Forget about being cramped in a creaking bus as it screeches unnervingly around bends, making you cross yourself even though you’re not religious; or waiting for what feels like forever for your ferryboat to dock after hours of confinement on a deck full of blaring iPods, barking dogs and screaming children; or pulling a precious calf muscle as you groan your way uphill on a bicycle, slippery with sweat.

Why put yourself through such ordeals when you can sit back like a cool cat, driven by the sheer power of the roaring machine you are straddling, feeling the wind caress your face as you whizz around bends and behold stunning coastlines, lush mountains dotted with ancient ruins and quaint villages that can be reached quickly and easily? There’s no getting lost, because an experienced guide is leading the way.

No need to worry about where to stop for lunch, a swim, or a rest, as it’s all been arranged. You’re free as the wind to stop and explore or take a selfie anywhere along your route and to top it all off, you get to look tough. Welcome to a new kind of holiday – the all-inclusive, motorbike tour, a trend that’s just taking off in Greece, for experienced and inexperienced easy riders alike.

Moto Voyager is one of only a handful of Greek motorbike tour agencies to have tapped into a new travel niche that’s not for everyone, but offers an exciting new avenue for discovering Greece. The company currently offers five tours (Alpine, Olympic, Achilles, Marathon, Crete), each ranging from six to 11 days long and running from around 09:00 to 17:00 (with breaks for lunch, swims, etc.).

Highly experienced, bike-mad guides promise to present participants with as much diversity as possible, whisking them to classic tourist attractions such as archaeological and historical sites, as well as locations off the beaten track, which would be much harder to reach, even inaccessible, by any other means of transport.

“Visitors are able to experience parts of Greece which are not usually mentioned in many travel guides,” says Moto Voyager’s Erin Miniotis, “for example, on our new Alpine Tour, travelers start at the foot of the Acropolis and will soon be crossing some of central Greece’s most spectacular mountain ranges, with peaks reaching as high as 1900 meters, following heavenly alpine routes.

Along the way, they will have the chance to explore areas of unique beauty and a rich culture heritage, such as Meteora, before ending the trip at Delphi. The carefully planned route takes them on winding mountain roads with hairpin bends, alongside lakes and rivers, through stone-built villages and over old bridges. During the trip they have the opportunity to meet and interact with friendly locals who warmly welcome us wherever we go.”

Another motorcycle tour agency based exclusively in the country, Moto Greece, presently offers two different tours, one of central and northern Greece’s mountains, lakes, villages and ancient sites, and one of the Peloponnese. It too focuses on trips that combine the discovery and exploration of pristine natural landscapes with cultural and historical learning, while several other agencies, such as Odyssey and Adriatic Tours, also organize tours to the Balkans and other European countries.