share your thoughts
 

okay, we have finally made a new plan, 2 new bikes and a date :clap:

we bought 2 suzuki drz400 to do this and we are really starting to look forward to it! we'll leave 1th of May 2019 and have 6 months to enjoy
we are two persons, slow riders - from previous experience with a big trip about average 110 km a day (this included riding and non-riding days) so think we can cover 20.000 km - (last time we did about 40.000 in a year)
we like going offroad, wild camp but also meet locals and join in

this is what we want to do:
amsterdam straigth to novosibirsk through poland, belarus, russia
the stans with time spending in kyrgistan and tadjikistan
take the boat from kazachstan to the kaukasus
out from georgia to ukraine by boat, ride back to amsterdam

what do you reckon? tips and thoughts are welcome :rofl:

Why Novosibirsk? Looks like you'll be basically doing the entire trip on boring main roads, and you're not even going as far as Lake Baikal.

i dunno, had to chose a point to go into the stans,
suggestions for more inspiring routes are welcome

OK, so the baseline is: you start in Amsterdam, you want to spend time in the Stans but not as far as Mongolia, then do the Caucasus on the way back. You also want to see some interesting bits of Russia.

Phase 1: Amsterdam via Bremen/Hamburg, then through Denmark to Sweden. (Up through Jutland with a stop in Aarhus and the ferry from Frederikshavn to Gothenburg, or the Puttgarden ferry with a stopover in Copenhagen, then the Öresund or a cheap ferry from Helsingör.) Overnight ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn or Riga (check my pinned thread for info on getting your bike on a Tallink ferry for free).

Phase 2: Tallinn via Narva to St Petersburg, or if Riga, then via Izborsk-Pskov. SPB and its surroundings is basically the unmissable tourist destination in Russia.

Phase 3: SPB to Moscow via Veliky Novgorod (one of the great old Russian city-states along with Pskov) or, if you're not dead set on getting a selfie on Red Square, then head east and follow the Golden Circle from Vologda down to Yaroslavl, Suzdal, Vladimir, etc. Alternatively, from Yaroslavl try to put your bike on a river cruise boat and head down the Volga to Kazan.

Phase 4: From here, I think if you're not going as far as Lake Baikal and Mongolia, you can make your own choice on whether you really need to cross the Urals. Alternatively you can head down via Samara to Kazakhstan.

Phase 5: Hang out in the Stans as you'd like. End your circuit in Aktau or Turkmenbashi if you can get a Turkmenistan visa, get the ferry across the Caspian to Baku. Alternatively, if you have the time and the Dutch passports are helpful in this respect, go through Turkmenistan down to Iran, and then up to Azerbaijan from there.

Phase 6: Azerbaijan to Georgia. You definitely can't cross from Azerbaijan to Armenia; whether the Armenians will let you in across the Georgian border with an Azeri stamp in your passport is a matter for on-the-ground research...

Phase 7: Unless you want to ride back via the North Turkish coast, take the Batumi ferry to Varna/Constanta. Or if you still have time, get off the ferry at Chernomorsk and check out Odessa - the other great Russian Imperial city besides St Petersburg, and in some respects an even better tourist destination.

Phase 8: Ride back home via Romania (be sure to do the Transfagarasan), Budapest, Vienna, etc.

check out the routes on Sibirsky Extreme | Going where no motorcycle has been before ;-)

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That's very outdated !!!:innocent:

thank you for all the suggestions! we'll definitely take it into consideration