Thailand Extreme

Ten days through northern Thailand from Chiang Mai, which has a strong claim to the best motorcycling in Asia. The roads are well surfaced, endlessly bendy and run through jungle and hill country with almost no traffic.

Chiang Kham comes first, then a rest day at Nan, a quiet provincial town near the Laos border with a distinctive temple tradition of its own. Chiang Khong follows, north to the Mekong and the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and which was for decades the centre of the world’s opium production.

The riding gets interesting after that. The run to Tha Ton follows former smuggling trails through jungle along the Myanmar border, then Mae Hong Son, and then Pai by the road locally known as the road of a thousand curves, which is not an exaggeration: it carries well over seven hundred numbered bends in about a hundred kilometres. The return to Chiang Mai closes the loop.

This is a RIDE4FUN Extreme tour, so the emphasis is firmly on riding rather than on hotel polish, though the accommodation is described as having regional character. Edelweiss include a BMW F900 GS, the nine nights, a guide 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 asking for before booking. Prices are per person for 2026. At 3,850 euros for ten days, with the bike included, it is one of the better value tours in the catalogue, and the northern Thai winter is dry and warm at exactly the time of year when Europe is neither.