15 DAY TOP OF EUROPE MOTORCYCLE TOUR

There are longer tours in our catalog and there are wilder ones, but few deliver a cleaner narrative arc than this one: you start your motorcycle at the Brandenburg Gate and you park it, fourteen days later, on the Nordkapp plateau — Europe's northernmost drivable point, staring out over the endless Arctic Ocean horizon. In between lie three countries, two ferry crossings, roughly 3,600 km of riding, and a transformation of landscape that no other continent can compress into a single trip: Berlin's urban heart, Copenhagen's harbor districts, Oslo's fjord-side panoramas, Norway's inland forests and mountain valleys, and finally the treeless tundra of the true North, ridden beneath the midnight sun.

The word "expedition" earns its place here in the geography, not the hardship. This is a point-to-point journey — Berlin in, Alta out — so every single day moves you somewhere new instead of looping you back. We include the airport transfers at both ends (Berlin BER on arrival, Alta ALF on departure, on the official arrival and departure days), so the logistics of a one-way ride across half a continent are our problem, not yours. Your job is the riding; ours is everything around it, the same way we have run tours for 17-plus years and more than 4,000 riders.

And then there is the light. The tour is timed for the weeks when the sun simply does not set above the Arctic Circle. The final days toward Honningsvåg and Nordkapp are ridden in that strange, golden, endless daylight — the Midnight Sun Panorama is listed among the tour highlights because riders consistently name it the single most memorable part of the trip. There are very few experiences in motorcycling like rolling across tundra at what your watch insists is night, in full sun.

We publish a terrain profile for every tour so you can match the route to your skills before you book. Top of Europe rates 5% off-road, 75% comfort and 100% fun — in plain words, this is a road-focused expedition on mostly paved roads, with only short unpaved stretches, but with genuinely long northern days that ask for stamina rather than dirt skills. If you are a confident street rider, this route is well within reach; tours like Namibia are the ones we reserve for experienced dirt riders, not this one.

The character of the riding changes as the latitude climbs, and that progression is the point. The early days are fast and civilized: the ferry hop from Germany to Denmark, an afternoon of sightseeing in Copenhagen, then the overnight ship to Oslo — a full night's sleep while your bike covers the Skagerrak for you. From Oslo the route turns inland and the real Norwegian riding begins: lakes and forests to Lillehammer, the climb through the fertile Gudbrandsdalen Valley to Dombås, and the run down to the historic Viking port of Trondheim. North of Trondheim comes the stretch our riders talk about most — the long scenic day through fjords and mountain rivers to Mosjøen, the Arctic Circle crossing near Røkland, and the coastal ride into Narvik with arctic landscapes filling every horizon. The final leg to Alta crosses remote northern fjords and tundra terrain, with wildlife sightings a real possibility, before the tundra plains toward the North Cape itself.

Because 15 days of northern riding deserve pacing, the itinerary builds in two full rest days: one in Trondheim (day 7) to explore the cathedral, harbor and wooden old town, and one in Narvik (day 11) for WWII history and fjord views — or simply for doing nothing at all. A support vehicle and a local guide travel with the group the entire way, a professional multilingual tour leader rides with you, and fuel, ferries, bridges and road tolls are all covered. Fourteen nights of accommodation in hand-picked hotels — plus a cabin night on the overnight Oslo ferry built into the route — mean "expedition" here never means roughing it. That is the 75% comfort score doing its job, with the remaining margin honestly reflecting that the Arctic is the Arctic: weather up there writes its own rules, which is why the itinerary stays flexible around conditions.

Most riders think of a Scandinavian motorcycle trip as a Norway trip. Ours deliberately is not — the two capital cities at the start are not filler, they are the setup. Berlin gives the tour its send-off: motorcycle handover, rider briefing and a welcome dinner in one of Europe's great cities, with the Brandenburg Gate as the symbolic start line. Copenhagen, reached by an early ferry across the Baltic on day two, delivers an afternoon in the Nyhavn district — the postcard row of colored townhouses along the canal — before a free morning and the overnight ferry to Oslo on day three.

The ferries matter more than they look on paper. They are rest built into motion: instead of grinding out transit miles through Sweden, you sleep in a cabin and wake up sailing into Oslo's fjord with a fresh riding day ahead. They also mark the tour's chapters cleanly — Germany, then Denmark, then Norway — so each country gets its own arrival. From Oslo onward the route commits fully to Norway, and Norway repays it for eleven straight days: Lillehammer and the Maihaugen Open-Air Museum, the Gudbrandsdalen Valley, Nidaros Cathedral and the Old Town Bridge in Trondheim, the Mosjøen scenic route, the Arctic Circle line, the Narvik fjord panorama, Alta's striking "Nordlyskatedralen" Northern Lights Cathedral, the cozy quayside of Honningsvåg harbor where colorful fishing boats cluster each morning, and finally the Nordkapp plateau itself. Group activities and entry fees along the way are included in the tour price, so when the group walks in somewhere, everyone walks in.

Day nine is the threshold: between Mosjøen and Røkland the route crosses the Arctic Circle, the famous latitude marker where the midnight sun meets polar night in a single exhilarating ride. Everything after that line is riding most motorcyclists never get to do. The landscapes thin out and open up — coastal roads with arctic panoramas into Narvik, then remote fjords and tundra on the long day to Alta, then the plains toward the North Cape.

The finale is structured to land properly. Day 13 brings you from Alta to Honningsvåg, the small harbor town that serves as the gateway to the Cape, so that day 14 can be the short, ceremonial ride it deserves: Honningsvåg to Nordkapp, the northernmost road-accessible point in Europe, time on the plateau above the Arctic Ocean, and the return to Alta. Day 15 is a farewell breakfast and the included transfer to Alta Airport. You fly home from above the Arctic Circle having ridden there from central Europe — a sentence very few riders on earth can say.

The motorcycles. The base bike is the CFMOTO 450MT, included in the tour price — a light, modern adventure machine well matched to long paved days. If you prefer more displacement, two upgrades are available: the CFMOTO 800MT-X for +$699 or the CFMOTO 800MT Explore for +$999. All bikes are latest-model, professionally maintained machines, and mandatory third-party liability insurance is already included. The motorcycle damage and theft liability reduction insurance is available as a +$375 option, and a refundable security deposit on your credit card is required to take the bike out, sized according to the rental bike you choose.

The group. We keep Top of Europe deliberately small: minimum 6 riders, maximum 12, led by a certified multilingual tour leader with a local guide and support vehicle alongside. Riding two-up? The Add Pillion/Passenger option (+$3,999) covers your co-rider. Accommodation is in shared rooms by default, with a single-room upgrade available for +$1,299.

What the price covers. The tour starts at $7,999 per rider on the CFMOTO 450MT in a shared room. That includes 14 nights of accommodation, all breakfasts, the base motorcycle rental, fuel, ferries, bridges and road tolls, mandatory third-party liability insurance, group activities and entry fees, a pre-tour preparation guide and briefing, airport transfers to and from Berlin (BER) and Alta (ALF) on official arrival and departure days, up to 25% discount on riding gear from our partners Klim, Giant Loop and Mosko Moto, a MotoDreamer appeal gift, and all taxes. Airfare, lunches, dinners and drinks, the damage and theft liability reduction insurance, personal paperwork and visas, tips, and travel insurance are not included — for travel and evacuation cover with cancellation protection we point riders to Global Rescue.

Booking and payment. Hit Book Now, pick your date and pay the deposit; we accept bank transfer, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal and Bitcoin, and you can split the balance into monthly payments with no interest. Booking as a group is rewarded: when 5 riders pay, rider number 6 travels free (valid on the base tour price). Every booking is backed by our price match and departure guarantees. The next scheduled departure is June 6 to 20, 2027, and private or customized dates are available for groups of 6 or more riders.

Who can join. You need to be 20 or older with at least one year of experience on a 500cc-or-bigger motorcycle, hold a valid driver's license with motorcycle endorsement, and carry a passport with at least six months' validity at tour start. That is the whole bar — if you ride confidently at home, the road from Berlin to the top of Europe is open to you.

Seventeen-plus years of operating tours and more than 4,000 riders have shaped how we run this expedition. The Arctic does the rest.