California Dreamin'

Welcome to LA! After you pass through the airport exit doors catch one of the complimentary hotel shuttles which depart from the middle isle outside the terminal. Check in at your hotel and then we suggest you head straight out to the beach, Santa Monica is a taxi ride away. Get a good night’s rest because tomorrow you begin the first part of an exciting journey.

Early Birds: If you’re planning to arrive a day or two early, we’ll be happy to arrange that. There’s lots to do, but here’s something you may not have thought of – the Getty Museum, an art museum at the Getty Center, just 12 miles from our hotel. There’s no entrance fee, just parking if you travel by car or motorbike. And the tram that operates from the parking garage to the museum offers amazing views. As you arrive at the main buildings, designed by famous architect Frank Gehry, you know this is well worth the visit – a peaceful environment in a striking landscape. There are four buildings of art of stunningly beautiful quality, and the architecture and grounds are worth the trip alone. And check out the outdoor café with its great views of LA. The art collections are amazing with work from Van Gogh, Cezanne and Monet just to name a few.

Take a look out the window and savour the amazing sunrise that signals the beginning of a new day. Start your California Dreamin’ motorcycle tour with a good American breakfast and then pack your bags to go and pick up your bike A few signatures later you’re sitting in the saddle of your favourite motorcycle, cruising along the foothills and into the Angeles National Forest. This road is a 66 mile scenic drive with breath taking views of Los Angeles, and it’s a dream road for motorcyclists. Temperatures can easily drop from 35C to 15C as you climb to 2000 m elevation from the LA basin. The air now smells of sage, eucalyptus and pine and it’s a welcome change from the heat that sits below you at the foothills.

The road is twisty and lets every rider’s heart beat faster. Stop for lunch at Newcomb’s Ranch restaurant to relax and grab some food, but you may be getting kind of itchy to continue the thrilling ride through the San Gabriel Mountains. As you ride over the ridge you enter Palmdale and then Bakersfield, gateway city to Sequoia National Park.

Early in the morning you leave Bakersfield and ride toward Lake Isabella which lies peacefully in the Sequoia National Forest. The fun begins right away on a fantastic twisty road. Kern River accompanies us all the way to Lake Isabella and invites to stop at each layby. You really wouldn’t expect this kind of terrain and scenery right outside Bakersfield. Lake Isabella and Kern River offer white water rafting, kayaking, boating, sailing, water skiing, jet-skiing, windsurfing and fishing.

You follow the beautiful scenery and the road hugs the edge of the National Forest. Sequoia is one of nineteen national forests in California and takes its name from the giant sequoia, the world’s largest tree, which grows in more than 30 groves on the forest’s lower slopes. Sequoia’s landscape is as spectacular as its trees: soaring granite monoliths, glacier-torn canyons, roaring white water, and more, await your discovery at the Sierra Nevada’s southern end. Elevations range from 300 m in the foothill region to peaks over 4,000 m in the rugged high country, providing some of the most spectacular views of mountainous landscape in the entire west.

As you make your way north, you pass Fresno and reach your destination, Oakhurst, on the edge of that rather well known recreational area – Yosemite National Park.

After a hearty breakfast swing into the saddle and ride your iron horse into Yosemite National Park. Before you enter the park you take a ride through the countryside. With rolling hills and gray-blue clouds in the distance and dark green trees among endless fields of yellow grass you’re vividly reminded of the 1970s TV show Little House on the Prairie. You get to Mariposa, follow the road to Jamestown and boy, is this some ride! It might sound old by now but yes, the road is twisty! There are some pretty narrow and tight bends, then the road opens up, straightens and offers a stop in Coulterville. The old historic Hotel Jeffery, est. 1851, is unoccupied and a sign reads “4 SALE”. A neat town where time seems to have stopped years ago.

A little further down the road you pass Don Pedro Reservoir and head up to Jamestown in California Gold Country, where a walk down main St is a step back in time.

You can dine at the Willow Steak House (established 1864), where the builders of the Sierra Railway once hung out in the bar. You can have lunch or ice cream at Here’s the Scoop, with its old-style decor including a bar that came from a historic San Francisco saloon. In the early summer of 1848 – a few months after the famous discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento that started the Gold Rush – an Oregon man named Benjamin Wood discovered the first gold in the area in what is now known as Woods Creek. The discovery site is about 1 mile west of what is today downtown Jamestown.

It’s hard to get away from this town as there is so much to see but you’ve got to get back on our bikes. Sonora Pass rises to almost 3,000 m above sea level and it’s like walking on air. One Bonanza episode, called Stallion’, was filmed here in 1972, and was the most dangerous episode ever filmed.

You then drop down onto Hwy 395, hang a left and make your way to your hotel. Enjoy this evening on your California Dreamin’ motorcycle tour, you are located right at the lake!

This is action day! You can choose from the pre-bookable lake adventures we have on offer – jet skiing or sailing – do your own thing, or go for a ride out, the choice is yours. Just have fun!

Dropping down from the peaks around Lake Tahoe, you cross the valley floor again and enter California’s main wine-growing region, Sonoma County, and more specifically Napa Valley, riding past world-famous wineries at the heart of America’s wine making. And we’ve included a wine-tasting session for you as well. Your California Dreamin’ motorcycle tour is not just about the riding!

We haven’t finished with the fun yet, as you can start the day early with a hot air balloon ride over the Napa Valley. You then ride the Silverado Trail and explore Napa Valley some more before heading on to the Pacific Ocean and a beautiful ride to Bodega Bay. You head back south, catch up with Highway 101 and cross the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. Tonight is a chance to experience the city’s vibrant nightlife and have time to recover tomorrow.

Today is a free day on your California Dreamin’ motorcycle tour for you to explore this beautiful city. It was voted one of the world’s top 5 cities. Ride your bike, go on foot or take a tram, the choice is yours. Again, we’re offering you prebookable activities – a relaxing sunset catamaran cruise in the Bay, or a great winery tour to Napa Valley – that we just know you’ll love! Or you can ride back over the Golden Gate Bridge into pretty, snug little Sausalito and Tiburon. Sausalito is a quaint seaside town, once a hotspot for drunken sailors and bawdy saloons, today a very refined place that feels like the Cote d’Azur. Marin County is an unabashed introduction to Californian self-indulgence: a pleasure zone of conspicuous luxury and abundant natural beauty – with sunshine, sandy beaches, high mountains, and thick redwood forests, often ranked the wealthiest county in the USA. Or, as a complete contrast, how about Alcatraz?

Heading out of San Francisco, you pick up Highway 1 again and continue your ride along the Pacific Ocean. This is one of the best motorcycle rides in the world. Breathtaking views of the coves and inlets of the Pacific are yours. The coastline here is spectacular and there are plenty of opportunities for great photo stops. You could end the day with a late afternoon visit to Monterey’s Cannery Row, pier and aquarium.

90 wild and undeveloped miles of rocky cliffs, which form a sublime landscape – redwood groves line river canyons and the Santa Lucia Mountains rise out of the blue-green Pacific. Roughly midway along the Big Sur Coast you come to Esalen, which is named for the long gone native tribes who once enjoyed its natural hot spring, situated on a cliff top high above the raging Pacific surf. You glide like eagles through the turns high above the rugged and remote ocean and arrive at the famous Hearst Castle, one of California’s landmark houses. After that, you continue your ride on scenic highway 1 taking in Cambria, Morro Bay and Pismo Beach

From Pismo beach you head inland on hwy 101 to enjoy the great back roads and scenery through Solvang and the Santa Ynez Mountains. Carrying on south, you meet the coast again for the last Pacific Ocean ride of the tour through Santa Barbara with it’s Mediterranean-style stucco, red-tiled buildings. Then it’s back into LA.

Today is the day to pack your bags. Filled with the experiences and memories of a fantastic California Dreamin’ motorcycle tour, it’s time to head home. Have a safe journey and we hope to see you back for another great tour soon.