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.

We take thousands of families on active trips around the globe every year; in fact, it’s one of our most popular programs! Many of our families have a lot of questions, because they want to ensure their multisport trip or biking trip will be fun for both kids and adults and will hold their children’s attention.

A common question families ask is: Is childcare available during the trip and will there be other children my kids’ ages?

Childcare is not included as part of Backroads’ family adventures; however, that doesn’t mean that we can’t help you find childcare if that’s a need for your family. Many of our hotels on family trips do offer childcare services or we can explore other English-speaking options in the area. We do not book the care for you but can direct you to the appropriate contacts.

Remember, our Trip Leaders are not charged with childcare, but on active family trips there is a Trip Leader dedicated just to the children to create age-appropriate opportunities wherever we’re traveling.

Second, you’re certainly welcome to ask your Trip Consultant about other children’s ages who have booked the trip. Just keep in mind it could change prior to departure. One of the best parts of a Backroads active family vacation is the friendships that kids develop with each other. You may find a new “pen pal” that your child can stay in touch with for years to come.

We have lots of fun family trips available this summer from bike tours and hiking tours of the US National Parks to multisport adventures in Hawaii, Costa Rica, Panama and more. Take a look at our Family Trip Advisor to get customized trip recommendation for your family.

For more information about our family adventures, please visit www.backroads.com/family-trips or call us at 800-462-2848 daily from 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific time.

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.

In [Part One] of our blog series about the Backroads’ Quality Index, we shared with you 6 reasons why Backroads delivers the best service in active travel, ranging from our two support vans on every trip to local expertise and thoughtful trip design. We developed the Backroads’  Quality Index as a way to show you the differences that set Backroads’ active vacations apart from other providers.

In Part Two of our series, we’ll share with you 7 more reasons why you should choose Backroads as your active travel provider.

Mixed Abilities — Not everyone is a competitive cyclist or a marathon runner, and Backroads trips are designed to cater to all fitness levels, even if you’re a beginner. By providing two vans on every trip and three Trip Leaders, we’re able to accommodate everyone’s needs. Each trip also comes with multiple route options to help you choose if you’d like to bike or hike more or less on any given day. We also strive to match you with riding/walking companions who enjoy a similar pace.

Multiple Daily Routes – Our trip planning experts design several different routes each day so you can enjoy the best of a region at your individual pace. All routes have directions and are described in detail.

The Right Trip Size – We believe the number of travelers on our active tours in “just right” … not too many and not too few. Our trips host groups that are small enough to remain flexible but big enough to provide interesting dynamics. Optimum size also varies based on the type of trip, whether it’s a Singles Adventure, a family adventure tour or a classic bike tour.

Authentic Hotels – Backroads offers two levels of accommodations: Premiere or Casual. This distinction helps you understand clearly what to expect and what you’re paying for. No matter the type of accommodations you choose, you can be sure Backroads selects lodging that balances high quality and demonstrable value.

Family Trip Expertise – We love families here at Backroads and consider ourselves the experts in active family travel! Since 2000, we’ve run more than 2400 dedicated family trips around the world. View our selection of active family trips.

Singles-Solos — For more than two decades we’ve led the way in active trips for single and solo travelers. Read about our single room policy, early booking deals, singles Facebook community—plus more dates and destinations than ever. Our popular Bikefest tour is back for 2013 with TWO dates due to popular demand.

Smart, Invaluable Extras – We think of all the details here at Backroads! Items like cyclometers, elevation profiles, daily regional snapshots, downloadable GPS directions available on biking trips in the U.S. and Europe, telescoping walking sticks, cold beer and drinks at the end of each day, custom-built kids bikes and so much more make a Backroads tour truly special.

What do you think is the best part about traveling with Backroads? What “extra” that we provide is your favorite?

To join us on an active tour for 2013 or beyond, please call us 7 a.m.- 5 p.m. Pacific daily at 800-462-2848. Happy travels!