would recommend spending a night in Nyksund, which is an old fishing village that has been turned into a kind of bohemian place with hotels and a pretty good restaurant. And the view! You can do whale safari from Stø. Driving along the outside of Andøya is amazing!

From Andenes at the north end of Andøya you can take a ferry to Senja, which is a secret gem along the coast. It's like what would happen if after Norway was almost done, half of the nature was still left and had to be crammed into a small island.

If you end up going, give me a ping. I sometimes go to fish and unwind at the place where my father grew up, 50 km east of Lofoten.

Spend a week in the archipelagos. That should give you plenty of time to experience everything.

After that, there's no big point in going further north, as the distances are too great for the views to justify. Going back through Sweden or Finland is possible, but roads are mostly pretty boring. An alternative is to take a coastal cruise on Hurtigruten back to Bergen. It's not cheap, but will offer some different views, and would be a proper place to relax celebrate!

But, the most important thing: Time of year. You do want to experience the midnight sun, and to get that you need to travel in June or July. Norwegian summer holiday starts the last week of June, and from early July onwards the RVs start to fill up the roads and accommodation gets harder to find. The best time to travel is in June. Most (probably not all) mountain passes in Western Norway should be open by then. For the trip I've outlined above, I would recommend to start around June 10, which would allow you to finish by the time it gets too crowded. Most, if not all, mountain passes in Western Norway should be open by then. This year I drove north on July 1st, and the traffic was light. One week later the ferries were full, and people were queueing for hours.

Ha, did both of those over the last few years (except not on a Road Drill). Both are good trips (apart from the non stop rain in New England) but I still think the Morocco suggestion is the one. :thumbup1:

I'd suggest Spain and Morocco either in October-November or January-February. These dates provides a great extension to the normal biking pleasure months and help prevent winter blues.

Daylight hours are much longer than in the UK (currently 10:24 hrs against 8:29) and there's normally wall-to-wall sunshine in Morocco—here's the current forecast for Merzouga: https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/te...+MOXX6675:1:MO

You could organise a flight to Tangier or Marrakech for the other half so she doesn't have to endure the cold of central Spain in Jan-Feb.