Planning my (first) Euro tour, advice welcome

[Maverick9999]

So I've been umming and ahhing about this for a long while trying to find friends to go with and never gotten round to it so I've decided to just do a euro trip on my own and see if I like it. I've already booked May 3rd to 12th off so it should give me 10days to play with with an average of about 250miles each day so it's not a rush. I've already gotten some tips from another thread I created but have been recommended to ask on here as it's more relevant.

The plan is the following:

May 3rd

Early morning eurotunnel (get to Calais @9:30, ride like the wind)

Into Belgium toward Namur trying to get to La Roche en Ardenne (stay somewhere local and rest up)

May 4th

Ride through Luxembourg to Munster (sample D417 Munster-Geradmer and D11 Trois Epis)

Get to Zurich and set down here for the night


May 5th

Ride to Furka and Grimsel and enjoy the roads there, take in the sights before double backing and riding to Cortina via Innsbruck, Austria.

May 6th

Ride to Venice, explore. Then to Bologna, sample the pasta for Lunch and get to Florence that night.

May 7th

Rest day, exploring Florence. Ride around Tuscan hilltops.

May 8th

Set off along the coast via cinque terre and head to Genoa


May 9th
Ride to Monaco for the day

May 11th

Ride back to Milan, spend the day with friends. Ride out to Geneva in the afternoon. Possibly via Lake como.

May 12th

Ride from Geneva back to Calais for 7pm train

Get home, go to work next day dreaming of another Euro trip...

The trip looks like this:

http://i1141.photobucket.com/albums/n598/Maverick1182/Eurotrip2014_v2_zps924e1333.png (http://s1141.photobucket.com/user/Maverick1182/media/Eurotrip2014_v2_zps924e1333.png.html)


Where I'd appreciate advice would be if people know good routes to ride on the trip so I can fine tune the route and any must-sees/rides would be great.

I've listed the trip again here for people to insert comments in between lines


May 3rd

Calais
Namur
La Roche en Ardenne
Luxembourg

May 4th

Luxembourg
Munster
D417 Munster-Geradmer
D11 Trois Epis
Zurich

May 5th

Furkapass
Grimsel
Innsbruck
Cortina

May 6th

Corina
Venice
Bologna
Florence

May 7th

Florence.
Tuscan hilltops.

May 8th

Cinque terre
Genoa


May 9th
Genoa
Monaco
Milan

May 11th

Milan
Lake Como
Geneva

May 12th

Geneva
Calais



Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

The other thing I'm mulling over is whether I can manage this on my GSXR750 or whether people recommend I get something like a BMW F800GS for the trip to avoid being in agony after the miles...

[carelesschucca]

Just thinking about Venice and your luggage, you'll need to leave the bike alone on the mainland for a good few hours while you get the local ferry over have a nice look about and get back. But it'll be so worth it.


Have a look at http://dangerousroads.org/ for some ideas of wee extras you can take on your trip. Its kept me entertained for hours.


The trip looks epic you'll love it.

[Maverick9999]

Wow, FurkaPass is going to be interesting!

Thanks for the info on Venice. Will bear that in mind!

[Luckypants]

You may be being a bit ambitious with mileage for your first trip, but as I don't know you I don't know how many miles you normally do in a day, other multi-day trips you have done etc. I will say to be on guard against to many miles in a day. Allied to this, don't make your schedule set in stone, riding to get to a certain somewhere by a certain day can make for a hard trip you don't enjoy - be flexible and listen to your body, stop when you need to to not when the schedule says you can.

Relax, be flexible and you will have an awesome trip. Italy is on my list of must do rides....

[Purity14]

Pretty much did this trip myself two years ago.
Last year I did Serbia, Romania(Transfargen) etc.

Advice? Well I travel alone, so my advice might be different.

Rule 1, Don't make plans.
Rule 2, Don't set mileage Goals.
Rule 3, Don't fall out.
When traveling with friends, They will want to stop. Eat. Drink. urinate. Chill. - You wont - Or vice versa, avoid falling out.
Following rules 1 and 2 helps avoid this, this is why I travel alone.

Rule 4, When traveling very long motorway distances, you will not arrive at your destination faster by riding faster.
You will consume petrol at a ridiculous rate, meaning you will require stopping for fill ups more frequently.
My longest day on a bike has been 17 hours, from Auschwitz in Poland, to Calais, I sat on the motorway doing ~220kph for hours on end, stopping only for fuel and sandwiches. I dropped my speed to 130kph and my average speed went up on my gps.

Rule 5, Temperature & Dehydration.
Going that far south involves heat. Wearing full leathers? You'll hate it. You wont see anyone else wearing leathers. You wont enjoy your trip.
Alps areas are cold, Waterproof boilinthebag one pieces suits are the way forward here - they will keep you dry when it rains, and warm when its cold, they pack very small too.

If you go during summer - prepare for heat.
Hottest Ive ridden in was 46c in Romania - Drink loads of water. Eat watery food (Watermelons)
Tip: Obtain water, and make all your clothes soaking wet. - Enjoy the windchill effect. At 40+c it will be dry in 20 minutes.

I wore MX Boots(Safe ankles), Leather pants with sliders(Safey and fun), and MotoX Armour with a shirt over it, with the arms cut off (collar keeps the sun off)
Perfect balance imo.
http://i59.tinypic.com/24l7axx.png


Rule 6, Keep your keys safe, keep a spare key.
Rule 7, Have another method of payment, some places don't accept visa. Only MasterCard.
Rule 8, Dont use prepayment foreign exchange cards on unattended fuel pumps.
Rule 9, Don't make plans.

Enjoy yourself, Furka pass is amazing :)

[Dipper]

Great advice Purity 14, I went to Croatia last year, wearing a mesh suit with thin base layers adding a microfleece top to if if got cold and a all in one waterproof if that wasn't enough.

If you're planning on camping at all POI's for the whole of Europe can be downloaded here. (http://www.archiescampings.eu/eng1/)

[Winder]

Im a technology spaz Dipper, how does this POI campsite thingmabob work then?
Just plug a sat nav in and select the countries you want and that's it?

And i agree, too much planning just makes you feel like you have a schedule to keep. Have a rough plan and some bits marked on a map that you would like to see.

[dyzio]

Just one thing to add to the above... will the Furka Pass be open on the 5th of May?

Also, it does seem like an awful lot of miles, I'd cut out Florence and play between Venice and Milan (Dolomites), but as above...

No, you don't need a bmw (I'm prejudiced), but can you ride day after day after day? On the mountain roads, 250 miles is quite a bit.

But then again, I've managed to do Istanbul an a Daytona...

[Runako]

Just go out there and be safe. Two schools of thought for me to add. On a similar line to what Purity said, plans set in stone are only for going wrong and causing stress. The other school of thought is plan realistically and methodically and everything will be a breeze. I have never seen it happen the second way. Especially not the first time.

As its your first trip, the most benefit will be to just go out there and find your own way. Then, next time, you'll have a far better idea of what works or doesn't work for you. I took the SV around France and Spain and did huge miles and it was no problem. Reason for the miles is refusal to do motorway and heading for any interesting looking mountain road.


Those were by far the best bits - the kind of "off piste" moments were you're just along for the ride with no real agenda and a loose sense of direction towards the next checkpoint.

Most of all, relax and enjoy it. All the advice is useful but no one can teach you how to have a good time. So find your own path and forget about everything else whilst you're enjoying it. There is really nothing like a good bike tour.

[Niall_farley]

Iv done it a couple of times by car but yet to on bike. I agree with @runako, when I went a few years ago via the ring we went 'off piste' just heading in what we thought was around the right direction in the Eiffel mountains and wow you come across some breath taking roads.

One imparticular sticks in my mind it was (boringly enough) a arrow straight road out of a village in Luxembourg, it was set probably 7 foot above a yellow field and it dropped of each side with no fence, just road and drop into field, it was a beautiful day it was slim road (couldn't get two cars down it had passing points) sun shining and you couldn't see the end of the straight just open it up and wow

This then passed into some amazing mountain roads which left my tyres covered in snotters and my breaks stinking and boiling!

Not to mention there was very very little traffic I think we went half hour without seeing a car sometimes in the twisties

Do it, have fun and again be flexible I noticed lots of little places where I just thought... Wow I could stay here for the night. So many beautiful places you won't know where to stop and your stops may seem boring in comparison

I'm hoping to maybe get a week or ten days this year if I can scrape the money together.

(Fill up in Luxembourg as well it's slightly cheaper than other places)

[Doinitmyway]

Brain and wallet now engaging and thinking of Eurotrip in last week of August, first in September. Once you go out there once you will want to be going out there again and again and again... Like others have said, don't plan too much as you will rush to meet your own deadlines, you will think you cant stop and rest or look at the stunning views etc etc. Take it easy and remember the RIDE is the holiday :D Another little saying my dad said to me was 'fuel the bike - fuel the rider'.
Chris

[Purity14]

And no furka pass will be closed in may.. Youll be lucky for it to be open in early june too!!

[Maverick9999]

Thanks for all the advice guys, will bear it in mind. Also good heads up on Furka though I was looking forward to it from the photos :( Maybe another euro trip for that then!

[Skybaba]

So how did the trip go?

[STRAMASHER]

Ol' Pokey and the bike crushed for no hiviz helmet stickers en France.














Mibeez?:)

[Skybaba]

Brain and wallet now engaging and thinking of Eurotrip in last week of August, first in September.
Chris


Where are you off to this time?

[NTECUK]

Ok 20 15.
What's the hot destinations
I think I am going to cheat and join one of the organised tours.
Rooms and route all sorted.

[allantheboss]

I drove London to Rome in September in 12 days, stayed with friends every night but one. I wouldn't want to have driven any more than I did, and you're planning to do more than double what I did. I would strongly encourage spreading it out over a longer time or trying to squeeze in less.

[Niall_farley]

I'm going June 20th - July 5th

Only rooms booked so far is two nights nurburgring after that I think it's a turn up and book kinda thing so we ain't rushed and we can go where we want when we want :)

Rough itinerary

Belgium (breakfast waffle and hot choc)
Luxembourg
Germany
Switzerland (stelvio pass)
Italy (few nights lake garda/como and slightly further down)
Make our way home maybe if have the time go via Amsterdam and see the red light sights.... But that's only a IF!

Really looking forward to it :)

(Also the reason for the wanted add for the top box and rack)

[theenglishman]

Ride to Venice, explore. Then to Bologna, sample the pasta for Lunch and get to Florence that night.

Venice in a morning? If you're going to ride all the way to Venice at least spend a full day there. Medievals built a city in the middle of a lake, because they had the cash. It's a stunning place that deserves more than an hours visit.

Like others said, have vaigue goals and just go where you please. Then when something you didn't plan for happens (puncture, hangover, seriously hot chick takes you home) you're not cutting something out.

[Niall_farley]

Venice in a morning? If you're going to ride all the way to Venice at least spend a full day there. Medievals built a city in the middle of a lake, because they had the cash. It's a stunning place that deserves more than an hours visit.



Like others said, have vaigue goals and just go where you please. Then when something you didn't plan for happens (puncture, hangover, seriously hot chick takes you home) you're not cutting something out.


I'll be staying at lake Garda and going over to Venice :) only a few miles! Visit a couple of times maybe spend a night there and have a good pish up!

Bring on the summer!!! :D

[SvNewbie]

Get a GPS, even if just a budget car one and some kind of holder. I rode across Belgium / Germany (was a little tour tacked onto the end going to the Belgium GP) and spent quite a bit of time lost due to the rest of the world not signing anything properly (actually, Germany isn't bad to be fair). Normally in the UK I enjoy navigating by map and intuition but when you have just found out that you have gone 20 miles in the wrong direction due to missing a turn and / or the confusing EU route numbers vs the local ones it's rather annoying.

That said, some of the most fun I had was when I got side-tracked and found myself riding the road up the side of the Rhien towards Koblenz which was full of motorbikes and very obvious motorbiking spots.

I'd drop some of the 'places it would be nice to visit' off the list e.g. Monaco. Concentrate on making the journey and the roads memorable, you can hit those places up for next to nothing if you book a flight far enough in advance.