No, but I have a good map…

And this answer is usually enough to start long discussions about old vs modern, use of technology, navigation methods and so long.

I am writing all that, because two days ago I visited a travel bookshop to buy maps for our “Great Kiwi & friends Greek Odyssey” and I stayed there for an hour a half, helping a guy I met for the first time to make a rough plan for his trip to Croatia through Albania and discussing with Petros ( the owner ) about small roads and unknown places we have visited using just a map…

I must make it clear that I am not against technology – I love smart solutions technology offers and I use them when they make my work easier and faster and I even own a GPS unit with the most detailed road network for Greece (that even includes a vast number of unpaved roads in the forests and mountains!)
But when it comes to map vs GPS, I clearly prefer maps.

I know, it is very easy to plan your route in your laptop and download it to the GPS unit, but where is the magic in that? Why should you let a machine tell you which the “shortest” or “quickest” route is and decide in advance the exact time it should take you to complete the ride?

For me, maps are magic: First of all, it is that feeling when you unfold the map – the smell and the noise of the paper and a brand new world in frond of your eyes…Then, strange names, rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys and you already start imagine how the route will look like…And then, you see that small, twisty road and you decide to change your route for yet another time…

And when the tour or trip ends, you can recall it any time you wish, by just opening again the map – a note with the pen, a coffee stain; places marked, they all bring back memories…

If you want to know your average speed throughout the tour, how many minutes your engine was running, what time you stopped to drink coffee and at what angle your bike was leaning at the 45th km of the 3rd day of your tour, you definitely need a GPS unit…

If you enjoy riding without trying to arrive at your next waypoint exactly at the ETA, explore the small roads not in the “quickest” route, you do not mind “loosing” a few minutes to admire a monument or chat with a local then you do not need a GPS…

Did I mentioned that in Odyssey we give our clients the best available maps for the tour areas?

The team is now finalized and in total we will be 11 riders and 4 passengers, riding one F650GS and 10 R1200 R and GS BMWs….

The routes are selected to combine riding pleasure with cultural experiences, the hotels will make the stay more than just enjoyable and the brand new 2012 bikes will ensure that the tour will run without any problems….

We can already feel it…It is going to be a great and fun tour once again!

70 days left to the start of this great tour and we have a couple of BMWs available for any last minute adventurers as 4 couples and 4 single riders have already booked 9 bikes ( 4 R1200GS’s, 4 R1200R’s and a F650GS )

• More information about this tour

Contact us or call us if you are interested in joining this tour!

In cooperation with our partners “Motorradsport Holzleitner” we will soon operate the following tours starting from Munich, Germany :

The Adriatic Adventure

The tour will run through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and follow the Adriatic coast to Greece, where it will run through Epirus to Thessaloniki.

The tour will start on 30/4 from Munich and will end on 12/5/2012 at Thessaloniki.

B.I.G. tour – Bavaria • Italy • Greece

This tour combines some famous routes in Austria (like the Grossglockner) and Italy (like the Dolomites) with a relaxed ferry crossing from Ancona to Igoumenitsa and some great mountain routes and monuments in Northern Greece.

The tour will start on 5/5 from Munich and will end on 12/5/2012 at Thessaloniki.

More info

• In both tours you can participate with your own motorcycle or rent a brand new BMW or Ducati from both of our partners in Munich.
• Detailed itinerary and pricing will be soon available.
• There are frequent flight from Thessaloniki to many cities in Germany and central Europe for your return – or you can return with the bike.
• If you wish, you can extend your holidays participating in our “Poseidon” tour starting on May 13th.

Please feel free to contact us for any additional information.

As 2012 is just a few days away, we have updated the dates for our tours.

First of all, our old partners from Italy (Motoexplora) are coming back to Greece. We have 4 tours scheduled for them : April 21st, May 12th, July 14th and Sept 15th. These tours are Saturday to Saturday and they start / end at the Port of Igoumenitsa. Customers come with their own bike and if you are interested in taking part in any of these tours we always hold a couple of places available.

Then, we have the “Great Kiwi Greek Odyssey” for our friends from NZ – Beker’s MCT. This is a very special tour, as we will ride for 17 days in Northern Greece. Except from the great roads, we will do a lot of “off the beaten track” riding, visiting places literally untouched by tourism, dive into the real life of the countryside and enjoy Greek way of life.
This is a custom tour, but if you are interesting to join, we have a couple of places available.

In May, we also offer our “Poseidon” tour. This is a very relaxed tour, staying for 5 nights in the same beautiful beach resort and enjoying loop rides in great biking roads by the sea or through the forest. This is also a very wife-friendly tour, as the hotel is just across the road from a sandy beach, ideal for sunbathing and swimming…

In mid-June, we have our “Ares” premium tour – in a guided version. This not a tour for beginners, as we will ride a lot of small twisty mountain roads. And after the hard riding, we will be staying in some excellent hotels fully justifying the “premium” character of this tour!

In the end of June and first week of July, you can join our “Aphrodite” tour – in a guided version. This tour combines a bit of Halkidiki and Thassos island (well known summer holiday destinations) with the unknown beauties of Xanthi, Kerkini and Naousa areas. With a combination of easy and challenging routes, this tour is suitable for all levels of riders.

Our next tour is scheduled for August 18th – and is again “Aphrodite” – but this time in the escorted version – That means that except the guide on the bike, we also have a support vehicle for maximum comfort.

September starts with another “Ares” premium tour – This time an escorted one. This means that you can leave all luggage in the support vehicle, remove the side-cases from the bike and enjoy riding in the curvy mountain roads…

We have also two more tours in the program – One in April and one in September, but they are private custom tours, so it is not possible (at the time) to book a place…

Finally, there is one more tour we will be offering : A one way tour from Munich to Thessaloniki, and details we be soon available. Most possible departure dates are May 4th or 5th, so stay tuned if you are interested!

You can find all our tour departures in our calendar

We have successfully worked with Motoexplora in the past, making together tours in Greece for Italian bikers.

• Tour photos ’09
• Tour photos ’10

For 2012, we have scheduled 4 tours – all starting and ending at Igoumenitsa port. The tour runs mainly in Epirus, Thessaly and western Macedonia, including monuments like Delfoi, Meteora and Vergina, great hotels, local food and of course fantastic routes.

For more information contact us or visit Motoexplora website

As we want to offer the best possible rental motorcycles to our clients, together with Motogreek, we will now also cooperate with Motorradsport Holzleitner.

We will not only use rental motorcycles from both companies, but we will also cooperate in the touring area, as we will offer new, exciting tours in Greece and other interesting destinations!

Stay tuned as we finalize the details and we will soon have more information available!

So, we decided to offer a motorcycle tour that would be suitable for all kind of wives – even for those that get on the back seat of the bike only to go the the nearest cafe or beach..

Our Poseidon tour offers a solution for almost every excuse your wife will use to avoid the tour, and we provide you with answers you could use to change her mind!

• Excuse : In a motorcycle tour I can not take the all the clothes / shoes / hair-dryer / with me…

  Answer : In this tour you can take with you as many clothes as the airline allows, as the luggage will be transported for us.

• Excuse : I do not want to pack and unpack our stuff every day…

  Answer :You do not have to do that…Except from the first and last night in Thessaloniki, all the other days we will stay in the same hotel…

• Excuse : It is our holidays and I want to relax at the beach / get sun-tanned / swim..

  Answer :You can! The hotel we will stay most of the days is located right on the beach…And not any beach, one of the most beautiful beaches of Halkidiki! . And some of the days we will ride to some amazing beaches where we can stop and enjoy a swim…

  

• Excuse : I do not know anyone else on the tour…What if I do not like them? Do I have to spend the whole day with them?

Answer :Don’t worry…We can actually ride on our own if we like to…

• Excuse : I do not really enjoy staying in B&Bs – neither the typical group dinners..

  Answer :This is not the case in this tour. The hotels are great..In Thessaloniki we will stay in a 4* city hotel, while in Ouranoupolis in a 4* beach resort. As for dinners, in Thessaloniki we will enjoy Greek cuisine in beautiful restaurants and in Ouranoupolis the dinners will be in buffet, with a wide variety of fresh salads and tasty main courses so you can select whatever you like

• Excuse : Motorcycle tour in Greece? Don’t you watch / read the news? It is unstable / full of trouble / a chaos over there..

  Answer :Not at all! Yes, there is some trouble in the centre of Athens and sometimes in other big cities, but live goes on as usual…Especially in the countryside (where we will mostly ride) you will not notice anything strange or unusual…

• Excuse : What bike we will ride on the tour? What if it is not comfortable or safe?

  Answer :They are very comfortable and safe…We can have a BMW R1200GS, with plenty of room for both of us. And they are equipped with 2 side panniers to put everyday stuff inside. As for safety, the have ABS, ESA, ASC, RDC, On-board computer etc…Or we can have the F800GS or F650GS – not that comfortable as the 1200, but excellent bikes as well…

• Excuse : I want to come on this tour, but I can not ride because my back hearts / I have a broken arm / I am not feeling well..

  Answer :That can be arranged too! A support vehicle will take the luggage from Thessaloniki to Ouranoupolis and back – There is room for 1 or 2 passengers, so you can enjoy the beach while I enjoy riding, and you can ride with me if you feel better!

• Excuse : My mum wants to come to this holiday too. Can we take her with us?

  Answer :I am very sorry, but I have contacted Odyssey Tours and they have a very strict policy that does not allow mothers-in-low to join their tour. No exceptions. Ever.

I am sure that there are other excuses too, but we are here to help you with the right answers!

Our Poseidon tour was created with couples in mind…But it is flexible and interesting enough for all riders and riding styles…except those riders that confuse the road with the track…

The downloads page

We have added another very useful page in our website – Downloads , where you can find all the downloads from our website, like the pdf files with the information about each one of our motorcycle tours in Greece and the pdf files with the terms and conditions and other legal stuff.

The page can be found at Information > Downloads

The Wibiya toolbar

We had the toolbar activated just for the home page, but it is now available for all the pages of our website.

With the toolbar is very easy to share the content of the website to social networks, connect to our accounts, read our latest news and many more…

We have just updated our website with the new prices for our 2012 motorcycle tours .

We have tried hard not to rise the prices and we achieved it in almost all of our tours. In fact, there are some categories that the prices are lower than those in 2011, without changing the quality of the services provided.

Also, this year we will offer our shorter tours ( Aphrodite and Ares ) in two options : Escorted (with guide and support vehicle) and guided (only with a guide). For the guided tours there will be luggage storage available in Thessaloniki for things you do not need to carry with you and the cost is of course lower

Dates

We have not yet finalized the tour dates for 2012, but we will do very soon. The reason is that we have to fit a couple of custom tours in our schedule, like the “Great Kiwi Greek Odyssey” for Beker’s MCT from May 25th to June 10th…

It is almost 100% sure that we will run a Poseidon tour on May 13th and a guided Ares tour on June 16th – we will be able to confirm that in the next 15 days..