Alps Riding Academy

Not a tour but a course, and a rare one. Six nights based at Collalbo in South Tyrol, learning to ride Alpine mountain roads properly under a professional instructor whose own record includes the Isle of Man TT and motocross at world championship level.

The structure is the point. The week opens with low-speed basic skills practice in a closed environment, which is where the unglamorous work gets done, and then moves onto real mountain tarmac. On the day rides the group changes riding order frequently so that everyone spends time at the front, in the middle and at the back, each of which demands something different. The teaching covers cornering lines, hairpin technique, braking including downhill and in the wet, blind corners and the narrow unlit tunnels that catch out riders new to the Alps.

Midweek the course decamps for two days to Lake Garda and back, which takes the new technique onto different road surfaces and gradients rather than letting it settle into one familiar valley. Hairpins are the skill most riders arrive wanting to fix, and the roads above Collalbo supply an almost unlimited quantity of them.

Edelweiss include a choice of BMW motorcycle, hotel accommodation quoted as four star, the structured tuition from a certified instructor and a tour book. Flights are separate and the inclusions are not itemised in full on the operator’s page, so the detail is worth confirming. Prices are per person for 2026. Anyone who has ridden the Alps and come home knowing they were slower and more tired than they should have been will get more out of this week than out of another pass-collecting tour, and the skills transfer to every ride afterwards.