Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Tours
in Europe and Beyond
Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Tours
in Europe and Beyond
Summary: This is a fully guided tour to the Harley-Davidson Euro Festival in the Golfe de Saint-Tropez.
It would be easy to take a direct route south through France to the location of the rally, but that would miss some of the best riding in Europe. Instead, as the map shows, we take an eastern route through Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany before heading south through the lower Alps in Switzerland and France. We make use of some of the best motorcycling roads in western Europe and averaging just 185 miles per day on our outward journey, the tour concentrates on the quality of roads, not a simple blast to get there.
We take seven days to get to the Golfe de Saint-Tropez and then spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday close to the rally site. Then two and a half days to get back to Calais and the Eurotunnel train.
The Euro Festival is in addition to the usual main European HOG rally. The Euro Festival is early in the year – May – and is a terrific way to get some early quality riding done.
Price for
2025 Prices
Two riders sharing a room, price each
£3,350
Single rider in his/her own room
£3,940
Rider and pillion sharing a room
£5,120
This tour has just about everything a long motorcycle ride needs. Great roads, mountains, the Black Forest, scenic roads, sweeping bends and of course, Harley-Davidson motorcycles!
From the rolling hills of southern Germany to the low alpine passes in the Alps, this tour encompasses just about every type of riding there is. One day you are admiring the scenery as you ride and the next, the road is challenging your riding skills.
We have chosen mainly quieter scenic roads, well away from cities for the route to the Euro Festival and we stay in comfortable hotels along the way.
Combine that we attending a popular and friendly motorcycle rally and this is one heck of a tour!
The rally will host live bands, a custom bike show, dealer stands, demonstration rides and much more. The setting of the rally along the coast is ideal, as the event is hosted in a number of close-together locations. There is also the attraction of riding into St Tropez itself, set around its port with its multi-million pound yachts.
If you want to ride wonderful and scenic roads, with someone else making all the arrangements, then riding with Tour1 is for you. We are hugely experienced tour operators having ridden all over Europe and we know where the best roads are.
We catch a Eurotunnel train from Folkestone to Calais early on the Friday morning. The aim of today is to get to the great roads further south, so we use some motorway to get there. We ride through the Parc Naturel reginal de l’Avesnois and soon head into the Ardennes region of Belgium.
As we near Dinant, we ride some wonderfully twisty roads and arrive at a chateau for the first night of the tour.
We ride 185 miles today in 3 countries today: Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.
Twisty roads abound today as we ride east through Belgium, head down the eastern border of Luxembourg, visit Vianden to have coffee beneath its imposing castle and head into Germany. It is wonderful riding today on great roads!
We ride two of Germany’s best roads today: the B48 and the B500 on our journey south today. These are wonderful roads to ride on our Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The roads are very different – the first is in a forest setting and hopefully you will be riding in dappled sunlight. The second runs high in the Black Forest, often with terrific views from the road looking down into deep valleys belows. We ride 193 miles today.
Today we enter Switzerland late morning and ride in the low Alps. We concentrate on riding in the Naturpark Gantrisch in the afternoon to the west of Thun. We ride 209 miles today.
Our route is 187 miles today. During the morning we remain in Switzerland, again on low alpine roads. Due to the Euro Festival being held in May, it is not possible to ride high alpine roads as these will not be open at this time of year. We re-enter France in the faternoon and ride through Chamonix in the foothills of Mont Blanc.
In the afternoon we ride near Grenoble and start to ride the lower French Alps.
More great roads await us on day 6, especially in the region known as the Vercors massif which is a range in France consisting of rugged plateaus and mountains. The highlight will be riding the dramatic Combe Laval.
In the morning we ride some very twisty roads, with quite a few hairpins. As we near the Mediterranean cost, the roads become flatter and we should arrive in the Golfe de Saint-Tropez mid afternoon and our 3-star with its welcoming pool. Everyone will have a poolside room for the duration of the stay at the event.
There is always much to see and do at the Harley-Davidson Euro Festival. The rally site hosts bands, dealer displays, demonstrator bikes, vendors, bars and all shapes and sizes of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. On our arrival day of Thursday, or perhaps on Friday morning, we will have a group orientation ride / walk to ensure you all know where the various rally activities take place.
For most of your time in the Golfe de Saint-Tropez, from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning, you are able to do as you please, whether that is ride in the local area, visit the rally site, watch some of the live bands on the beachfront main stage, or visit the custom bike show – it is up to you. If your partner wants to fly down to the rally and spend time with you, there is only a small charge for your partner to stay at the hotel.
On the Friday afternoon we are likely to ride to the location of the custom motorcycle show.
On the Saturday, if you wish, you can join thousands of others in riding in the parade.
Today we start our journey back to the UK.
The ride back is considerably shorter than the outward ride. We mainly use motorway and today we will ride 254 miles and reach the area around Lyon in eastern France.
Again we are mainly on motorway today and will ride 341 miles and stay the night close to Reim in north-eastern France.
A shorter ride today of just 148 miles which means we will be able to catch a Eurotunnel train at around 1pm, meaning most people will be able to ride home after the arriving back in Folkestone.
Our group sizes normally range from 10 to 14 motorcycles. Due to the likely popularity of this tour, we will run two groups.
Each day, we normally start riding at 8.30am sharp and cover in the region of 150 to 200 miles. We try to avoid motorways wherever possible and only use these when there is no real alternative. We take mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks and of course find somewhere for lunch. Our plan is to normally arrive at that evening’s hotel by around 6pm.
We use good quality hotels – not super luxury and not bottom end, but mid-range – normally 3 and 4-star.
We ride at a pace to suit all of the riders. We stick to all speed limits in towns, but in rural areas we ride at, let’s call them ‘more appropriate’ speeds. We generally ride in staggered convoy on straighter roads.
As we have pre-booked hotels and a schedule to stick to, we ride in all weathers. During any exceptionally inclement weather, we will pull over for short periods. We could experience a range of different types of weather, so bring waterproofs, just in case.
We like these tours to be about having a real adventure, riding on great roads with like-minded people. For that reason, we do not use a support van, but we always have a back-marker.
Payments – we require a £400 deposit to be paid when you book a tour, with the balance to be paid in three equal payments, seven, five and three months before the tour starts. If you prefer, you can pay the balance of the cost of the tour earlier than this.
*Ride Difficulty Rating
Each of our rides has a difficulty rating and this tour is rated as ‘moderate’. That means this tour is not recommended for new riders. You should have at least four years of riding experience on large motorcycles. You must have ridden on the right-hand side of the road before and you must be comfortable with travelling in a group of riders and be able to keep a good pace within that group. We do not ride fast, but at the same time, it is better if riders do not go too slowly.
The route does include some mountain passes with a few tight hairpins, but these are not the really dramatic hairpins found on say, Stelvio Pass. They are low Alps mountain passes.
While there is not much motorway riding on the outbound leg of the tour, as a guide, the group will be riding at speeds of 75mph on motorways. The return journey is mainly on motorway. You must be confident of riding in rain and on wet roads. Each day’s riding will be around 9 hours, with breaks. You should be able to ride all day. If you are at all unsure if your riding ability is good enough for this tour, then you must contact us by telephone to discuss.
Great riding courtesy of the genius Gary France who is terrific at finding wonderful roads – great company and the best rally I have attended. See you all next year! Simon Turner, Newmarket.
