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.

Siberia by Snowmobile

Snowmobiles in SiberiaIn the April Waypoints Bulletin I announced plans to offer a unique Adventure - Snowmobiling in Siberia. The pricing and itinerary for this unique Siberian Adventure are now available on our website.

In addition to covering the cost of the snowmobiles, fuel, meals, accommodations, and experienced Russian tour leaders, this unique 13-day Adventure also includes airfare from Moscow to Irkutsk (a five-hour flight into the heart of Russia), from Severobaikalsk to Ulan-Ude, and back to Moscow.

I was personally excited about this unique Adventure when I first discussed it with our Russian colleagues, but I became even more enthusiastic when I reviewed the detailed day-by-day itinerary. To see the details of each day’s activities, visit our website page for this tour and place your cursor over the daily itinerary entries in the “At a Glance” table. Space is limited and we expect this unique tour to become fully-booked.

Join us at the BMW MOA

Tent City at the BMW MOA RallyOur Managing Director, John Jesson, along with several of our staff, will be at the BMW MOA International Rally in St. Paul, Minnesota. The rally runs from July 24-27 and is the largest annual gathering of BMW motorcycle enthusiasts in North America. The rally is open to owners of all brands of motorcycles. John will conduct a presentation that provides an overview of the Adventures that we offer in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America and South America.

This year we’re providing two grand prizes for the door prize drawing at the event’s closing ceremonies. Our 7-day Alps Switchback Challenge is scheduled for August 29, 2015. This tour has quickly jumped to the top of the list of our most popular European Adventures. The Adventure is designed for riders who wish to maximize their time riding the great motorcycling roads of the Alps while minimizing hotel changes. Riders will depart Munich for Pfunds, a municipality of the district of Landeck in Tyrol, Austria. Pfunds, located only 5 kilometers from the border with Switzerland, will be our Adventure Center “home” for four consecutive nights. One of our local tour leaders will lead rides through Austria, Switzerland and Italy, ensuring that riders enjoy the very best riding the Alps has to offer. If you don’t want to wait to see if you’ve won the 2015 trip, we have one slot remaining (single rider or couple) for the trip beginning August 30, 2014.

In addition to the Switchback Challenge, we’re delighted to partner with Alaska Motorcycle Adventures, Alaska’s premier provider of BMW motorcycle rentals, to provide another exciting door prize: a place on our 13 - day Alaska/Yukon Adventure.

Our popular Alaska/Yukon Adventure not only features some of the very best riding Alaska has to offer, but offers the opportunity to explore Canada’s Yukon Territory, including such popular motorcycling destinations as the Top of the World Highway, Dawson and Whitehorse.

You can find Ayres Adventures in the large corner booth L-2. Stop by to say hello and pick up a copy of our new catalog. AyresAdventures.com

An Ayres Adventures group in Africa