This is the length most riders settle on, and there is a reason for it. Eight days gives you six riding days once arrival and departure are accounted for – enough to cross a mountain range properly, or three or four borders, without the trip turning into an expedition that eats your whole year’s leave.
It is also the point where a tour stops being a long weekend and starts being a proper journey. You settle into a rhythm around day three, the group knows each other by day four, and by the end you have covered two thousand kilometres of roads you would never have found alone.
Multi-country routes become realistic. Our Balkans tours in this range cross Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia in a single loop, riding from the Adriatic coast to peaks above two thousand metres and back. In Greece, the same length takes you from Athens through the Pindus mountains and down to the Ionian coast.
In Romania, eight or nine days is enough to ride the Carpathians thoroughly rather than sampling them – the Transfagarasan, the Transalpina, and the passes in between, with time left over for the places worth stopping in.
Expect five to seven riding days depending on the tour, with daily distances between 250 and 350 kilometres on the on-road routes and considerably less on the off-road ones, where the terrain sets the pace.
Some tours in this range include a rest day, which sounds like a luxury until you have ridden five hard days in a row. It is there so you arrive at the last day still enjoying it.
Hotels with breakfast, dinners including welcome and farewell meals, airport transfers at both ends, an experienced guide, the motorcycle with full insurance, 24-hour technical support and a support van carrying the luggage.
Maximum eight motorcycles per group. Prices are per person and include the bike.
8 days
