How to plan a motorcycle trip

A new year means new adventures, and to get you off on the right foot, we’ve put together this feature to provide you with all of the tools and knowledge you need to make your adventures this year the best yet.

For some, the only planning that’s required is deciding where you’re going to be riding and then just seeing what happens when you get there, but for others, trips require military precision when it comes to planning, with all food stops, petrol stops and roads planned out before they’re even on the bike.

In my experience, somewhere between these two is the best for making sure you get the most out of your ride. Without proper planning, you could miss some incredible roads and sights, and with too much planning, you can become too fixated on your schedule that you forget to actually live in the moment and enjoy your ride!

So, here I’ll discuss exactly how I plan rides when plotting routes for Adventure Bike Rider magazine. Follow these steps, and you’ll be in for a great time.

Pick your destination

There are so many places in the world to ride, and trying to narrow it down to one can seem like hard work. Consider how far away is realistic for you to travel, whether you’ll be riding your own machine there, or whether you’ll be happy to rent if you’re aiming for a far-flung destination.

One of the best ways to get inspiration for where to ride is to make use of social media by following well-known motorcycle travel accounts. I may be biased, but the Adventure Bike Rider Facebook page will give you a plethora of ideas and the inspiration you need to decide on where to explore.

It’s also worth considering what sort of traveller you are. It’s always good to get outside your comfort zone, but if the idea of riding somewhere where there are few amenities terrifies you, then you might be best off looking at somewhere in between to ease yourself into it.

Let’s face it, a motorcycle tour should be a holiday, and you should enjoy every second of it! Once you’ve picked the country or countries in which you’d like to tour, move on to the next step.

Start researching

As soon as you know where in the world it is you’d like to ride, start researching that location. The more specific you are on your destination, the easier this is going to be. Rather than trying to plot out a route step by step initially, search out some landmarks and places you’d love to incorporate into your route, plot them on a map, and then join them up with the best roads you can see.

General searches of ‘things to do in X’ are a good place to start, and you’ll find a wealth of information on forums, while there will also be tons of information on the internet about the best roads to ride in these areas.

When scouring Google Maps, Street View is a valuable tool for discovering great roads. Look for squiggly roads, drop the street view pin and check it out – if it looks like it’ll be a great ride, include it in your route.

Get active in forums

Chances are, no matter where you want to ride, there’s someone else who’s ridden there. And when there’s someone else who’s ridden there, there’s usually information about that ride on the internet, particularly in forums.

The big adventure motorcycling communities are right here on the Adventure Bike Rider forums, and also at AdvRider. Both of these websites are filled with knowledgeable and friendly riders who are more than willing to share advice on locations they’ve ridden. Perhaps they will have already posted a trip report from when they went. Scour through these and look for any snippets that you might find interesting, and then add them to your itinerary.

How far in a day?

It’s important that you get a realistic idea of how many miles you’re willing to comfortably ride in a day. One 600-mile day would be fine, but if you’re doing five of them back-to-back in the week, it’ll get old real quick, and you won’t have any time to explore out of the saddle.

When deciding how many miles you can do, it really depends on the type of rider that you are. If you want to spend as much time in the saddle as possible, you can aim for 250 – 300 miles per day. If you’d rather take your time and explore the locations that you found out about while you were researching, reduce this figure to 150 miles.

Planning out your accommodation

This may come as a surprise to many readers, but when I’m out discovering routes to be featured in Adventure Bike Rider, I very rarely book accommodation in advance. By doing this, you’re restricting the freedom you have when it comes to the end of the day, and if you’ve got to make it to a certain place by a certain time, it ruins the possibilities of venturing off route for considerable amounts of time.

In all the times I’ve been out on multi-day tours, I’ve only found it difficult to find accommodation once, and even then, after a few phone calls, I found a nice hotel 30 minutes away.

Here’s what I do: When you get to your lunch stop, you’ll usually have a pretty good idea of where you’ll be that evening. So, now’s the time to fire up either Late Rooms, TripAdvisor or Expedia, and search for last-minute deals in that location.

If the hotels are all booked up, consider a different location a few miles away, and you’ll be incredibly unlucky not to find somewhere. It might sound like a leap of faith, leaving the hotel the next day with no idea of where you’ll be staying the following evening, but it all adds up to making it a bit more of an adventure and giving you the freedom to enjoy yourself.

If you’ve decided to camp, things are a bit different, as there aren’t as many campsites as there are hotels. It’d be wise to have a rough idea of where you want to stop that evening and to make sure the campsites in the area aren’t fully booked.

Don’t be afraid to speak to the locals

OK, so you’ve plotted the route, and you’re off riding it, following your SatNav to conquer the incredible roads you’ve researched and to see the amazing sights that you’ve uncovered, but to think you’re finished with your route planning would be a big mistake. No matter how much research you do prior to a ride, there’s nothing better for discovering the best an area has to offer than to speak to the locals.

I’ve lost count of the times we’ve been riding routes for features in Adventure Bike Rider magazine, only for our plans to change based on information we’ve been given by someone we’ve spoken to along the way.

I’m not saying you have to go out of your way to formally interview people who live where you’re riding, but strike up conversations when you can.

The great thing about touring by motorcycle is that people are usually interested in what you are doing. Stopped for a coffee? Ask the waiter or waitress if there’s anything interesting nearby. And that group of bikers chatting outside, go and have a natter to see where the best roads are. Once you’ve been told about some places, adjust your route to include them; these guys and girls usually know the best-kept secrets.

Use AI to speed up your planning

Many of you will recoil at my mentioning of AI, but bear with me. Over the past few years, there’s been a quiet, genuinely useful shift in how trips can be planned, and it’s one that can save you hours without sucking the soul out of an adventure. It’s AI.

Used properly, tools like ChatGPT can act like a well-informed advisor who’s already spent hours doing all of the above. The key is not to ask it to plan everything for you, but to use it to speed up the boring bits. By that, I mean ask it for suggestions on great regions to ride, famous passes, lesser-known alternatives, scenic loops in certain areas, etc. Then you can decide for yourself what makes your final cut.

It’s also a great place to get inspiration when you’re stuck. If you know you want to ride somewhere warm, scenic, and not too intense, AI will be able to give you a few ideas you might not have considered, and then you can research them properly.

Treat AI as another helpful tool in the box rather than the be-all and end-all, and you’ll make planning even more enjoyable.

Be prepared to ignore your plan

Even the best-made plans can fall apart, so don’t be afraid to change things up if you realise that you’ve mis-calculated how many miles you can do in a day, or if you decide you’d rather head off in another direction. In my opinion, it’s also a bad idea to try to plan everything step by step. Spontaneity often makes a trip, and you’ll find yourself having a great time if you just decide to go with the flow to an extent.

All that’s left after you’ve done the above is to choose a time of year to go. The obvious factors to consider here are weather conditions and national holidays. For example, if you’re planning a trip through the Alps, you’ll want to make sure you travel at a time when the mountain passes are actually open and free of snow. Similarly, it’s probably best to avoid riding in desert terrain in the middle of the summer heat! As for holidays, you’ll find the roads noticeably busier if you tour during these seasons, so avoid them if at all possible.

So, choose your destination and get planning!

Or… Skip the planning entirely

Of course, if all this talk of planning has reminded you how much effort it can be, there’s another option.

If you’d rather spend your time riding instead of researching, booking, and second-guessing routes, a guided tour can be a brilliant way to see the very best of a region without the faff. The routes are sorted, the logistics handled, and all you need to do is turn up and ride.

We’ve pulled together a hand-picked selection of the best motorcycle tours for 2026, covering everything from short European escapes to once-in-a-lifetime expeditions across Africa, Asia, and South America. Take a look at the best motorcycle tours from 2026 here.