When it comes to exploring the landward parts of Planet Earth, the motorcycle reigns supreme. You can travel far and wide relatively inexpensively - and you can take in the narrow byways off the main drag. John Wheeler reports.
Unlike being in a car, you are in touch with the environment not looking at it through a sheet of glass as if you were watching a video. Because bikes are less common and their riders more approachable than car-cocooned people, you find yourself made more welcome by everyone you encounter. You arrive back home knowing you have "been there" not just "passed through".
It's the time of year when thoughts turn to better days and sunnier climes. We're lucky to have, right on our doorstep, some fine touring areas - the Wicklow mountains, the sunny South-East, West Cork, Kerry, Clare, Connemara, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal and the Antrim coast to name just some.
Then, just across the water, there's Wales, the English Lake District, the Scottish Highlands and lots more beside, all within the reach of a long weekend.
An easy day's ride beyond, brings us to mainland Europe with such variety on offer that nobody. given a lifetime, could ever sample it all. The problem is, given such choice, where to head for?
A tour can have a destination in mind: head for the Côte d'Azur, spend endless days lazing on the beach and a quick dash back home. It can have a purpose, perhaps to see something of Scandinavia, soak up the culture and lifestyle but with no hard and fast destination in mind. Or perhaps head for east Europe to those countries for so long cut off by an Iron Curtain.
It's a matter of what you fancy: is it long days in the saddle munching all the miles you can - or just pottering around heading where and when fancy takes you?
Often the most memorable days are the ones where, for once, the demands of a workaday schedule and time-keeping can be forgotten. You may end up in places you never knew existed and nobody else seems to either.
The Camargue, in the south of France, was one of our thoroughly planned destination. It was discarded because of its surfeit of vicious, lobster-like mosquitoes. We headed north, sauntering a hundred or so miles a day from a luxurious dinner at one Michelin rosette restaurant to another the next night. That tour is still rated one of the best ever.
Many of us need only an atlas to start dreaming of the next trip. A common mistake is to plan too much and too rigidly - apart, of course, from the ferry bookings.
So, too, checking your passport hasn't expired and your insurance gives full cover, not just the legal minimum for the journey. I've done tours where, of necessity, almost each and every hour was spelled out well in advance. Indeed if you have only a fortnight and simply must get to Istanbul and back - a round-trip of 4,360 miles taking 64 hours and 21 minutes in the saddle and €600 in the tank - some hard planning is required. If your aim is Brittany you can be more relaxed.
A great mistake is to assume that because you have once done 500 miles in the day, you can keep on doing 500 mile days for days on end. Most likely you will find that 350 miles on the second day and only a bit over 250 on the third one is about as much as you would enjoy. Even "Iron Butt" riders who can do 1,500 miles in 24 hours on European motorways can't keep up that pace for several days.
Nearly everyone, at first, takes along too much baggage. The modest luggage capacity of a motorcycle has finite limits. There is the tendency to load up with far too much at the last moment only to discover, a few miles out of Holyhead, that neither you nor the bike are at all happy. The rule is to lay out what you think you will need, then halve it, then halve it again.
Better still, a few days before the start, load the bike with everything you thought of taking, including your significant other if applicable, and go for a run that takes in some bumpy back roads. This will convince you to travel light.
In the name of supposed economy, many motorcyclists decide that camping is the answer. But, by the time tent, sleeping mats, sleeping bags and stoves have been piled on the bike, it seems less of a good idea. A little fireside research soon shows that there are budget hotels, motels and hostels. At the end of the day, there's much to be said for replacing camping gear with credit card.
For some the thought of venturing abroad for the first time is too much, given the prospect of driving on the "wrong" side of the road, facing unknown languages, strange foods and generally getting lost. It need not be so.
These days many organisations operate overseas tours and you can join one of their groups. The odds are you will see more than if you went off blindly on your own. You have to like the idea of joining up with strangers.
It pays to make very sure about what you are letting yourself in for. If your bike is a nice laid-back cruiser, happiest tootling along around 60 mph, you don't want to find the rest of the group are riding racing replicas. Chose the right tour and it's a good way of learning the ropes.
A good source of advice is HC Travel (david@hctravel.com) - they seem to know just about every tour organisation as well as being able to arrange for bike hire almost anywhere from Mongolia and Patagonia.
For DIY planning there are some computer programs: Autoroute 2002 for PC and Route 66 for Mac users. You can sit warm and cosy at the keyboard and, in seconds, calculate how long it would take to ride from Holyhead to Newcastle, thence to Stavanger and onwards to the North Cape - one-way, 1,702 miles, 35 hours 16 minutes and €257 for fuel. For warmer climes try Calais to Nice - one-way, 759 miles, 11 hours 3 minutes and €111 for fuel.
With some modest familiarity you can even print out a detailed route and maps right down to maps showing every junction. You can also get the co-ordinates to patch into your GPS navigation system.
These programs can become obsessive. From my desk I've planned such adventures as a circuit of the Black Sea, Paris to Peking, and Point Barrow in Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, none of which I'm ever likely to have the time or money to actually do. But, to invert the old adage, the mind broadens travel.