Backroads in the News

There's something for everyone this holiday shopping season when you shop local and from the heart. And there are tons of places to find that perfect gift for someone on your list. We've rounded up some of our favorite gifts that can be bought in Kentucky, from sweet treats and bourbon to books and gifts of experience to self-care items, gifts for kids and more.

California is often presented in the media as an object of disaster, as Tom Hale underscored to me. Mr. Hale is the founder of Backroads, the Berkeley-based travel company, which has been operating biking and outdoors-oriented trips in the United States and 54 other countries for four decades. It deals with fallout from it all, from hurricanes in Baton Rouge to floods in Berlin. As we all know, climate change is not a state or country specific issue.

Seeing the world on two wheels is a pretty terrific way to get back into the swing of travel. The grand prize for so many riders is Europe and some of the best tour operators in the world have obliged with new biking itineraries for 2022. If you’re a bit out of training, don’t worry, because there are always support vehicles sweeping the route and E-bikes are an option on all of these trips.

As many of us slowly resume traveling, nothing epitomizes “slow travel” more than a walking trip. The best itineraries are a combination of dramatic scenery, wonderful regional cuisine and a pace that offers exercise and adventure in equal measure. It’s the perfect way to reflect on the events of the past two years and to contemplate what lies ahead. Here are five new walking trips that debut in 2022 from some of the best tour operators in the business.

In response to surging demand, active-travel specialist Backroads has added 13 new trips to its North America offerings for 2022, including a mix of biking, walking and multi-adventure tours.

My sister-in-law got the phone call at dinnertime the night before we were to drive to a Wyoming guest ranch for a five-day, three-generation family vacation. There was a coronavirus outbreak among the ranch’s staff; in two days, the numbers had climbed from three to 18 infections. The staff members with the coronavirus and any others who had been in close contact with them were quarantined. The ranch’s chief operating officer said we were still welcome to come but warned that the service would not be at the ranch’s usual level. My brother and sister-in-law, who had booked and planned the vacation, opted to take the full refund the ranch offered, not because of how the outbreak would affect the service, but for safety.
 
The nine of us, ranging in age from 7 to 83, had gathered in Jackson, where my fiance, Derek, and I live, for the half-day drive to the ranch. We were crushed, but we didn’t doubt that canceling was the right decision. After briefly mourning the loss of our intended vacation, we jumped into action to create a Plan B.

Seeing the United States on foot is one of the best ways to experience her landscapes in all their stunning glory. From coast to coast, the entire nation is ripe with walkable terrain just begging to be explored. Need a little help on where to get started? Here are five unbelievable walking tours to sign up for that are fit for every type of traveler. 

The slow travel movement has come into its own during the pandemic, as many travelers contemplate the need for more thoughtful, sustainable forms of exploring.

At Backroads, an adventure travel company that segments its family trips by children’s ages, bookings for family trips next year are up 150 percent from where they were at this point in 2019, with Ecuador, Costa Rica and Peru surging for fall and the holidays.

“Pent-up demand is huge,” said Tom Hale, founder and president of Backroads. “People are planning ahead and putting vacations on their calendars now so that they can have an adventure on the horizon to look forward to.”

With many Americans vaccinated but many international borders still closed, tour operators say domestic demand is not only booming but in some cases exceeding supply. At the adventure company Backroads, founder and president Tom Hale said summer trips are mostly sold out, with few opportunities to add itineraries because hotels in always-popular places like national parks and other outdoors-focused destinations are booked up.

Backroads has trips scheduled for Iceland, Croatia, Greece and the United Kingdom this year. Their Santorini & Crete Multi-Adventure Tour has departures starting as early as July.

Berkeley-based Backroads has been leading fantastic small-group hiking, cycling, and other adventure-oriented tours since 1979. Cycling trips take place on custom-built titanium bikes, lodging ranges from small luxury ships (imagine cycling beside and sailing down the Danube) to five-star hotels, and the food is as finely crafted as the routes. This year, watch for new U.S.-based trips like a five-day cycling tour of the Hudson River Valley, as well as weekend or long weekend getaways in Aspen’s glacial valleys and Texas Hill Country.

Backroads, which has run more than 200 of its trips since the pandemic began, assigns equipment such as hiking poles to individuals at the start of a trip to minimize gear sharing (it also sterilizes equipment daily). 

As part of the movement to make travel more meaningful, the active multi-sport tour company Backroads is running a new Historic Underground Railroad Multi-Adventure Tour in Georgia and South Carolina. This tour is organized in conjunction with Outdoor Afro, a not for profit network of recreation leaders in 30 states who connect people of color to the outdoors and promote inclusion.

Backroads, an upscale tour operator with a focus on active trips, now allows travelers the option to cancel and receive a full refund of their deposit up until April 1 (or until their final payment due date, whichever comes first) in order to give guests more time to decide if travel will work for them without any financial risk. The company has also pushed back final payment due dates for all of its scheduled trips departing before July 1

The tour company Backroads, which provided the Underground Railroad Ride with mapping and route logistics, plans to offer a similarly themed biking and hiking trip to the public next October in conjunction with Outdoor Afro, a nonprofit organization that encourages Black participation in outdoor recreation and conservation.

The tour operator Backroads has created a division of trips somewhere between buyouts and group tours. The new Rendezvous option allows a small group — up to seven in Europe and nine in North America — to have its own support van and guide and the option to check in and out of events scheduled for the larger group. 

The new Dolce Tempo trips (that's Italian for “sweet time”) from Backroads focus on what the outfitter calls “easygoing” hiking and biking itineraries in locales like Zion National Park and the Loire Valley meant to draw in travelers who might ordinarily opt for the view from the tour bus.

With more people than usual booking trips in North America, adventure travel company Backroads created getaways with higher-end lodging or adventures like heli-skiing.

"We've heard from our guests how much they've enjoyed staying at some of the best hotels on the planet while traveling with Backroads to other continents," said Tom Hale, president and founder of the company. "These new North American trips are in a league of their own, with adventurous activities and amazing hotels that reflect the character and style of their regions."

Immerse all of your senses on this trip through and around Acadia National Park. Pine forests, fresh lobster dinners, and time to wander museums and local shops round out the laid-back experience.

Backroads just launched a weekend Texas Bike Tour which explores Austin’s hinterlands over a long weekend.

With pandemic worry reducing participants on Backroads’ walking, hiking and bike tours by as much as 90% this year, they are rebuilding business with family- and private-group expeditions with a variety of approaches.

Backroads is among a subset of group tour operators that forgoes double decker buses, guides with microphones and sign posts, and matching T-shirts for shared, upscale adventures in pristine settings.

Many guided travel companies remain on hold due the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are some adventure operators that are up and running domestically and even putting together new products to lure virus-wary travelers out of the house.