Thinking about booking a Backroads Private Trip? Learn how private departures work, the best time to reserve your preferred dates, ideal group sizes, popular destinations and our new Small Group Savings offering.
It only took one private Backroads trip to win over Andrea Scheve.
In 2018, some friends—longtime Backroads guests with more than 20 trips under their belts—invited Scheve and her husband to join them on a private Vietnam & Cambodia Bike Tour. Their children went to school together. The husbands rode bikes together. And as a Bay Area resident, she’d heard of Backroads and liked the idea of taking an active trip with a company based in her backyard.
“There were 21 of us, and it was an incredible experience,” recalls Scheve. She remembers thinking how she could never have organized such a unique itinerary, much less for a group that size, in Southeast Asia. They received a water blessing from monks at a Buddhist temple. They sampled sweet coconut-and-black-bean treats. And they pedaled through lush landscapes off the beaten tourist track.
The trip made such an impression that when Scheve saw a job opening at Backroads in 2021, she applied. Today she’s a Trip Development Manager and one of our most enthusiastic advocates for Private Trips. Her second Private Trip was to Connemara, Ireland, and to celebrate a milestone birthday next June, she’s gathered 16 friends and family for a private Backroads trip to Italy—our Parma to Verona & Venice Active Culinary Bike Tour.
“Private Trips are such a special way to connect with your friends and family. It’s truly a vacation,” she continues. “It’s so wonderful to just sign up and not worry about planning and transport. You just leave all the details to Backroads and show up.”
A growing number of Backroads guests are opting for this kind of group-travel adventure. Read on to get the lowdown on just what a Private Trip is, the best time to book and how to save money with our new Small Group Savings.
A Private-Trip Primer
Thinking about taking a Private Trip? These details and pro tips will help you make the most of your options.
What exactly is a Private Trip?
When you book a Backroads Private Trip, you’re choosing a specific departure date of a trip itinerary that has already been carefully crafted by Backroads. The routes, activities, hotels, meals and cultural experiences are already in place, giving your group the benefits of a highly refined active travel experience without having to plan it yourself. Every scheduled date is available as a Private Trip until someone else books it—so the earlier you reserve, the more choices you have (and at the best available price).
While this is not a customized trip, we do encourage you to share important details about your group’s individuals with our Trip Consultants ahead of time. Maybe your best friend only wants to do the morning hikes. Perhaps a few travelers expect to choose the easiest biking options each day while riding an e-bike, while others are eager to push their limits and pedal every mile on an acoustic bike. Those notes can be passed along to the Trip Leaders before the trip begins.
How many guests can I bring on a Private Trip?
Private Trips are available for groups of nearly any size—as few as two guests and up to 30 for our ship trips. Most Private Trips have an average of 14 guests.
Is there an ideal time to book a Private Trip?
Yes! Timing makes all the difference when seeking the departure date of your choice.
The earlier you book, the better your choices and pricing. We recommend booking a trip at least a year out and even 18 months in advance. Only departures with zero guests booked can be reserved as a Private Trip. So it’s in your best interest to know when trips go live to maximize the number of available options. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest on key live dates, new trips and more.
Pro Tip: If you’re thinking about a 2028 Private Trip, decide who wants to go, the destination and what dates would work best before mid-April of 2027, so you can get on Backroads.com and book your preferred departure date as soon as it goes live.
Which destinations book quickest?
Croatia and the Dolomites are extremely popular, and Europe in general tends to be the favored region for Private Trips.
Are there any ways to save on a Private Trip?
This year, we launched Small Group Savings, which lowers prices for private groups of 11 or fewer guests on select departures. Check out our dedicated Small Group Savings web page, featuring a collection of hundreds of trips earmarked for this benefit. Alternatively, if you’re browsing the site looking for a trip, keep an eye out for the Small Group Savings icon.
We suggest searching for Small Group Savings with a destination and an activity in mind beforehand. For example, if you know your group is interested in our Portugal’s Algarve & Alentejo Bike Tour with Luxury Hotels in 2027, you’d find that specific trip and click on the View Dates button. From there, look for Private Dates and filter further by clicking on the Small Group Savings box. You can now use the group size drop-down to see how much it would cost for five guests on a trip versus seven, for example, on various available departure dates.
Pro Tip: As the Private Trip Organizer, you can save 25 to 100 percent on your own adventure when 12 or more guests join.
Who tends to book Private Trips?
We’ve welcomed Private Trips booked for annual girls’ trips, multigenerational family reunions, getaways for couples who know each other, alumni groups, wellness gatherings and groups celebrating anniversaries, retirement, graduation and birthdays.
All that said, plenty of our Private Trips are simply comprised of friends who just want to take an active vacation together but not sweat the planning details.
Regardless of the why behind your Private Trip, the best adventures happen when a group comes together to land on an itinerary that best matches everyone’s interests and range of activity levels. Scheve loves the excitement that goes into a Private Trip, from the planning to the departure countdown. “With a private group, the level of anticipation builds the vibe,” she says. “That’s part of what makes it fun.”
Our Support, Your Connections
The big appeal of a Backroads Private Trip is the combination of our seamless organization and expertise paired with you and your favorite people for an amazing adventure. Backroads’ vibrant Trip Leaders, incredible active itineraries, van support, fabulous accommodations, meals and special surprises all come together even better with a group of friends and family who love to hang out.
That dynamic is evident from the moment you roll in to your meeting location with your crew. “There’s already that familiarity, that rapport,” says Scheve. “It’s so relaxed from the start.”
Cecile Jackonis, a Senior Demand Planner at Backroads, recently returned from a private lodge-to-lodge hiking trip to Peru with a dozen family members spanning three generations. The oldest traveler was 60; the youngest, 17. They wanted to tackle the Salkantay Trek—described as one of the world’s greatest hikes—and see Machu Picchu together.
“Each day, our only job was to lace up our boots and make our way to the next lodge,” she says. “We spent hours sharing stories and debating everything under the sun, and at the end of the day, we’d relax in the hot tub, play cards, and sing songs. Being out in nature, away from the hustle of daily life, created space for meaningful conversations and deeper connections.”
Love the idea of a Private Trip? Explore all of our currently available Private Trips.
Tasha Zemke is a Backroads Marketing Writer and Editor. She has been a travel writer for more than two decades, and of the half dozen trips she takes annually, one of the most fun is a summer trip with her ten best childhood friends.
