Our bike trips and hiking trips are already tons of fun, but many of our travelers and families make the fun last even longer by extending their active vacation either before or after their tour. We’ve picked 5 of our amazing active trips and included suggestions of where to travel to extend your getaway.

1)      Party in Barcelona – Barcelona is the city where our Pyrenees to Costa Brava Biking starts and ends and it’s the perfect place to spend a few extra days. Barcelona is a vibrant Spanish city, formerly home to the summer Olympics, and the perfect place for a night out on the town. We recommend taking in a tapas bar or trying restaurant Mil921, featuring Catalan cuisine with a Japanese twist, owned by the brother of one of our Spanish Trip Leaders. After all, you deserve some delicious dinners after your Spain Biking Trip through some challenging mountain passes.

2)      Get some Culture in Florence – Get your fill of art and culture in this Italian Renaissance gem. As the gateway city for our Tuscany Biking tour, we highly recommend adding on a few days – or even a week! In addition to the history and sites, Florence is also a great city for sumptuous Italian cuisine. Why not take a wine appreciation or group cooking class at the Apicius International School of Hospitality after your Italian bike tour? You can come home, bragging about your new Italian cooking skills!

3)      Peruse Paris – You just can’t turn down an opportunity to see the City of Lights and its famous Eiffel Tower when you’re so close on our Loire Valley Biking trip. Stroll the city, stopping at cafes, sipping cappuccinos, and perhaps taking in some jazz at a lively club before or after your French bike tour. Here’s a site that offers the latest information about happenings in Paris.

4)      Savor San Francisco – One of our most popular tours is the Wine Country Biking Tour. We have to admit seeing rolling hills by bike and sampling wine after wine is pretty amazing. To continue your California tour by bike, consider the Streets of San Francisco Bike Tours, founded by former Backroads leaders. They’ll take you off the beaten path of San Francisco and they offer Backroads customers a 15% discount. Just use the code “backroads” when booking.

5)      Sight-see in Prague – Our Czech Republic & Austria Walking & Hiking Tour takes you from Prague to Salzburg, so consider a few additional days at the start to explore the wonderful city of Prague, the largest city in the Czech Republic. Did you know it’s the sixth most visited city in Europe after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin? It’s known for its architecture and museums and if you have kids, be sure to check out the Prague Zoo, named one of the best in the world by Forbes.

Be sure to check with your Trip Planner if you have questions about extending your trip. We’re happy to provide suggestions and tips for making the most out of your extended vacation. For more information about any of our active tours, please call 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m.

Marriage itself is an adventure, so why not start it off with an adventure for your honeymoon? Backroads gives honeymooners the ultimate adventure with a chance to travel to one of hundreds of destinations around the world while biking, hiking, kayaking and more. Plus, you can burn off some of that wedding cake and avoid the potential newly-married 15-pound gain J.

Here are some of our favorite active travel honeymoon destinations:

A French Biking Getaway

Say Oui to a French honeymoon and get ready to pedal through a storybook land. Our Loire Valley Biking Tour takes you past castle after castle where you can dream of knights in shining armor and realize you have your very own knight cycling right beside you! Bike France and see perfectly groomed gardens, visit chateaus and sample French wine, tour historic castles and spend some time at a romantic French café. Before it’s all over, you might just give in to the idea that your life is indeed a fairy tale!

An Italian Honeymoon with Hiking

Who wouldn’t want to go to Italy on their honeymoon? Rolling hills, farmhouses and tiny villages all scream romance! On our Cinque Terre and Tuscany Walking Tour, you can view all the sites in the great outdoors, holding hands, strolling along at your own pace. Visit wineries, tour a World Heritage site, soak in views of the deep blue Mediterranean and meander along historic Greve. Any great honeymoon should include fantastic food, and this Italy walking tour gives you plenty from fresh seafood to Tuscan delicacies. You’ll also enjoy your share of Italian wine to toast your new life together!

California Lovin’

If you’d prefer to stay a little closer to home on your honeymoon, look no further than an adventure into California’s wine country. One of our most popular bike tours, Wine Country Biking lets you enjoy the beauty of this majestic region while tasting some of the best wines the U.S. has to offer. This California bike trip will take you through five valleys of world-famous vineyards, each day allowing you to sample a variety of vintages. Oh, did we mention the food? Your honeymoon days will end with nightly gourmet meals where you can celebrate your nuptials.

What’s on your dream honeymoon list? Have you considered making it an active honeymoon? We find that the newlywed couples who travel with us list our trips as remarkable and they come back again and again for anniversaries and active family trips. Here’s what one couple had to say:

“This was our honeymoon and I cannot think of a better way to have spent it. The leaders were among the best I have ever encountered and they managed to enhance what would have in itself been a magnificent trip. From the educational aspects to the food to the hiking, everything was perfection!” Read what more honeymooners had to say.

To book your active honeymoon with us or for more information, please call us 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific daily at 800-462-2848.

Just as Goldilocks wanted her oatmeal not too hot, not too cold, but “just right,” here at Backroads we feel the same about the size of your traveling group.

Small might sound better at first, but we’ve seen firsthand the downsides of travel with too small of a group. Whether you’re hiking the Italian Alps or biking through Provence, too few people in your group can be restrictive.

Often, there is only one van provided, so if you have different plans or needs than everyone else in your group, guess whose needs will be ignored?  Everyone has to leave at the same time no matter what. We’ve also heard from guests that they enjoy meeting new people on our trips, and with small groups you’ll likely see the same people over and over again at lunch, dinner and throughout the day.

At Backroads, we provide two support vans on most of our trips to allow for flexibility and the different needs of guests. In slightly larger groups, this helps us accommodate those who want to go back to the hotel and those who want to keep riding or allows us to stop and get one group a snack while the other group forges ahead.

We also find that more people equals more camaraderie. Exploring with others who have the same love for travel and discovery makes the experience that much richer. Sit with different people at dinner each evening and see how many people you can get to know. Enjoy the diversity of personalities, passions and travel styles just as you enjoy the diversity of the destination and culture you’re visiting.

If you truly want a small group trip, consider planning a Backroads Private Trip comprised of your close family and friends.

Have questions about our group sizes or private active trips? Please give us a call 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific daily at 800-462-2848.

Are you thinking of traveling with us on an active vacation this year or next? Many people ask us: How far in advance should I reserve my trip with Backroads? That’s a great question and one for which you want to be sure you have the right information, as it would be disappointing to call to reserve your trip only to learn that it’s full.

Our best recommendation is to book as far an advance as your timing allows. The further ahead you reserve your spot, the more availability you’ll find. When you’re planning a major getaway like a European bike tour or hiking tour through the US National Parks, you’ll want to be sure the dates work best for your family’s schedule.

Many families travel with us during the summer months, for example, so those dates fill quickly, along with holidays. To make sure you can choose your top destination and date, try to contact us at least four to six months ahead of time.

There are also several tours that are very popular and tend to book quickly. They include Yellowstone & Tetons Walking Tour, San Juan Islands Biking, all of our Italy hiking tours and Italy biking tours as well as our France hiking tours and France biking tours. If any of those locales are on your list, call us early.

To reserve your active trip, please call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific daily or use our secure online reservation form by clicking Reserve This Trip! on any trip page on our website. We request a $600 deposit per person made by check or major credit card. The balance of your trip cost is due 95 days prior to departure in most instances. In a few Special Departure           cases we request the balance due 125 days prior to departure.

So pick your destination, choose your dates and give us a ring! Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to an active vacation of a lifetime…

Can you smell the fresh mountain air, hear the bubbling brooks, imagine mountains as far as the eyes can see and million dollar views? That’s what you’ll find in the Alps this summer. Backroads offers multiple Alps vacations that let you hike the Alps, bike the Alps (if you dare!) and be outdoors to enjoy this beautiful section of the world that we like to call “the rooftop of Europe.” Be it the Swiss Alps, French Alps or Italian Alps, we’ve got an alpine getaway that’s calling you.

Here are a few of our Alps adventures:

Swiss Alps Walking & Hiking Tour – On this 6-day, 5-night hiking tour of Switzerland, you’ll get the full alpine treatment. Taste Swiss cheese at a local farm, climb by cable car to an amazing hike, take a dip in healing thermal waters, travel via train to the town of Zermatt, enjoy local fare like strudel, fondue and plenty of wine, and relax at the luxurious Riffelalp Resort. The stress is already melting away, isn’t it?

French & Italian Alps Walking & Hiking Tour – As you hike the French Alps and the Italian Alps, you’ll be treated to the reward of a gorgeous turquoise lake, visit chic Chamonix, take in view of rock spires, saw-edged peaks and woodland valleys, take a breathtaking glacier walk, enjoy local flavors of wine and visit the Italian side of Mont Blanc. This 6-day, 5-night Alps hiking tour will have you saying bonjour and arrivederci.

Italy’s Dolomites Walking & Hiking Tour – We like to call the Dolomites “Italy’s best kept alpine playground” so get ready to do plenty of “playing”! The Dolomites are full of fairytale villages, grassy meadows and majestic mountains, along with the chamois, eagles and marmots if you keep a sharp eye. On this 6-day, 5-night Dolomites hike, you’ll picnic at a 13^th century Gothic castle, ride chairlifts, hike through wildflowers, taste wines at a local wine cellar and visit a natural park.

Italy’s Dolomites Biking Tour – Dare you bike the Dolomites? We think you should! On this 6-day, 5-night Dolomites biking trip, you’ll get to bike the Sella Ronda Loop, one of the most spectacular rides you may ever experience, pedal through storybook villages, conquer 14 alpine passes in 6 days (including epic Passo Giau with a 9% grade over 6 miles!) and participate in wine tastings as your reward.

Which mountain adventure will you choose? No matter your choice, you’ll be glad you settled on the Alps for your summer vacation. For more information or to book your Alps getaway, call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific time daily.

With summer on its way, we’ll be leading hundreds of families to destinations around the world in the coming months and we thought it would be a great time to introduce you to some of our family trip leaders. They are responsible for making sure adults AND kids have fun (not an easy job!), learn a lot and have an opportunity to get an authentic view of the culture they’re visiting.

In today’s post, we’d like you to meet Rebecca Sorensen. Rebecca left her job as a film/TV production coordinator in LA to travel the world! After spending four months traveling, including biking in Thailand and biking in Italy, she decided she didn’t want travel to be a hobby but a lifestyle. Enter Backroads!

These days You can find Rebecca leading families on a variety of Backroads family bike trips and family hiking trips, including our Yosemite Multisport Tour in California. On that tour, she’ll take you rock climbing, walking through the giant sequoias, hiking past waterfalls and alpine meadows, and to a visit of the Ansel Adams Gallery. You can even enjoy a family game of bocce ball or ping pong!

Rebecca also leads the Hawaii Big Island Multisport trip where families get to walk through a rain forest, ride horses, snorkel, visit a coffee plantation and bike part of the Kona Ironman Triathlon course. Of course, we work in plenty of swimming and beach time, as well.

“I think families really bond on an active vacation, because they are out there every day experiencing new things together. There’s nothing like biking and hiking together as a family—exploring a national park, being able to smell the trees, pick up rocks and pine cones, and really appreciate the nature that surrounds you,” says Rebecca. “It’s beautiful, challenging, and in the end, it’s something you’ve accomplished together.”

Want to travel with Rebecca? Give us a call daily 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific at 800-462-2848 and we’ll answer any questions you have and get you booked!

By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea… When it comes to summer vacation, many of us bring to mind the sparkling seaside, aqua blue waters and white sandy beaches. There’s just something about summer that goes with seaside escapes!

Backroads offers a host of biking trips and hiking trips that take you to gorgeous locales known for their beautiful beaches from the coast of Italy to Spanish islands. Here are some of our top recommendations for active seaside vacations:

Amalfi Coast Walking & Hiking – Seafood lovers, rejoice! You’ll get your fill of delicious local seafood on this Italy hiking trip that takes you down the Amalfi Coast through Italian towns like Sorrento and Ravello and to the lovely Isle of Capri. Delight in the azure waters of the Italian coast, colorful umbrellas dotting pebbly beaches and terraced gardens high above the water. It may feel like a movie, but it’s your Italian vacation!

California Coastal Range Walking & Hiking – This 6-day, 5-night California hiking trip takes you to the Point Reyes National Seashore with its rugged Pacific Ocean beaches and the sparkling waters of the San Francisco Bay. Savor succulent Tomales Bay oysters, ferry to Angel Island with its jaw-dropping views, and walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dalmation Coast Biking – Croatia still remains a bit of an undiscovered seaside jewel, offering sapphire blue waters, whitewashed villages and hidden coves. Get ready to explore the Mediterranean in all its glory on this 6-day, 5-night bike tour of the Adriatic Coast as we visit a variety of islands (including one with more than 2000 hours of yearly sun!), bike jagged limestone cliffs, visit a World Heritage Site and explore medieval villages.

Mallorca Biking – Bike Spain on this tour of the gorgeous island of Mallorca. Stunning turquoise blue seas provide our view for much of this Spain biking tour, along with the dramatic Serra de Tramuntana mountain range. Are you brave enough to bike the road to Sa Calobra with its hairpins turns plunging 3000 feet to the sea?

Is an ocean retreat on your list this summer? Why not make your vacation about more than just lying at the beach and turn it into an active summer getaway with plenty of seaside time, as well. To book any of the above trips or to get more recommendations for other seaside trips, please give us a call 7 a.m.-5 p.m. daily at 800-462-2848.

We love kids here at Backroads! It’s a joy to see them biking through the rolling hills of Tuscany with their parents, hiking around a volcano in Hawaii and ziplining through the jungles of Costa Rica. Since we see so many families on our active family vacations each year, it’s only natural that we have a few tips for active travel with kids. We want you and your family to have the best vacation possible and a little preparation can make sure it’s a trip your children will remember for the rest of their lives.

Here are our top 5 tips for the best active travel experience with kids:

1)      Getting home and back can be the least fun parts of your family biking tour or family hiking tour. Make flying fun by bringing games, books, favorite snacks and a surprise for after the flight. Be sure to ask the flight attendant if they have any special packets for kids. Select pre and post hotels that cater to families and offer kid activities and amenities—our Travel Planners can help you with that. Research activities in your gateway city that the whole family can enjoy: aquariums, zoos, parks, children’s museums and theatres.

2)      When packing for kids on an active family trip, be sure to include plastic bags for sticky and dirty clothes, a nightlight to brighten unfamiliar rooms, pediatrician contact information, medications, a comforting toy and addresses of their friends so they can send postcards.

3)      Staying at a hotel can be an exciting experience for children. To make your family’s stay more enjoyable, give kids a tour of the property when you arrive and explain the rules regarding the minibar, in-room movies and telephone.

4)      Practice hiking and biking with your kids before you arrive on your family bike tour or family walking tour. The additional time together on training rides and hikes can make great family bonding days.  And not only that, the kids became familiar with what gear they need, how to layer clothing properly, and what snacks and food they like most on the trail and on the bike.

5)      Have a meeting before your family adventure and agree to rules regarding the use of electronics during your trip. Consider allowing electronics during travel to and from only; a camera as the only electronic item for kids during the tour; or simply leaving phones and Gameboys at home.  If parents also agree to unplug, they’ll likely get more buy-in from the kids. The rewards of real family bonding, full immersion into the culture or nature of a place, disconnecting from the distractions of daily life and home, and creating more opportunity for incredible memories far outweighs the hardship of giving up the electronics.

Come explore the world with your family on a Backroads family adventure vacation. We’re pretty sure the kids will forget about the PlayStation quickly and be ready to send off postcard after postcard to their buddies as they enjoy all our trips have to offer.

For more information about Backroads Family Trips, please visit www.Backroads.com or call us 7 a.m.-5 p.m. daily at 800-462-2848. You can also check out our online Family Trip Advisor to get help finding the perfect adventure for your family.

We think food and active travel go perfectly together. For one, you can burn off most of the calories you consume dining on delicious local cuisine and two, there’s no better way to experience the true flavor of a region than through its local fare.

Backroads offers several hiking tours and biking tours that have a big food focus whether it’s taking a cooking class, shopping the local market or dining with locals. Here are some of our favorite active tours for foodies:

Puglia Biking Tour

Tour the Puglia region of Italy by bike and experience all of its gastronomic delights! On our 6-day, 5-night Puglia Bike Tour, you’ll travel the Italian Adriatic Coast, which brings to mind the whitewashed coastal villages of Greece. Olive trees and fennel stretch as far as the eye can see interspersed with age-old farmhouses. You’ll sample a full-bodied primitivo and other notable vini Pugliesi, cook with local Pugliese chefs during a culinary lesson, learn how mozzarella is made and enjoy organic homemade Pugliese dishes. The Puglia Biking tour runs April-June and August-October.

Peru Walking & Hiking Tour

You may be surprised to hear that our 7-day, 6-night Peru hiking tour also has a food focus in addition to the amazing Machu Picchu ruins and active Andes activities.  Some of the culinary experiences in which you’ll indulge in Peru include sipping a pisco sour at the Cusco Museum, shopping the lively Pisac market and take a cooking class with a local Peruvian chef from Sol y Luna. Then get ready to burn all the calories you’ve consumed during two days of hiking to Machu Picchu. The Peru walking tour runs March-October, as well as some dates in December.

Tuscany Walking & Cooking Tour

New for 2013 is our Tuscany Walking and Cooking Tour. Tuscany has always been a popular destination for us and guests are always asking for recipes and techniques to recreate the mouth-watering Tuscan dishes at home, so we’ve created a Tuscany tour focused around one of everyone’s favorite highlights of the area: its glorious food! On our Tuscany cooking & walking tour, you’ll have the opportunity to cook side by side with Italian “le nonne” (grandmas),  chat up a Tuscan butcher about meats, have lunch under the grape vines, enjoy a private wine talk, sample honey made by monks at Monte Oliveto Maggiore, visit a working cheese farm and much more! The 6-day, 5-night trip runs May-July, September and October.

Did we make you hungry?! Go ahead and reserve your spot on one of these fantastic food-focused tours for 2013. You’ll come home full of culinary inspiration and stories to share with family and friends. Call us today at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific.

Red or white, many of us agree there is little better than a great glass of wine. On these bike tours and hiking tours, wine takes center stage right next to the fantastic scenery. Whether you’re swirling a glass on an Italy bike tour or sipping a burgundy on a France walking tour, these 5 active tours give you the best of vino and adventure:

Piedmont Biking

Tuscany isn’t the only fantastic region of Italy! We’ve added this 6-day, 5-night Piedmont Biking tour for 2013 to showcase the beauty of this area of Italy. While you’ll enjoy plenty of biking through the Italian countryside past villages, castles and hot sulphur springs, wine is definitely front and center. You’ll pedal past beautiful vineyards and farmland day after day, stopping in Nizza Monferrato, a town known for its wine production, and Monforte d’Alba, a storybook wine village with views of the Alps. You’ll pass over “the underground cathedrals” in Canelli, which are passages underneath town that store hundreds of bottles for area wineries. Finally, explore 1,000-year-old La Morra, one of the most important Barolo wine-producing towns in Piedmont. Tours run May, June (for singles only) and September.

Alsace Biking

The Alscace region of France is another area of the world known for its wine. On our 6-day, 5-night Alsace & Black Forest Biking trip, we’ll let you see why! Ready to sip perfectly chilled Riesling after climbing the steep hills to Ribeauvillé? This tour is for you. Other highlights include stops at a charming, family-run winery, pedaling across a sea of grape vines that rises and falls gracefully against the Vosges Mountains, crossing the Rhine and delighting in Black Forest cake IN the Black Forest! Tours run May, June and September.

Dordogne & Bordeaux Biking

On this 6-day, 5-night France biking tour, you’ll see everything from prehistoric caves to modern day vineyards and wineries. Enjoy an exclusive Périgordian feast prepared by a Backroads’ friend and served in the garden, bike through the Bordeaux region, get a lesson in wine tasting from an oenologist at the Vignobles & Châteaux wine school, and visit the World Heritage site of St-Émilion. Tours run May-October.

http://www.backroads.com/trips/BDXI/dordogne-bordeaux-france-biking-tour?p=D518

Burgundy Biking

http://www.backroads.com/trips/BBUI/burgundy-france-biking-tour?p=D518

The rich flavors of Burgundy extend beyond its magnificent wine and blend into its friendly people, small villages and lovely architecture. On this 6-day, 5-night Burgundy bike tour, you’ll journey through lush forests, vast farmland, lovely lakes and quaint villages, and stop by the Vézelay World Heritage site. Enjoy delicious French gourmet cuisine paired with wines, and take a private cellar tour with a tasting of artisanal whites and reds at Maison Alex Gambal. Visit Château de La Rochepot and taste its wines and take a private, guided tour of 15th-century Hospices de Beaune. Tours run May, June, August and September.

Wine Country Biking

http://www.backroads.com/trips/BWCI/california-wine-country-biking-tour?p=D518

You don’t have to travel overseas to enjoy world-famous wines. Right here in the USA, California produces its share. On our Wine Country Biking tour, you’ll visit several famous valleys and vineyards in Sonoma, Carneros and Napa. Enjoy plenty of wine tastings interspersed with biking among northern California’s beautiful rolling hills. You’ll also enjoy a stop at the famed redwoods. Tours to wine country run 6 days and 5 nights March-December.

Do you love to combine travel with wine? Let Backroads plan your bike trip for you, handling all the details from meals to hotels to tours so all you have to do is sip and bike! Call us 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific daily at 800-462-2848 to get started.