Route 66 Hemi

Welcome to Albuquerque for your Route 66 Hemi tour! On arrival at Albuquerque Airport, take the complimentary shuttle to your hotel where you can relax and make use of the hotel’s facilities. Perhaps take a taxi to Old Town for dinner and some shopping.

Our guide will meet you after breakfast and take you to collect your motorcycle. Hit the road with a fun ride up to Santa Fe, where the rest of the group are enjoying a day of rest and relaxation in one of the oldest (and highest, at over 2250 m) state capitals in the USA. In the afternoon, explore Santa Fe’s numerous art galleries, speciality shops and museums, all within easy walking distance of our hotel. Roam around the beautiful downtown plaza taking in its unique combination of Native American and Spanish colonial architecture. There’s also a beautiful ride up to Taos, a small town known for its native American pueblos and surrounding artist’s colonies, inhabited by the likes of painter Georgia O’Keefe and photographer Ansel Adams. Ride up along the Rio Grande river valley, and back down through the twisty mountain roads to Santa Fe.

It’s time to get back on the road and out into the deserts of the southwest, to our first stop for lunch in Albuquerque Old Town. There’s some time to walk around old town, do a bit of sightseeing and some souvenir shopping. Leaving Old Town, we ride on Central Avenue, which is Route 66, and out through the splendour of New Mexico’s natural beauty, ending the day in the old railroad town and Native American stronghold of Gallup and our historic El Rancho hotel.

This morning we say goodbye to New Mexico and ride into Arizona’s spectacular deserts. Our first stop is the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest National Park, where we take our time riding through the park stopping to take in its natural beauty and colourful geology. Afterward we stop in Holbrook to see the Wigwam Motel’s tepee-shaped rooms on our way to lunch. Then it’s time to ‘Take it Easy’ with the Eagles, ‘standin’ on a corner in Winslow Arizona’, before continuing to our hotel in Williams, the last Route 66 town to be bypassed by Interstate 40 in 1984, and gateway to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon.

Enjoy the splendour and immensity of the Grand Canyon for the whole day. We ride 60 miles from Williams to the canyon’s south rim, giving you time to explore and see the canyon in your own time. The ride along the south rim has numerous viewpoints and be sure to go out to the Desert View area for the best perspective of the canyon. We strongly recommend our Canyon Spirit helicopter ride for a bird’s eye view of the vastness of the canyon. We’ll meet up later for a sunset ride back to Williams and a chance look at our photos.

We ride to the small town of Seligman for the best breakfast on the route, and give ourselves some time for shopping at its many Route 66 shops. Afterwards, we make our way through the wide-open chaparral scenery to Hackberry and then Kingman, self-styled ‘Capital of Route 66’. Then comes what is referred to as the ‘curviest’ part of the Route, the Oatman Highway, a twisting ride over the Black Mountains. We stop in Oatman to see one of the few remaining old west gold mining towns and its wild burros, set free when the miners abandoned the mines.  Finally, we descend to and cross over the Colorado River, and into our last state, California. Tonight we’ll overnight in Needles, another historic Route 66 town.

We start the day by riding around the Spirit Mountains into the desolate and hot Mojave Desert. We ride through the almost abandoned town of Goffs, to a quick rest break at the oasis in Fenner. Next it’s on to Amboy, located in the middle of nowhere, to check out iconic Roy’s Motel and Café. We continue to Barstow for lunch, and then on to see Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch. After a hot day riding through the desert our hotel’s refreshing pool beckons us to take a cool dip and relax

Our big adventure comes to an end today with our ride into Los Angeles. Much of the road has been lost, but the end of the Mother Road, Santa Monica Pier, is worth the hectic ride. We take our time going to the end marker plaque, and then have a nice lunch on the pier. Afterwards you’ll have some time to look around and dip your toes in the Pacific Ocean. This really is journey’s end! All that remains is for us to return our motorcycles enjoy our Farewell Party.

Sadly, it’s time to pack our bags and head home, filled with the experiences and memories of the most famous road in the world, Historic Route 66. We hope to see you back for another great tour. This is end of the road – for now!