Swiss Alps and Austrian Tyrol Guided Motorcycle Tour

Nine nights across the Swiss Alps and the Austrian Tyrol, guided, from two base hotels with four free days built around them, and riders on their own bikes.

The Ardennes and the Vosges come first on the way out, where the Route des Cretes runs along the ridge for seventy-odd kilometres with almost no towns on it and the Col du Grand Ballon tops it off, then the Rhine Falls and the Bregenzerwaldstrasse into Tyrol, which is the first base.

The free days there are the point. One offers the Arlberg, Silvretta and Faschinajoch passes, or a loop into Italy and Switzerland by way of the Reschen, Stelvio, Umbrail and Ofen passes, which is as much pass riding as a day can hold. Another offers the Bavarian castles at Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau and Linderhof instead. Interlaken is the second base, reached over the Arlberg, Klausen and Susten passes, with free days for the Lauterbrunnen waterfalls and the Schilthorn cable car, used as a Bond location, and for the Grimsel, Furka, Susten and Sankt Gotthard passes.

Nine nights of bed and breakfast, eight evening meals and the return Eurotunnel crossing are included, along with GPX routes, a kit list and the daily itinerary; fuel, parking, admissions and the vignettes are not. Ten days with four free days in it is a generous allowance, and the choice offered on each one is what separates this from a fixed itinerary: a hard pass day or a sightseeing day, decided over breakfast. The high passes are generally open from late May to October.