It's time to start traveling overseas once again, why organise your own riding holiday when Edelweiss Bike Tours will take you on some of the most spectacular roads you'll ever see...
Want to tour some of the best roads in the world? The Edelweiss Bike Travel will take you through some of the most beautiful scenes you’ll ever experience. I couldn’t wait to get out there the second COVID-19 lockdowns lifted…
The Bear’s choice for a tour of the Alps. A BMW F 750 GS. pictured here in front of their base hotel.
“The unique furry petals and leaves of the Edelweiss hint at its romantic meaning, but it’s the white colour that gives it the symbolism of purity and innocence. It is widely used as a symbol of rugged individualism… due to its growth in the high altitudes of the Alps.”
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That sounds like getting a humble little flower to do a lot of different jobs. The Edelweiss seems to cope, though, and it is an appropriate symbol for Edelweiss Bike Travel. The largest motorcycle touring company in the world today, it is still based in the Austrian Alps where it ran its first trips.
The Alps are not all hairpin riding above the tree line. You still have some gorgeous forest riding…
Touring the Alps was the obvious choice for my first overseas ride after the lockdowns of COVID-19. Not only do I have a lot of experience with Edelweiss – this was my eighth trip with them – but the Alps are such an accessible and immediately rewarding motorcycle destination. You can’t put a front wheel out of a garage door without finding yourself on amazing roads in spectacular scenery.
“Touring the Alps was the obvious choice for my first overseas ride after the lockdowns of COVID-19… You can’t put a front wheel out of a garage door without finding yourself on amazing roads in spectacular scenery.”
Although I have called the Alps “accessible” there is still the 24-hour flight from Australia to Munich to contend with. After that it gets easier and more fun: after 24 hours to acclimatize, get over the flight and have a beer I just caught the A$10 bus for the hour-and-a-half ride to Seefeld in Austria where the motorcycle tour started.
Edelweiss lunch – the guides know all the best places to stop. A great opportunity to get to know some of the fellow riders too!
Edelweiss has a well-honed procedure for the beginning of a tour. A relaxed get-together mid-afternoon which includes a thorough briefing in whatever languages might be required is followed by the handover of the bikes. This is your chance to check that any damage to the bike has been noted on the handover sheet; there might well be a few scratches. After that it’s dinner, where you get an opportunity to get to know your fellow travellers.
They were all from the US in this case except for a Canadian bloke, and all the usual convivial North Americans overseas. I had been on tour with three of them before, and that gave the trip an even more convivial atmosphere.
You’ll meet some interesting characters from all around the globe. It’s like a Conktiki tour midlifers!
This ride was the Ultimate Alps Tour, which picks out many of the best passes and other Alpine roads. The first day was a pretty awesome sample: we tackled the Reschenpass, 1504 metres, the Stelvio, at 2758 metres the highest pass in the eastern Alps, the Passo d’Eira, 2209 metres, the Forcola di Livigno, 2315 metres and finally the Bernina Pass at 2328 metres. Each of the passes is different, with roads that range from a continuous succession of hairpins to long, gentle curves following the shape of the mountains.
“Edelweiss has a well-honed procedure for the beginning of a tour. A relaxed get-together mid-afternoon which includes a thorough briefing in whatever languages might be required is followed by the handover of the bikes…”
I have been known to disparage the Stelvio a little, but our guide Michaela introduced us to a new attraction at its top: Bruno’s hot dog cart. Bruno provides awesome rolls with as many as four hot dogs, and whether you go for the plain ones or the bratwurst you get value for money.
Yes, that’s the Stelvio Pass, the Bear said this is the least interesting bit to ride and that’s saying something!
Next day our guide was Daniel, who told us that we would be riding through the Swiss Motorcycle National Park. That’s an unofficial title, he admitted, but the ride made good anyway. The distance for the day between Pontresina, where we had spent the night, to our next overnight stop at Brunnen on Lake Lucerne was only about 100km, but the road distance was more than 330km. Pretty much all of the day’s ride was taken up by a string of passes including the Splügen Pass and the San Bernardino which is not especially high at 2067m but is also one of the most outstanding passes to ride.
After a ferry ride in the morning we had a gentle introduction to the western Swiss Alps before tackling the Susten and Furka passes. One attraction along here didn’t especially work for me: you can walk inside the Rhone Glacier, the start of the Rhone river, which is melting at an alarming rate. I didn’t fancy a long walk downhill to the canvas-covered entry. It looks more like a dishevelled tent from above. The view across the valley made up for it.
The bike lineup at one of the photo stops. An adventure riders absolute dream!
That night we stayed in Zermatt, a town that bans internal combustion engines. You park well outside and catch either a shuttle or the train into town. Once there, I didn’t actually think the lack of petrol engines made much difference – just me, just me. The air was nice and clear and the giant stone plinth of the Matterhorn that overlooks the village was as sharp as a dagger.
More amazing roads, more passes, more glaciers and lots more pleasant lunch breaks and evenings in quality hotels enjoying quality dinners (Edelweiss picks up the tab for these except on rest days) and we arrived for a rest day and then our last night on the road, in Bozen/Bolzano. The arrangement here is a little like Canada’s, except the languages are German and Italian instead of French and English. I headed off to see Oetzi, the ice man. Terrific display with good explanations, and you can see the man himself in a temperature-controlled chamber.
If you look closely you’ll see that the Italians deliver mail with electric Ducati power. Keeping it eco friendly!
The best of the passes waited for the last day with Timmelsjoch at 2509m. And not only that, there is a brilliant motorcycle museum at the top! Admittedly you have to pay to ride the pass, but it’s easily worth the 15 Euros. The museum costs the same, and it was impressive enough so I’ll write another story about it.
If you’re hanging out for some time on your (or someone else’s) motorcycle after the long COVID restrictions, I’d say you could do a lot worse than an organised tour – no worries, no need to put a lot of time into planning – and an Edelweiss Bike Tours trip would be an excellent choice.
Book in with Edelweiss Bike Travel here…
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