Motorcycle Adventure Touring in November

Northern Thailand's riding circuit is the most beginner-accessible adventure loop in Southeast Asia. The Mae Hong Son loop from Chiang Mai covers 600km of mountain road passing through Pai, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang, and Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak. The scenery is genuinely beautiful: forested ridges, hill tribe villages, and morning mist valleys. Chiang Mai has the best motorcycle rental infrastructure in Thailand, from small automatics for beginners to proper adventure bikes for experienced riders, and the population of expat riders makes current route and road condition information easy to find.

Northern Vietnam's Ha Giang province is the best motorcycle riding in Southeast Asia, and Hanoi is the gateway. The Ha Giang Loop through the Dong Van Karst Plateau crosses 1,500m passes, drops into gorges, and winds through minority hill tribe villages on roads that range from pristine asphalt to rough mountain track. You can cover the core circuit in four days, but most riders take seven to ten. Hanoi's Old Quarter has good rental shops stocking everything from 125cc semi-automatics for beginners to larger adventure bikes for experienced riders. The city itself is intense and worth a day each way.

Morocco condenses extraordinary terrain variety into manageable riding distances from Marrakech. The Tizi n'Tichka pass over the High Atlas at 2,260m, the southern Draa Valley with its kasbahs and palm oases, and the open desert approach to the Sahara dunes near Merzouga are all reachable within a four to seven day circuit. Marrakech has a growing rental scene, and many European riders ferry their own bikes across to Spain or Portugal and ride down through the Rif mountains as a first leg. The country is well set up for motorcycle tourism on main routes.