callais to slovakia

[mjojom]

Hi Guys,
planning the trip across Europe at the end of the month and want to ask you if you have some good tips for what to ride through or just set up calimoto add some POIs and let it do its magic? I am usually driving through in a camper because I travel with missus and dogs, but this time it will be a solo trip and it is a different ballgame.
once I'm across the pond, I'm thinking to take a more southern route as it will be September already so the weather should be still quite good on the southern side I'm thinking. France, Germany, Switzerland possibly, and Austria. I don't think ill be taking any motorways and like to take 3-4 days to get to Slovakia, do what I need to do, and spend another 3-4 days riding back.
Thinking of some mountain passes, lakes, maybe blackforrest? Accommodation will be add-hoc aka airbnb so don't want to plan that as daily mileage will depend on how I feel.
any good tips for great places not to miss along the way?

thank you
joe

[wessie]

Maybe travel down through Belgium, Lux, Black Forest to Lake Constance. Work your way across the Bavarian Alps to Salzburg on the Deutsche Alpenstrasse. Zip across eastern Austria to Bratislava and beyond.

[Winger]

Originally Posted by mjojom

Hi Guys,
planning the trip across Europe at the end of the month and want to ask you if you have some good tips for what to ride through or just set up calimoto add some POIs and let it do its magic? I am usually driving through in a camper because I travel with missus and dogs, but this time it will be a solo trip and it is a different ballgame.
once I'm across the pond, I'm thinking to take a more southern route as it will be September already so the weather should be still quite good on the southern side I'm thinking. France, Germany, Switzerland possibly, and Austria. I don't think ill be taking any motorways and like to take 3-4 days to get to Slovakia, do what I need to do, and spend another 3-4 days riding back.
Thinking of some mountain passes, lakes, maybe blackforrest? Accommodation will be add-hoc aka airbnb so don't want to plan that as daily mileage will depend on how I feel.
any good tips for great places not to miss along the way?

thank you
joe

Our trips to Europe on a motorcycle are over the 150 mark and haven’t been over since Covid started in 19but still learning, so really only going scratch the surface in one post on here.

Never mind the route etc, make sure you have some good Kit cuz being miles from home and miles to go soaked to the skin is truely a learning curve, as per another post running on here...break down insurance...you want the one that brings the bike home and after a few glitch’s we use the RAC.

Euro travel eats bike tyres, go with either new or almost, god knows how many folk we have meet over the years scratting around for a bike shop to fit new ones cuz they didn’t realise how quickly they wore.

Read out your post to my other half, response was ‘He won’t do it’ and I agree, travelling Europe on a motorcycle avoiding motorways sounds great in theory, but with traffic/pedestrians etc you have to be switched on 150% all the time, at least motorways allows that concentration to be a little less.

Switzerland...you will need a Vignette you won’t get across without one and god help you if you get caught on a motorway without one.

Things to do and see, jeez there’s millions, but a funny story, we had been over the Grand St Bernard pass 5/6 times but just stopped for coffee and carried on, so thought it would be good fun to hotel it for the night...it turned into a bit of a horror story cuz trying to sleep with the air so thin  , but we remember it well to this day.

Oddly enough the camper with our two retrievers is on the horizon 😀

[RyanGTXR]

Originally Posted by Winger

Switzerland...you will need a Vignette you won’t get across without one and god help you if you get caught on a motorway without one.

Only need Vignette for M/ways and crossing Switzerland perfectly doable without, have done it several times, just be aware Swizz signs are coloured opposite to ours, Green M/way, Blue A roads, so easy to forget and follow green signs then get caught.

Personally I think you're being very optimistic though thinking Slovakia with no M ways in 3-4 days each way going Switzerland/Austria.
Trips me and mate have done, through France, Switzerland, pop into top of Italy (Stelvio / Bolzen), Western Austria and back, about 2500 miles, M-way over here and on last day in France to make tunnel otherwise all A and B roads, in 7-8 days, and we don't hang around.
It could be doable but you'd need to be going some and long hours in seat.

[mjojom]

thanks for the tips guys, as written above, usually do crossings in the car/camper, and to get to the eastern part of Slovakia it's about 30 hrs me driving on my own. I have time schedule that I like to meet (which could be shortened or extended depending on the circumstances) and want to do a bike trip with some nice roads hence I've asked for tips here. I'm very familiar with driving across Europe, done it loads of times so no need for the pointers there. If the time would be running out, I can at any point re join m-ways to meet my schedule. I am also not new to multi-day bike trips, wild camping etc.

now, does anyone have any good pointers for places to see, roads to be taken, passes to be ridden? are the mountain passes still open generally from the beginning to about mid-september?
now some of the guys here keep bragging about how many trips they did all over the place, yet couldn't come up with the single tip that I've asked for, maybe they only do the fantasy trips on the computer screen? 

thanks
joe

[RyanGTXR]

Basically ANY mountain pass in the Alps. Main ones - Furka, Susten and Grimsel make a nice loop of about 1hr 40. Then can go over Klausenpass heading towards Liechtenstein, only takes an hour to get through and you're in Austria and very close to Silvretta Strasse.
Yes the passé will be open, snow doesn't hit until bit later but it can be cold in the night / early hours.
Some passes are Toll, Above mentioned Silvretta Strasse being one but well worth the (when we last did it) 12 or 14 Euro

[bazzer]

As someone as mentioned the passes around Andermatt are not to be missed if you are passing by and can be done in an afternoon, that would be better use of time on the bike than fighting your way through 30KPH limits in villages just to avoid motorways.

On your way down the Ardennes and Vosges are great to pass through great roads and some cool scenery including the odd impressive castle.

Day 1 little motorway blast and then enter the Ardennes in Belgium, through there into Luxembourg and head down towards Metz and into the Vosges.
Day 2 From the Edge of the Voges across the Black forest down to Andermatt
Day 3 Do the Passes around Andermatt in the morning and then head across Austria into Slovakia ( This is where we run out of time as its a bit far to to the passes and get to Slovakia)

If you did it in 4 days you would have time to make sure you got on a lot of the iconic roads.

I know you probably know this but if you decide to go way north of this suggestion and into the Tyrol and across, a lot of roads now have noise restrictions and even a standard XR is too loud :-(

Keep us informed on the route you decide to take :)
 

[mjojom]

That looks much better already, thanks, guys.
I definitely going to have 4 days and maybe find the 5th one on the outward journey. I think it is better to keep passes and alps to the weekdays, as during the weekends they will be busier and policed more?
is it worth looping north to Luxemburg since Ardennes and Metz are in France,?

thanks
joe

[wessie]

Originally Posted by mjojom

That looks much better already, thanks, guys.
I definitely going to have 4 days and maybe find the 5th one on the outward journey. I think it is better to keep passes and alps to the weekdays, as during the weekends they will be busier and policed more?
is it worth looping north to Luxemburg since Ardennes and Metz are in France,?

thanks
joe

Why avoid France?

The Ardennes is a fairly large area that includes parts of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. If you look at the map of the border near Givet, you will see there is a long finger of France that penetrates Belgium, along the River Meuse. That finger has some of the best roads.

[bazzer]

Metz is nice city to overnight, but don't need to go though it if not stopping. I meant more in thay direction.

Ardennes has some great roads, not to be missed, a lot of them in Belgium and Luxembourg