Motorcycle Tour: West, the great parks and the Californian Coast

Los Angeles – the land of Hollywood, Disneyland and Universal Studios, where life is as carefree as can be. With its ever-shining sun, palms in the breeze, movie stars with their fancy houses in Beverly Hills, wonderful museums, futuristic buildings, and surfing spots, Los Angeles truly makes for an unforgettable destination.

Palm Spring is known as an elegant vacation resort for wealthy retirees, Hollywood intellectuals, and Baby Boomers pining for the ’50s and ’60s – the bygone days when celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Kirk Douglas, and even Presidents like Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy, came to Palm Springs on their holidays. Futuristic constructions like the Tramway Gas Station and the Coachella Savings and Loans building date back to the same period. The idyllic atmosphere of Palm Springs evokes the peacefulness of a Greek island.

Standing at the southernmost tip of Nevada, Laughlin is a well-known gambling city in the USA, the biggest after Las Vegas and Reno. It boasts a dozen huge casinos, parading along the Colorado riverbank.

Get your kicks on iconic Route 66, through Seligman and Kingman. You will soon find yourself in the Kaibab National Forest, a large forest thick with blackjack pines, Douglas firs, aspen and juniper bordering on the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is the most famous and most spectacular example of river erosion - an inconceivable abyss formed by the wear of the Colorado River. The Canyon is 1,500 m deep, 450 km long and 16 km wide. Its layers disclose the geological history of the last 2 billion years and its rocks change color according to the time of the day - your first glimpse of this majestic landscape will leave you speecheless. The Grand Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a truly unforgettable sight.

Your destination today is Kayenta, a 2.5-hour trip across a great variety of natural landscapes, from ponderosa pine forests to the desert. Desert View Drive is a scenic route to the east of Grand Canyon Village, which follows the south rim for 25 miles (40 km) out to the Desert View Watchtower and East Entrance. Along the way you find a number of viewpoints; Grand View, Moran, Lipan, Navajo Point and Desert View should not be missed. You should also stop at the Little Colorado River Gorge lookout to enjoy the view of the deep canyon.You leave Route 64 and turn left on Route 89 at Cameron, where you can find one of the Southwest's truly historic trading posts. You have just entered the largest Indian Reservation in the US, the Navajo Indian Reservation that extends into New Mexico and Utah and is home to about 200,000 Navajos. 25 km from Cameron turn right on Route 160 to go towards (Kayenta) Monument Valley via Tuba City. A few miles after the turn a single handmade sign on the left side of the road leads you to some pretty cool 200-million year old dinosaur tracks, guarded by a Navajo representative. Back on Route 160, you drive through Tuba City and finally reach your accomodation in Kayenta. Kayenta is a small town with about 5,000 inhabitants, which revolves around the Monument Valley, located 40 km away, and has several hotels and motels.

Bryce Canyon is, in fact, not a canyon: it’s a breathtaking natural amphitheatre full of spires and arches and pinnacles, jutting out in dazzling colours against the sky, moulded by the rain and frost in bizarre shapes to create a unique mountainscape.

From the magnificent backdrop of red rocks and coniferous forests of Bryce, you descend into the Nevada desert and arrive in the expanse of lights and golden skyscrapers of Las Vegas. When you are about 90 km from Las Vegas, if you have time, you could consider taking exit 93 from Interstate I-15 to Valley of Fire State Park (entrance fee $10 per car, subject to change without notice), a detour of about 70 km to one of the most photogenic places in the Southwest, a stunning landscape dominated by the red color of petrified dunes, cliffs, and oddly shaped rocks. Las Vegas is beyond words. It shines like a diamond the middle of the desert, dazzling with its extravagant luxury hotels, bustling with all sorts of shows and revelry. A place – but can such a place even exist? – without equal in the whole world.

Continue towards Sierra Nevada, where the landscape, deep valleys giving way to vast forests, varies as much as the climate. Mammoth Lakes is a pleasant resort, both in summer and winter. Its quaint landscapes, typical of Sierra Nevada, were shaped by glaciers and volcanoes thousands of years ago.

Yosemite National Park, nested amidst the Sierra Nevada mountains, is one of the most famous national parks in the world. The altitude of its peaks ranges from 600 to 4,000 m. The park boasts more than 4 million visits per year. It is divided in four areas: Yosemite Valley – the area that draws more visitors – , with its granite Half Dome, the sheer rock formation of El Capitan, and the famous waterfalls; Wavona, the park’s historic core; Mariposa Grove, close to the southern entrance, with the giant sequoia cluster of Mariposa, and the Grizzly Giant, one of the largest trees in the world; and Tuolumne Meadow, in the hidden heart of the park, a favourite destination, brimming with paths, lakes, forests and granite massifs. The park is criss-crossed by the Tioga Road, the only way to cross the Sierra Nevada (Tioga Pass, more than 3,000 m) and to go in and out of Nevada.

San Francisco’s iconic streets twist up and down its many hills and scenic bridges connecting it to the mainland – chief among which the red Golden Gate. San Francisco is a charming, multi-faceted city, regarded as a liberal, enlightened oasis in a rather conservative America.

There are several beautiful seaside locations along the way, such as Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz and Capitola Beach. The centerpiece of Monterey is its magnificent harbor, Monterey Bay. The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary provides homes for seals, sea lions, dolphins, otters, and many more marine species. To learn about these denizens of the sea you can't miss the Monterey Bay Aquarium: to avoid the big lines at the main gate, buy your tickets online and get in by the Advance Ticket Holder entrance, which, as you're facing the building, is down an alley about one hundred feet to the right of the main entrance. Monterey County is known for its wines: stop by the Cannery Row tasting room for A Taste of Monterey, which serves wines from a number of different area wineries and has a breathtaking view of Monterey Bay. Don't miss Old Monterey. This historic district isn't just there for looks; it's still a thriving downtown. Many of the historic adobes are now home to fabulous restaurants and bars.

you set out to travel one of the best stretches of the exciting Pacific Highway 1, carved into the rock above the stormy ocean in 1937 and now one of the most beautiful scenic byways in the United States. You pass through the Big Sur area, with unmissable stops at the Bixby Bridge and Mc Way Falls. You then reach Morro Bay with the famous Morro Rock in the middle of its inlet, until you descend and reach Pismo Beach. South of San Luis Obispo, Hwy-1 and US-101 run along the ocean, passing through Pismo Beach, a seaside town popular among families and retirees.

Along the Pacific coast, one encounters several iconic locations: beautiful Santa Barbara with its colonial remains and fashionable life; luxurious Montecito, home to many international jet set stars; Ventura, where one can stop to visit the beautiful old town and stroll along the pier that stretches out over the ocean; Malibu, long famous for its long sandy beaches, waves perfect for surfing, luxurious hillside villas, and wellness culture.