England to Malta

[Kerabo]

Hello
I am a new member to the group. I found it by accident

I wonder if any members have rode from the UK to Malta or even Sicily.
I plan to ride there this Septrmber and was wondering what to expect riding through Italy. We will be on Classic bikes so being slow will need to avoid the toll roads where traffic is fast.
My other question is finding accommodation
Has anyone completed such a trip?

Regards Ken

[videoman]

Can't help with riding a motor bike there but flying to Malta in June for 11 nights, only three hours on an aeroplane.

I imagine it would be quite a journey on classic bikes to get there and I know the roads in Malta are not very good as a few people I know who live there get the ferry to Italy if they want a good ride out but have a great time.

[herman]

Accommodation in Italy is plentiful but I find the family owned hotels with a restaurant attached to be preferable to the large chain type jobbies, unlike France where they are usually fine. Italy is the only country where my usual credit card did not work so take a selection possibly especially for auto fuel stops. Sounds like an interesting trip, send photos

[gbags]

Two of us on a Beemer went most of the way last summer.

We took smallish roads to Le Man - Annecy in the Fench lakes, then down to Genoa, Florence, Sienna.

Then the SR2 through Tuscany towards Rome. After Rome we took the fantastic Via Appia, if you're historically minded, and on to Naples, round the very dramatic Amalfi coast until about Salerno, where we branched off for Bari and the ferry to the Balkans.

We used booking.com to find hotels and we camped a few times but Italy is surprisingly expensive, petrol too.

Next time I'll try the family run hotels mentioned above.

Have a good trip.

[[email protected]]

Hello
I am a new member to the group. I found it by accident

I wonder if any members have rode from the UK to Malta or even Sicily.
I plan to ride there this Septrmber and was wondering what to expect riding through Italy. We will be on Classic bikes so being slow will need to avoid the toll roads where traffic is fast.
My other question is finding accommodation
Has anyone completed such a trip?

Regards Ken

I did UK to Sicily in July about 7 years ago.

It took four days on the way there and three on the way back, but I was riding a K1100 which is a great bike for long distances. I camped both ways, using the database in my Garmin GPS to find the campsites at the end of the day. It was very hot at night in Southern Italy, enough that I didn't sleep well.

Good trip, don't really have much more to add apart from Italian toll motorways were hideously expensive (and if you time it right you could get the Stella Alpina in on the way!)

[xylo66]

I have ridden solo all the way to Malta on my S-10 and enjoyed the trip. However, as mentioned before, the tolls are ridiculously expensive although the tunnels were amazing feats of engineering ( EU funding, of course ) and new and fun to ride through ! I stayed at " whenever I felt tired " - look for a local hotel type trip, which was good. Watch out for the trip over to Sicily to Messina ! Its " first come first served " and manic to get on the ferry ! There are loads of touts about and don't get shocked at the chaos! Just push and shove to get the bike on. Sicily is fantastic to ride and take a ride up to Etna volcano ! I stayed in Syracuse before taking the ferry to Valletta, in Malta. You can camp in Malta but its sparse ( ask if you want details of this ).

[[email protected]]

I have ridden solo all the way to Malta on my S-10 and enjoyed the trip. However, as mentioned before, the tolls are ridiculously expensive although the tunnels were amazing feats of engineering ( EU funding, of course ) and new and fun to ride through ! I stayed at " whenever I felt tired " - look for a local hotel type trip, which was good. Watch out for the trip over to Sicily to Messina ! Its " first come first served " and manic to get on the ferry ! There are loads of touts about and don't get shocked at the chaos! Just push and shove to get the bike on. Sicily is fantastic to ride and take a ride up to Etna volcano ! I stayed in Syracuse before taking the ferry to Valletta, in Malta. You can camp in Malta but its sparse ( ask if you want details of this ).

Be careful pushing and shoving onto the manic ferry... in the attempt to squeeze on I ended up with my bike's handlebar's wedged into an open bus doors and my (plastic) pannier jammed against someone's car. Caused a small amount of chaos as a very angry (female) bus driver had to move the bus away from the bike to go forwards.

Whoops.

[deskjetian]

Here's a ride report on xrv.org.uk

http://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/transalp/8 ... lands.html

[Kerabo]

Thank you for that reply. We have decided to try to avoid the pay roads. Giving it 7 days each way and 7 in Malta but flexible. We have family in malta so once there will have accommodation. I wanted to visit Etna on the way.
The ferry sounds fun . You think it may be wise to fit some temp indicators to my classic bike for Italy?

Thanks Ken

[xylo66]

Once in Sicily, I stayed at hotel villa funusa, in Syracuse. Highly recommended especially if its sweltering hot. The hotel rooms have high ceilings and fully airconditioned and spotless. Pools are huge and most welcome and secure bike parking in the yard.