European tour

[PaulZX9R]

Has anybody been on an organised tour of Europe? In particular, the alpine countries? What company did you use? Were they any good? What did it cost? Anything else I should know?

I want to do a tour of the Alps with my SO this year. I would prefer to use my Futura but I will hire a bike if I have to.

[pbigoney]

I did Europe in 01. Did not use any group though. I contacted a BMW and Honda shop outside Munich and just rent straight from them. Took off and down to Italy and back. I beleive this is the best way. Bike cost $425 8 days for a VFR and $399 for a BMW1200. We spent about $100 day per couple and stayed in very very vice places, ate good and drank lots of wine.
You want further info on how to or possibly a travel companion let me know.

[PDXMilleR]

While I have never done it, I have several friends who have nothing but good things to say about them.

http://www.edelweissbiketravel.com/index.htm

[vito]

last may a friend and i rented bmw 1150 rt's and toured through the alps and dolomites in northern italy, near the austrian, swiss and french borders. rather than going on an organized tour, we made all the arrrangements ourselves - bike rentals, reservations, etc.

there are many advantages to an organized tour, but ours was a pretty trouble-free experience.

i feel that there was a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment in doing it the way we did it - just getting through the day in a foreign language, a foreign culture, a foreign currency - that would have been missing if we had taken a canned tour.

if you want to hear about how we went about it, let me know.

but whichever way you decide to go, you'll love it. great riding, great scenery, and great people. i encourage everyone to see the alps and dolomites on a motorcycle. :D :D

[PaulZX9R]

Originally posted by PDXMilleR
While I have never done it, I have several friends who have nothing but good things to say about them.

http://www.edelweissbiketravel.com/index.htm
They look like they have a great ranges of tours, but they are *very* expensive.

[vito]

you might try a group called hc travel out of england. i haven't taken one of their tours, but they were solicitous and helpful when i was planning my trip. i think they do tours that originate in england and ride to the alps.

[Prilliant03]

Paul,

When are you thinking of going? I'm sailing out to Spain on May 7th Via Dun Loaghaire-Holyhead and Plymouth Santander. It's a week long trip through the Pyrenees then up the west coast of France and taking in the French GP on sun 16th. Returning home that night. Looks like 1 Falco, 1 Futura, a 998 and a 749 signed up so far.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll e-mail you all the details.

Neil

[PaulZX9R]

I am aiming for the first two weeks in September. It is begining to look as though the easiest, cheapest etc way to do this will be to fly to Nice, chill for a couple of days, then hire a TDM900 or similar for a week. I have used this (http://www.holiday-bikes.com) crowd before, and they were OK.

My missus doesn't want to spend three days and a thousand miles, on the back of a bike just to get to where we want to start so the chances of using my own bike on this trip are slim.

[chris gale]

paul im riding to the alps 1st week in sept 04. have been a few times before,this time am staying near annecy,which puts you within range of mont blanc,col st petit bernard(italy)and switzerland.i can let you have some decent routes for this area and some phone nos for b+bs in a place called thonen(about 10 miles from annecy).dont bother with a tour company,rooms are easy and cheap to find and as for roads any thing thats minor is worth riding.
as for getting there id go A26 reims / troyes then N71 to dijon,pick up the A39 and then either the N78 or N5 to geneva,and finally give it some on the A40.all in all about 500 miles.
if u get stuck drop me an e mail.