SF_STRS
Member
wheel_muse, did you start your tour in Austria? If so what airport did you fly into and how did you get form the airport to their locationWest of Innsbruck? was there an easy way or is it a train to bus to a taxi type of journey?
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Motorcycle Touring in Europe
- Thread starter SF_STRS
- Start date
WFO
When in doubt, gas it!
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2007
- Location
- Santa Cruz Mountains
- Moto(s)
- '12 Ducati Multi, '10 KTM 690 Enduro R, '10 Husaberg FE570
- Name
- Gerhard
I've done a few tours in Europe.
The first one was in Ibiza, Spain. I think it was 2004. I wanted to join this KTM adventure tour. Unfortunately, it was fully booked by a bunch of guys who belonged to an off-road club in Austria. I found out they had rented KTM 200s from a dealership in Eivissa. I got in touch with the dealership and found out that all the KTMs were booked for the duration of the tour, but there were Honda XR250s available for rent. So I booked it. When I picked up the bike, I asked where I could find the KTM group and was told to go to a go kart track nearby. I met their tour guide, Klaus Kinigadner, there and asked if I could tag along. He reluctantly agreed. The other guys didn't seem to care. The ride went well since I could speak German and could ride better than the club members. I would start at the back of the pack every day and work my way up as guys made mistakes enabling me to pass them without making any aggressive moves. This kinda pissed them off until I found a good road jump near a beach. After that I had their respect. Klaus turned out to be a pretty cool dude as well. I had the bike for nine days and I think it cost less than a Grand for the rental.
Then I went on an Edelweiss tour in 2011. It was a lot of fun, but it was also pretty expensive. One thing I disliked about it was the rigid schedule. The group of riders came from all over and it was nice getting to know them and ride with them. There was a bit of drama with this one couple; (The dude had some jealousy issues.) but otherwise, everything went smoothly. The only reason I would do another ride like this is if I felt the need for having a support vehicle to carry excess baggage which is usually unnecessary. IIRC, the tour was nine days and cost around $5,000. The cost included the bike rental, lodgings, breakfasts and dinners.
In 2014 I did a two-week tour of Spain, France, and Portugal with an old friend from high school. We rented a couple of Ducati Multistradas from a rental outfit in Madrid. We didn't make any plans except that we were going to ride to the Mediterranean and then go counterclockwise around the country. When we found a place we liked, we stayed for a few days and used it as a bolthole. Between destinations, we would find a café/bar/restaurant around 2:00 in the afternoon to take a break. Most places had wifi so we could go online and figure out where to stay for the night. This worked out quite well. The rental cost around a thousand bucks.
In 2022, I rented a 1260 Mutistrada from Edelweiss for three weeks. The cost was $2,600. I picked the bike up from their office in Mieming. I had some friends drop me off there. It took us about two hours to get there from Munich. I took off from there, rode over the Gerlos pass and met my cousin, who was on a KTM 690, at a hotel in Fusch. It took us four days to ride through Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. We stayed at some very interesting places in Slovenia and Croatia along the way.
The only lodgings I booked were in Croatia since I had made arrangements to meet my wife in Zadar. She was supposed to ride back with me to Munich, but had brought too much stuff with her. One day we went for a ride in the rain and she decided she didn't want to ride on the back of a bike all the way back to Munich. (It takes a few days.) I couldn't find a rental car online that would let us rent a car in Croatia and drop it off in Munich. Fortunately, the innkeeper came through and made arrangements for a rental car to be dropped off at the hotel for us. The rental agency sent up two guys to pick up the car in Munich once we arrived there. It was pretty painless. (It was actually kinda nice having her following me around since I was able to load the car with all of our stuff including the panniers from the bike.) The one thing that sucked was that the GPS device they gave me at Edelweiss had a faulty touch screen. By the time I got to Zadar, it had quit working. Luckily, I was able to find an electronics store which was able to get me another GPS device delivered in a couple of days. I installed it in the hotel garage and removed it once I got back to Munich. The only maintenance I had to do on the bike was adjust the chain once.
Edelweiss is nice, but they're expensive and their office is in BFE. The closest airport is Innsbruck. A bus ride takes about an hour and a half and you'll still have to walk fifteen minutes from the bus stop to their office. A taxi isn't cheap either. I dunno how well Über works there in Austria. (They have other ride-share apps too.) If you do one of their tours, you can meet them at the hotel where your ride starts. I did that and was able to take a train from Innsbruck, and then a taxi in the town of Seefeld. On their tours through the Alps, you will usually stay at motels associated with ski resorts. On our ride, the two Austrian tour guides were this father and son who were super cool. The dad was a former MX racer and the son raced supermotards. They were a lot of fun to ride with and had a very good pace.
There are many rental agencies in Europe. Knowing what I now know, I would shop for a relatively inexpensive rental that I would enjoy riding. That means it would be a new model that hauls ass. (Preferably a Ducati Multistrada since that is what I'm familiar with.) You can make arrangements for the pick-up and drop-off sites since bikes are easy to transport. It wouldn't surprise me if many of these rental agencies share a pool of bikes. The guy in Spain said he got the bikes from another agency near Barcelona. The bikes that Edelweiss used had plates from both Italy and Austria. At any rate, get a new bike so it won't give you as many problems as you could expect from riding an old beater.
Nowadays, it's really easy to just wing it on your route and destinations. If you have a good smart phone and a decent credit card, that's all you really need. Most places have wifi so you don't really need to worry about cell service. ATMs are everywhere. Just remember it's easy to blow through your dough on these trips, but the memories will last your lifetime.
The first one was in Ibiza, Spain. I think it was 2004. I wanted to join this KTM adventure tour. Unfortunately, it was fully booked by a bunch of guys who belonged to an off-road club in Austria. I found out they had rented KTM 200s from a dealership in Eivissa. I got in touch with the dealership and found out that all the KTMs were booked for the duration of the tour, but there were Honda XR250s available for rent. So I booked it. When I picked up the bike, I asked where I could find the KTM group and was told to go to a go kart track nearby. I met their tour guide, Klaus Kinigadner, there and asked if I could tag along. He reluctantly agreed. The other guys didn't seem to care. The ride went well since I could speak German and could ride better than the club members. I would start at the back of the pack every day and work my way up as guys made mistakes enabling me to pass them without making any aggressive moves. This kinda pissed them off until I found a good road jump near a beach. After that I had their respect. Klaus turned out to be a pretty cool dude as well. I had the bike for nine days and I think it cost less than a Grand for the rental.
Then I went on an Edelweiss tour in 2011. It was a lot of fun, but it was also pretty expensive. One thing I disliked about it was the rigid schedule. The group of riders came from all over and it was nice getting to know them and ride with them. There was a bit of drama with this one couple; (The dude had some jealousy issues.) but otherwise, everything went smoothly. The only reason I would do another ride like this is if I felt the need for having a support vehicle to carry excess baggage which is usually unnecessary. IIRC, the tour was nine days and cost around $5,000. The cost included the bike rental, lodgings, breakfasts and dinners.
In 2014 I did a two-week tour of Spain, France, and Portugal with an old friend from high school. We rented a couple of Ducati Multistradas from a rental outfit in Madrid. We didn't make any plans except that we were going to ride to the Mediterranean and then go counterclockwise around the country. When we found a place we liked, we stayed for a few days and used it as a bolthole. Between destinations, we would find a café/bar/restaurant around 2:00 in the afternoon to take a break. Most places had wifi so we could go online and figure out where to stay for the night. This worked out quite well. The rental cost around a thousand bucks.
In 2022, I rented a 1260 Mutistrada from Edelweiss for three weeks. The cost was $2,600. I picked the bike up from their office in Mieming. I had some friends drop me off there. It took us about two hours to get there from Munich. I took off from there, rode over the Gerlos pass and met my cousin, who was on a KTM 690, at a hotel in Fusch. It took us four days to ride through Austria, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. We stayed at some very interesting places in Slovenia and Croatia along the way.
The only lodgings I booked were in Croatia since I had made arrangements to meet my wife in Zadar. She was supposed to ride back with me to Munich, but had brought too much stuff with her. One day we went for a ride in the rain and she decided she didn't want to ride on the back of a bike all the way back to Munich. (It takes a few days.) I couldn't find a rental car online that would let us rent a car in Croatia and drop it off in Munich. Fortunately, the innkeeper came through and made arrangements for a rental car to be dropped off at the hotel for us. The rental agency sent up two guys to pick up the car in Munich once we arrived there. It was pretty painless. (It was actually kinda nice having her following me around since I was able to load the car with all of our stuff including the panniers from the bike.) The one thing that sucked was that the GPS device they gave me at Edelweiss had a faulty touch screen. By the time I got to Zadar, it had quit working. Luckily, I was able to find an electronics store which was able to get me another GPS device delivered in a couple of days. I installed it in the hotel garage and removed it once I got back to Munich. The only maintenance I had to do on the bike was adjust the chain once.
Edelweiss is nice, but they're expensive and their office is in BFE. The closest airport is Innsbruck. A bus ride takes about an hour and a half and you'll still have to walk fifteen minutes from the bus stop to their office. A taxi isn't cheap either. I dunno how well Über works there in Austria. (They have other ride-share apps too.) If you do one of their tours, you can meet them at the hotel where your ride starts. I did that and was able to take a train from Innsbruck, and then a taxi in the town of Seefeld. On their tours through the Alps, you will usually stay at motels associated with ski resorts. On our ride, the two Austrian tour guides were this father and son who were super cool. The dad was a former MX racer and the son raced supermotards. They were a lot of fun to ride with and had a very good pace.
There are many rental agencies in Europe. Knowing what I now know, I would shop for a relatively inexpensive rental that I would enjoy riding. That means it would be a new model that hauls ass. (Preferably a Ducati Multistrada since that is what I'm familiar with.) You can make arrangements for the pick-up and drop-off sites since bikes are easy to transport. It wouldn't surprise me if many of these rental agencies share a pool of bikes. The guy in Spain said he got the bikes from another agency near Barcelona. The bikes that Edelweiss used had plates from both Italy and Austria. At any rate, get a new bike so it won't give you as many problems as you could expect from riding an old beater.
Nowadays, it's really easy to just wing it on your route and destinations. If you have a good smart phone and a decent credit card, that's all you really need. Most places have wifi so you don't really need to worry about cell service. ATMs are everywhere. Just remember it's easy to blow through your dough on these trips, but the memories will last your lifetime.
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