2023 Scout Trip Dates:

Start: August 07/08 UK

Finish: October 18 Beijing




72 days from UK to Beijing 20000 +- km

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2023 Route: UK-France-Germany-Austria-Slovenia-Croatia-Bosnia-Montenegro-Albania-Greece-Turkey-Georgia-Azerbajan-Caspian Sea-Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-/Tajikistan/Kyrgyzstan-China Beijing the Great Wall.







Week 1: Western Europe to Balkans

Ride from UK through France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, to Croatia.  Enjoy beautiful mountain roads and visit historical castles. Stay at Dubrovnic and visit the movie scene of Game of Throne.

Week 2: Balkans to Istanbul

Ride the Balkan countries along the Adriatic Sea coast to Greece, visit Meteora  and ride across the Bohprus Straight to Istanbul. Have a good rest and explore this amzing city that links east and west.

Week 3: Turkey & Georgia
Ride through the ancient Ottoman Empire. Visit Cappadocia, chance to watch a hot air ballon sun rise or actually take a flight. See the stone heads of Mount Nemrut. Enter Georgia, a totally different country. Explore the fascinating Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. Time to sample some great Georgian wines.




Week 4:  Azerbaijan & Turkmenistan
Enter Azerbaijan and visit a lovely anceint town of Sheki and ride to Baku, visit the old city of Baku. We shall take the Ferry across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan. Ride though the hottest desert in the world to the White marble city of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.




Week 5:  Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan
RIde north through the Dashoguz Desert. Camp next to the Darvaza Gas Crater – “The Door to Hell”!  Enter Uzbekistan and visit the Ancient Silk Road oasises.  The ancient walled city of Khiva, Bhukara and then Samarkand, with the UNESCO listed Registan.  Minarets, mosques and madrasahs abound.




Week 6: Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan to China Xinjiang
Depends on road construction works and political situations. We will choose to either ride through the WakhanValley(Tajiskistan) or straight to Kyrgyzstan. We ride to Osh.  See the the Tien Shan Mountains.  Chill in the capital, Bishkek.  Pass by the Izzyk-Kul Lake to  Naryn. Ride over the Torugart Pass to Xinjiang Province, China. The ancient city of Kashgar, the largest city in west China.




Week 7:  Karakorums to Himalayas

We ride away from the Karakorum mountain range and enter Tibet autonomous region, the ‘Roof of the World’.  Ride at over 5,000 metres high with snow mountains in the back ground. Passing remote settlements.  This area is the least habitated in the world. We shall ride the foot of Mount Kailash & pass by the holy Lake Manasarovar.  A motorcyclist ultimate ride to the base camp of the tallest mounain in the world, Mt. Everest.




Week  8:  Lhasa and eastern Tibet

We get into Lhasa – two days to explore the Potala Palace and the Buddhist temples of Jokhang and Barkhor. 

Ride over a few more 5,000m passes. Through the hidden corridor of the ancient tea horse trading route. We arrive in Lijiang, the world heritage site.




Week 9:  Lijiang to Central China
Yunnan Province.  Descend from the Tibetan Plateau to Yunnan and visit the great rivers national parks. Onto the ancient walled city of Xi’an, the start point of the Silk Road.  Two full days to explore the Old Bell Tower and visit the Terracotta Army. 







Week 10: Beijing and the Great Wall !
We ride north through central china to visit the old towns, traditional Chinese culture, grottoes and finally reach the Great Wall.







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Southeast Asia Route Option:







Week 9: Lijiang to Laos and Thailand



Yunnan Province.  Descend from the Tibetan Plateau to Yunnan and visit the great rivers national parks. Lijiang city is where we we shall say goodbye to your riding mates if you choose different destinations. Beijing group will ride north towards Xi'an. Southeast Asia group will be riding south to Dali, into the subtropical and exit China at Mohan/Boten border to Laos, it will be another week or so to travel through Laos and Thailand. Ride China will offer local contacts in Laos and Thailand should you need assists riding through these two countries. Thailand and Vietnam will require travel agents to prepare the entry, Laos is permit free.  Ride China will help you making arrangement going into Thailand or Vietnam.

2023 Scout Trip Dates:

Start: August 07 UK

Finish: October 18 Beijing




2024 dates and prices are to be released soon.




2023 Prices in USD:




UK to Beijing Rider:  US$20395/person



Pillion rider: $11995/person


Single room: $3960/person




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Included in the cost:

 

All hotels on shared basis

All breakfasts

Weekly group dinners

25 dinners in China

Overnight hotel parking charges

Caspian Sea Ferry

Turkmenistan visa on arrival

Chinese Visa advice and letter of invitation

Tibet China Travel Permits for Foreign vehicles

China Customs Deposit for imported Vehicles

Chinese Driving License

Chinese License Plate

Daily route notes

Expedition Tour Shirt, Cap, Stickers

English Speaking Expedition Leader on motorcycle

Support Vehicle equipped with spares, fuel, hot tea & coffee, water

Tools and emergency first aid kit

Support vehicle driver, with mechanic experience

Local Guides in Stan countries and China.




Not included in Tour Cost:

Your own motorcycles

What is the proper motorcycle for this big journey?

Any mid sized or larger adventure motorcycles will do well. From Honda CB500X, Kawasaki Versys650, Yamaha T700, Aprilia Touareg 660,  BMW F850, Tiger 900 ralley to Honda African Twin 1100, BMW 1250GS and Tiger 1200 ralley pro. Take any one of them as you like, these bikes all have good reputation being reliable and robust. This is not an easy trip for novice riders, you need to have at least 5000 kilometers ridden on varied road surfaces in the past and keep riding recently.  It is highly recommended that you take a riding course if you are new to big bikes. Once you are confident riding big bikes then you need to do some regular exercises like running or cycling to maintain a certain level of endurance. On some days we need to ride a whole long day in extremely hot or cold weather.  This then can be done and enjoyed if you also bring a little bit of spirit of adventure and a sense of haha.

There is no customer review so far for this expedition. We had to change our old route (Ukraine/Russia/Kazakhstan) to this new one due to various reasons that we all know.  But the new route is even more fascinating and varied.  2023 expedition will be our first tour after COVID. The 2023 & 2024 tour leader/China guide Jia has some words to say about his scout trip back in 2019. 

"Thank you for spending time on our website and reading through this wonderful trip of a life time, as least for me it was. Back in 2019, my partner and I got out of China on two BMW G650GS to explore the Silk Road onwards. On our way to the west, we were not alone but with a wild bunch of multi-nation motorcyclists who just travelled across Southeast Asia and China. They/we were bound for Europe. On our journey we sometimes parted ways, sometimes teamed up again. We shared info of hotels, routes, places of interests and some dinners & laughters when we were reunited.  

It was one of our most memorable motorcycle journeys, we got to make some great friends, meet different people from different countries. I enjoyed every country we travelled through, none of them was boring but fascinating. All have their unique culture, weather, architecture, food and landscape. The nomads of Kyrgyzstan, silk road oasis towns in Uzbekistan, the Gas Crater in the blazing hot desert, the enormous Caspian Sea, medieval cities of Georgia, the ancient Ottoman Empire and it's super friendly people.... everything was just amazing and everyone of us totally enjoyed the journey.  We have been there, done that. Now we can't wait to get back there with you ! "