The Mrs fancy's a Austria tour next year,after speaking to them a the bike show they appear to know their stuff,basicly it a 11 day self guided tour they book all your hotels and ferry crossing and supply you with all the tour maps/garmin download,i quite like the idea of having a destination to head to every day and obviously they have done all the hard work supplying you the most scenic routes.Any one booked one of these tours befor ? what did you think ?.
The only negetive feed back I could find was from an inexperienced rider who thought he had booked a tour for beginners. Sadly the rest of the group were far more experienced and road bigger, faster bikes. Other than that, people rate what they offer. This is my only reservation for a holiday like this but you have chosen the self guided option so good luck and I hope you enjoy Austria. Andy
I've done several mci tours and many years ago they were great at the time, my mates at home only ride to the burger van on a Sunday and I wanted more so i went on my Todd and met several bods whom we now organise our own trips every year. We used to pay mci for an escorted tour, but would ride in our own group doing our own thing and riding as fast as we want, we would still follow there inteniary, so pointless paying for an escorted tour tbh, however the banter was good in the eves, but the food at the hotel stopovers got shocking in the end, some great hotels 'paradors' but the food package started off really great and then seem to take a dive and was very basic, greasy chicken n chips [emoji45] and the prices seem to go up 50% so knocked em on the head.
Thanks D4VE,My thoughts are that it seems a little overpriced for what you are actually getting,my choice would be self guided as i like to stop when i want to stop,have a fag and a chill and see things we find interesting,i am sure the routes they set are interesting and the digs are biker friendly with secure parking,good to know about the food,did you find the hotels/b&b are set in a town/village location or in the middle of nowhere with little option of alternative meals,thinking we could opt out of the food side of things,i think only 6 meals are included.It was stated on average 200 miles a day with a couple of 300 mile days at the start and finish,sound about right ?.Cheers
Obviously it depends where your going to ! On route to a destination they would use a chain hotel as a stopover and there you would get a meal of some sort, the destination stop over would give you an option to eat at the hotel if meals included or you could take a walk into the village/town, we have walked out and found some great backstreet eating places, but this all depends where your going, I cannot recall any secure lock ups apart from the weisserspitzer and have left some tasty bikes in hotel carparks and not once have i had any issues. Several years ago everyday had a meal included, but no doubt cost cutting meant something had to give so meals are limited obviously this gave you the option to explore and eat elsewhere but came at a cost because mci did not take this into account with there pricing as they have rocketed up, 200-300 miles are normal, the proprietors Alistare and Fiona(pillion) usually do the escorted part of the tour if you want to ride in a group of 20 !! If there not available they get some other bod to help them do the trips, I've never rode in there groups it's too sedate for me, one thing I found over the years it started off with groups of sport bike riders as per myself and slowly over the years there clientele have changed somewhat to the older BMW type of bod and his wife, nowt wrong with BMW i too owned several GS bikes but I'm the totally opposite to the typical BMW rider.
I get many bikers here, in the Dordogne, in the summer. I help them with booking campsites or hotels as they desire, My wife and I get our bikes out and take them on trips according to their tastes. I take them to all the good places to eat, and if we get a day of rain then I will also get my car out and take them somewhere. I have even offered them transport to and from Bergerac airport should their wives/girlfriends not want the long drive down and back. Total cost for my services is nothing. I do not run a business and just enjoy showing others around. But it's not Austria........
Why bother with mci. Get the Rough Guide of Austria and other countries you are travelling through and a map or www.viamichelin and plan some nice towns to stopover. We like to do 2 nights per stop. Book hotels on booking.com. Most can be cancelled up to a day before for no fee as well. We pick hotels in town centre with private parking and breakfast included and eat out in evening. Irish pubs are always good for a reasonable meal if stuck. Half the fun is planning a trip and its more of an adventure winging it. You can get 2-3 year old rough guides for pennies from ebay/amazon and all the relevant info is valid.
Good advise,guess i was just being lazy,spent a few hours on tinternet planning route and digs,so far works out half the price of a arranged tour,just going to finalise route over the christmas break and then book it all up.
I do as above, I already booked my crossing for june 4 from ports to caen and my return 10 days later will be santander to ports, me and my mate but if he don't come it's no hardship ! i book all my hotels stopovers on booking.com. I've travelled on my own, tbh the thought of travelling on my own was not to my liking to start with, I thought I'll get bored (I need to hold someone's hand [emoji30]) but surprisingly I actually like my own company and walking into a restaurant in the eve as a loner is quite normal and with the power of the Internet you can have conversation in the eves with loved ones, I met a group of bikers from the UK this year at one of my stopovers when I went to spain, I spent the eve with em, I always keep my map in the top of the tank bag with the highlighted route as well as the sat nav dictating the plotted route and weather permitting ive often seen a twisty rd on the map and took a detour from the sat nav and had the best ride ever.
Yep. Went to Romania with them a few years ago, but with a group tour. Only once with them, but I've done other groups and on my own.. Depends what you want. Pluses: Very cheap - it's hard to do it yourself for the same money. Alistair is a nice bloke and very helpful. No organisation required on your part, just turn up & go. You can either ride with groups, or on your own. Gives you somebody else to chat to in the evenings, over a beer. Enough participants so that you're bound to meet up with somebody pleasant and you can avoid the "difficult" ones, if any. Built in support network Minuses: Because of the numbers, you get to stay in large, impersonal hotels mostly and they wouldn't be the ones I would choose (which is why I've not been back). You get to go where MCI wants to take you, rather than do your own itinerary; you can plan your own routes, but that means planning. I wasn't keen on the "recommended" routes on this, as too much trunk road. To be honest, I can't see the benefit in having somebody else select your routes and hotels. You know how far you want to go in a day and if you have a Garmin, that tells you how long it takes (try Tyre) - much easier. Hotel bookings are easy and secure with internet. Like 900, I always use ViaMichelin for routes and booking.com for hotels. Remember you need a toll sticker carnet for Austria & Switzerland motorways. Or take the chance of a fine.
