The Classic Alpine Adventure 

Classic Alpine Adventure Overview

The European Alps are, very simply, the most magical place in the world to ride motorcycles. Within their ramparts huddle villages and farms from the middle ages and winter resorts as new as tomorrow. The contrast of old and new is fascinating and amazingly comfortable. This tour focuses on that magic.

Motorcycles & riders are warmly welcomed

As the mountains in each of the Alpine countries differ, so do the people. For hundreds of years the inhabitants battled the elements and the land to wrest a living from these mountains. Today, for many of these hardy mountain folk, tourists are their lifeblood and are accommodated with pleasure and perfection!

There are mountains, glaciers, gorges, vineyards, waterfalls, hiking trails, picnic spots, gentle curves, switchbacks, tunnels and bridges, fortresses, castles, palaces, lakes, mountain streams, and both breathtaking and restful vistas. Enjoy scenes that could be straight out of Heidi or The Sound of Music. Imagine listening to the sounds of cowbells in mountain pastures; drinking in the landscape of wild flowers and the snow capped mountains; smelling fresh mown hay; tasting mountain grown vegetables and, from the top of a pass, almost touching heaven.

Dream about magnificent mountain riding on the finest roads in the world, awesome scenery, diet-shattering food, unique shopping opportunities and enough cultural overload to last a lifetime. It’s all there, providing a motorcyclists’ paradise.

Riding through Landsberg, Germany on a BMW F800GT

Welcome to Bavaria

Your arrival in Europe is planned to let you catch up with the time lost and be introduced to a new environment. Beginning and ending in Munich, the first day after arrival is a free day, allowing those who wish to ride the opportunity to do so. Or you may choose to spend time in the city of Munich, visiting the Olympic Park, the BMW Museum, maybe lounging in the Englischer Garten, or poking about the old town.

Like each free day on a Beach's tour, rides are suggested for those with a passion for moving! The Bavarian countryside is crisscrossed with lightly trafficked roads. A relaxing ride through the farming villages is the best way to become familiar with your new BMW motorcycle.

The scenery takes an exciting turn as the Alps come into view, dominating the horizon. The twisty roads in the foothills of the Alps only hint at the adventures to come.

The real introduction to mountain riding comes on the ride to Imst, Austria. Choose from the relatively wide, easy Fernpass or the narrow, wild Hahntenjoch. These high mountain roads that climb up and over the peaks offer unparalleled views and challenges to the rider. Indeed, it is only the second day of the tour and in every direction there are mountains!

A Paradise Of Alpine Passes

During the next few days, as you explore Switzerland, you may opt to ride the Klausen, Pragel, Brünig, St. Gottard, Lukmanier, Oberalp, Neufenen, Furka, Grimsel, or Susten passes, to name a few of the possibilities! These roads pass scenery that is—with no exaggeration—breathtaking. The villages on the pass roads depend on agriculture, and local farms blend into the landscape perfectly.

Riding the Klausenpass

A free day in Interlaken allows an opportunity to see the world from the top, with cable car or cog-rail train trips to the Swiss peaks. The infamous Eiger, as well as the Jungfrau, the Mönch, the giant, pyramidal Niesen and the Stockhorn are the “local” mountains, making the entire area a place of rugged beauty.

Riding to Sedrun means crossing Switzerland’s highest passes. It isn’t a long ride, horizontally anyway. It certainly is in a vertical sense, as the road climbs and descends in harmony with the land. The only way into Sedrun is over a pass—or four! Photo stops and picnic possibilities abound.

A picnic on the Klausenpass, Switzerland

Here we find ourselves at a cultural crossroad, as the language and customs change in each direction. Continue southwest to hear French spoken. Southeast for Italian. And, departing Blitzingen, the Swiss-German culture gives way to Swiss-Romanish upon entering the Engiadina valley. On the way, enthusiastic pass riders may conquer the Flüela, Ofen, Splügen, San Bernardino, Bernina, Abula, Maloja, or Julier passes.

Explore The Dolomites

Widely regarded as being among the most attractive mountain landscapes in the world, the intrinsic beauty of the Dolomites derives from a variety of spectacular vertical forms with contrasting horizontal surfaces rising abruptly above more gentle foothills. Some of the rock cliffs here rise more than 1,500 m and are among the highest limestone walls found anywhere in the world. The Classic Alpine Adventure follows the Dolomites from west to east. Better still, a free day right in the middle of them means that we wake up to an unforgettable view not once, but twice.

Austrian Towns Steeped In History

The Dolomites give way to Austria’s Hohe Tauern range, and to the country’s highest mountain. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road offers a taste of climes from temperate to Arctic in just a few hours of riding. We stay right on the mountain, under a magical night sky with almost no light pollution.

Passo di Giau - a great road set in a stunning location - the Dolomites

The mountainsides are dotted with farms and laced with tiny roads connecting them. No one knows these “little white roads” better than Rob Beach, who laid out all the routes for this tour. To follow “Rob’s Roads” on a day’s ride means miles of local roads. And it means finding yourself in places tourists, and often locals, never see.

There are many excellent choices to fill your day on the way to Salzburg, a city founded prior to 700 A.D. Once there, work your way through the millennia on an optional, and included, guided walking tour of the old city.

To the very end of the tour the riding remains first rate. Route possibilities on the last day are mountains, or remote local roads with no signposts at the intersections. Either way, like every other day on the Classic Alpine Adventure, it will be one to remember!