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Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour Review

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
One of the many scenic views along the winding coast of Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula. Photos by the author and Carrie Drevenstedt.

Having never been to Greece before, my mental postcards of the country consisted of the crumbling Parthenon in Athens and a cluster of white-washed, blue-roofed houses overlooking a turquoise sea.

The Parthenon, which my wife Carrie and I visited the day before the Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece tour began, looked like I thought it would. Well, except for the scaffolding. The temple at the Acropolis is nearly 2,500 years old and was partially destroyed by the Venetians in 1687, so a little sprucing up is in order.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
The Parthenon rises high above Athens at the Acropolis.

Those white-washed houses are on Santorini, an island out in the Aegean Sea. We didn’t go there, and that’s a good thing. Places like Santorini are where huge cruise ships disgorge hordes of waddling tourists. The Edelweiss tour avoids crowds and takes the roads less traveled.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour

From Athens to the Oracle

Our tour began with meeting the guides, who gave us a safety briefing and an overview of the tour. Booklets, a hotel list, and a map of Greece were mailed to us in advance, but if I’m honest, I barely looked at them. The experts at Edelweiss have been running motorcycle tours since 1980, and they know what they’re doing. Since they take care of the preparation and planning, I enjoy letting the tour unfold from one day to the next.

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
Our tight-knit group of Americans enjoyed the roads, sights, and culture of Greece for two full weeks.

Our group was small, just eight participants, all Americans. Three couples rode two-up – Bob and Ronnie from Virginia, Ken and Evelyn from Georgia, and Carrie and me. Two guys rode solo – Yoram from California and Dave from Virginia. (Check out Dave’s travel tips on European motorcycle travel.) Our guides Paul (from Minnesota) and William (from the U.K.) alternated days riding the lead bike and driving the support van.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Smiles for miles. After a full day of riding challenging roads, we enjoyed a well-deserved “boot” beer at our hotel overlooking Lake Plastiras.

The first day of any overseas tour is a little stressful. Some folks are still jet-lagged, others are getting used to an unfamiliar bike on unfamiliar roads, and everyone is adapting to a new routine. Even so, our small group and common language made it easy for us to gel and get along.

Athens is a big capital city that’s home to nearly 4 million people – more than a third of Greece’s population. It’s great for sightseeing before or after the tour, but our objective was to escape the city as quickly as possible. After battling some Monday morning traffic, we did just that, climbing high into mountains on a narrow, winding road, giving us a taste of what was to come.

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
One of the curvy roads we rode on the first day of the tour.

Rainer Buck, managing director of Edelweiss, ranks Greece as one of his top three riding destinations because “it’s like a mountain range was dropped into the sea.” Greece is tied with Slovenia as the third most mountainous country in Europe after Norway and Switzerland. Nearly 80% of the country’s land area is covered by sloped terrain that motorcyclists long for.

Listen to our interview with Rainer Buck on Episode 8 of the Rider Magazine Insider Podcast

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Riding in Greece’s mountains was like being in the Alps but with less traffic.

Located at the southern tip of the Balkans, Greece has a peninsular mainland bordered to the north by Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and is surrounded on three sides by the Aegean, Myrtoan, and Ionian seas. The Peloponnese region is a large peninsula that resembles a fat, four-fingered hand, separated from the mainland by a narrow canal through the Isthmus of Corinth. Scattered around these land masses are thousands of islands. Our 1,500-mile tour followed a counterclockwise route around part of the mainland and much of the Peloponnese.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
The Kipina monastery is built into the side of a cliff.

Not only is Greece a great place to ride, its significance in terms of human culture runs deep. Located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, it has been inhabited since at least 270,000 B.C. Pick your historical era – Stone Age, Bronze Age, Dark Ages, Middle Ages – and Greece was the place to be. It’s the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy and literature, theater, the Olympic Games, and a lot of the math and science we learned in high school. Heavy hitters like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Hippocrates, Homer, and Euclid were all Greek.

Edelweiss
Built in the 10th century, the Monastery of Hosios Loukas is one of fives sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List we visited on the tour.

Greece is lousy with brown signs pointing down empty roads toward historic sites. Temples, monasteries, necropolises, theaters, you name it – there are more than can be visited in a lifetime. This tour visits major or unique sites, including five UNESCO World Heritage Sites. We visited two – the 10th century Monastery of Hosios Loukas and Delphi – on our first day. Established in the 8th century B.C., Delphi was where one would go to receive an oracle from the priestess of Apollo. It was also considered the center of the world, being the place where two eagles released by Zeus, one to the east and one to the west, came back together.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Delphi, one of several sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List we visited, was built in the 8th century B.C. It sits between two towers of rock in the Parnassus Mountains.

Bagging two UNESCO sites and getting our fill of switchbacks up and down steep coastal mountains, expansive views of the Gulf of Corinth, narrow roads winding through endless olive groves, and a high pass through a vibrant evergreen forest made for a full first day. The day’s heat was cooled by an afternoon thunderstorm and a post-ride “boot” beer – enjoyed while still wearing our riding boots.

For Your Eyes Only

By Day 2, we were finding our groove. Up early for breakfast, bring luggage down at 8:15, ride briefing at 8:30, and kickstands up at 9. From our mountainside hotel in Arachova, we summited a pass, cruised through a lush alpine valley full of ski chalets, wound our way up through evergreens to a ski slope, and then plunged down an endless series of hairpins to a hot, dry valley.

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
“It’s all Greek to me!” Reading road signs in Greece can be challenging. In the background is one of the ubiquitous kandylakia, small roadside shrines.

Early on, this tour taught us to expect the unexpected and be ready for anything. Like listening to enormous storks clacking their beaks in a nest above us while we ate lunch at a small outdoor cafe. Or passing by countless kandylakia, which are small roadside shrines erected to honor lost loved ones or saints for good fortune. We visited a monastery built into the side of a cliff, another built inside a tree, and others perched atop towers of stone.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
The Panagia Plataniotissa church occupies the hollow of a tree.

On Day 3, after a picnic lunch overlooking a broad agricultural plain, we visited Meteora, a sprawling rock formation where dozens of monasteries were built atop sandstone pillars in the 14th century. Access to the monasteries was intentionally difficult, not only as protection from invaders but to test the faith of pilgrims, who had to ascend hundreds of feet by climbing ladders or being hoisted up in nets. Only six of the monasteries remain, hardy structures that have survived attacks by the Turks, bombing raids during WWII, a magnitude-7 earthquake in 1954, and the filming of a James Bond movie in 1981.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Meteora, which means “lofty,” is a complex of monasteries perched atop sandstone pillars more than 1,000 feet high. Built hundreds of years ago, they were once accessible only by ladders and ropes.
Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
One of the monasteries at Meteora.

Day after day, we were surprised by the ruggedness of the scenery and tested by the trickiness of the roads. Edelweiss stitched together a challenging, convoluted route, so much so that it occasionally gave the tour guides’ GPS units fits. The width, pitch, and condition of the roads changed constantly, from smooth, wide highways to steep, narrow paths riddled with potholes, cracks, and dips. Although the route was almost entirely paved, we were kept on our toes by sand, gravel, mud, cow manure, fallen rocks, rain, fog, and even patches of snow.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Dodging snowbanks on Baros Pass.

Above all, we had to be on the lookout for animals. Traveling off the beaten path, we shared the road with cows, horses, goats (often in large, road-blocking herds), sheep (ditto), dogs (often lying on the road), cats, snakes, and turtles. What we rarely dealt with, however, were other vehicles. Outside of the few cities we visited, there were hardly any cars, trucks, or buses on the road. It was like having Greece to ourselves.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Rush-hour traffic.

From the Mountains to the Sea

Our first few days were spent riding through mountains that seemed like they could have been in the Alps. On the fourth day, we rested. Some took advantage of the downtime to explore the mountain town of Metsovo, while others rode north into the Pindus Mountains near the Albanian border to visit Vikos Gorge, a cleft in the earth up to 4,400 feet deep and the world’s deepest gorge relative to its width.

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
Vikos Gorge

From Metsovo we turned south, climbing up and over mountain pass after mountain pass, including one that was mostly covered by a snowbank and had opened just days before. After a full day of challenging roads, we crossed a small floating bridge to the island of Lefkada. As happened at the end of most riding days, we enjoyed a celebratory boot beer and then gathered for a group dinner. We sat outdoors at the Crystal Waters resort, savoring the salty breeze and local fare as we recapped the day’s adventures, topping it all with glasses of ouzo.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Coffee stop in the village of Kalarites, near Baros Pass.

On Day 6, we rode along the southern coast of the mainland, the sea’s color ranging from topaz in the shallows to dark cobalt in the depths. We stopped for a morning coffee at a cafe on the edge of a small harbor, where a fishing boat pulled up and sold its catch directly to locals.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
We enjoyed a morning coffee stop in Mytikas, a small fishing village where the day’s catch was sold to locals right from the boat.

We left the mainland by way of the Rion-Antiron Bridge, crossing a narrow section of the Gulf of Corinth to the Peloponnese peninsula. We wasted no time climbing back up into the mountains on roads full of twist and shout. Late in the afternoon on the way to Vytina, we hit rush-hour traffic – herd after herd of goats and sheep being led down the road by shepherds and dogs.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
The Rion-Antiron Bridge, the world’s longest fully suspended multi-span cable-stayed bridge, connects the mainland to the Peloponnese peninsula.

On the second rest day, our entire group rode to the ruins of Olympia, the ancient center of worship of Zeus and the site of the Olympic Games from 776 B.C. to 394 A.D. The temples and sports structures were mostly destroyed in 426 A.D. by an angry emperor and further damaged over the years by earthquakes and floods. Since the Olympic Games resumed in 1894, the Olympic flame has been lit at what remains of the Temple of Hera and transported by a torch to the host cities.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Built in 590 B.C., the Temple of Hera is the oldest sanctuary in Olympia. The Olympic flame is lit here and then transported to the sites of the Olympic Games.

Prepare for Glory, and Olives

On Day 8, we sliced south through the heart of the Peloponnese, from Vytina in the mountains to Megalopolis in the valley. We made time on the motorway to reach Sparta, which, despite its legendary reputation as the home of courageous, self-disciplined warriors, is now just an ordinary city that’s well past its prime. A statue of mighty King Leonidas, who had the brass to take on the entire Persian army with 300 brave soldiers, overlooks an abandoned building.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
Riding through the Langada Gorge near Sparta.

Rising out of Sparta is a winding road that burrows its way into the Taygetos Mountains via the Langada Gorge. After ascending a few switchbacks, the road cuts into the side of the gorge through a series of tunnels and overhangs on its way up to a 5,000-foot pass. We wound our way down to the coastal city of Kalamata, known for its namesake black olives, and had lunch on the beach. It was a hot afternoon of riding along the coast, and after a boot beer in Areopoli, several of us cooled off with a swim in the Ionian Sea.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
The village of Limeni, where we swam in the Ionian Sea.

Our final rest day was in Monemvasia. We stayed in a beautiful resort hotel with two infinity pools, a gourmet restaurant, and views of vineyards and the sea – the perfect reward after logging so many challenging miles. It was also where Carrie and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. Paul and William had a special treat sent to our room, and the next morning we found our GS decorated with tissue paper, empty beer cans strung together with duct tape, and a “just married” sign.

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
Our hotel near Monemvasia, where we enjoyed a rest day.

Over our final two days, we made our way back to Athens, riding north along the Peloponnese coast, where we enjoyed coffee and lunch stops overlooking the sea and visited the theater at Epidaurus, built in the 4th century B.C. and renowned for its exceptional acoustics.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
The 2,500-year-old theater at Epidaurus can hold 14,000 spectators.

Our Bucket Overfloweth

Greece seems to be on everyone’s bucket list. If they’ve never been, they want to go; if they’ve visited before, they want to go back. It’s a magical, mysterious, romantic place that looms large in our imaginations and is rich in history, culture, cuisine, scenery, and so much more.

Edelweiss Bike Travel's Best of Greece Tour
We ate well in Greece and ordered Greek salad with fresh tomatoes and local feta every day.

It is difficult to fathom the depth of history in Greece’s mountains and along its shorelines. Living in a nation barely two and a half centuries old on a continent “discovered” five centuries ago, seeing the remnants of kingdoms and empires that stretch back several millennia boggles the mind, like trying to comprehend the far reaches of outer space. Is this real? Did actual humans carve this stone and erect these temples, till this soil and fish these waters, worship gods and contemplate ideas of self-determination?

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
Riding along the Peloponnese coast.

Spending two weeks in Greece engaged our senses, dispelled our preconceived notions, and tested our mettle. This tour is not a walk in the park. It is challenging and at times quite intense, with long riding days on technical roads with variable weather and conditions. Every night we collapsed into bed, dead tired but deeply satisfied.

Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour
Riding in the mountains on Greece’s mainland.

Edelweiss Bike Travel’s next Best of Greece tour is scheduled for October 8-21, 2022. The tour will run twice in 2023: May 1-15 and September 29-October 12. For pricing, details, and information about Edelweiss’ full schedule of tours, visit EdelweissBike.com.

The post Edelweiss Bike Travel Best of Greece Tour Review first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com

European Motorcycle Touring: What to Know Before You Go

European Motorcycle Touring

After reading this issue’s article about Edelweiss Bike Travel’s Best of Greece tour, you’re probably already thinking about your next vacation. European motorcycle touring with Edelweiss is as easy as travel gets. The most difficult part is deciding which tour to book because they all look so good. (Visit EdelweissBike.com to see the full list of tours around the world.)

European travel, especially by motorcycle, is an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience. But before you book your tour, keep the following in mind to maximize your enjoyment.

First, acknowledge your level of riding skill. Edelweiss rates its tours for difficulty on a scale of 1 (easiest) to 5 (most difficult); most are rated 3 or 4. Read Edelweiss’ guide for how it rates tours, take it seriously, and then honestly assess your ability. Want to up your game? Sign up for Edelweiss’ One-Day Alps Prep Course or its seven-day Alps Riding Academy tour.

Second, choose the right bike for the tour. The easiest thing to do is select the same bike you already own. If you ride a BMW GS at home, then you’ll feel comfortable on one in Europe. Or you could take the opportunity for an extended test ride on something different. But before you dive in headfirst, go to your dealer and sit on the bike to get a feel for it. Consider the bike’s seat height, weight, and power, especially if you plan to ride with a passenger. On switchbacks in the Alps, a smaller, lighter bike is always easier to manage.

To prepare for your trip, I recommend buying Rick Steves’ book Europe Through the Back Door. Steves has been writing about European travel for more than 40 years, and his books are full of valuable advice. He also has a website, an online forum, a YouTube channel, and many free podcasts and audio tours. Steves covers most of the basics but not travel by motorcycle. We face a few challenges other tourists don’t.

These days, commercial air travel can be chaotic. Airports are crowded, lines are long, flights can be delayed or canceled, and those that take off are full. Once you’ve booked your motorcycle tour, book your flights as soon as possible so you’ll have the most options at the best prices. Book flights with long enough layovers for your checked baggage to make your connections and to allow breathing room for delays.

When luggage doesn’t arrive at a destination, it’s an inconvenience for most tourists. For motorcyclists, it can have serious consequences. Without gear, you can’t ride, and replacing a helmet or jacket at the last minute can be time consuming and expensive. Riding gear is heavy, so a lightweight gear bag will help you stay within the 50-lb weight limit. Carry your helmet onto the plane as your personal item to keep it safe.

Know the travel rules regarding passports and Covid. Check your passport’s expiration date and ensure it is valid for at least six months after you return home. Covid guidance is constantly changing, so stay up to date. Before we went to press, the U.S. lifted its requirement to show a negative Covid test taken the day before a return flight. Be prepared before you go and have a backup plan.

Try to arrive at your tour’s departure hotel at least one day prior to the tour briefing. Flights can be delayed, connections missed, and luggage lost, so give yourself some margin for error. Jet lag is also a consideration, so I suggest planning a few days of sightseeing prior to the tour. It’s more enjoyable to get acclimated to the new time zone in a Munich biergarten than on a steep alpine pass.

As for riding gear, plan for the worst and hope for the best. Weather can be unpredictable. Expect it to be hot and dry one day and cold and rainy the next. Bringing two riding suits is impractical but bringing two pairs of gloves isn’t. It’s a lot easier to control a bike with warm, dry hands. Your bike will have side cases, a top case, and a tankbag, so you’ll have plenty of room for gear. (Except for Ride4Fun tours, your luggage will be transported from hotel to hotel in a support van.)

Wear moisture-wicking, fast-drying clothing made of synthetic materials under your riding gear. Bring a layer for warmth, and pack dedicated raingear, even if your gear promises to be waterproof. (Pro tip: Stash two plastic grocery bags with your raingear; slipping them on over your boots makes it much easier to pull on rain pants.) Also, don’t overpack clothing. Bring travel packets of detergent, and do laundry in your hotel bathtub or sink. It will dry overnight. Casual attire is acceptable almost everywhere.

Use your smartphone or a point-and-shoot camera for photos. Dealing with an expensive DSLR camera and lenses is an unnecessary hassle unless you are a pro shooter. And remember to bring two or three Europe-compatible electrical outlet adapters to charge your devices.

Finally, be prepared to have an awesome trip. Riding in Europe is amazing. The scenery is breathtaking, the food is excellent, and the people are friendly. European drivers also have an awareness of and respect for motorcyclists that U.S. drivers often lack. About 60% of Edelweiss tour participants are repeat clients. What you thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket-list vacation could very well become an annual event.

The post European Motorcycle Touring: What to Know Before You Go first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com

Rider Magazine Best of Greece Tour with Edelweiss Bike Travel

Rider Magazine Best of Greece Tour with Edelweiss Bike Travel

Greece has always been on our motorcycle bucket list. According to Rainer Buck, Managing Director of Edelweiss Bike Travel, Greece is one of his top 3 riding destinations in the world. He says it’s “like a mountain range was dropped into the sea.” Join us for the Rider Magazine Best of Greece Tour with Edelweiss Bike Travel, a 14-day tour scheduled for May 15-28, 2022.

Information about the tour is included below, and a special booking page is accessible HERE. Pricing starts at $7,190 per person.

And you can book without worry — if things change, you can rebook or get a refund. See the Edelweiss coronavirus policy for more information.

Rider Magazine Best of Greece Tour with Edelweiss Bike Travel

Ancient Greece is the cradle of our civilization, our culture and society. Countless words that we use every day are derived from Greek, such as car, cosmos, democracy, atmosphere, politics, telephone, anesthesia and panorama, to name just a few. The ancient Greeks not only influenced science, art and literature, they practically invented them.

Athens, the capital, is filled with history, monuments and memorials like no other city in the world. Except Rome maybe, but this is a different tour. On this tour here you will experience some of the great attractions of Greece, such as Delphi, Olympia and the Meteora monasteries. But also gems, that not every traveler will find, are on the program, such as the Pindos Mountains or the enchanting mountain village Vytina, where we will even spend two nights.

In the 14 days you will get to know everything that defines real Greece: 3,000 years of culture, stunning nature, excellent food and extremely friendly people, not to mention the always beautiful weather and the wonderfully winding, mostly empty and always panoramic roads who really enjoy riding a motorcycle. And every time you sit in a kafenion and enjoy your espresso, you can look forward to being on tour in a paradise like Greece. If the ancient Greeks only knew …

Rider Magazine Best of Greece Tour with Edelweiss Bike Travel
  • START/FINISH: Athens
  • NEAREST AIRPORT: Athens
  • DURATION: 14 days vacation, 12 riding days
  • ROUTE: Total distance: 1,473-1,832 miles; Daily distances: 90-348 km, 56-216 miles
  • REST DAYS: Metsovo, Vytina, Agios Stefanos
  • HIGHLIGHTS: unique evidence of high Greek culture such as Delphi, Olympia or the amphitheater of Epidaurus, Athens with its inexhaustible culture and history, the dizzying Meteora monasteries built on high cliffs, the super bridge over the Gulf of Corinth, the beautiful island of Lefkada
  • MINIMUM NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 6 (Please note paragraph 4.2. a) of our terms and conditions of travel to find out more about the cancellation of tour through Edelweiss Bike Travel when the minimum number of participants is not reached – Terms and Conditions)
  • FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the “Best of Greece” tour page
  • SPECIAL RIDER MAGAZINE TOUR BOOKING LINK: https://www.edelweissbike.com/ridermagazinegreece
  • COVID-19 POLICY: https://www.edelweissbike.com/en/coronavirus
  • Read our past reviews of Edelweiss Bike Travel tours:

The post Rider Magazine Best of Greece Tour with Edelweiss Bike Travel first appeared on Rider Magazine.
Source: RiderMagazine.com

Motorcycling Around Greece: 4 Islands that are a Must See

(Contributed post)

Greece is one of the most beautiful countries in Europe and is a fantastic place for a holiday any time of the year. The thriving capital city of Athens is home to some of the most important archaeological attractions in the world and ancient monuments such as the Parthenon and Acropolis of Athens, the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Ancient Agora are all fascinating places to visit.

As well as the mainland, Greece has hundreds of beautiful islands that are perfect destinations for holidays, especially during the summer months. Greece is also a great destination for motorcycle tours and there are lots of amazing places that you can visit with your motorcycle.

In this article we will take a look at some of the most famous islands that you can enjoy when you take your tour around Greece. There are frequent ferry connections to all the main islands in Greece and the port of Piraeus, which services the city of Athens.

Crete

Crete is the largest of all Greek islands and is located in the south east of the Aegean. It is an island that is ideal for visiting any time of the year, and has lots of wonderful places to visit and experience. What makes Crete an ideal place for a motorcycle holiday is the fact that the whole island is connected by one main highway that runs across the northern part of the island.

Crete consists of four main municipalities – Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion and Lassithi – each of which is home to a range of beautiful villages, coastal resorts and lots of places of natural beauty from dominating mountain ranges and valleys, to forests and isolated plains.

The ferries from Athens will usually arrive in Heraklion, which is the capital of the island, or in Chania. Wherever you arrive, you can head off along the main highway and make as many stops as you want to take in the gorgeous regions. While in Crete, don’t forget to sample some of the delicious local cuisine.

Rhodes

The island of Rhodes is the largest in the group known as the Dodecanese, and is an island filled with history, sights and an impressive coastline. There are frequent ferries to Rhodes from Athens, as well as from other ports in Greece.

You can enjoy some great motorcycle tours of the island, as you travel around the visit the beautiful beach resorts, mountain villages and everything in between. For those who enjoy a flutter, Rhodes is also home to the famous Rodos Kaszino, which is located in the northern part of the island.

Rhodes has a very interesting history and there are lots of great sites and places to stop and visit, such as the famous medieval town, which is a World Heritage Site. The landscape and scenery here make it an ideal destination for a motorcycle holiday, and it’s also a very safe island for travelers, and one that attracts all types of visitors from around the world.

Santorini

Santorini has to be mentioned on this list, simply because it is easily one of the most famous and beautiful islands in all of Greece. The island has frequent connections by ferry to Athens, and though not as large as Rhodes of Crete, has lots of wonderful places to visit and experience.

The town of Oia in the north of the island is home to some of the most amazing sunsets in the world. It is here that you will find the whitewashed houses, blue domed churches and narrow paths and streets to explore. There are lots of other interesting towns and villages in Santorini such as the capital of Fira, which is a great place to visit, as well as some lovely coastal towns such as Perissa, Emborio and Kamari.

Santorini is famous for many things such as the local cuisine, its wine and of course the famous volcano, which created the truly unique landscape of the island, which is unlike anything else you would have ever experienced.

Evia

The island of Evia is not one of the most famous for visitors from abroad, but it is actually an amazing travel location and its size makes it perfect for motorcycle tours. It is actually the second largest island in Greece after Crete, but what makes it that much more special is that you can actually reach it by land. There is a bridge connecting the mainland with the capital town of Chalkida, which is just over an hours drive from Athens.

Evia has lots of stunning places to visit all over the island. The northern part is the most beautiful with dense forests, impressive mountains and gorgeous beaches. The center and southern parts are also full of interesting places to explore and visit. There is a great road infrastructure around the island, making it an ideal place to head to and then start exploring.

Greece is a great destination for travel throughout the year, and for those who are looking for something different for a motorcycle holiday, then Greece has so many wonderful islands and destinations that are perfect for exploring on two wheels. There is good internet access in most locations around the island, so if you need to keep in contact with family or friends at home, check emails, or even jump onto your favorite casino online for a few rounds of poker, you can do so with ease.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com