Choosing a European motorcycle tour: Guided, self-guided, or going solo?

Back home from our first self-guided motorcycle tour, I realized that we have now done four European motorcycle trips through six countries, and have experienced three different rental riding options: solo, guided, and self-guided.

That raises an obvious question. If you're thinking of a motorcycle tour in Europe (or another destination abroad), which is the best option for you?

If you Google "motorcycle tours," the list seems endless. Add the country where you want to travel, and it is still pretty long. Watch out if you do this or you might end up, like me, down a deep rabbit hole finding more and more exciting places to ride. While each motorcycle tour company has its own routes, style, and pricing structure, your first and most basic decision is whether to rent a motorcycle and plan your own trip, take a guided tour, or do a self-guided tour.

The pros and cons of guided motorcycle tours

Our experience with Adriatic Moto Tours, based in Slovenia, highlighted some of the advantages of a guided tour. We chose the Alps Adriatic Adventure, a 15-day tour starting and ending in Ljubljana, traveling through Slovenia, northern Croatia, and the Dolomites in Italy. We felt lucky that there were only three bikes, each with passengers, plus our excellent guide, Dan. The small group worked well together.

The support van driver, Primož, was photographer, mechanic, and all-around great companion. He rode the spare bike with us on our free days and was there to notice that our Triumph Tiger Explorer had developed a leak. Not something he could fix on the road, so we were assigned the BMW R 1200 GS that our guide was riding. Dan continued the ride on the smaller spare bike for the rest of trip. This is the kind of service you can expect on a guided tour.

A guided tour takes all of the worry and planning out of your hands. You show up, get your motorcycle, and follow the leader. Your bags are delivered each day to your accommodations. A support vehicle with a spare bike, carrying the group's luggage, will accompany you on the journey. No need to cram everything into a top box and panniers. You have a built-in social group to share experiences with each day. Your guide will negotiate all the details along the way, recommend good restaurants, arrange interesting outings, and interpret for you if you don't speak the local language. The tour will definitely include some of the best local riding roads. Coffee and lunch stops will be part of the daily routine. Some dinners will likely be included.

If you choose to ride faster or slower than the group, the GPS provided to you will have preloaded routes to make sure you can find your overnight destination, where your bags will be waiting. Accommodations will often be in unique boutique hotels that showcase the local food and culture.

It's a pretty nice, stress-free way to travel and all you and your passenger (if you have one) have to do is show up for the morning briefing and enjoy the ride. If something goes wrong, your guide will be there to pick you up, dust you down, and set you on course again. I consider this to be the luxury form of motorcycle touring.

There are few downsides to this type of tour, but cost is one of them. Guided tours are obviously more expensive than winging it on your own. Although you will be getting good value for your money, you will be paying for all the work to organize, book reservations, and provide guides and support staff. Hotels and meals may be more costly than you would have chosen.

Once you set out, you could be riding with up to 10 other motorcycles, many with passengers. That's a big group to serve at the lunch stop and to muster after breaks. (Each company sets its own maximum number of bikes on a tour.)

There are the inevitable compromises of different riding speeds, abilities, and preferences. In some companies, as was the case with Adriatic Motor Tours, the guide will have a short test run with the group to get a sense of their abilities. On the tour, the slower riders will set the pace that most often the guide will maintain so that no one gets left behind. On big tours, each rider might be asked to take turns as the sweeper at the back of the pack.

Editor's note: If you're sold on the idea of a guided tour, see our tips on questions to ask when choosing a tour company.

If accommodating to the pace of the group doesn't suit your style, this is where you might want to take off on your own. Leaving the group to ride on your own, at a different pace from the group, is usually an option. But you should check with the company when you are booking, to see if they allow it. Or you might want to consider a self-guided tour.

The pros and cons of self-guided motorcycle tours

A self-guided tour has many of the benefits of a fully guided tour, but without the guide or support vehicle. You still have your accommodations pre-booked and routes planned and loaded onto your GPS. There will still be support from the company if you have a mishap on the road. You can ride on your own or choose to ride with a group of friends. Without a guide, you will figure out your own schedule, and choose rest stops or sights to visit along the way.

On a self-guided tour, there are no options for differently priced accommodations. But there are several different tours to choose from with detailed itineraries. Each tour comes as a set package with some route options loaded on the GPS and also outlined in the handbook. The difference in price depends on your choice of motorcycle. The bikes and related prices are clearly listed in the companies' websites.

This is the type of tour we did in Greece recently with some friends, booked through Moto Greece in Athens. Three bikes, three couples. We had never ridden together before, and only knew each other from the ski slopes in British Columbia, Canada. By the time we decided to join our friends, they had already done their research, and booked the 16-day Self-guided Peloponnese Peninsular & Central-Northwest Greece tour in mid-May. Because we booked late, the BMW F 750 GS was the only bike available, but it suited us fine.

From our first e-mail contact to our debriefing at the end of the 16 days, communications and service from MotoGreece were excellent. It is clear that the partners, John and John, who manage the company, are passionate about motorcycles and making sure their customers have the best riding experiences. The bikes, two BMW R 1250 GSs and our F 750 GS, were in great shape. The pre-loaded routes took us to places we would never have found by ourselves; seaside towns, mountain villages, ancient sites. Accommodations were excellent in a range of boutique hotels and forest lodges.

The info handbooks were really well put together, with detailed information and tips for our ride; maps, mileage, optional routes, hotels, and recommendations for restaurants and sights along the way. With these directions, we were able to stand on the spot where the Olympic flame was lit a month previously for the Paris Olympics and to ride the highest paved pass in Greece, with warnings to keep an eye on the unpredictable weather conditions. We were lucky and had a perfect day to see the views from the top of the Baros Pass. Tips on where to fuel up were invaluable, as we sometimes went for hours without seeing a gas station.

Most motorcycle rental companies offer a self-guided option. Compared to solo-riding, where you do all the planning yourself, this is a much easier way to go and it still gives you the flexibility to adjust your route and set your own daily schedule. The routes, accommodations, and interesting sights will be compiled by riders who know the roads and the area intimately. The cost will be less than a fully guided tour. But you are still carrying all your own gear.

Differences between guided and self-guided tours

For both guided and self-guided tours, the price depends on the motorcycle you choose, as mentioned above, and there's an extra charge for the passenger.

With most companies, both guided and self-guided tours include:

• Your chosen motorcycle with a top case (side bags included in self-guided tours)
• Third-party liability insurance
• Accommodations in three- and four-star hotels, including breakfast
• GPS with routes uploaded
• A printed handbook with maps and other information

In addition to the above, guided tours include:

• A tour leader on a motorcycle
• Support van to carry a spare bike, luggage, and up to two passengers
• Some dinners or lunches
• Airport transfers

Costs of guided and self-guided motorcycle tours

Prices range widely among the different companies and will depend on your choice of motorcycle and the location and length of the tour. Here are some ballpark numbers.

For a guided tour in Europe, prices for a solo rider and a mid-level bike range from $7,000 U.S. and upwards for a 12-to-14-day tour. A passenger will cost approximately another $4,000. Notably, we found that the MotoGreece cost for a passenger is considerably less than any other company's.

As a very rough guide, self-guided tours are approximately $2,000 less than fully guided for the same route.

For budget-minded riders, the cost of guided and self-guided tours might be more than they want to pay for a riding experience they could plan on their own. That's why many consider a do-it-yourself European motorcycle tour.

The pros and cons of planning your own solo motorcycle tour

I divide people doing solo tours into two types: the seat-of-the-pants, go where the spirit moves you type of riding and a hybrid, personally created self-guided tour.

The "go where the spirit moves you" riding is what so many riders love best, and Peter and I do this when we're at home. But when we're riding in a country where we don't speak the language and sometimes can't read the road signs (think Greece), we want a lot more prep before we set out.

Riding solo (renting a motorcycle only), putting together your personal tour in a foreign country, finding the best roads, the quaintest villages, and the scenic mountain passes, takes a ton of research and planning. The first time we rode outside of Canada, we rented a BMW R 1200 RT from IMTBIKE in Barcelona and planned an eight-day ride in Spain, mapping the roads and booking hotels ourselves. Being on our own schedule, we were able at the last minute to add a detour to visit a friend in Vitoria-Gasteiz, a small town north of Pamplona. Although we are experienced world travelers, we were pretty naive as international riders and I confess that I was still quite nervous on the passenger seat. So, what could go wrong? As it happened, nothing. The trip was pretty dammed awesome. And we were hooked.

During the pandemic, we had an agonizing amount of time to plan our epic five-week tour of Italy and Corsica. We loved the freedom of choosing our own times to ride and rest, and to change course if something else seemed more interesting.

We are both planners by nature and really enjoy doing all of the necessary research and organizing, so when we head out, it is a solo tour created by us. I am not sure how many people want to put that much time and effort into their vacation planning, however. And it does take a lot of time and effort. Not just the research and scheduling, but also the booking, confirming, and worrying about what might have been forgotten.

You can get more for your money, however, by doing that work. As a comparison to the costs of guided tours above, the total cost of our five-week personally planned trip in Europe in 2022, including bike, accommodations, and airfare, was $10,000.

I was surprised to find out how many people do the solo option. Bryan Lewis, CEO of Lemonrock Motorcycle Tours in Ireland told me that 50% of their customers who opt for rentals come from various international locations, such as Australia and Europe. The other 50%, mostly from the United States, opt for the guided or self-guided tours.

John Kapelakis at MotoGreece said that approximately 60% of their customers choose to go solo. He does have this caution for the renters: "Greece offers a very diversified landscape, and it is mostly a mountainous country. So, the road network is very complex, convoluted. The best riding routes are not on the radar of most publications and/or mainstream sources of information." That's why we were happy to do the self-guided tour in Greece.

Martina Malovhr at Adriatic Moto Tours reports that 70% of their customers book guided tours, 15% self-guided, and only 15% are renters. They have a wide customer base from around the world, but the majority are from the United States.

According to the tour companies I connected with, most riders have at least a rough itinerary and perhaps some accommodations booked, but usually not a complete, booked, and planned tour.

If you're a free spirit, the advantage of solo rentals is traveling where you want at your own pace. But you will be on your own, sometimes on lonely roads, miles from the closest town and gas station with only sheep or goats to keep you company. Having a phone that can be used in emergencies is essential. If your phone service doesn't already cover you out of your own country, get a sim card or e-sim.

Whichever way you go, do your research before signing up. Read the fine print. For a sense of the company's style and some useful tips, read their blog. Make sure you understand what is included in the price. How much insurance, road-side assistance, and other support is provided while you're on the road? Carry your passport with you at all times. Some countries require an international driver's license. Helmets are mandatory in all European countries, so don't leave home without yours.

Ready to ride? What will it be, solo, guided, or self-guided this time?