The Luxury Motorcycle Tour Experience
A mountain pass before lunch. A five-star hotel by dark.
A Gentleman Biker day is a road, a long lunch, and a hotel worth arriving at. The motorcycle is waiting at the first hotel with the route loaded. The bags travel ahead. The evenings are for the best restaurants in the region. The rest is the road.
Morning
The day begins with the best coffee in town.
Caffè Gilli on the Piazza della Repubblica, in Florence since 1733. Café Tortoni on the Avenida de Mayo, the oldest café in Argentina. Ristr8to in Chiang Mai, where the owner took the world latte-art title. A cup at Rifugio Tibet at the top of the Stelvio, with the Ortler glacier out the window. Then the helmet goes on.
The road
The roads are the ones riders cross oceans for.
The Stelvio, forty-eight numbered hairpins to the highest paved pass in the eastern Alps. The Mae Hong Son Loop, six hundred kilometres of corners along the Burmese border. Ruta 40, with the Andes on the right for two thousand kilometres. The Chiantigiana, sixty-nine kilometres of vineyard and castle that never quite straighten. A leader rides ahead. Riders ride at their own pace.
Lunch
Lunch is wherever the road is best.
A rifugio at the top of a pass, with three languages on the menu. Khao soi at a roadside kitchen in Chiang Mai with a Bib Gourmand on the wall. A bistecca at Dario Cecchini’s in Panzano, one floor above the butcher’s shop his family has kept since the 1800s. Lamb on an iron cross before an open fire in El Calafate. Nobody hurries.
Evening
The hotels are the ones the region is known for.
Hotels like the Llao Llao, built between two lakes outside Bariloche in 1940, and the Arakur on its hill above Ushuaia. The Four Seasons above the rice terraces north of Chiang Mai, and the Mandarin Oriental on the river in Bangkok. The Aman Rosa Alpina in Alta Badia. The Four Seasons in the largest private garden in Florence, and the Rosewood on an eight-hundred-year-old estate in Montalcino. The hotel list comes with each departure.
Dinner
Dinner is the best restaurant in the region. Some nights that is three stars.
Don Julio in Buenos Aires, tenth on the World’s 50 Best list. Sorn in Bangkok, the first three-star kitchen in Thailand. Atelier Moessmer in Brunico, three stars in the Dolomites. Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, three stars since 2004. Other nights it is a Brunello on a terrace in Montalcino, or a king crab on the Beagle Channel. Both are the point.
The motorcycle
The motorcycle is a Harley-Davidson, and it is waiting at the first hotel.
Prepared for the route, with the road loaded on the GPS. The model is chosen for the ride: a big touring machine for the distances of Ruta 40 is a different choice from a lighter one for a week of mountain hairpins. Models are announced with the first departures. A rider flies in with a helmet and a licence, and flies home with the rest.
Two-up
A partner who does not ride is welcome on every tour.
A partner rides pillion, or travels in the support vehicle, or mixes the two from one day to the next. The vehicle drives the same route and arrives at the same hotel, so the day ends together either way. Tuscany and the Dolomites suit passengers especially well. Patagonia’s long days are harder on the back seat, and the vehicle is there for them.
The practical questions.
Experience, licences, what the price covers, deposits, and what happens to a dropped bike.
Do I need previous motorcycle riding experience to join the tour?
Yes. A rider should be comfortable on a large touring motorcycle for a full day, on mountain roads, in traffic, and in rain. Patagonia adds gravel and wind. Northern Thailand adds hundreds of tight curves and traffic on the left.
Do I need a motorcycle licence and an International Driving Permit?
Yes, both. Argentina, Thailand, and Italy all expect a full motorcycle licence from home and an International Driving Permit from a foreign rider, and so does the insurance on the motorcycle. Argentina recognises the 1949 permit format only.
What is included in the tour price?
The motorcycle, the fuel, the tour leader and the support vehicle, the hotel nights, and the meals the itinerary lists. Flights, riding gear, and personal insurance are the rider’s own. Each departure spells out its own list.
Is the deposit refundable?
A deposit holds a seat once a departure has dates. The amount, the date the balance is due, and what comes back if plans change follow a scale tied to how far out the cancellation happens. All of it comes with each departure.
What happens if I drop the motorcycle?
The bike gets picked up and looked at, and if it can go on, it goes on. The rider’s cost is limited to the damage excess in the terms, stated with the departure along with any option to reduce it.
How many hours a day are spent riding?
Most of the daylight, at the rider’s own pace, with a long lunch in the middle. The evenings belong to the hotel and the dinner. The day count and the route for each departure come with the itinerary.
The four rides.
Patagonia, Northern Thailand, the Dolomites, and Tuscany, each with its own page, and the country pages for Thailand and Italy.
- Patagonia motorcycle tour
Bariloche to Ushuaia, with the Andes on the right the whole way.
- Northern Thailand motorcycle tour
The Mae Hong Son Loop, and Bangkok when the riding is done.
- Dolomites motorcycle tour
The Stelvio, the Gavia, the Sella Ronda, and the hotels at the bottom of each.
- Tuscany motorcycle tour
Chianti, the Val d’Orcia, and dinners that run late.
- Motorcycle tours in Thailand
The north, the season, and Bangkok.
- Motorcycle tours in Italy
The Dolomites and Tuscany, and how long each deserves.
Join the interest list.
Argentina, Thailand, or Italy. Say which.