Imagine someone with the ultimate entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for the outdoors and you’ve got Tom Hale, the leader of Backroads, the No. 1 active travel company in the world.

Back in 1979, Hale, a competitive runner in high school and at the University of Oregon, was inspired in the middle of the night to start a bike touring company. That “bright idea” led him on a 5000-mile solo bike trip throughout the West to plot the beginnings of Backroads, which has become the largest active travel company in the world.

His first tour, a Death Valley bike tour, took just four people, including his mom. Today, Backroads leads some 1800 trips each year to 36 countries around the globe.

Hale’s spirit of exploring the world through the “back roads” and up close and under one’s own power resonates throughout every bike tour and walking tour we offer today.

When not planning Backroads adventure tours or traveling the world, you can usually find him exercising so he can stay as fit as all of his Trip Leaders! His regimen includes the unique sport of skate-skiing during the winter months, as well as biking, core work and the occasional hike.

You can also find Hale with his family, including wife, Liz; daughters, Avery and Georgia; and son, William. He recently celebrated his daughter’s high school graduation with a Private Trip for 40 to Czechoslovakia!

We’re glad he couldn’t sleep that night and hope you are, too! We look forward to having you experience Backroads. Just give us a call at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m Pacific for more information or request our 2013 catalog.

A new addition to our 2013 line-up of bike tours and hiking tours is our California Winter Fit Trip. It’s a great spring break choice, as the dates run through March and into April.

Lots of people head on vacation to relax and overindulge on food and as a result end up with some extra pounds when they return home. This healthy vacation lets you get away, take in some amazing views, enjoy top-notch cuisine – and you may not gain an ounce… you may even leave a few pounds behind!

California Winter Fit takes you to the winter playground that is northern California from the Sugar Bowl to Mount Tamalpais. Get ready to do everything from show-shoeing and cross country skiing to biking and even yoga on this California tour! But we promise it won’t seem like exercise; it’ll just seem like the trip of a lifetime.

We start at Donner Summit, which offers some fantastic skiing and snowshoeing. End your day with a downward facing dog yoga pose to stretch those hard-worked muscles. Next, we’ll head to Sonoma County and enjoy a hike in Jack London State Park followed by a wine tasting, of course. Then get ready to enjoy a meal at Michelin-starred Santé restaurant and a visit to the Sonoma Mission Inn Spa (see, you get rewarded for your hard work!).

The last three days take us to Mount Tamalpais region where we’ll start with a hike among the redwoods. We’ll also take a bike ride on one of the Bay Area’s most popular cycling loops. We’ll cap off the week with a ferry ride from Sausalito to San Francisco and enjoy a finale lunch.

Are you ready to get fit with us this winter? Call us today at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific Time to reserve your spot on this Spring Break adventure vacation.

Backroads is known for our amazing Trip Leaders, with all of our guests consistently rating them a 9.7 out of 10 on post-trip surveys. We work hard to find leaders who are passionate and knowledgeable about the regions where they are leading tours and who love nothing better than to share that part of the world with you.

This week, meet Namgay Tshering, who leads our Bhutan Walking Trip and our Multisport Bhutan Biking Tour.

A longtime friend of Backroads, Namgay truly knows Bhutan as a former member of Bhutanese parliament and is able to open doors to you which are normally closed to foreigners. He serves not only as a trip leader but as host to his country and he’s excited to show you its abundant mountains, forests, plants and birds.

As a resident of his country, Namgay gives you the true flavor of what it’s like to live there and can answer any question you throw his way. When you travel on our active Bhutan tour, you get to participate in the daily Bhutanese life led by Namgay.

For example, you’ll receive a blessing at a 15^th century temple and hang traditional prayer flags. That’s just what Backroads is all about – getting you outside the car and into the world to meet locals, smell the scents and see the sights as you cycle or hike past.

We love Namgay’s spirit of giving in his community. He’s very involved, overseeing many programs to help disadvantaged children with their education and to improve their living conditions.

Want to travel with Namgay? Call Backroads today at 800-462-2848 to get scheduled on an upcoming Bhutan adventure tour.

Forget packed beaches in Florida, long drives across the country or crazy kids out of control. Let us give you a truly memorable, relaxing and enjoyable adventure of a lifetime for your family spring break instead. Imagine a vacation where you’re active, where it’s warm and where everyone learns a thing or two – all while having fun!

Our family adventure tours are packed with kid-approved fun, all designed with a pint-size traveler in mind. Plus, they offer plenty of opportunities for separate children’s and adult activities.

Although we’re just headed into the holidays, now’s the time to secure your spring break adventure vacation before we’re all booked. Let us make a couple family spring break suggestions for some of our bike tours and multisport tours around the world:

• Multisport Costa Rica Biking Tour – This is a popular trip for families who enjoy traveling with Backroads. Here are just a few of the amazing activities you’ll enjoy: jungle treks, white-water rafting and horseback riding.
• Sicily Bike Tour – New in 2013 is our Sicily Bike Tour that takes you past volcanoes, lets you eat pizza with French fries on top (no, we’re not joking!), tour the rugged countryside in Jeeps, bake biscotti and enjoy a scavenger hunt.
• Death Valley Biking – If you want to stay a little closer to home, try our Death Valley bike tour. You’ll get to see a castle with an indoor waterfall, gaze on a mirage, look for ancient lava flows, and view rock formations that look like Neapolitan ice cream.

We offer dates in February, March and April to fit your unique spring break needs. Come “join the party” with us on spring break this year – you’ll never go to a crowded beach again!

Call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific time to book your spring break now.

Here at Backroads we all share a spirit of wanderlust, that eternal desire to explore and find yourself in new and amazing places throughout the globe. We’re not the first to experience that longing. Many before us and many contemporaries feel just the same way. We love quotations that put into words just how we feel on many of our biking tours and hiking tours be it a European bike trip or a New Zealand hiking tour. No matter where you go, there you are J.

Here’s a compilation of some of our favorite travel quotes that we feel captures the spirit of Backroads adventure travel:

“My favorite thing is to go where I have never been.”
– Diane Arbus, American photographer

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”
– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
–Albert Einstein

“Exploration is the essence of the human spirit.”
– Unknown

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”
–St. Augustine

“Keep close to Nature’s heart.”
– John Muir

“We don’t stop hiking because we grow old; we grow old because we stop hiking.”
– Fins Mitchell

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”
– William Blake

And last but not least, from our fearless leader:

“Bicycle touring is travel’s live theater.”
– Tom Hale, Founder & President of Backroads

Got a travel quote that you love? Please share with us!

For more information about Backroads or any of our adventure tours that will fulfill that wanderlust, call us Pacific time 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily at 800-462-2848.

We know you’re excited about your Backroads adventure vacation be it a biking trip to France, a hiking trip through Vietnam or wherever the world is calling you! We want you to get the most possible enjoyment out of your active trip and so we’ve compiled a list of our top 10 tips for adventure travel:

• Check the weather forecast and know that it can (will!) change.
• Get recommendations from friends, in books and on the web of what to see before/after trip. Make a strategy, being mindful of festival dates (that you want to see or avoid), days of closure, museum hours, etc…
• Read about your destination by checking out our Recommended Reading page about your destination on our website. Travel reading is a must!
• Learn a few key phrases in the language of your destination: “Where is the toilet, please?”; “Please take me to…”; “Do you speak English?”; “Where is a telephone?”
• Attempt to adapt to local customs/rhythms: On your Spain biking trip, for example, people take ‘siesta’ from around noon to 3 or 4 p.m. and don’t eat dinner until around 10 p.m.; Vietnam is an early culture, where people rise at 5:30 or 6 a.m. and often close up shop by 4 p.m.
• Make a time conversion chart for yourself: 8 p.m. at home = X TIME in France, 8 a.m. at home =
• Avoid alcohol, drink plenty of fluids, eat light meals and get good rest during the three days leading up to your trip.
• On the plane, set your watch to the time of your destination and then put it away; visualize arriving at the time of day/night your plane is supposed to land and be ready for it.
• Be mindful of what you eat. Backroads will ensure that meals provided on the trip are fresh and safely prepared. When you travel on your own, explore that interesting snack stand while biking Thailand or sample a sweet from the street vendor on your Ecuador hiking trip, but make sure the food hasn’t sat out for a long time. Cut fruits and veggies with your own knife; look for places that are busy since high turnover means fresher food.
• Start enjoying your adventure vacation before it begins; in the midst of checking things off your ‘to do’ list, think about the joys of leaving ‘real life’ behind; it starts as soon as you leave your door!

What tips do you have for adventure travel?

For more information about any of our trips or how to prepare, please contact Backroads 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific time daily at 800-462-2848.

Looking for a totally unique, unexpected way to spend the holidays? Surprise the family, your spouse or your parents with a hiking trip to the Galapagos Islands! Backroads’ Galapagos and Andes multisport tour lets you discover the amazing views from the snowcapped Andes mountains and get up and close and personal with ancient tortoises, lizards and even white-tipped sharks!

Our bike tour dates for this 8-day, 7-night Galapagos adventure during the holidays run Dec. 18-25 (what a Christmas Day that would be!) or over New Year’s Dec. 30-Jan. 6. Imagine welcoming 2013 right on the equator and amidst the beauty of the Andes. If you’d prefer not to travel during the holidays, this Galapagos tour is available throughout 2013, as well.

Begin your wildlife adventure tour in Ecuador in the Andes where you’ll experience the region’s vast arts and culture, including a visit to the studio of a master weaver as you bike and hike these stunning mountains. Next, hop on a horse and explore the pastureland of the Zuleta Valley and hike up the mountains for some incredible views. You’ll stay overnight in a restored estate whose history traces to 1602 and in the former president of Ecuador’s home – deluxe indeed and a full cultural immersion experience.

For days 4 through 8, it’s time to head to the Galapagos Islands and meet some amazing creatures. We’ll pair you with a naturalist who will guide you from island to island and share their knowledge of this beautiful part of the world. On your journey, you’ll come across blue footed boobies, fluorescent fish, sea lions, marine iguanas and more. You’ll take time to snorkel, swim, kayak and hike these beautiful islands, including a trek around the rim of the 6-mile across volcano, the second largest in the world.

While in the Galapagos, rest overnight at some fantastic lodges, including Aventura Lodge nestled in a mangrove forest on Santa Cruz Island, and Isabela Lodge, known for its white sand beaches.

How does that sound for a holiday adventure? Everyone else will be plodding through snow while you catch plenty of sun out on the Pacific Ocean. We promise it will be a holiday or New Year’s everyone will be talking about for years to come.

Call our Trip Consultants 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific at 800-462-2848 to plan your holiday today!

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.

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!

If you haven’t checked New Zealand off your Bucket List, Backroads touring company highly recommends moving it close to the top! New Zealand is one of the most majestically beautiful countries in the world, and that’s why we want you to see it Backroads style: out in the open air. Choose from our trips that include hiking New Zealand, biking New Zealand and New Zealand multisport.

Have you seen the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy? Those sweeping vistas that take you to the magical world of Middle Earth are actually New Zealand! They almost look too fantastical to be real, but we promise you they do exist and we want to take you there. Peter Jackson also filmed the prequel to “Lord of the Rings,” the popular book of many a childhood, “The Hobbit,” in New Zealand and that film is due in theaters later in the year. Hike past some of the beautiful scenes from the movie!

On Backroads’ adventure tours through New Zealand we take you to our favorite spots , including the wine region of Hawke’s Bay, Lake Rotoiti, the giant tree ferns of Coromandel Peninsula, and Cathedral Cove with sandstone, beaches and gorgeous bright-blue waters.

Have your fill of waterfalls, hot pools, geysers, thermal springs and percolating mud pots at Waiotapu. And just like Frodo, get ready to have the adventure of a lifetime, crossing suspension bridges, discovering a gold mining tunnel, feeding emus and if you dare, even a chance to bungee jump! The good news is Gollum is not waiting for you at the bottom!

The inns on this magical journey include the Mangapapa Petit Hotel, which is a lovely country mansion with lush gardens; a private chalet in Puka Park Resort, a secluded wilderness hideaway in the New Zealand bush; Amora Lake Resort with a pool and tennis; and Millennium Hotel, more modern and located on Lake Taupo.

So how will you see stunning New Zealand with Backroads? If you bike New Zealand, you’ll have varied routes each day, some more gentle and others more challenging if you choose. If you’d like to hike New Zealand, get out your hiking boots and get ready for the walk of a lifetime! Some like to mix it all up with our New Zealand multisport option, which includes hiking, biking and kayaking.

Which will you choose to cross off your Bucket List? Call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific, and we’ll help you decide!