Stories

I recently returned from my third Backroads trip. My latest trip, the Patagonia Lake District Multi-Adventure Tour, looked a little different from the others. Besides the obvious—my previous trips were both in Europe and this trip was to Argentina—my January 2026 trip was my first Backroads trip in nearly 20 years. My travel companion was my husband, Blake, instead of my mom. And, unlike my earlier Backroads adventures, there were no children in our group.

This year, World Bicycle Relief is reaching an incredible milestone: one million Buffalo Bicycles delivered to people who need reliable transportation to reach school, health care, markets and opportunity. And for Backroads, it also marks ten years of supporting this work alongside our guests and staff who have helped turn two wheels into real-world change.

I’m on a small electric-powered wooden ferry boat, skimming quietly along Slovenia’s Lake Bohnij, the misty Julian Alps reflecting in the mirror-calm water. This is why I travel, I think, the landscape before me an answer to a question I didn’t realize I had.

As a Backroads Trip Leader and a musician, I’ve always believed you can learn just as much about a place through its music as through its landscapes. Music carries history in a way few other things can.

In the Galápagos, sustainability is a fundamental philosophy of local culture and policy, further emphasized by the islands’ remoteness and subsequent scarcity of certain resources. Santa Cruz Island is home to roughly 20,000 people—over half of the human population of the archipelago—with smaller agricultural communities spread far beyond its main coastal town of Puerto Ayora.

On our South Africa & Botswana Active Safari Trips, guests explore the rugged beauty of the Cederberg Wilderness, a region famed for its dramatic sandstone formations, ancient rock art and deep ecological significance. Through our Give Back Field Project program, Backroads proudly supports community-led conservation efforts here.

Lee Schwartz is a writer who has taken countless Backroads trips, mostly family adventures. This was her first time visiting Thailand and her first time flying into the wrong airport. And honestly? She recommends both.

On this Backroads Italy & Slovenia (with one day in Italy’s lovely Friuli-Venezia wine region near Venice before heading into Slovenia) hiking adventure, I am joining this centuries-old tradition. With each new landscape I hike, I discover I’m flexing more than just my muscles, I’m building optimism too. This much natural beauty has a way of doing that. Here are five of my favorite wow moments from the trip.

In 2025, I had the incredible opportunity to introduce a new initiative here at Backroads: the Give Back Field Project (GBFP) program. GBFP is the realization of a dream that came to life after conversations with so many passionate Field Staff who were already finding meaningful ways to give back to the regions that welcome us with such openness and generosity.

Prayer flags. Mountains. A small country tucked between two of the world’s most populated countries.