Packing for any trip can be a challenge these days but knowing what you need – and don’t need – for an adventure vacation can be even more daunting. Let us put your mind at ease and provide a few adventure tour packing tips that we’ve learned over the many years and many destinations to which we’ve traveled. We’ll have you ready to go in a hurry!

• Check the weather forecast for your destinations and know that it can (will!) change.
• Lay all of your clothes out, then pack half of them; remember one of each type of thing (dress pants, fleece) — except cycling shorts, socks and undergarments — is enough.
• Accessorize!  One black knit wrinkle-proof dress can get you through several nights’ dinners. Change its look w/ scarves, necklaces or pins. Remember, your dinner partners will be in the same position as you are and will probably be wearing ‘repeats’ as well. We promise they won’t mind J.
• In summer, men can replace their dinner jacket with a sweater and tie, and women don’t need to wear stockings. Less to pack, hooray!
• Pack a small bag to its fullest – using every inch of space will prevent sliding and keep the contents neat. Or, use packing cubes that help keep things organized.
• Bring a hat and scarf (they don’t take much room and really keep you warm).
• Choose the right footwear and break them in. That means walk in your hiking boots at least 20 miles or cycle 75 miles in your cycling shoes.
• Bring a few empty bags (cloth or mesh) for carrying souvenirs, dirty laundry, etc.
• Be sure you can carry all of your bags yourself. Your Backroads Trip Leaders will handle luggage while on the trip, but they won’t be there in the airport terminal or train station where walks can be quite long. A good test: Take all of your bags for a walk around the block.

Got any travel trips for us for your biking tour or walking tour? What did you wish you’d brought that you didn’t? What did you wish you’d left at home?

For more information about Backroads, call us 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific time daily at 800-462-2848.

Get out your boots, your cowboy hat and your spurs, Backroads is headed to the Texas Hill Country in 2013 for a one-of-a-kind biking tour!

The Texas Hill Country, which includes several towns and cities just southwest of Austin, is an area of wide open spaces, fields of bluebonnets, live oaks, Texas ranchland and woodsy hills. For a minute, you just might think you’ve landed in Tuscany. But you’ll quickly realize you’re far from the Italian countryside as you hear the familiar twang of honky tonk music and smell the sweet scent of barbeque instead of garlic!

Our Texas Hill Country biking tour, a 5-day, 4 night tour, which begins in April 2013 and runs through November 2013 with a break during the hot, dry summer months, will show you just one piece of the magnificent beauty of the Lonestar state.

Beginning in the town of Blanco, you’ll pedal along undulating country hill roads through canopies of oaks as you head to a vineyard in Sisterdale. Days 2 and 3 take you on the Willow City Loop, a 25-mile country road boasting wildflowers aplenty in the spring, where you’ll cycle through Luckenbach, made famous by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Visit the dancehall and try to two-step with the locals. Then finish your journey by sipping a Shiner Bock at Fredericksburg’s biergarten.

On days 4 and 5, you’ll bike through countless cacti and open ranchland on your way to the oldest continuously running dance hall in the state, which has launched the careers of many music greats like Lyle Lovett and George Strait. The conclusion of your Texas Hill Country biking experience lets you enjoy a morning ride along the Guadalupe River to Canyon Lake.

Got questions about our biking tour of the Texas Hill Country? Why, give us a call, y’all! We’ll give you a Texas-size welcome and answer all the questions you have about our Texas bike tours. Call us 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific time daily at 800-462-2848 and go ahead and pick out your dancin’ boots!

While it’s an incredible experience to take a Backroads bike tour, it may be an even more incredible experience to work for Backroads! Every year, the lucky team at Backroads – Trip Leaders and staff – get to journey together on one of our bike tours for the annual Staff Ride.

Sure, it’s an amazing perk of working for a great company, but it’s also a way to give everyone at Backroads firsthand experience on our many different walking tours and biking tours around the world, which helps us help you better decide what trip to take and answer any questions you may have.

This year, our staff headed to Crete in Greece to participate in our Greece Biking Tour, which goes all along the coast of the beautiful island of Crete, offering some jaw-dropping views. More than 150 employees from all around the globe joined in on this magnificent ride.

We started our Greece bike tour in the seaside town of Rethymno followed by a relaxing ride to the Aegean Sea. On day 2, we did a coast to coast ride between the two mountain ranges on the island, going past spring-fed waterfalls and the ancient ruins of Argiroupolis. After an 18-kilometer hike down the Samaria gorge, the longest gorge in Europe, we arrived in the village of Loutro in south Crete. During the trip, we also enjoyed amazing views of the Venetian port in Chania and sampled olive oil at a family owned farm.

On the last full day of the Staff Ride, 150 of us hiked from the sleepy Greek village of Loutro, accessible only by boat, to Hora Sfakion for a final ride!

Sound like a fun time? It was! While you can’t experience it with 150 others (unless you come to work for Backroads, of course J), you can experience the same Greece bike tour on your own. Call our Trip Consultants at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific for more details or to get it on your calendar today! The Crete bike tour starts back up in March. Stay tuned to find out where we’ll be going on our Staff Ride for 2013!

Do you prefer to walk or bike? Do you enjoy challenging or more relaxing routes? Mountains or the beach? We are all unique when it comes to travel, and here at Backroads, we want to make sure that when you take Backroads tours that you’re getting exactly what you expected (and maybe a little more!).

With our hundreds of options when it comes to adventure travel, it can be a little intimidating to figure out which bike tour or hiking tour is truly the one for you. While our trip planners can help you sort through the process when you call us and certainly requesting a catalog and reviewing it will start you along, we also created our new Adventure Advisor to give you some online assistance.

Start the Adventure Advisor here and be prepared to answer just a couple of questions as you click through various screens. Some of the considerations it includes are:

• Type of trip (hiking/walking tour or biking/multisport tour)
• Time of Year
• Area of the world

Once you’ve made your selections, the Advisor plays a short video customized just for your preferences and gives you details on the three top adventure trips we recommend for you. Will it be a biking tour of Italy or maybe a multisport tour of Hawaii? Or is your dream vacation to walk past the lavender fields of Provence or perhaps bike the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia?

Let us know what you think of the Adventure Advisor and if it provided you with some good suggestions. Once you decide between the three trip options, call our Trip Planners to get you started on your dream adventure vacation at 800-462-2848 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Turkey is a land of ancient history, olive groves, seaside vistas, and, of course, food! Backroads invites you to explore this beautiful land at the crossroads of East and West by your own power and at your own pace. Travel Turkey by bike!

Begin your journey in the countryside outside of Bodrum where you will pedal along, enjoying the Turkish sites and peoples, ending your day with a dip in the Aegean Sea if you desire and then a plateful of traditional Turkish cuisine to fuel you for the next day.

On days 2 and 3, you’ll venture back in time to the ruins of Knidos, part of ancient Greece. Pedal up a climb and enjoy spectacular views of the mountain and the sea. In the evening, we’re welcomed like a family at a restaurant overlooking the harbor where the fishermen gather below for cards and to drink tea.

Next we head to several small villages, where you can watch locals as they hone ancient crafts like silk weaving, carpet making and boat building.

Finally, we conclude our adventure tour of Turkey with a three-day sail on the Mediterranean aboard traditional wooden gulets with plenty of opportunities for water fun, like swimming and snorkeling. Feel free to head onshore to explore the on looking hills by foot or bike. We’ll happen upon a Roman theater and the remains of Lycian and Carian tombs. Then enjoy the spectacular Cleopatra’s Bay where you can see the partially submerged ruins of an ancient Greek monastery in the beautiful crystal-clear water.

Our accommodations on this Turkey biking trip are second to none and include a sophisticated contemporary hotel, a 19^th century home converted into a hotel complete with Turkish bath, and finally the chance to sleep under the stars in the wooden gulets which anchor in secluded coves at night and offer private rooms and regional cuisine.

Here’s what one of our travelers had to say about Biking Turkey: “It’s going to be tough to raise the bar any higher than this trip! Was it the country, the itinerary, the most outstanding of any leaders we have ever experienced, the really fun and compatible group — or maybe it was the raki One unforgettable journey.”

Come along with us and bike turkey! Call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific time for more information or to book your trip.

Are you single or wanting to travel solo and ready for the adventure of a lifetime? Join us on one of Backroads’ bike tours for singles!

As part of Backroads’ Singles and Solos program, we give individuals, who share a love for travel and adventure, the opportunity to meet and connect during a once-in-a-lifetime bike trip. Whether you’re dreaming of cycling Tuscan fields, pedaling past castles in France or sampling wine while biking through California wine country, we’ve got something that can make that dream come true.

On Backroads’ singles adventures, we let you focus entirely on the people, the locale and the amazing wine and cuisine you’ll enjoy along the way. We take care of all the details from transporting your luggage to the next destination and handling any bike issues to booking all accommodations and meals and providing two vans along the route to meet your every need.

You can choose to have a roommate (and save the private room charge) or not and we even offer additional savings if you’re one of the first five people to book a specific tour. You can save up to half off on a private room! Also, should you change your mind, our singles vacations are fully refundable up to 95 days before departure. Within that same time frame, you can also change trips if you’d like.

While we offer more than 60 dedicated singles trips in 25 destinations nearly every week throughout the year, we’ve highlighted a few of our favorites for your review:

• Tuscany Biking – Travel Tuscany from Pienza to Siena and Chianti, all along the way enjoying wine tastings and wonderful Italian cuisine on this singles tour in Europe.
• Canadian Rockies Multisport – Stand on a glacier, bike the Rockies, hike a slot canyon and more on this singles tour.
• Costa Rica Biking Tour – Soak in hot springs, pedal past howler monkeys, and take in majestic waterfalls and even a volcano.
• Thailand Biking – Take a jungle trek aboard an elephant, float down the Maekok River, interact with Buddhist monks and receive a blessing from village elders.

Here’s what one of our singles travelers had to say about our biking trips:

“This was my first Backroads trip and I was blown away. The level of service is incredible. After this experience I almost feel it is the ONLY way to travel…I chose Backroads because I wanted to travel solo and it seemed like the best way to have a full experience, and be safe traveling alone.”

When your singles bike tour is over, we also offer a great way to stay in touch with all the new friends you’ve gathered along the way via our dedicated Singles + Solos Facebook community.

Want more information about our Singles + Solos program? Call us today at 800-462-2848 and get that trip on your calendar!

Sunny beaches, flamenco dancing and bullrings are all things that come to mind when you think of Spain. Backroads offers a number of bike tours of Spain from the island of Mallorca to the plunging cliffs and white sand beaches of Costa Brava.

New to our adventure vacations for 2013 is our Andalucia Biking Tour where you pedal from Seville to Granada, taking in ancient architecture, whitewashed villages and rolling hills. You’ll also enjoy wonderful Spanish cuisine, like tapas, gazpacho and the best-of-the-best olive oil! End your Spain bike tour at the jaw-dropping 150-million-year-old limestone rock formations at the National Park Los Torcales. Departures begin March 10, 2013 and run throughout the year until Nov. 17, 2013. There are also two Andalucia Singles Tours available in 2013.

In the mood for a sunny seaside getaway with some biking thrown in? You need to book our bike tour to Mallorca! Picture in your mind the endless turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea, lush lavender and citrus groves, and picturesque windmills. These are all images you’ll see up close and personal on your Mallorca bike tour. We’ll also challenge you to ride the road to Sa Calobra, a thrilling roller-coaster of hairpin turns plunging 3000 feet into the sea. Will you dare? Departures for Mallorca are available through Nov. 4 for 2012 and start again March 17 for 2013.

If vibrant city life is more your style, you’ll want to consider our Pyrenees to Costa Brava Biking tour which starts in Barcelona, a city pulsating with life. After you experience the upbeat Barcelona by bike, you’ll pedal north into the mountains and tour the Pyrenees foothills and then enjoy the Catalonia, which inspired artist Salvador Dalí. Finally, end your bike adventure at the beautiful Mediterranean with its white-sand beaches and hidden bays. This Spain biking tour departs beginning in 2013 on May 12 all the way through to Oct. 13, 2013.

How would you dream of seeing Spain by bike? Beaches, mountains, ancient formations? Call our travel planners at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific to decide which Spanish journey will be yours. Viva España!

Coming in 2013, Backroads is inviting you to see the Holy Land by bike. Israel bike tour departures begin April 4, 2013 and run through November 2013.

Step back into ancient history as you venture into Israel, a land shaped by prophets, kings and crusaders, and where the past blends into the present. Explore the area’s beaches and mountains by bike where you can interact with the locals as you stop for a rest at a small village or take in the magnificent Western Wall as the sun sets.

This eight-day, seven-night bicycling adventure begins in Ein Hod, a communal artist’s village overlooking the Mediterranean coast, after which you’ll cycle through orchards and more villages as you make your way to sunny seaside Caesarea. Then, have the pleasure of sampling wine in a land where grapes have been cultivated since Biblical times. Head to ancient Bet She’an, once the center of Egyptian rule and where you can discover vast archeological finds.

After passing through Safed and Rosh Pina, guests will explore the Nimrod Fortress, a Medieval site on Mount Hermon, and then venture east with views of Syria, stopping by a memorial of the Yom Kippur War. During the last days of your Israel biking tour, relax as you head downhill to the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem and enjoy a magnificent sunset view of the Western Wall. Your bike trip will conclude in the village of Ein Karem.

One of the highlights of the Israel cycling tour is the chance to sample cuisine from diverse cultures, including Israeli, Lebanese and Druze. Lodging along the route also gives you a variety of experiences and includes stops at a mountaintop spa, a boutique hotel overlooking the Sea of Galilee, guest cabins at a kibbutz, and a contemporary hotel within the Old City of Jerusalem.

The bike tour is available for all cycling levels, with a range of mileage options and routes available with help from your Trip Leaders.

Our Israel regional manager sums up the trip this way: “It’s easy to think you know Israel if you’ve been to Jerusalem, but as you venture out of the cities on your bicycle, you’re exposed to incredibly diverse cultures, cuisine, landscapes and amazing ancient ruins. On this trip, it becomes wonderfully clear that Israel is so much more than what is in the news.”

For more information on our Israel bike tour or to book your reservation, contact us at 800-462-2848 Pacific time.