Austrian Alps Self-Guided Motorcycle Tour

Nine nights deep into the Austrian Alps, self-guided, with two free days and a great deal of choice on each, and riders on their own bikes.

Vianden and the Black Forest come first, with the B500 and Lake Mummelsee, then the Austrian Tyrol over the Arlberg by way of Lech, Zurs and Sankt Anton, and the Salzburg region over the Gerlos Pass with the Krimml waterfalls on the way, the highest in the country.

The first free day is the hard one: either a run of passes on the B99 and the Nockalm and Maltatal roads with an extension into Slovenia, or the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which has thirty-six hairpins and looks across to the Pasterze glacier, with the Timmelsjoch after it. The second is for Salzburg and the Mozart sites, Hallstatt and its salt mines, or the Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden. Bavaria and the Chiemsee follow on the way home.

Nine nights of bed and breakfast, seven evening meals and the return Eurotunnel crossing are included, along with the GPX routes and the itinerary; fuel, parking, admissions and the vignettes are not. Ten days with that much optional riding is more a menu than an itinerary, which suits a self-guided tour. The Grossglockner charges a toll and closes overnight and out of season. Austria is also the easiest of the Alpine countries to ride in: the surfaces are excellent, the tolls are modest and the mountain roads carry less traffic than the Swiss equivalents, which is part of why this tour has stayed in the range so long.