To make the decision easier, we have collected the personal experiences of our tour guides in one place about what they like about a certain tour, the biggest difficulties, and all in all which tour is recommended for whom and why.
MONGOLIA
Time travel on a motorbike on the Mongolian steppe
Difficulty level: 3/5
Conditions and required experience
Medium motorcycle driving knowledge, thorough field experience. We ride about 1,200 kilometers, 80% off-road and 20% on asphalt. The terrain is extremely varied, with sand, grass, dirt roads, mud and plenty of river crossings.
Motorcycle
The 150cc, light and easy to handle Shineray Mustang enduro is the number one means of transport on the Steppe.
Why Mongolia
There is no better place in the world for off-road biking. In the least populated country in the world, distances are huge and you only meet a very few people on the way. Thus there are not many roads around, so we can practically ride wherever we want. Even our local tour guides, with a great local knowledge, often have to ask a nomadic family where they would cross the river meandering right next to their yurt.
The closeness to nature and freedom provided by the abundance of animals, few people and virtually zero built environment takes the hospitality of the locals to the next level. As there are almost no tourists in the country, the majority of rural Mongols are very fond of guests. They tell their life tales with sincere enthusiasm, offer vodka made from horse milk, take you for a ride or share their shelter.
Accommodation and board
With the exception of Ulaanbaatar and one or two of the larger cities, there are no hotels, more precisely the hotel rooms are yurts, and one of the larger yurts is the hotel’s restaurant or bathroom. To enhance the authentic experience, we spend a few nights with nomadic families who typically set up 2-4 yurts for random guests next to their own yurt. Each yurt has an iron stove, a thick blanket and comfortable beds. Moreover, we usually go wild camping one of the nights, because waiting around the campfire to get the yak stew ready in the kettle, at the foot of a sacred mountain under a million stars is a very special experience.
Summary
Our motorcycle tour in Mongolia is meant for those who are attracted to the nomadic lifestyle, Mongolian culture, socialist heritage. You see off-road riding as an exciting adventure and perfect means of transportation rather than a fierce technical sport. The only difficulty in riding here is the various terrain, but it’s easy to get used to the light little motorbike. The traffic hazards are negligible, so the tour is also recommended for those who rarely ride a motorcycle in everyday life.
Himalaya
Riding the highest motorized passes in the world
Difficulty level: 4/5
Conditions and required experience
Advanced driving knowledge: you can ride safely for 6-10 hours in variable temperatures, you won’t be intimidated by non-European traffic standards (and left-hand traffic), mud and more shaky dirt roads are no problem, you have relevant big motorcycle riding experience. We ride about 1,500 kilometers, 80% on asphalt and 20% on dirt roads.
Motorcycle
Royal Enfield Bullet 500 or new Himalayan 400 engines
Why the Himalaya
Riding through the highest passes in the world puts even the most intrepid travelers to the test, but these are the experiences from which lifelong memories are born. Our first and most popular motorcycle trip to date, not by accident. This is a land where travelling alone would be dangerous and complicated to explore, and the motorbike is the most suitable means of transport to complete the route. If you are attracted to mountains, it is almost a sacred experience to ride through winding mountains of 6,000 to 7,000 meters for two weeks. The area’s traditional Buddhist culture and thousand-year-old monasteries are also magical.
Accommodation and board
We will stay at comfortable and clean hotels up to European 3* standard, with spacious twin rooms most of the time. We sleep in tent camps set up in a few places (about 3 times in total along the way), which are typically in areas of stunning natural beauty and are perfect for a good night’s sleep.
Every morning and evening, the hotel’s restaurant serves traditional Indian dishes in buffet style. For lunch, we take hot soup, ginger tea or fried rice in the small buffets along the way.
Summary
You can easily call our motorcycle tour in the Himalayas an expedition. Although all the necessary preparations and organization are done by our office, and quite a big staff (5 guides per 15 riders) help you on the spot to get to the destination safely, riding along the tour is a great achievement, at the end of which you will experience very pleasant physical fatigue and mental recharge. We are not going to a tourist paradise, but to the highest mountains in the world and a cultural environment completely different from ours.
The main difficulty is that we ride a lot and for a long time, not on the best quality roads, spiced up with traffic situations that sometimes seem crazy. Lightness is that the motorbike is very handy, low, high torque, but not powerful, and we typically don’t cover huge distances per a day.
Tanzania
Discovering wildlife in Africa on an off-road motorcycle combined with a tropical vacation
Difficulty level: 4/5
Conditions and required experience
Advanced driving knowledge, off-road practice: you can ride safely for 6-10 hours in any terrain, weather. We ride a total of about 1,000 kilometers, mostly on gravelly, sandy, loose ground.
Motorcycle
We mostly use Honda CRF 250 L and XL 250 motorbikes around Kilimanjaro, and Royal Enfields in Zanzibar.
Why Tanzania
We have long been looking for a motorcycle destination where we can travel from European winter to summer, as our Himalayan and Mongolian tours are all only possible in summer. Africa has attracted us for a long time, mainly because of its exciting wildness and its completely different climate from Europe, but also because of its time zone being close to ours. And the reality of using the off-road motorbike as means of transport on this continent is unquestionable. As an inspiration for the adventure, we recommend to everyone to watch the road movie of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who ride from the northern tip of Africa to the south.
Tanzania is one of the most diverse and secure countries in Africa. Here is the Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Park, and near Kilimanjaro you can experience several seasons in one day. And after a tiring off-road ride, who wouldn’t want to rest for a while – it is hard to find a better place than Zanzibar for some relaxing days. You can easily explore it by motorbike in 1-2 days, and its beautiful white sandy beaches and comfortable resorts provide the perfect way to end the adventure.
Accommodation and board
Out of our motorcycle tours, our accommodations in Tanzania are of the highest standard. Upon arrival, we stay at a Bauhaus villa in Arusha, in the middle of a 17-hectare ancient wooded park, built in 1936 and tastefully preserved and renovated ever since. While riding in the savannah, we sleep in luxury tent camps and bungalows as they are called here. In Zanzibar, an oceanfront 4-star eco resort offers the highest level of comfort.
The staff of the accommodation cooks delicious and hearty dishes with an Eastern and African influence, but mainly Western dishes, and in Zanzibar we eat and drink in beach restaurants and bars.
Summary
Our motorcycle tour to Tanzania is a luxurious safari holiday with physical challenges and excitement. The difficulty is off-road riding around Kilimanjaro, the easier part is that it only takes 4 days (riding in Zanzibar is already easy) and the accommodation is very comfortable.
A little taste of our adventure in Tanzania, watch the video!
Our further plans
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In addition to our three major tours above, we tested and approved a tough enduro “training camp” in Portugal last year, which we recommend primarily to those who consider off-road riding (also) a sport.
We’re also getting ready for a big classic, with Harley Davidsons to visit the most spectacular national parks near the west coast of America in the fall of 2022.
And in September we are preparing for our first adventure, where you can apply with your own engine. We are organizing a special and hopefully traditional veteran rally race on the winding roads between Budapest and the Bay of Kotor.
And whoever was expecting South America, let him not worry, which is not overdue, in 2023 he will go to Peru.
