Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP MADE EASY
The great thing about motorbike adventures is getting up in the morning, packing up and heading off down the road. The not so great things are the planning, or when it all goes wrong in the middle of nowhere. The solution, of course, is to go on an organised tour, which means all the fun and none of the hassle.
So to get your creative juices flowing, here’s how you can recreate part or some of the jaunts I’ve done.
The USA is made for road trips, and Route 66 makes your heart sing more than any other road. Eaglerider (eaglerider.com) has two-week guided rides of Route 66 from $4,400 per person, including bike rental and accommodation. Flights to Chicago extra.
This was my first bike adventure: riding two Enfields home with fellow lunatic Paddy Minne.
Not surprisingly, there aren’t organised Enfield tours from India to the UK, but Blazing Trails (blazingtrailstours.com) has tours in India, Nepal and South Africa. Prices start at £3,095, including flights.
This was the big one – three and a half months riding the 16,500 miles of the Pan-american Highway, the world’s longest road. My book, The Road to Gobblers Knob, is a readers’ favourite.
If you’ve got five months to spare, Globebusters’ 24,000-mile Alaska to Argentina expedition from July to December 2020 is £32,995 per person, sharing.
If not, its shorter tours in the Americas start at £2,900 for 13 days. globebusters.com
A couple of years ago, I spent two weeks riding the 1,000 miles of the Ho Chi Minh Trail from Hanoi to Saigon on a Honda CRF 250L with Great Road Journeys (greatroadjourneys.com) – great country, great scenery, great people and great food. Tours are every April, from £2,595 on a Honda or Ural, or £3,595 in an ex-us Army Jeep.
Closer to home, last year I spent several deeply happy days bimbling around Andalucia on a Royal Enfield with Legendary Motorcycle Adventures. Every evening we returned home to a villa for a fabulous meal, except for one night’s glamping and barbecue enjoyed beside a river. Glorious.
The five-day Andalucian Odyssey is £1,800 full board, excluding flights. See the firm’s website at lma.life for details.