Sometime in your life, you’ve got to see the American West whether it’s the canyons of Utah or the mountains and hot springs in Wyoming. We happen to think the best way to see this region is on a bike tour or hiking tour of the American West.

Backroads offers active tours to Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and more, giving you the opportunity to see these glorious vistas in the open air as you pedal through each state or hike on your own two feet. Smell the wildflowers, see the mountains unobstructed and drink in the fresh alpine air.

Here are a few of our top Western vacations that we think you should consider this year:

New Mexico Biking: Santa Fe & Taos – This 6-day, 5-night New Mexico bike tour takes you through the land that inspired artist Georgia O’Keefe, across the fifth highest bridge in the US, a chance to bike the Enchanted Circle around Wheeler Peak and through Spanish and Indian ruins. Runs May, June, September & October.

Wyoming: Yellowstone and Tetons Multisport – This is your chance to see mud pots, spouting geysers and steaming vents, along with the beautiful peaks of the Tetons and the Snake River as you white-water raft  down it. This 6-day 5-night tour screams adventure! Get ready to bike Wyoming, hike Grand Teton National Park and kayak Yellowstone Lake. This Wyoming adventure is offered as a Classic Tour June-September, for Singles-Solos  in July, for families June-August and as a deluxe camping experience June-August.

Montana Biking – Right next door to Wyoming is beautiful Montana where you’ll get to bike the Going-to-the-Sun Road and take in the true alpine beauty of the American West. As you bike Montana, pedal past Lake McDonald, sparkling waterfalls, through glacier-carved valleys and even take a trek into Canada and visit a National Park. As the finale, raft down the Flathead River. This is a 6-day, 5-night trip that runs July-August as a classic tour and June and August for Singles-Solos.

Utah: Bryce & Zion Biking – Red rocks galore are what you’ll find on this bike trip through Utah. You’ll see rocks of all shapes and sizes from whimsically-shaped formations to towers and arches. Get ready to be amazed at what Mother Nature creates! On this Utah bike tour, you’ll also work your way through many canyons, bike through Zion National Park with its colored pinnacles, spires and hoodoos, as well as marvel at Mount Carmel’s white sandstone Elkhard Cliffs. This bike tour of Utah runs 6 days and 5 nights June-September and is also available for Singles and Solos in July.

Where have you always dreamed of heading out West? Don’t forget to bring your cowboy boots and cowboy hat – oh yeah, and your sense of adventure!

To book any of our active trips to the American West, please call us daily 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific time at 800-462-2848.

Backroads offers active travel experiences for single travelers and solo travelers and this is a question we hear quite a lot: Are singles trips and solos trips just for unmarried travelers?

Let us just say we are not the Match.com of travel; however, if you happen to find a love interest on one of our trips, all the better!

The answer to the question is no, our active trips are not just for unmarried travelers. However, many of our singles-solos travelers are unmarried. Those who travel with us who are married sometimes are simply traveling alone without their spouse or with a friend or sibling.

We strive on our active singles trips to put together an engaging group of individuals – married or not – who will make for an interesting active travel experience.  We often hear from our solo travelers that we know how to ignite an amazing chemistry in a comfortable, easygoing atmosphere. Our Trip Leaders are skilled not only in knowledge of their country but in how to encourage a camaraderie and interactive group dynamic.

Wine tastings, meals and other social opportunities we create help everyone to get to know one another, making your bike trip or walking trip about more than just the destination. The people you travel with can be just as wonderful!

You’ll often find that those who choose our bike tours and walking tours are individuals who share a sense of fun and passion for exploring the world and drinking in as many experiences as they can.  That instantly gives you something in common.

Bottom line: We welcome all!

In this series of blog posts, we thought we’d tackle some of the most common questions we hear from guests who are considering taking a Backroads active bike tour or walking tour.

Many of our guests worry and wonder if they will be in the right physical condition to enjoy a bike trip or walking trip. So we’ll answer this common question: What kind of shape do I need to be in for the best bike tour or best walking tour experience?

We’ve got good news! Backroads’ active trips are designed for all levels of fitness. There are some trips that are more challenging than others, however, so be sure to check the Activity Level of the trip on our website or ask our Backroads’ Trip Consultants when you call.

We categorize bike trips and hiking trips from levels 1-5. A level 1 activity level on any given leg or day means an average time of 2-3 hours, 10-20 miles on a road bike, 10-15 miles on a mountain bike or 2-5 miles walking or hiking. Contrast that with a level 5 activity level which means 5-7+ hours, 56-75+ miles on a road bike, 31+ miles on a mountain bike or 11-13 miles walking or hiking.

Also, keep in mind that our Trip Leaders are often able to customize a trip for guests. So if you’d prefer to get in more activity, they may be able to provide you with a longer route. Or if you’re more tired than you expected after a leg, hop on one of our two support vans that accompany most trips and head back to the hotel for a rest.

To prepare for a Backroads trip, we recommend following an exercise regimen to improve your fitness and enhance your experience prior to your trip. Try working up to biking or hiking the distances you’ll be covering on your trip. We also recommend cross training, which combines different aerobic activities with weight training and stretching exercises. This is the exercise of choice for many of our Trip Leaders. The better conditioned you are, the more fun you’ll have!

Got questions? Our Trip Planners are happy to answer them 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific time at 800-462-2848.

Here at Backroads, we believe we’re the best choice for an active vacation, be it a walking tour in Europe or a bike tour through southeast Asia. Sure, lots of active travel companies make claims about why their service is the best, but we can prove it! How? The Backroads’  Quality Index, a way to demonstrate to you the true differences that set Backroads’ active vacations apart from the rest.

In Part 1 of our Quality Index blog post, we’ll share with you 6 reasons we believe Backroads is the leader of the pack:

Never Subcontracted – We run all of our own active tours around the world, allowing us to control the quality. We never subcontract to other vendors.

Two Support Vans – On all of our bike trips, walking trips and multisport trips, we support you with two vans*. That way, if part of the group needs a break, they can head back to the hotel, while the other van supports those still walking or biking. It also allows us to provide snacks, fix bikes, etc. without sacrificing service to everyone else.

Three Trip Leaders – By sending three Trip Leaders on EVERY tour, we ensure that everyone is catered to. Our active trips have a 6:1 guest to leader ratio, and our travelers consistently score our Trip Leaders 9.7 out of 10, saying they “make all the difference.”

Local Expertise – On our international trips, we bring along local guides to pair with our Trip Leaders to give you an authentic experience of the region where you’re traveling.

The Right Bikes – Our bike fleet is the best in the active travel industry with more than 4000 expertly maintained bikes, including our custom titanium Backroads bike, our top-rated Specialized S-Works Roubaix and women’s Ruby Pro, and our Co-Motion Periscope Torpedo tandem.

Thoughtful Trip Design – We employ a team of nine trip designers, lead by our founder and CEO Tom Hale who brings three decades of experience, ensuring you truly get to see the “back roads” and the best of each area.

What is your favorite part of the Backroads experience? To experience our quality firsthand, call us today at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m.  Pacific to get start selecting the perfect active tour for you.

*95% of Backroads guests travel with the support of two or more vans and three leaders. The remaining 5% are on trips with very few guests where only one van and two leaders are needed to maintain our high service standards.

Hiking Peru is a once-in-a-lifetime, bucket list experience. We’ve seen people celebrate major milestones like graduations and birthdays by gifting this amazing hiking tour. Strap on your hiking boots and get ready to turn back time hundreds of years to step inside the remains of an ancient civilization.

If you choose to check this item off your bucket list with Backroads, we think you’ve chosen wisely! We’ll handle all the details, making sure you see everything you should, that you stay in amazing lodging, ensure delicious food to refuel you for hiking and provide three Trip Leaders on every hiking trip to guide you for the ultimate trip to Peru.

On our Peru Hiking Tour, you’ll start at Cusco, once the center of the Pre-Columbian empire; journey through Puca Pucara, Q’enko, Temple of the Moon and Sacsayhuamán; and learn the meaning of an indigenous “Pago a la Tierra” ceremony from a longtime Backroads friend and local shaman. Next up, walk among the Inca salt pans’ honeycomb of pools, visit Pisac’s vibrant market and view the Pisac ruins.

Day 4 gives you a chance to meet the Peruvian locals, interacting with kids at a local school, shopping for local ceramics and taking a Peruvian cooking class with a local chef. On the last three days of your Peruvian journey, you’ll venture toward the mysterious Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas. Hike the Inca Trail to reach the Gate of the Sun and a stunning view of this ancient site. Then explore the Lost City itself with a local expert and learn more about the area’s flora and fauna from a Peruvian naturalist.

Our Peru Walking Tour is a 7-day, 6-night adventure that runs March-October and December.

One note, permits to hike the Inca Trail are extremely limited. We recommend booking a minimum of 4-6 months prior to your departure date to significantly increase your chance of securing a permit. If permits are unavailable during some seasons, you will take a train to Aguas Calientes, bus to the entrance and hike into Machu Picchu.

So don’t delay to schedule this life-changing trip! Why not go ahead and schedule your daughter’s 16th birthday trip now or plan your son’s graduation gift in plenty of time? Call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific daily and we’ll get you all set up!

We had such an awesome time at the 2012 Bikefest, a fall singles tour to Wine Country with 60 other single travelers, that we decided to offer TWO dates in 2013. This year, the Bikefest California Wine Country bike tour will be offered July 21-26 and September 29-October 4. But no matter whether you choose to bike with us in summer or fall, there’s no question it will be a blast!

On our Singles-Solos Wine Country Bikefest, we let you enjoy the best of the single life in the great outdoors while traveling through the beautiful California wine country. We’ll start our singles adventure in Napa Valley, pedaling past famed vineyards and stopping at a host of wineries for a sample, swirl and sip.

Bikefest is a Backroads deluxe camping adventure, which means we sleep in tents under the stars, enjoy gathering with friends around the campfire and dine on delicious gourmet camping meals. Our amazing Trip Leaders get the camp site all ready for you, so all you have to do is arrive, socialize and fall asleep in your comfy sleeping bag on an extra thick pad while breathing in the fresh air. Ahh…

Next head to the Russian River Valley for more wineries and enjoy a group picnic under the giant redwood trees of California. A party awaits back at camp with drinks, food, live music and plenty of fun!

During the next two days, we bike down the California coast, exploring seaside hamlets, visiting the country’s oldest cheese manufacturer (what goes better with wine after all?!), exploring Pointe Reyes National Seashore and enjoying a farm-to-table dinner. Again, a live band with an opportunity for dancing crowns the day.

On our final day of our California Wine Country biking tour, we head to the hilly city of San Francisco, stop in the town of Sausalito and pedal across the Golden Gate Bridge for the finale!

If you choose to go on Bikefest in September, we recommend extending your visit in San Francisco to enjoy a host of local events that take place like Fleet Week.

Hurry and book Bikefest before we fill up. There are only two opportunities for this fantastic singles travel adventure! Call us at 800-462-2848 daily from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific to get started.

Spring is on its way and with warm weather comes a renewed vigor to head outdoors, explore the beauty of the world and try new daring adventures. Traveling solo can be an experience of a lifetime whether you’re just looking for some “me” time or you want to meet others traveling single.

Backroads offers active vacations for singles and solos to a host of warm destinations across the world this spring that will give you just what you need to say goodbye to winter and hello to a new you! Here’s our top 5 spring singles vacations:

1)      Piedmont Biking – This is a new singles bike trip for Backroads in 2013 and we chose it because of its wonderful combination of gourmet cuisine and beautiful vistas. The Piedmont area of Italy is known for its wines, truffles, hazelnuts and cheeses, and you’ll get to sample a bit of each, as well as explore several vineyards. The Piedmont bike trip also takes you through medieval towns with ancient castles and views of the Alps. The singles tour of the Piedmont region runs June 2-7.

2)      Tuscany Biking – One of our most popular Italy bike trips is Tuscany biking. You’ll pedal through many of Tuscany’s most famous towns like Pienza, Siena and Montalcino and get plenty of opportunities to sample fine wines and nosh on delicious local cuisine – the perfect place to strike up a conversation with one of your trip mates. Get ready to cycle past cypress trees, rolling hills, olive groves and vineyards to your heart’s content! Our singles Tuscany tour runs for five nights in May, June, August and October.

3)      Andalucia Biking – Olé! On this Spain biking tour for singles, you’ll get to enjoy all the best things about the Andalucia region of Spain from flamenco dancing and fiestas with your fellow travelers to gazpacho and tapas for refueling. Can you smell the orange and lemon trees’ fragrant blossoms? You will as you cycle past sweeping vistas through ancient whitewashed villages and the beautiful cities of Sevilla and Granada. Our singles bike trip through Andalucia runs for five nights in April and November.

4)      California Wine Country Biking – Single travelers love our California Wine Country biking tour, which takes you through five valleys of world famous vineyards. Chat up others while mingling over glasses of wine after a great day on the bike. You’ll also enjoy Northern California’s famous gourmet cuisine without worry of calories since you’ll burn plenty while biking. The singles Wine Country bike tour runs 5 nights in May, September and October.

5)      Bali Biking – Go exotic on our singles bike trip through Bali and experience this tropical paradise with new friends. Ride past emerald rice terraces, lovely villages, amazing temples and giant teak trees. Explore the vibrant art scene, cycle up a volcano, snorkel the wreckage of the USS Liberty and engage in a host of adventures. Our Bali singles trip runs April, October and December for 7 nights.

Have you considered traveling solo? Get more information about Backroads’ well-known Singles-Solos program designed specifically for this great group of travelers.

Call us at 800-462-2848 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific time to book your singles vacation and get ready to have a spring you’ll never forget.

2013 has arrived and we know you like to travel as much as we do. So we’ve listed out some of our top 10 New Year’s resolutions specifically dedicated to travel. Lots of people make “travel” itself a New Year’s resolution, but we wanted to go deeper and make some suggestions of how to improve your travel experience in 2013.

Here are Backroads’ top 10 New Year’s travel resolutions:

1)      Travel somewhere you’ve never been – At Backroads we travel to hundreds of destinations around the globe, and we can help you find a bike tour or hiking tour to a place you’ve yet to discover. Instead of taking the same trip you do every year, be bold and try something new!

2)      Travel somewhere unexpected – Sure, everyone wants to take a Tuscany bike tour or a Provence walking tour, but consider traveling to a location more off the beaten path. For 2013, Backroads has introduced bike trips to Myanmar, for example, a country that has largely been closed to the modern world for many years. By biking through Myanmar, you will truly discover an “undiscovered” world untouched by tourism.

3)      Add activity to your trip – At Backroads, we believe half the fun of travel is the way you travel. Step out of the car or tour bus and hop on a bike, walk or even kayak down the river. Your travel experience will be so much richer out in the open air with some activity mixed in. You’ll even be able to enjoy all the gourmet dinners we provide without the guilt!

4)      Bring your kids along – Afraid to travel with your kids? Don’t be! We offer wonderful family adventures that will make a trip with the kids a great experience. Our family bike tours and family walking tours are designed with lots of kid-friendly activities, whether it’s a scavenger hunt, eating gelato in Sicily or fencing in the Loire Valley, that will entertain and educate not just them, but you, as well. Browse our family adventures.

5)      Try a solo trip – Traveling alone can be a life-changing experience and you can do it without worry with Backroads’ Singles + Solos travel program. We offer trips around the world designed for traveling solo. You’ll enjoy meeting other solo travelers on the trip and get plenty of time to explore the world on your own with the unparalleled service, support and guidance of the Backroads team. Browse our singles trips.

6)      Travel at a different time of year – Always take a summer vacation? Try traveling at the holidays to create once-in-a-lifetime memories. Paris in the spring? Yes, it’s lovely, but Europe in the fall can also be a wonderful time to travel. Mix it up this year!

7)      Try a new food – Backroads offers gourmet meals at many Michelin-starred restaurants and plenty of opportunities to try food local to your destination. It might be a little out of your comfort zone, but be brave and try a new food or dish. You just might be surprised at how good it tastes!

8)      Try something adventurous – Add some adventure to your travel! With Backroads, you can fence in Loire Valley, zip line in Costa Rica, hike a volcano in Hawaii and Sicily, visit ancient temples and the list goes on. No ho hum vacations for us! Make your travel exciting in 2013!

9)      Engage the locals – To really get the most out of travel, try to immerse yourself in the local culture. When you bike or hike a destination, you’re more likely to stop and have a conversation with the farmer selling produce by the road or chat with the couple next to you at the café. Make an effort to talk to the locals, ask them about the area and their favorite things to do. You’ll likely come away with a new world view.

10)   Learn a new language – It’s easier to engage the locals if you know a little bit of their language. Challenge yourself a few months before your trip to learn some key phrases in the language of the region you’ll be visiting. Not only will you feel more confident and comfortable, you may just be inspired to learn the language fluently.

Have you set any resolutions related to travel? Let us know what they are and if we can help you meet them! Give us a call 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific any day of the week if we can help you stick to those travel resolutions with a Backroads bike tour or Backroads hiking tour. Happy New Year!

Does whiling away the holidays sitting on the couch, listening to Uncle Joe’s political views and eating cookies sound more than a little boring to you? Us too! We invite all those single and solo travelers out there to turn your holidays into something more – a lot more! In fact, why not see the world while you’re at it and give yourself the ultimate holiday gift?

Backroads offers several action-packed ways to ring in the holiday season in many warm weather locales like Costa Rica and Bali. Forget packing on calories and expect to burn them on these singles hiking trips and singles biking trips around the globe. Plus, expect to meet plenty of new friends who share your love of adventure and who are likely more exciting to chat with than Uncle Joe J.

“As a single woman who loves the outdoors, I often have a hard time finding people to travel with, especially on an active trip like this,” says Jill Badgett, who traveled on our Singles-Solos travel program. “The solo trip was the PERFECT way for me to travel alone and do what I love while meeting some great people to share it all with!”

Sound good? Now you’ve got to decide where to go. We’ll get you started with some singles vacation options:

Thailand Biking Singles Vacation – Meet Buddhist monks, light a traditional fire balloon and make a wish, receive a blessing from villagers and take an elephant ride through the jungle. This is no ordinary vacation. Backroads lets you experience the Thai culture of the Golden Triangle area of the country near Myanmar. The holiday trip departs on New Year’s Eve 2012 and concludes Jan. 7.

Bali Biking Singles Trip – Exotic is the word in Bali. Cycle up a volcano, meet gray monkeys, visit the temple of water goddess Dewi Danu, take a cooking class and snorkel the wreckage of the U.S.S. Liberty. Come find your bliss on a bike in Bali! Trips depart Dec. 23, 2012 & Jan. 1, 2013 for the 7-night getaway.

Costa Rica Biking for Singles – Relax in the beauty of this Central American country from pedaling past breathtaking waterfalls to relaxing in natural hot springs and from listening to howler monkeys and toucans to hopping on a zipline or taking a horseback ride. Open up and find a new you in the depths of the Costa Rican jungle. Departure dates for the 5-day, 4-night trip are Dec. 16, 2012 and Jan. 27, 2013.

Which warm weather destination will you choose for a holiday you’ll never forget?

For more information about our Singles-Solos program or to reserve your spot before we fill up for holiday adventure travel, contact our Trip Planners 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific at 800-462-2848.

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.