Featured Tours

Featured Tours

Please read through the featured tours below, and on the next page you will find all of the current tours available. We are planning to add more including some longer tours in the very near future.

******ATTENTION CRUISE BOAT PASSENGERS, WE HAVE A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT TOURS WITH YOU IN MIND...HEADING OUT IN THE MORNING AND ARRIVING BACK BY 4pm OR EARLIER, PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL FOR MORE INFORMATION******

In and around town

An exciting and informative ride around Mazatlan begins with a tour through the historic center of town. It includes the principal attractions of Centro Historico, such as the magnificent cathedral built in 1856 and Plaza Machado with its famous Angela Peralta Theater, one of the jewels of the Mexican Pacific Coast. Next, we go along the famous beach front sidewalk, El Malecon, which at 21 kilometers long is considered one of the longest in the world. It is one of the most recommeded places to watch the sunset. The ride then proceeds to the newest part of town known as the Golden Zone which incorporates most of the tourist hotels, nightclubs and restaurants. From there, the tour runs the beach to Playa Bruja, known for its high waves and is the surfer's favorite hangout in the state. This tour, depending on stops, is about two or three hours.

Adventurous Day Trip

The Devil’s Backbone or El Espinazo del Diablo in Spanish.

What a name, The Devil’s Backbone, conjures up pictures of a scaly backside complete with spines, bumps, holes and all other kinds of unsavory bits. Anything you could dream up still wouldn’t prepare you for what is one of the best one day rides in Mexico or for that matter anywhere in the world. If someone tried to dream up a motorcycle trip like adding up numbers on a spread sheet he couldn’t do better than this trip. It has all the parts, literally thousands of turns, curves and hairpins. There are water crossings, sights aplenty and enough altitude changes enough to make your ears pop more than once.

Beginning in the relatively under developed town of Mazatlan with a ride along the beachfront “Malecon” where the cool breezes and palm trees lure you into a real sense of security little does it serve to indicate what is in store for the trip ahead.

After a short but never uneventful ride out of town, dueling with Mexican buses, cars and bicycles a real relief is felt when you leave the city behind and get out onto the Pan Am highway heading south. This is one of the main arteries so to speak running along the Pacific coast. About a half hour on the Pan Am you come to the town of Villa Union, a typical small town like countless others built along this vital north-south highway.

Here is the turnoff for what is known locally as the Durango Road. No warning signs, no admonitions to be careful, no requirements for a parachute, nothing. It’s like pushing off from some lonely shore in a small boat, No one to tell you to be on your guard, no one to say don’t do it” now that’s what I call freedom. But let’s not get off point, this is a motorcycle trip we are talking about here.

The only other place I can think of to compare this trip to is the Deal’s Gap ride along the Tennessee, North Carolina state line. Oh but what a poor comparison it would be. The Deal’s Gap ride with it’s ever present state troopers and speed traps is like one of those leashes that mothers put on their children when they want yank them back into their over protective grasp. Nope, no of that here. The absence of regulatory supervision is just as obvious here as it’s abundance is at Deal’s Gap. It’s obvious that the local police prefer to remain where refreshments are more readily available than to be out harassing the motoring public. Anyway, back to the ride. Shortly after turning onto the Durango Road the highway starts to climb, slowly at first as it makes its way past the towns of Concordia and Copala.

Copala is a 500 year old town caught in a time warp. If you find that hard to believe just hang around till after the last tourist leave, usually around 5:00 in the afternoon and you will see what I’m talking about. Then a little further on you pass by Panuco, a town once famous for its gold and silver mines.

Slowly the weather starts to change from the hot moist air of the coast to the cool dry air of the Sierra Madre Mountains. As the road climbs each breathtaking view is replaced by an even more spectacular so if you stopped at all of them you would never get to the top.

At some places you have a sheer cliff on one side and a drop off on the other. You really have to keep your eyes open not only for road hazards but also for the many small and not so small furry animals scurrying across the highway. At the pull offs the pueblos in the valleys below take on a painting like quality that makes you feel like you are flying in a plane instead of riding a bike. It’s hard to describe the feeling of hard over turns and knee dragging hairpins for more than 100 miles.

As you approach the top you cannot help but be awed by the rock formations known as the Devil’s Backbone, a series of chimney like spires that have an ominous fortress like appearance suitable as the backdrop for a movie set of a science fiction picture.

From there the road runs just below the Devil’s Backbone along a high plateau to a small town known as La Cuidad. A better example of a sleepy little Mexican mountain town cannot be found. All one story buildings with wood smoke curling from the chimneys. Life is slow in a town like this. People still run errands on the family burro. As a matter of fact every well to-do head of family has at least one burro and use it for trips quiet often.

From La Cuidad it’s all down hill. Heading east would take you to Durango and West takes you back to Mazatlan. Going down is just as challenging as the trip up, sharp turns and hairpins for what seems like a eternity. No matter how much you like twisties, when you finally get back down to where the road straightens out a real feeling of relief is felt by all.

One thing that makes this ride in a class by itself is that those who want to push their skills to the limit have a place to do so. The complete lack of restrictions in the form of constabulatory personnel on this road gives you the feeling of really being out there on a limb with a saw in one hand and only a couple of inches of rubber in the other. Don’t worry if you go over the edge the fall wont kill you, you’ll probably starve to death before you hit the bottom. No tree of shame here. You’ve seen the devout adherents of a certain religion making the sign of a cross over their chest as they pass in front of a church, you’ll know why after this trip. The best time to make this trip is in the dry season which is from October to June but it can be done the rest of the year if you don’t mind getting a little wet, and oh yea, be ready for the trip of a lifetime.