The best motorcycle roads in Germany

Germany is better known for its autobahns than its bends. Get off the motorway and you find forest ridges, volcanic hills, Alpine foothills and vineyard valleys, all on well-kept tarmac.

At a glance

Black Forest High Road (B500)

The Schwarzwaldhochstraße runs along the ridge of the northern Black Forest from Baden-Baden to Freudenstadt. It's a road of long, flowing curves through dark pine forest, with views over the Rhine plain to the Vosges on clear days. Stop at the Mummelsee, a small lake below the Hornisgrinde, the highest point of the northern Black Forest.

Tips: the B500 is popular with riders, and that has brought speed limits and checks on some stretches. Ride it smoothly, watch the signs, and check the current rules for the area before you go.

The Eifel and the Nürburgring Nordschleife

The Eifel is a low range of volcanic hills between Cologne, Trier and the Belgian border. Its back roads are tight, quiet and endless: around Adenau, the Ahr valley and the round crater lakes, the maars, near Daun.

In the middle of it sits the Nürburgring Nordschleife, about 20.8 km of track through the forest that Jackie Stewart called the "Green Hell". On tourist drive days (Touristenfahrten) it opens to road-legal cars, and you pay per lap. Motorcycles have been left out of the tourist drives since 2025, so on a bike it's organised training days only.

Tips: the Nordschleife is fast, narrow and unforgiving. If you book a motorcycle training day, ride your first laps well within yourself, learn it from a passenger seat or video first, and check the current rules for motorcycles before you go: they have changed more than once.

German Alpine Road

The Deutsche Alpenstraße runs along the Bavarian Alps from Lindau on Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden and the Königssee, about 480 km. It's the oldest tourist road in Germany, and it strings together lakes, Alpine meadows and some of the country's best-known sights:

• The Oberjoch road above Bad Hindelang, with a tight run of bends.
• Neuschwanstein Castle near Füssen.
• The Kesselberg road between Kochel am See and the Walchensee.
• The Rossfeld Panoramastraße above Berchtesgaden, a toll road with views into Austria.

Tips: the Kesselberg road has motorcycle restrictions, at weekends and at other times in season, because of noise and crashes. Check the current rules before you plan it into a Sunday. Take two or three days, and dip into Austria for the passes on the other side.

Mosel valley

Between Koblenz and Trier, the Mosel loops back on itself again and again, with steep vineyards on both sides. The riverside roads are easy and scenic. The fun is in the roads that climb out of the valley into the Eifel to the north and the Hunsrück to the south, then drop back down to the water.

Stop in Cochem, below the Reichsburg castle, or Bernkastel-Kues with its half-timbered square. It suits a group of mixed riding levels.

Good to know

• No vignette or motorway toll for motorcycles on German autobahns.
• Weekend motorcycle restrictions exist on some popular roads. Check the signs and the current rules for the roads you plan.
• Noise and speed checks are common on well-known riding roads.
• Rider meeting points are a German institution. Ask in your city chat where the local one is.

Season

The season runs from April to October. The Alpine Road's higher sections can have snow into May and from late October, and the Eifel and Black Forest are cool and damp in spring and autumn. June and September are the best months: long days, and fewer holiday cars than July and August.

Ride them with others

Find group rides through the Black Forest, the Eifel and the Alps in MotoBFF, or post your own. Use Find me a route for a loop from wherever you're staying, and check the city chat before you go.