Stories

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.

As Fourth of July fireworks sparkled over the waters of Bar Harbor, Maine, I looked around at the faces of three generations of my family. With wide eyes and huge grins, their faces were as bright as the lights in the sky. Tomorrow, we’d scatter again to our homes thousands of miles apart, but tonight felt timeless, a magic moment of togetherness that multigenerational travel creates.

The Backroads Give Back Field Project (GBFP) program gives Field Staff the chance to strengthen our connection to the places we travel by volunteering their time for local conservation efforts.

 At the heart of my time in Ecuador is the Fundación Galo Plaza Lasso—the nonprofit project arm of one of our accommodations, Hacienda Zuleta, which is devoted to conservation, education and sustainable community development in the town of Zuleta within the Imbabura Province.

The Azores are defined by their connection to the ocean. For travelers, that often means kayaking on quiet bays or spotting whales offshore. For locals, daily life is shaped by their historic seafaring ties. With that connection comes a responsibility for stewardship, and one local nonprofit is leading the way.

I’ve been leading trips in Iceland since my first year with Backroads in 2019, and I’ve returned every summer since. It’s one of those places that’s relatively close—but feels like another planet. Raw, untouched landscapes. Glacier-fed rivers. Clean air. You feel the elements in your bones—whether you’re hiking across black sand or standing beside an active volcano. Iceland is one of the few places left where nature is still fully in charge. That intensity is what keeps pulling me back.

Marikarmen, a 73-year-old Basque woman, is the only fisherwoman in the area and is in love with the ocean. During our Basque Country Multi-Adventure trip, we are lucky enough to visit Marikarmen, her house and her little town, Elorriaga, hidden in the heart of one of the most unique and mysterious regions of the world. She is one of just 25 people who live in this town, and her house sits on top of one of the most beautiful beach and rock formations of Spain, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.