Thailand Motorcycle Tour - Mae Hong Son Loop TB01
7 Days From £990 (1,489 USD)
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This tour is known to be one of the 10 best motorcycle routes in the world with over 4,000 bends through the mountainous roads in the north of Thailand and described as Technical Riding Heaven. For full no obligation pricing options and operator contact details please enquire: 
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The Mae Hong Son Loop is right up there as one of the world's Top 10 motorcycling routes with stunning scenery, magnificent views and challenging and invigorating roads, this is a once in a lifetime experience.
This is a Technical Riding Heaven tour which runs as a Monday to Friday 'on the road' bike tour with additional sight-seeing and activities etc, dependant upon how many days you stay to fill your holiday dates.
Overview: Mae Hong Son Loop; Chiang Mai, Pai, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang, Doi Inthanon.
This tour includes many attractions to see en route, national parks, waterfalls, hot springs, gardens, the highest mountain in Thailand, rivers, lakes, mountains, temples, Long Necked Karen Tribe villagers, along with lots more.
Description
Notes
- Two riders minimum booking.
- Prices are based on two sharing a room otherwise our SBS (single booking supplement) applies.
- Also available is our CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) at 1,000b/tour to cover any possible mishaps that might occur above normal wear & tear.
- We can take up to 8 riders in a mixed group, but have taken 15 in a single party before.
- We also run ‘Specialist Tours’ outside our usual dates for parties of 5 and over.
Included
- Motorcycles (including all fuels/oils/reasonable running and servicing costs)
- Hotels/resorts and half-board (breakfast and evening meal)
- Support vehicle(s) for luggage etc.
- Drinks/iced towels etc from that vehicle (also available for the secure storage of valuables through the day)
- Entrance fees to parks & attractions
- Airport transfers
- Taxi/Tuk-Tuk fares when out with the group
- Also supplied FOC are creams/balms/light medication (such as Nurofen/Imodium) should they be required while out on the road.
Excluded
- Flights
- Lunches
- Drinks not from our support vehicles
- Souvenirs.
Please Bring
Riders/pillions are required to bring their own riding gear (Helmets/gloves/boots/armour), provide their own travel insurance covering them for riding the machines chosen, national and international driving permits for the same and notify us of any existing medical conditions, or dietary needs etc.
For more information on this and the other tours we offer, please submit an enquiry.
We offer discounts for groups of four and more
Itinerary
| Arrival | |
| Day Ride, Assessment and settling in. | |
| 168 km, visiting waterfalls, hot spings, geyser and elephant riding. - Up early, bags packed and stacked by the service vehicle(s)and in for breakfast. Early start at the hotel Kit up for your ride and ready to go. About the only early start as we must be leaving the hotel to miss the rush hour. We’ll take care of loading your bags once you’ve left them by the vehicle(s). The rest of the week we can be far more relaxed, discussing the following day’s events over dinner and therefore start/finish times to best suit the group. From the hotel here first gas station to fuel up then out of the city as quickly as possible before the rush. Heading north up the motorway for an hour or so, hang a left and pretty much straight onto the first coffee stop. Mae Hong Song Loop, First Coffee Stop Great fresh-ground coffee here,set in the most beautiful gardens. From here onto the first attraction, hot springs; Mae Hong Song Loop, Hot Springs Around a 500m walk from the parking area to the springs, plenty of chance to stretch your legs before the next leg of the journey. Swing your leg back over the saddle, and from here on in the roads begin to get interesting, less than 200m between hairpins! Not covering a huge distance but still an hour before the next attraction, waterfall that must be 100' high. Mae Hong Song Loop, Waterfall Once out of this national park loads more of those gorgeous twisties, 30 min until the next rest/coffee stop at a viewpoint. Stop for lunch and indeed the night’s accommodation in Pai. With the day's riding over, a bite to eat, quick beer (if you so choose) to settle the day’s dust and then jump into the service vehicle(s) for the 5km trip to a small elephant camp. Mae Hong Song Loop, Monday's accommodation, a luxurious resort with pool Basically the end of the elephants’ working day and time for a bath in the local river. That’s your job if you’re up for it? Nobody’s forced into doing anything against their will on these tours, all attractions are free and optional, so if you fancy playing in the water with an elephant then this is certainly for you. Plenty of tours offer elephant rides not many can say they’ve bathed one! Mae Hong SongLoop, after a long day's ride time to cool off in the river with a few elephants! Return to the resort, shower, maybe a dip in the pool? Also a spa locally for the ladies, chauffer service and they can disappear for some pampering. Then off into town for your first Thai dinner. This chap’s somewhat of a star in the country, cooking shows and suchlike, and his food’s absolutely out of this world. He’s getting better and more used to our large parties, the girls get down there at lunchtime and order in advance to give him a fighting chance of getting us all served. For those who’d care to go on a little later we can drop into a bar or two on the way back to the resort. | |
| 168 km, viewpoint, cave rafting, lunch, viewpoint & roadside market. - we can start a little later today at the group’s discretion, but the absolutely amazing eco resort we’re staying at tonight deserves a couple of hours exploring. Mae Hong Son Loop, a few twisties First stop at the viewpoint gives a good idea of the road ahead. Mae Hong Son Loop, Viewpoint Then an hour or so later we arrive at a huge 3 cave system, bamboo rafts through them to the bottom; check the burial sites, mixture of rafting and walking back to the entrance. For the not-so-fit it’s perfectly acceptable to stay on the raft making your way back while the rest wander. Loads of steps! Mae Hong Son Loop, Bamboo rafting through caves Lunch here before hitting the road again; we always advise sticking to simple Thai Fayre at lunchtimes, Phad Thai, Cow Phad Gai (Chicken)/Moo (Pork) etc. In this manner they can flash off a couple or three wok’s full, and we’re not waiting all afternoon for people to be served. There’s always one though, isn’t there? Mae Hong Son Loop, Viewpoint Hour or so’s motoring right up into the peaks, stop at another absolutely cracking viewpoint and roadside market. Mae Hong Son Loop, another luxury resort for the night including swimming pool Before heading down the other side of the mountain range and left into Mae Hong Son and onto the resort. Such a peaceful place you wouldn’t believe, everybody always asks if we can stay another night the atmosphere is so relaxing! Mae Hong Son Loop, Swimming Pool There are even a few mountain trails for those who’d care to take a stroll, between 1 and 4km, one of the dogs there will jump up as soon as they see you heading that way, they love a walk and will be your guide in recompense! Needless to say most of us end up chilling by the pool with a beer or two before heading down to the sunset bar for a nice, civilised G&T as the sun gently drops over the mountains. Mae Hong Son Loop, Sunset Out into town again for dinner, again pre-ordered and eaten Thai style. After which the choice is yours, check the local evening market (complete with official Mae Hong Son Loop T-shirts, and no, I’m not on commission though ought to be!), few local shops/bars/massage shops (not parlours, straight and on the up-and-up) in case you need a few kinks ironing out already? | |
| 182km, visiting Karen long neck village, temple, visiting caves. - Relaxed start in the morning again, unless you’d care to catch the sunrise with the clouds still nestling between the mountains, can be spectacular. 4WD only on the dirt track up though, no bikes. Mae Hong Son Loop, Mountain view Jump on the bikes, into town, fuel up. Although many touring companies deal with this in the evenings before parking up we’ve found it a far better morning ritual, much, much cooler saves you sweating buckets in your leathers. Mae Hong Son Loop, Fuel Then off up the hill to check out a local temple with superb views over the city before pushing onto the Longnecks village. There are 11 fords along this stretch of road, and though they have concrete bases and are only a couple of inches deep they can get very slippery. Stand on the pegs to lower your centre of gravity and gun it. If you don’t feel confident enough not a problem to jump in one of the vehicles and we’ll chauffeur you through. Mae Hong Song Loop, Longneck Village After Mae hong son the road widens considerably and though still interesting, more straights and more room to manoeuvre, can relax at last! Stop in a small village for lunch, Thai noodle soup “Gwaetiow”. A good 2hr run after lunch, down to the Crystal Caves. Songtaew (kind of Thai bus/taxi affair) ride up the mountain then 20min in these amazing caves formed by calcite deposits, no photography, hats or touching of the crystals please as they’re incredibly easily damaged. Mae Hong Song Loop, Thai Hotel Hotel for the evening, not as “Authentic Thai” as we’d like, but as with all our accommodation, the best available in the area. No vehicles tonight, you can drink as much as you wish! Short 100m stroll down to a restaurant owned by the same family as the hotel, nice balcony over the river, far more picturesque. You can even start getting back to Western food here with steak if you fancy? Ok but nothing to write home about, better off sticking with the Thai food for a couple more days, still plenty of choice! | |
| 233 km, visiting exotic temple gardens, canyon and boathouse lunch on the lake. - After breakfast & fuel we head off to a canyon a couple of hours away. Mae Hong Son Loop, Ob Luang Canyon, first coffee stop Probably the worst bit of road surface on the whole trip, tarmac washboard but they had almost completed repairs by the end of last season. Still not too bad as long as you’re not feeling around your teeth with your tongue. Mae Hong Song Loop, Lunch on the lake Coffee stop before another couple of hours fast riding, lunch and afternoon on a floating restaurant. Again swimming attire if you fancy a dip? After a relaxing afternoon sleeping off an enormous meal we head to a very interesting temple garden before the night’s accommodation at the base of Doi Inthanon. The temple is under construction in its own enormous gardens, complete with statues of, well, you name it, throughout. Mainly Novice Monks hard at it with the upkeep, half a watch eye being kept on them by their superior who for all the world looks asleep! Even helping the builders carry buckets of cement for a reclining Buddha that in my estimation must rival the largest in the world situated in Bangkok. Really interesting seeing their construction methods here, all carried and built by hand with just a tiny model to go off as a guide, these guys really are craftsmen. Bpuk always has an interesting tale or two to tell here about the various Buddha’s and their lives. Make an offering for good luck with the Buddha guarding to the day of the week you were born. Mae Hong Son What last night’s accommodation lacked in authenticity, being as it’s your last night this place makes up for it in spades! Clean, comfortable, roomy cabins with a/c etc., this place is quintessentially Thai, the kind of place most people have been looking forward to all week! Mae Hong Son Loop, Temple Gardens The walls & ceiling of each room have been hand-painted with a different Thai scene, must have taken somebody forever to complete! Mae Hong Son Loop, Resort Gardens Fabulous family, absolutely bend over backwards for us, they in fact sleep in the restaurant, leave us the keys to the beer fridges and tuck themselves in on whatever sofa, chair or table is available! The father's favourite trick whenever possible is to cut us a wild honeycomb for breakfast, comes and begs a cigarette from me, climbs the tree with no beekeeping kit, safety gear or even shoes, frantically blows cigarette smoke at them then cuts the comb getting stung to blazes! Local delicacy to break off a section of the unborn larvae and dip it in the honeyed part of the comb. Not bad, like a sweet wafer biscuit. | |
| 155 km, visiting various waterfalls, royal temple and the highest mountain peak in Thailand. - Ok, last day so we’re going to make it a belter for you. Run to the base of Doi Inthanon; regroup while the girls arrange entrance. Absolutely amazing road to finish off on, my absolute favourite in Thailand since it's been re-surfaced. Can get quite foggy/chilly at the top first thing so a fleece under your armour is advised. Mae Hong Song Loop, Doi Inthanon Photo’s taken; move on to the visitor centre and a coffee to warm up. Back to the bikes and as we’re at the highest spot in Thailand with the scenery laid out in front of us may as well wend our way back down at a very sedate pace indeed and soak it up as we descend and the heat builds again correspondingly Next stop King’s and Queen’s temples. Mae Hong Son Loop, Queen's Temple Saying goes you’ve seen one temple you’ve seen them all, as far as the towns & villages go this is pretty much the case. However we take you to visit only those with special architectural significance, and keep them to a minimum. Cruise down to a block of restaurants for lunch, giving out marker post numbers before leaving to ensure nobody misses the upcoming attractions. Carrying on to the base of the mountain we stop in at a couple of beautiful waterfalls on the way, chance for a coffee/ice cream at the second. Mae Hong Son Loop, Waterfall Back to the main road, dual carriageway pretty much all the way back to Chiang mai now, and traffic for the first time this week, takes a little getting used to! Usually return to our hotel around 3-4pm, let the porters deal with the bags for the first time this week and go get ourselves a well-earned beer in the pool bar! Best packing your dirty laundry so it’s easy to hand; nip it over the road to the same laundry the hotel uses, faster and about 1/3 of the price. Later I usually plan a river cruise complete with meal. Finally back in civilisation with excellent grass-fed Australian steaks, cut like butter, melt in the mouth, along with a decent bottle of wine or two always welcome! Then for the more adventurous/less saddle sore, a good night out on the town? |
