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.
Learning to Travel Differently
Growing up in a cycling family, it is no surprise that my first big trip abroad at age 13 was through Backroads in 2004. My mom and I explored the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland on a Family Multi-Adventure Tour. I loved every part of the trip: hiking around bright blue glacial lakes, riding a mountain coaster, pedaling on bike paths next to grazing cows, bowling with the other kids and Backroads leaders and taking a train through the Swiss countryside.
But my first Backroads trip gave me so much more than fun experiences I treasure to this day. I learned that the best way to explore a new culture is not to hit the most popular attractions in a big city; rather, immersing yourself in off-the-beaten-path places infrequently visited by tourists gives you a much better idea of what life is really like in a different part of the world. Backroads taught me about slow travel long before travel influencers popularized that term.
A few years later, my mom and I decided to take another Backroads trip. The second time, we traveled to the Czech Republic and Austria on a cycling trip. If the Families with Teens and 20s trips existed in 2008, our group would have fit the bill perfectly. Although this was a classic adults trip, many of our fellow travelers were also parents with their college-aged or soon-to-be college-aged children. To explore Central Europe on a bike with my mom a month before heading off to college on the other side of the country was a gift. But to also have the chance to wander around centuries-old towns with new friends my age without our parents in the afternoons and evenings after our rides was another gift: that of independence and confidence.
Learning to navigate around other countries through Backroads made me crave more. The following year, I accepted a summer internship in Switzerland. I then spent my entire sophomore year of college abroad. Based in Florence, Italy, I traveled to 14 new countries and two new continents during my year abroad. Without my Backroads experiences, I am not sure I would have been as eager to spend so much time outside of the United States during my undergraduate years. I am very grateful to Backroads for instilling the travel bug in me from a young age because my journeys abroad have shaped so much about who I am today.
Sharing Backroads with Blake
Although it took me 17 years to sign up for another trip, Backroads has been on my mind since I got back from the Czech Republic and Austria trip in 2008. I have ordered the Backroads catalog several times over the years and spent time daydreaming about one day hopping back on a bike to explore a new corner of the world while flipping through the glossy pages. Fast forward to 2025, and Blake and I decided the time had arrived for us to do a Backroads trip. Blake and I have traveled a lot together and we wanted to go to a place that was new to both of us at the beginning of 2026. However, 2025 brought a lot of challenges: I had to leave my job working in civil rights for the federal government, we experienced the illness and death of a close friend and we faced uncertainty about our future because of the tumultuous job market in DC. We wanted to take time to decompress and get away, but I did not have the bandwidth for elaborate trip planning on my own. One day in June, I pulled up the Backroads website and searched for trips leaving in January 2026. I saw the Patagonia Lake District Multi-Adventure Tour and was sold. That trip had everything we wanted: a chance to go to a place neither Blake nor I had ever traveled, a mix of outdoor activities, warm weather to escape winter in the Northeast and, perhaps most importantly, an amazing itinerary that we did not have to plan ourselves. I sent a link to the trip overview to Blake and he immediately said, “Let’s do it.”
On the first day of our Patagonia trip, I saw the Backroads vans pulling up to our hotel while brushing my teeth. I thought, “It feels like Christmas morning!” because I was so excited to meet our group and leaders, explore Northern Patagonia and introduce Blake to the Backroads way of traveling. Even though I have changed and grown a lot since my other Backroads experiences, Backroads has remained the same high-quality company. All the things I remember fondly about Backroads are still true: every activity is thoughtfully planned, the leaders are kind and fun in addition to being excellent hosts, the local guides are eager to share their country with guests, the hotels and food (including the beloved Backroads snack tables) are top-notch and our fellow guests were all interesting people with a shared love of adventure.
Blake and I will never forget the magical week we spent in Patagonia doing things like kayaking on a glacial lake with water so clear we could see straight to the bottom, hiking around an island and then dancing to ABBA with our group on the boat ride to our hotel and eating a traditional Argentine asado at our local guide’s home. We loved our trip, which was a relief to me. After years of hearing me talk up Backroads, I was a little worried I had given Blake very high expectations that would not have been met. I should not have worried, though, because of course Backroads knocked it out of the park.
What We Know for Sure
Shortly after getting back to DC, I opened our mailbox and saw a new Backroads catalog had arrived. This time, Blake had ordered the catalog. We spent that evening poring over the trips and thinking about where we will go next. There are a lot of uncertainties in our lives right now. Blake and I might have to move in the next few months and we are both contemplating changing careers. But one thing is certain: Blake and I will book another Backroads trip as soon as possible.
