Edelweiss Tours

Wife and I were thinking about perhaps this coming year , or the next one, to go on one of these motorcycle tours offered by Edelweiss.

Like this one: https://tinyurl.com/4xza4r

Wondering if anyone here has gone on one of their tours and has any opinion on them. As my wife does not ride, we would be traveling two up, so from the list of available bikes the Honda ST sounds like the way to go for us..(they do not offer the FJR !!!)

Our prefered destination is Italy, so if anyone has experiance with that specificly it would be great.

Knifemaker

I am sure the ol curmudgeon beemerdons will be along eventually. It might not be until early in the morning as old farts like him have to go to bed early.

He has used Edelweiss as well as other tour operators I believe. I believe he will have positive things to say about them.

My advice to go outside the box. Try a BMW R1200GS or R1200RT while in Yerp.

Have done 5 tours with them. Well run, great packages that are fairly expensive. If money not an issue, I highly recommend them.

Knifemaker said:

Our prefered destination is Italy, so if anyone has experiance with that specificly it would be great.

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It's unlikely you'll find any tours there but my wife and I just spent 2 weeks in central Italy in the area called Umbria. Spectacularly beautiful, fantastic roads for riding, great food, fairly inexpensive and a short drive away to Florence, Pisa and Valentino Rossi's home town of Tavulia - my wife is a huge fan so she went and signed up for his fan club *in* his home town and then bought every Rossi souvenir she could find.

SkooterG said:

I am sure the ol curmudgeon beemerdons will be along eventually. It might not be until early in the morning as old farts like him have to go to bed early.
He has used Edelweiss as well as other tour operators I believe. I believe he will have positive things to say about them.

My advice to go outside the box. Try a BMW R1200GS or R1200RT while in Yerp.

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Knifemaker: As mi hijo has stated, and like nsrrider, I've also gone on five Edeweiss Bike Tours over the last twenty years.

I'm friends with Werner und Coral Wachter, the owners of EBT; and I ride with my friend Markus Hellrigl, EBT Tour Director.

I am in agreement with nsrrider that the EBT Tours are great and well run. Some of their tours are expensive and I can (and do) organize/ride them much cheaper than EBT. But there are tours that I really cannot do cheaper than their rates!

ShawnKing: EBT actually has a very nice tour of Umbria. I was just in Perugia and Assisi a few years ago; also been to Tavulia. https://www.edelweissbike.com This is the exact tour that knifemaker has posted a link to. My friendship with the management of EBT notwithstanding, this is one of the tours that I feel you can do much cheaper on your own. My 2 cents!

If you don't mind my advice, I would send a personal post on to our very own Stef - Teerex51 and let him give you his motorcycle rental referrals for Milan. With Milan being the business hub of Northern Italy, Milan has the cheapest airfares.

I'm sure Stef will round up Hook and Mek and take you on a spirited ride through the Alps, which are at his very backdoor!

After a few nights of partying with the Italian FJR Forum, man can they party, head down to Florence as your base camp.

I, or Stef, can give you suggested routings for lodgings and day trips in Toscana. EBT wants $8,560 for you two on this 9-day Tour, according to my print catalog. I'd bet Stef and I could freely plan a two week M/C trip for you folks for around $5,000!

On the other side of the coin, the Alps and Lakes tour of EBT is one that I honestly could not plan/organize cheaper myself!

SkooterG and I rarely agree on anything, I say tomato and he says ketchup! But the goofy twerp is right: If your inseam is +32" go with the BMW R1200GS, if your inseam is less than 32" go with the RT; the Beemer bikes fit these roads perfectly!

Here is another EBT Tour with great value: Dolomites Touring Center. For $2,700 each, you can ride a BMW F800GS or F800ST on some of the finest twisties in Europe: Tre Cime, Sella Ronda Loop, Passo di Rombo and see beautiful Lake Garda.

My suggestion for this trip would be to fly into Venice and show your wife the city that I think is one of the greatest in Italia!

It's an easy two hour train ride from the Santa Lucia station to Bolzano, you change trains in Verona; I can give you all info!

https://www.azbeemers.org/forum/index.php?topic=537.0 Knifemaker, here's our Alps trip from May 2007; only cost $3K each, including airfare!

https://picasaweb.google.com/beemerdons/Alps2007Ride# Here are the pictures from Alps trip. We actually spent five of our road nights in Northern Italy. If you could add another week, Tuscany and Umbria would be an easy destination for you two!

https://picasaweb.google.com/beemerguyRT/eu...ay2007pictures# Italy: Bolzano/Merano and Lake Como are so beautiful!

https://www.azbeemers.org/forum/index.php?topic=536.0 Ride report from SkooterG and beemerdons old friend Uri Schumm!

https://www.bmwmoa.org has every single company selling Italy Tours and all motorcycle rental agencies listed under Global.

https://www.alpineroads.com has all of the best passes and cheap lodgings of the Alps, Dolomites and French Alps listed here

https://www.alpen-motorradhotels.com/ Here's a nice chain of biker only hotels throughout the Alps. Can assist with German!

https://www.dolomiten-bike.com/index.php?id=11 Here are nice biker only hotels for the Dolomites. Secure parking and tools.

https://www.whitehorsepress.com/product_inf...roducts_id=5684 One of the very best resources for motorcycle touring of Europe is "Motorcycle Journeys Through the Alps and Beyond" by John Hermann. I am friends with John due to his being Director of the San Diego BMWMOA Club during the same time that I was Director of the Arizona Beemers BMWMOA Club.

Through the Alps and Beyond on the site above has a download function, so you can read and see how complete the book is.

Wow, great advice. The only thing to add is to watch when in the year you plan to do this, so you're not enjoying the narrow 2-lanes with lots of Dutch camper trailers.

Checkswrecks said:

Wow, great advice. The only thing to add is to watch when in the year you plan to do this, so you're not enjoying the narrow 2-lanes with lots of Dutch camper trailers.

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Very well spoken by Checkswrecks, obviously he has experience in European motoring. I do have to admit though, that in my younger Alps and Vosges touring days when I'd camp out for the trip, I would always stay near the Dutch camper trailers in the Zeltplatz; due to the Dutch always having the best beer! I have always planned my trips for either May or October. However, in May of 2007 the Alps had late snows and Stilfserjoch was still closed; Timmelsjoch had just opened.

My wife and I did the High Alpine tour with EBT the fall before last. It was the most fun trip I have ever done. First class lodging,fine food,best curves anywhere! It cost us $2450.00 each with R1200GS. The bike was extremely comfy for two up.I got it equiped with the trunk & bags. We stayed an extra week and did a bunch of touring using the train for wheels. Believe me you will love it.I want to do it again!

Ken.

beemerdons said:

ShawnKing: EBT actually has a very nice tour of Umbria. I was just in Perugia and Assisi a few years ago; also been to Tavulia. https://www.edelweissbike.com This is the exact tour that knifemaker has posted a link to. My friendship with the management of EBT notwithstanding, this is one of the tours that I feel you can do much cheaper on your own. My 2 cents!

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Really!? (checking...) Wow....$10K for two bikes for 8 days? Damn right you can do it a *lot* cheaper than that!

But I stand by my recommendation of the area - the riding would be fabulous and the food and people are wonderful.

beemerdons said:

I would always stay near the Dutch camper trailers in the Zeltplatz; due to the Dutch always having the best beer!

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The Dutch are some of the friendliest people in the EU and worth staying near because they throw the best parties, too! :yahoo:

Something I've not seen mentioned in a while is Eurocamp and it's competitors. Eurocamp Home Page Clicky

(Advertising photo)



You need to reserve ahead of time, but they are a great way to save money and interact with normal people. What they call tents are really little 2 or 3 bedroom fabric structures, complete with kitchens, beds, and plastic furniture. They are mostly rented by families with kids (noise), but we've had motorcycle neighbors in a couple and learned to ask for a place on the fringe. Drive right up to it, bring your own food, and bed linens or sleeping bags. One Austrian tent camp we stayed at was in the foothills of the Alps and we were listening to cowbells when we woke up. The community toilet/bathhouses have ranged from OK to better than at home, so they vary. Google for people's experiences before booking. Another camp we stayed at was on an island in the Seine River on the west side of Paris and there were no tents, just pre-established mobile homes. Walk up the hill and we were right on the Metro. The cool parts were interacting with your neighbors having our own place to retreat to when we were beat, or even just for lunch and a nap, especially with the mobile home.

I believe EBT is a great company and they provide great tours and if money is no objection go for it.

However I would book a flight to the nearest international airport of your bike pickup and just wing it from there, you will always find a reasonably priced Hotel, B&B, also called pension. You should IMHO not leave out several passes in Switzerland, not miss the south of Switzerland (Kanton Ticino) with the most picturesque small towns such as Bellinzona (world heritage site 3 castles), Ascona, Lugano. From Bellinzona you can do the beautiful Lucomagno pass Blenio valley to Disentis and then to Bonaduz/Thusis and the over Splugen pass and Nufenen pass back to Bellinzona.

Switzerland's alpine landscape is one of the most beautiful places you can visit and in southern Switzerland you will see palm trees and beautiful lakes. Besides all that the food is of excellent quality there are a great many regional specialtiy foods (salumi) =dried meats/ prosciutto and salamis.

There are dozens of touring suggestions I have but alas so little time...

Any questions about riding in Switzerland...just ask.

Alfred

Checkswrecks: Thanks for an excellent European resource. I love Lindau, Germany on the Bodensee. I and US GI and German GI friends in the German-American Motorcycle Club based in Augsburg used to ride down to Konstanz monthly.

It could make for an economical M/C vacation by flying into Frankfurt, taking the train to Heidelberg and renting the bikes from my friend Stefan at https://www.knopftours.com/Amerika/hauptteil_amerika.html and setting up a base camp at Gitzenweiler Hof Eurocamp outside Lindau. Within 100 miles of Lindau are hundreds of outstanding Alps high/low passes.

From there each day you could strike out for Andermatt to ride the high passes or ride the low passes of Der Schwarzwald.

Black Forest is beautiful with tight winding twisties. DE racer boys from all around congregate there on weekend/holidays.

ShawnKing: Agreed! Toscana & Umbria make for great riding. 1998 when my Son Seth was 2, his Mom and I took him to stay in Siena in a villa for a month. For one of the weeks, I took the train to Roma and rented a Ducati Monster and rode it back to Siena. In the afternoons, when Seth was taking his nap with the housekeeper, Mom and I would go out riding!

beemerdons said:

ShawnKing: Agreed! Toscana & Umbria make for great riding. 1998 when my Son Seth was 2, his Mom and I took him to stay in Siena in a villa for a month. For one of the weeks, I took the train to Roma and rented a Ducati Monster and rode it back to Siena. In the afternoons, when Seth was taking his nap with the housekeeper, Mom and I would go out riding!

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LOL My wife and I are hopefully going back in June for the month - bike rentals may be in our future.

https://www.whitehorsepress.com/download/products/herm4.pdf Here's the fantastic Swiss passes bikesniffer is referencing!

My then girlfriend (now wife) and I took an Edelweiss Tour back in 1998. We took a 9-day tour called The Best of Europe, and if you're interested here are my observations.

1) Biker Heaven, because:

- Nothing to worry about, because the hotels were booked, dinners and breakfasts were taken care of, and there were suggested routes. You could concentrate on riding. One morning, I came out to a flat rear tire. The two Edelweiss dudes merely replaced the wheel (and tire) with a spare in the chase van, in about 10 minutes, and we were on our way.

- Gorgeous scenery and great twisties. Each morning's briefing would list two or three suggested routes, e.g., a shorter route and one or two longer routes. The guides (who'd alternate chase-van driving and riding) would note the riding and cultural attractions of each route, note which route the riding guide would be going (but didn't want the whole group to tag along), and then it was, "See you at 8PM at [name of next overnight city]."

- The bikes were all that year's models, e.g., not old clunkers by any means. I owned a BMW R850R at the time, so I rented the exact same model (which was near the cheap end of what you could rent at the time).

- No luggage on the bike. You'd put out your suitcase(s) in the morning, and they would magically appear at the next hotel in the evening (the chase van taking some non-twistie route). So, you could stuff your saddlebags with cuckoo clocks or whatever you picked up along the way.

- Now, I've done Deals Gap a few times on a few bikes, but the twisties in the Alps and the Black Forest are a whole nuther thing. To say nothing of the scenery.

2) Expensive:

- But reasonable, IMHO. We paid something like $3000 + $3000 (actually less, but you don't get much of a break riding two-up, because of the cost of rooms and meals) + airfare. There were 20 of us, riding 15 bikes, and all but one other couple were pretty well off financially, and did this sort of thing every year. We haven't done it again, but I'm building up my OK-honey-we've-done-another-shipboard-cruise credits nearly to the point of it's-time-to-do-another-Edelweiss-trip assertion.

- I had enough frequent-flyer miles at the time to pay for one of our round-trip fares. It was with some US airline that had a deal with Air France.

- The hairpins in the Alps: priceless.

3) Miscellaneous suggestions and observations:

- I insisted on an R850R (what you'd call a "standard" bike) with a passenger backrest equipped, and that was not a problem. With sport-tourers and touring bikes with top cases, that's not an issue, of course.

- They have additional (extra-cost) insurance, so you're not stuck with a high deductible. I'd recommend paying for that low (or $0?) deductible, cuz' you never know.

- We started in Munich, got there a day early, and I'd recommend that. That is, you have to pay for another day at the starting hotel but you don't have to worry about delayed flights, and it gives you a sight-seeing day.

- I'd also recommend delaying your return. This was 10 years ago, so I don't know if this is still the case, but back then Air France (and others?) didn't care about long layovers. That is, our return trip was from Munich to Paris to NYC. When I was booking this, I learned that a multi-day layover in Paris was the same as a multi-hour one, so we booked a hotel for a couple of days in Paris. You try that stunt on US airlines (and maybe European airlines today, for all I know) and they'll consider it separate trips -- not separate legs of the same trip -- and charge you accordingly.

- Shortly after we took this trip, Edelweiss introduced stay-in-one-spot "tours," where your hotel is a sort of base camp, and you do different Alps passes each day, for instance. Me, I like staying in different countries, but some of you may prefer not packing every day or something. (We had a rest day in Andermatt in Switzerland, and some people bagged some more passes, while we took the day off and went up on the cable car to a really high peak.)

Now, if you want cheaper, or like to camp, or whatever, fine. If you want to ride and pretty much not worry about anything else and can afford this: highly recommended.

Regards,

Bill

Bill, That was an outstanding analysis of what's provided for you on an Edelweiss Bike Tour. So very glad that you made mention of the fact that you don't have to spend your riding day with a Tour Guide, that they encourage independent riding!

https://www.edelweissbike.com/OUT/DTCE.pdf Dr. Bob Flanders and I rode the Alps in May of 2007 and we rode the Pyrenees in May of 2008 with our very own FJR Forum Teerex51 - Stef - The Italian Stallion. Bob wanted to ride the Dolomites in 2009, but I'm just too booked for other rides to join him. So he went with this Bolzano stay-in-one-spot "tour."

This will work perfect for Bob! He's a friendly guy and will make riding comrades. He accomplishes his pass bagging goals!!

Knifemaker said:

....Our prefered destination is Italy, so if anyone has experiance with that specificly it would be great.

Knifemaker

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You might want to check out this site Bike Rentals Milan and do a price comparo.

These are good folks I know personally and they're backed by a BMW dealership in Milan. They're about 30' from the main airport and an hour from Switzerland.

As Beemerdons pointed out, the Italian Forum can help with info, bookings (at no charge to you, of course) and chances are we can ride with you depending on the period.

Such a setup can really save you $$$. You'll have to carry your own luggage and there'll be no support vehicle, of course.

Stef

But Knifemaker, they'll teach you how to drink grappa and poteen in great quantities. A fun group of people those Italianos!