Do you remember those dull family road trips that you took when you were a kid? You were stuffed in the back of a station wagon for days at a time, following your parents’ schedule. Now is your chance to redeem those miserable days and see the country on your own terms. The United States is an ideal land to travel across by motorcycle. You can be your own boss and choose your own adventures on bike holidays. You answer to no one on the open road with a heavy hog under you burning up the pavement. There is nothing between you and nature. With the sun on your face and the wind in your hair, you can have an intimacy with the landscape that you couldn’t enjoy in a car, train, or plane. There are ample routes to take on a motorcycle in the American West especially.

An extremely popular place to ride motorcycles is up and down the Pacific coast. You can start in the cool air of Oregon or Washington and make your way down the coast to California. The Pacific highway is gorgeous, overlooking ocean vistas. Just watch out for the drop – there are some curvy parts of the road. From California you can bike across the desert to Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Strip is an ideal place to sightsee on a motorcycle. Parking is free and abundant whenever you want to get off your bike and try your luck in one of the city’s many casinos.

You can bike through New Mexico, taking in the vast plateaus and deserts from the back of your ride. You can visit Roswell, the town where a UFO is rumored to have landed in 1947. Check out the amazing restaurants in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Park your bike and stop in a watering hole to absorb some local flavor and ingredients. The Mexican-influence cuisine can be spicy. New Mexico is also home to Lincoln County, famous for its affiliation with Billy the Kidd and his gang of marauders. There is plenty of picturesque camping in New Mexico, especially near Cloudcroft, where you can set up camp in the mountains and rest up for your next day’s travels. Camping is an ideal way to save on hotel fees. You can purchase a light tent and sleeping bag that can easily be strapped to your motorbike. Travel with bikes is also cheaper than travel in a car because of all the money you save on gas.

If you’re interested in the Civil War, there are plenty of battlegrounds to see on a motorcycle. You can drive across the Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, and the Westport battlegrounds in Arkansas and Missouri. If you are interested in staying on the East Coast of the United States, consider taking your bike north across the border. There are beautiful rides through Canada and Nova Scotia. Just be sure to go in the summer because the climate can be very cold up north in the winter. In summer the weather will be ideal – not too hot but pleasant enough to spend days on the back of your bike, taking in the open air.