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Russia – Beyond the Golden Ring

St. Basil's Cathedral in RussiaThe first running of our Russian Adventure - Beyond the Golden Ring - is now history. Based on feedback from the participants, I think we have another winner that will become a popular, regularly-scheduled tour.

While the accommodations and meals were great, as were the many “off-bike” activities incorporated into the trip, one aspect of the Adventure differentiated it from other tours that we offer: we visited many places where the locals claimed to have never seen a tourist from America. This unexpected novelty made us realize that we had indeed gone “Beyond the Golden Ring” and had experienced a very special aspect of this fascinating country.

We’re making a few minor modifications to the Adventure for 2015. The new format will be a day longer (15 days) and will begin and end in Riga, Latvia. With this change we're eliminating the only challenging stretch of road on the trip - we can commit to an easy-going ride, almost entirely paved, with very little gravel.

Beginning and ending in Riga will also provide a much wider choice of motorcycles, and most importantly, will allow us to enjoy two additional countries: Latvia and Estonia. I was very impressed with both of these very interesting Baltic countries, and I’m delighted that we’ll make what is a great trip even better!

PhotoMoto Africa

Ricardo SerpaIf you’re as serious about photography as you are about international motorcycle travel, our PhotoMoto Africa Adventure is for you! For many serious photographers, a “dream vacation” is a tour to an amazing destination, replete with breathtaking photographic opportunities.

Because we believe many serious motorcyclists are photography enthusiasts as well, we’ve designed our first PhotoMoto Adventure Workshop, to be offered in 2015. In addition to exciting wildlife encounters along beautifully scenic roads through the most spectacular regions of South Africa, this trip will feature professional photographic skills training. Participants will return home with truly exceptional photographs that memorialize a fantastic motorcycling vacation.

To offer this unique Adventure, we have partnered with Ricardo Serpa Photography. Ricardo, an avid motorcycle world traveler and professional photographer, will offer a photography workshop with hands-on instruction throughout each day, while leading the group through bucket-list roads featuring incredible photo opportunities. Ricardo will focus on image composition, lighting and finding the ideal photographic approaches to each subject.

In the evening, after a fantastic day of riding, exploring, and photography, the group will gather for an on-camera review and critique of the day’s images. Ricardo will also offer tips on how to further process digital images using Adobe’s Photoshop and Lightroom.

During the 2-week tour, Ricardo will be fully available to share his own experiences and ideas about photography with plenty of time for individual Q&A. For examples of Ricardo’s work, see the slideshow on the Ayres website and have a look at Ricardo’s website.