Bavaria Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

Seven nights in Bavaria, self-guided, based at Fussen for four of them, which RideWithUs list among their longest-running tours.

Vianden and the Black Forest come first on the way out, then Fussen by way of Lake Constance, Warth and the Lechtal valley, which is a good deal more interesting than the motorway alternative. The German bakery stops on the way out and back are a RideWithUs habit rather than an accident.

Two free days follow. The first covers the castles: Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig II grew up, Neuschwanstein, which he built and never finished, and Linderhof, the only one of the three he lived to see completed, with Queen Mary’s Bridge above the gorge for the view of Neuschwanstein that appears on every poster. The second runs to Oberammergau, which has staged a Passion Play once a decade since 1634, Ettal Abbey and its brewery, the Starnberger See, and a stretch of the Romantische Strasse.

Seven nights of bed and breakfast, four evening meals and the return Eurotunnel crossing are included, along with the GPX routes, the kit list and the itinerary; admissions, fuel, parking and the vignette are not. Eight days from a single base with two free days is a gentle schedule, and this is the least demanding tour in the range: no high passes, short daily distances and a castle at the end of most of them. Spring and autumn are the better seasons, since the castles are very busy in July and August, and the castle tickets are timed and want booking before the dates are fixed.