If you ride a motorcycle and you have never toured Europe, stop what you are doing and put it at the very top of your list. Because there is nowhere else on the planet that concentrates this many incredible riding roads into such a compact area. Dramatic mountain passes. Rolling vineyard valleys. Dark, fast forest roads. Coastal cliff roads with the sea glittering below. Europe has it all — and it is all within reach.
At Wild Roads Motorcycle Tours, we spend a significant portion of our lives riding these roads. Planning routes, discovering new passes, revisiting old favourites. And every single time we ride them, we feel the same way — genuinely lucky that roads like this exist, and that we get to ride them.
This is our definitive guide to the best motorcycle roads in Europe. Not a quick listicle — a proper deep dive into the roads that have stayed with us long after we got home.
1. The Dolomites, Italy — The Crown Jewel of European Motorcycle Touring
Start here. Always start here. The Dolomites in northern Italy are, without question, some of the most dramatic and rewarding riding roads anywhere in the world. If you could only ride one region of Europe on a motorcycle before you died, this would be it.
The geology here is unlike anything else in the Alps. These are not rounded, gentle mountains — these are vertical towers of pale limestone that erupt from the valley floors like broken teeth. The roads wind between them in sweeping hairpins, long open straights across alpine meadows, and tight technical passes that demand your full attention and reward it completely.
The passes you cannot miss: Passo Giau, one of the most photographed roads in the world for good reason. Passo Falzarego, fast and dramatic with views across to the Marmolada glacier. Passo Sella, the centrepiece of the Sella Ronda loop that connects four valleys and four passes in a single magnificent circuit. And Passo Fedaia, which climbs to the foot of the Marmolada and rewards you with scenery that borders on the unreal.
The roads are well maintained, the passes are generally open from late May through October, and the combination of technical riding and extraordinary scenery is simply unmatched. Budget at least three full days here — two if you absolutely must, but you will regret not having more.
We ride the Dolomites on our Twisties and The Tuscan Sun tour — spending two days in the heart of the region before heading south into Tuscany. It is, without fail, one of the highlights of the entire trip for every rider who joins us.
2. The Black Forest, Germany — Fast, Flowing and Deeply Satisfying
The Schwarzwald — Germany’s Black Forest — covers the rolling hills of southwest Germany in dense pine and delivers some of the most consistently enjoyable riding roads in Europe. These are not the dramatic mountain roads of the Alps. They are something different, and in many ways more satisfying for everyday touring.
The roads here flow. That is the word for it. Long, sweeping bends through trees. Gradual elevation changes. Roads that follow valleys and ridgelines with a kind of effortless logic that makes you wonder if they were designed specifically for motorcycles. You settle into a rhythm in the Black Forest that is genuinely hard to find anywhere else.
The Schwarzwaldhochstrasse — the Black Forest High Road — runs along the main ridge and is the obvious spine of any riding itinerary here. But the best roads are the ones that drop off it into the valleys: the Kinzig Valley, the Gutach Valley, the roads around Triberg and its famous waterfall. These are the roads where the traffic thins out and the riding gets really good.
Combine it with charming German towns like Freiburg, Baden-Baden and Gengenbach, some of the best food in Germany, and a coffee stop culture that is absolutely worth embracing. The Black Forest is the kind of region you underestimate on paper and fall completely in love with in person.
3. Tuscany, Italy — Slow Down and Feel Everything
Tuscany on a motorcycle is a completely different experience to alpine riding — and no less rewarding for it. Where the Dolomites demand your attention and skill, Tuscany invites you to breathe, to slow down, to actually look at the world you are moving through.
The roads here roll and flow through some of the most beautiful countryside on earth. The Val d’Orcia — a UNESCO World Heritage landscape — is the centrepiece: wide open valley floors, hilltop towns perched above the vineyards, cypress trees marching in formation along white gravel roads, and a quality of light in the late afternoon that genuinely makes you emotional if you are paying attention.
The riding is not technical. That is not the point. The point is Montalcino appearing on a hilltop as you come around a long bend. It is stopping in Pienza for a coffee and ending up there for an hour because the square is too beautiful to leave. It is finding a restaurant with a handwritten menu and no English translations and just pointing at something and having it be extraordinary.
Key roads to ride: the SR2 Cassia south from Siena through the Chianti hills. The loop around the Val d’Orcia from Montalcino to Pienza to Montepulciano. The road up to San Gimignano through the vineyards at dusk. These are not fast roads. They are not meant to be. They are meant to be savoured.
We spend two nights in Tuscany on the Twisties and The Tuscan Sun tour — based in a small town in the Val d’Orcia. It is, consistently, the stretch of the trip where riders tell us they understood for the first time what motorcycle travel is really about.
4. The Western Alps — The Roof of Europe
Stretching across the French-Italian border and into Switzerland, the Western Alps offer some of the highest, most dramatic and most rewarding riding roads in Europe. These are serious mountains — and the roads that cross them are serious roads.
The Col de l’Iseran in the French Alps is the highest paved mountain pass in the Alps at 2,764 metres. The road to the top is extraordinary — long switchbacks above the treeline, views across the surrounding peaks in every direction, and the satisfying knowledge that you are genuinely high up in the mountains with nothing between you and the sky.
The Col du Galibier is arguably even more dramatic — the road climbs through a barren, lunar landscape to 2,642 metres and the descent on the southern side is one of the great motorcycle roads in Europe. Long, flowing hairpins, perfect surface, almost no traffic outside of July and August when the Tour de France comes through.
The Col d’Agnel on the French-Italian border is less well known and better for it. A narrow, quiet pass that feels genuinely remote and rewards you with views across the Po Plain all the way to the Apennines on a clear day. This is the kind of road that motorcycle tourers keep to themselves.
The Western Alps are best ridden in June, early July or September. August brings holiday traffic to the main routes. The passes are typically closed from November through May depending on snowfall.
5. The Ardennes, Belgium and Luxembourg — The Underrated Gateway
Often overlooked in favour of the more famous alpine and Tuscan routes, the Ardennes is one of the most consistently enjoyable riding regions in Europe — and for UK-based riders, it is the perfect gateway into the continent.
The landscape here is dense deciduous forest, rolling green hills, and a network of fast, flowing roads that carry almost no traffic outside of summer weekends. The riding has a particular character — purposeful and rhythmic, the kind of roads where you click up a gear and just go, banking smoothly through long curves with the forest closing in on both sides.
The area around Spa and Stavelot is the heart of the best riding. Cross into Luxembourg and the roads get even quieter. Cross into the Eifel region of Germany and you will find the Nürburgring Nordschleife if you want to make a pilgrimage to one of motorsport’s holy sites.
Belgian food and beer deserve a mention here too. Stop in a small town, find a café, order the moules-frites and a local Trappist beer, and remember that this — all of this — is why motorcycle touring beats every other form of travel.
6. The Loire Valley, France — Wine Roads and Château Country
Few people think of the Loire Valley as a motorcycle destination. That is a mistake. The roads that follow the Loire and its tributaries west from Tours to the Atlantic coast are among the most pleasant riding roads in France — and France has no shortage of competition.
The landscape is gentle and golden — wide river valleys, vineyards, sunflowers, and a succession of extraordinary châteaux that appear around corners with a casualness that would seem implausible if you had not ridden the road yourself. Chambord. Chenonceau. Villandry. These are not tourist attractions you slot into a schedule — they are the landscape you are riding through.
The roads themselves are quiet, well-surfaced and logically routed. This is not technical riding — it is touring in its most civilised form. Pack light, ride slowly, stop often, and eat extremely well.
We ride through the Loire on the return leg of the Twisties and The Tuscan Sun tour — a final day of French roads and French food before the ferry home. The perfect way to ease back into real life after two weeks in the mountains.
Planning Your European Motorcycle Tour
Timing matters. June and September are the sweet spots for most of Europe — the weather is reliable, the passes are open, and the main tourist routes are not yet overwhelmed. July and August can be excellent but expect more traffic on the popular roads.
GPX files are worth having. Mapping apps work well in Europe but having offline GPX files loaded means you are never dependent on signal in the mountains. On all our Wild Roads tours we provide full GPX files for every day’s riding.
Green vignettes and road tolls. Several countries require environmental stickers or have road tolls — notably Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy. Check requirements before you cross each border.
Breakdown cover. Non-negotiable for European touring. Make sure your policy covers recovery back to the UK if needed, not just local repair.
Ride These Roads With Wild Roads
Our flagship Twisties and The Tuscan Sun tour covers five of the six regions in this guide in a single 15-day adventure — the Ardennes, the Black Forest, the Dolomites, Tuscany, the Western Alps, and the Loire Valley on the way home.
Everything is taken care of: handpicked hotels, daily GPX files, pre-ridden routes, ferry bookings, a full tour pack and 24/7 support throughout. You just show up with your motorcycle and ride.
Group sizes are kept small — never more than ten riders — so the experience stays personal and the riding stays good.
Interested in Riding Europe with Wild Roads in 2027?
If reading this has put any of these roads firmly on your radar — and we genuinely hope it has — then 2027 is your year to stop scrolling and actually do it. Our 2027 tour dates are being confirmed now, and the riders who register interest first get first pick of dates and early access to pricing.
Fill in the form below and we will send you the full 2027 tour pack — routes, dates, pricing, what to bring, and everything else you need to make it happen.
Ride Free. Ride Wild. ✌️
Joshua James
Wild Roads Motorcycle Tours