The Essential Series
Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour Guides
Planning your next tour? Wondering where to go? Eager to ride, but dreading the planning?
We are here to make it simple. Use our smart summaries to choose your next destination, and our ready-to-book-and-ride guides for effortless planning — one Guide per country, with the research and the route work already done, so that all you do is book, and ride.
How it works
Plan less, ride more
Choose your country
We make clear recommendations: which country suits which kind of tour, and which month to go. Pick the one that fits the time you have, and download the Guide.
Book it
Work through the itinerary and book your rental bike and your beds from the links inside. Three price levels, already chosen. Do not forget the flights.
Prepare
The preparations toolkit is a to-do list: paperwork, licences, insurance, gear and a packing checklist written for that country’s weather. Work down it and nothing gets forgotten.
Fly and ride
Land, collect the bike, load the route files, and let the itinerary lead the way. Your own pace, your own coffee stops, your own detours.
Where to next
Choose your destination
Use our smart summaries to find the ride that fits: what makes each country worth the flight, how long the trip wants to be, which months it works and what kind of riding you will get.
All Guides include: Travel Guide, Route, Itinerary & Daily GPX files.
The Winter Getaway
Touring Gran Canaria on a Motorcycle
A continent in miniature four hours from northern Europe: desert, pine forest and a cloud sea in a single morning — with the family on the beach while you ride.
The Vertical Island
Touring Madeira on a Motorcycle
An island that rises almost straight out of the Atlantic — ridge roads, tunnels and laurel forest above the clouds, rideable in whichever month suits you.
The White Villages
Touring Spain on a Motorcycle
Andalusia’s white villages stacked on hillsides, empty inland roads and the Mediterranean at the end of them — Spain at its warmest when the rest of Europe is not.
The Other Continent
Touring Morocco on a Motorcycle
Africa three hours from Europe — High Atlas passes, red gorges and the edge of the Sahara, with mint tea waiting at the top of every climb.
The Exotic Expedition
Touring Vietnam on a Motorcycle
An old-school journey through limestone country and mountain villages, on roads where the day’s plan changes with the weather and nobody minds.
The Alpine Classic
Touring Italy on a Motorcycle
The passes every rider already has a photograph of — Stelvio, Gavia, the Sella Ronda — stacked close enough together to ride three of them in a day.
The Northern Coast
Touring Scotland on a Motorcycle
Single-track roads along an empty northern coastline, with the weather changing four times before lunch and a distillery whenever you need one.
The Carpathian Run
Touring Romania on a Motorcycle
The Transfăgărășan and the Transalpina in one week — Carpathian switchbacks, shepherds on the verge and prices that still surprise people.
The Jungle Loop
Touring Thailand on a Motorcycle
A hill loop through jungle and mountain villages in the cool dry season, on roads built almost entirely out of corners.
The End of the Road
Touring Patagonia on a Motorcycle
Gravel, glaciers and a wind that leans on you all day — the long ride to the bottom of the map, and the emptiest riding on this list.
Where East Begins
Touring Turkey on a Motorcycle
Cappadocian rock valleys, Roman roads and a turquoise coastline — two continents and about four thousand years in a single trip.
The Hill Country
Touring Sri Lanka on a Motorcycle
Tea country switchbacks, elephants at the roadside and a coast at either end — a small island that rides far bigger than it looks.
The Coastal Safari
Touring South Africa on a Motorcycle
Mountain passes, two oceans and open savanna in between, ridden in the southern summer while Europe is frozen.
The Roof of the World
Touring Nepal on a Motorcycle
Thin air, Himalayan switchbacks and villages a long way from anywhere — the hardest riding here, and the one people talk about afterwards.
The Big Empty
Touring Namibia on a Motorcycle
Gravel highways across a desert the size of a country, with dunes at one end, canyons at the other and almost nobody in between.
The middle way
Why these exist
Planning a genuinely good motorcycle tour takes weeks, and often months — especially if you want an immersive trip that shows you the real local culture rather than the top ten attractions. Have somebody else do it for you and it costs a fortune. There is a middle way, and this is it.
Planning it yourself
Weeks of evenings, sometimes months. A route app gives you a line on a map, not the news that the hotel is full by June.
A guided or fully booked tour
Everything arranged and everything paid for — several thousand euros, and the group’s pace rather than your own.
The middle way
The knowledge, the local insight and a finished plan — much of what a guided tour gives you, with nothing else decided for you.
One Guide per country
What every Guide gives you
Complete package: e-book, mobile-friendly itinerary plus GPX files.
The country in brief
What the place is, why it rides the way it does, and enough history and culture to understand what you pass.
Practical overviews
Weather, roads, daily life, festivals and the attractions genuinely worth your time, so you know what to expect.
The Golden Route
A complete day-by-day motorcycle itinerary at an enjoyable pace, joining the best roads with the places locals rate.
Turn-by-turn GPX files
One route file for every riding day — Garmin, TomTom, calimoto, Kurviger or your phone. Nothing to convert.
Mobile-friendly itinerary
The whole plan on your phone, so the day’s route, stops and bookings are with you as you ride.
Best motorcycle rentals
Named rental firms we would use ourselves, what to expect to pay, and which machine suits those roads. Including direct links to bookings.
Recommended accommodation
Well-regarded places to stay at various price levels, for a proper rest after the day’s ride. Including direct links to bookings.
Where to eat
Lunch stops and evening places along the route, chosen for the food rather than the view from the car park.
Preparations toolkit
Paperwork, licences, insurance, gear, hazards, budget, useful phrases and a packing checklist written for that country.
Not a trip report
Written from more than one saddle
There are surprisingly few motorcycle guides that give you an itinerary, a route and the files to ride it. The ones that do exist are usually an account of a single trip, and they tend to be designed more as a rally.
Ours are built the other way round. We gather what many riders, travellers and local people say about a country, and how to ride it in a way that is culturally immersive and enjoyable. That agreement becomes the recommendation, and from it the Golden Route for each country is built. What you get is, in effect, a custom-made tour guide — already made.
Who writes these
A family-run garage, not a publisher
We are the family running Norway’s best-rated motorcycle rental and touring company. We have ridden in a good many countries, and there are a good many more still on our list.
We know how much work it takes to research, plan and prepare a tour worth the flight. So we have been putting these Guides together carefully, with the same intention that started our small venture in Norway — to make quality touring accessible to a wider range of riders.
Who we wrote these for
Made for independent riders
You will love these if…
- You want a ride that shows you the country, not only its roads
- Four to five and a half hours in the saddle sounds like a good day
- You would rather ride for a week than research for a month
- You are happy booking your own bike and beds — just not finding them
Think twice if…
- Your idea of a good day is seven hours or more in the saddle
- You would rather not skip anything a country is famous for
- The planning is the pleasure, and you enjoy every hour of it
From our guests
What riders tell us
“Excellent customer service! They went above and beyond to help me choose the right Tour Book, and the quality is outstanding. It saved me days of planning and organizing, especially regarding the route and hotels.”
Jakub MendelGoogle review“Their E-guide gave me everything I needed to know to plan my motorbike journey. The easy to read guide gave me the confidence to embark into the unknown from the other side of the Earth (New Zealand). The maps of the best routes, places to stay and things to see were particularly useful and gave me the freedom to make it my own trip.”
Geoff CrozierGoogle review“Lots of information and tips, and suggestions on customising to our needs. All the routes and hotel recommendations were amazing. Would definitely recommend and use again.”
Glenn WoolaghanGoogle reviewWhat it costs
Priced by the length of the journey, so a five-day island loop costs less than a fortnight across Vietnam. You are paying for the research you do not have to do, and for beds and rental firms that have been chosen rather than guessed at.
| Guide | Price | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 5 days | 450 kr | ≈ €39 |
| 7 days | 650 kr | ≈ €56 |
| 10 days | 900 kr | ≈ €78 |
| 14 days | 1 250 kr | ≈ €108 |
Set against the flights, the rental and the nights away, a Guide is around one percent of what the trip costs.
Good to know
Questions riders often ask
What do I get when I purchase one of the Essential Guides?
A complete package for one country. You get the e-book, a mobile-friendly version of the itinerary for your phone, and one GPX route file for each riding day. The e-book covers the country, the practical overviews, the Golden Route day by day, and the preparations toolkit. You can download it all straight after payment, and we email it to you as well.
What are the Golden Routes?
A Golden Route is the route plan we build from the knowledge, experience and insight of many riders, both locals and visitors. It is the route with the best chance of suiting most people, planned so you enjoy the country both on and off the bike. It takes in the best roads, the best places and the best experiences, but it never sends you 500 kilometres down a motorway just to tick off one overrated tourist spot.
How does the booking process for the bike and accommodation work?
We provide carefully chosen motorcycle rental and accommodation recommendations, each with a direct link to the booking page. You just click and book.
What types of accommodation do you recommend?
They range from comfortable, well-tested places to stay to more unusual ones that are an experience in themselves. For every night there are several options at different price levels, so you can choose what suits you.
How do you select the motorcycle rentals?
We run a motorcycle rental ourselves, so we know what to look for. Some of the firms we know personally, some were recommended to us by other riders, and some we chose on consistently high customer reviews. All of them are reliable, seasoned professionals.
How many hours a day should I expect to be riding?
Around four to five and a half hours on most days, sometimes a little more. These are not rallies. The days are planned to be enjoyable both on and off the bike, so there is time left for lunch, a walk or a swim.
How current is the information?
We update every Guide once a year, but if you find something that has changed, please tell us and we will correct it right away.
Which navigation devices do the route files work with?
All of them. Each riding day is one standard .gpx file, so Garmin, TomTom, calimoto, Kurviger, Rever or your phone will read it. There is nothing to convert.
What is the level of difficulty of these routes?
It differs from country to country, and the level is stated on each Guide separately. In general these routes are safe for riders with at least two active years of riding behind them.
Why are the Guides so expensive?
Each Guide is several things in one download: the e-book, the route files and the mobile itinerary. Behind them is the research a guided tour operator charges several thousand euros to do for you.
Then why are the Guides so cheap?
Because we want good, culturally immersive touring to be within reach of more riders, not only those who can afford a guided tour.
Have you ridden all the roads yourself?
In all honesty, no. We have ridden many of them, but some of the roads in the Guides were ridden by other riders we trust. We still believe the packs are a reliable resource that saves riders a lot of time and money, and they keep getting better — through our own trips, and through the recommendations and verifications of our growing community of riders.
When are the next Guides coming out?
Sooner than George R. R. Martin finishes his last Game of Thrones book — that much we can promise. Joking aside, we hope to have all fifteen out by the end of 2027. We publish three at a time so that each one gets the attention it deserves.
What if the country I want to ride is not on the list?
Please do write and tell us where you would like to go — we always enjoy hearing it. We have kept the list to fifteen on purpose: each Guide takes a long time to research and to keep up to date, and we would rather offer a carefully chosen handful than a database nobody can find their way around. The list is not set in stone, though, and what riders ask for shapes what we work on next.
One more thing
We are only human
Each Guide holds hundreds of details about roads, seasons, prices and opening hours, in countries that keep changing. We check what we can, and now and then something will still be wrong.
If you find something, please tell us and we will put it right.
In short
Motorcycle routes, itineraries and tour books in one place
If you are looking for the best motorcycle destinations to ride in the world and a plan you can actually use when you get there, this is what the Essential Series is for. Each Guide is a complete motorcycle travel guide to one country: a day-by-day motorcycle itinerary, the routes that make the trip worth taking, GPX files for every riding day, and the practical detail — riding season, motorcycle rental, accommodation, budget, paperwork — that decides whether a tour goes well.
Self-guided motorcycle tours have always asked a great deal of the rider. Most motorcycle tour books are either one person’s account of one journey or a list of good roads with no itinerary behind them, and most route downloads are a line on a map with no idea where to sleep at the end of it. These Guides join the two together: a researched motorcycle route planned at an enjoyable pace, the roads a country is known for alongside the quieter ones locals ride instead, and every night of accommodation bookable from links inside the Guide.
Whether you are planning a winter motorcycle trip to Gran Canaria or Madeira, white villages and coast road in Andalusia, a week of alpine passes in Italy, the Transfăgărășan in Romania, the Atlas mountains and Sahara in Morocco, the Ha Giang loop in Vietnam or the long ride through Patagonia, the shape is the same — choose your country, download the Guide, book the bike and the beds from the links inside, then fly and ride. We are a motorcycle rental company in Norway, and these are simply the preparations we would want ourselves before flying somewhere new.
What comes next
Where should we ride next?
Fifteen countries are planned and we publish three at a time, so that each one gets the attention it needs. Morocco, Vietnam and Italy are next. Tell us where you would like to go, and we will write to you the day it is ready.
The research and the planning are done
All that is left is to book, and ride.