Motorcycle tours for beginners: how to choose your first one

A first motorcycle tour abroad is less about how well you ride and more about choosing a trip that matches how you ride today. Plenty of riders with a few seasons of commuting or weekend riding behind them do a guided tour as their first big trip, and come home wanting another. The ones who struggle usually picked a tour built for someone else: too many kilometres a day, too much dirt, or a bike too big for them.

This guide covers what "beginner friendly" really means on a tour, which destinations and tour types suit a newer rider, and the questions to ask an operator before you book.

First, the licence

A guided tour does not replace a motorcycle licence. Most operators ask to see a full licence that covers the bike you will ride, and many countries also expect an International Driving Permit. If your licence does not cover motorcycles, you cannot legally ride on the tour, though many tours take a pillion passenger. Our licence and IDP checker shows what each destination asks for.

If you are still learning, take a proper course before you go. In the US that is a basic rider course run through your state (often the MSF Basic RiderCourse); in the UK it is CBT followed by a full licence test. Hours on your own bike at home are worth more than anything you can learn on the first morning of a tour.

What makes a tour beginner friendly

Guided or self-guided?

A self-guided tour gives you a bike, a route, booked hotels and usually a GPS track, and you ride alone. It suits confident riders who navigate well. For a first trip abroad, a guided tour takes away the hardest parts: finding the way in a new country, reading local traffic, and knowing where fuel and food are. You can concentrate on riding.

Destinations that suit newer riders

No country is easy everywhere, but some areas have well-surfaced roads, short distances between towns and plenty of tours built for mixed groups.

• Northern Thailand. Good tarmac, fuel everywhere, and loops that can be ridden in short days from Chiang Mai. Traffic drives on the left. Some famous roads, such as Route 1095 to Pai, have a great many corners, so ask how the tour paces them. See our Samoeng Loop guide for a first day ride.
• Morocco on tarmac. Long, open roads with light traffic outside the cities. Choose a tour that keeps to paved roads and has a support vehicle; desert pistes are a step up.
• Bali. Short distances and many one-day guided rides, which are a good way to try riding abroad before committing to a week. Traffic is dense around the south of the island.
• Ha Giang, Vietnam, with a local driver. If you are not ready to ride the loop yourself, many riders do it on the back of a local driver's bike (an "easy rider" tour). It is one of the few famous rides you can enjoy fully without riding.

Questions to ask before you book

• How many kilometres is each day, and how much of it is unpaved?
• Which bikes can I choose, and what is the seat height?
• Is there a support vehicle, and can it carry me if I need a break?
• How many riders per guide, and is there a guide at the back?
• What licence and documents do you need to see?
• What happens if I drop the bike? Ask about the damage deposit and insurance excess.

Every tour page on Moto Mass has a form to ask the operator questions like these before you book. The operator replies to you directly.