Himalaya Motorcycle Tour

Thirteen nights through Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, guided, on a Royal Enfield Himalayan over the highest motorable passes in the world.

The altitude here is genuinely extreme. The route crosses passes above five thousand metres and reaches one at around five thousand eight hundred, where the operator advises staying no more than twenty minutes and moving as little as possible.

Delhi opens it with two nights, then an overnight bus to Manali. Acclimatisation comes first, then the Manali to Leh route, climbing through pines and waterfalls into high mountain terrain, and after the second five-thousand-metre pass into a landscape of purple, red, brown and grey ridges with lakes like green dots between them. Leh takes a pause at 3,200 metres, a Buddhist town known as Little Tibet and a hub for climbers from everywhere. A five-day mountain loop follows: Lake Pangong at 4,350 metres, which freezes solid in winter and stretches east across the de facto border, then Hanle, home to one of the world’s highest observatories, the high pass itself, and Tso Moriri at four thousand metres with its migratory birds.

Two nights in a five-star Delhi hotel, seven in three-star hotels and guesthouses, three in glamping tents and one on the night bus, nine days of new Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 rental, a local tour guide, a back-up van, a mechanic and an experienced operator guide are all included. Mid-July and early August are the departures, which is the only window the passes are open. Fourteen days on a bike at these heights asks a great deal of a rider, and the acclimatisation days at the start are not padding but the reason the rest of it works. It is also the cheapest thing in this operator’s long-haul range.