Can I Bring My Young Child on a Family Trip? Backroads welcomes young kids on Family Trips. Please note: Backroads has a minimum age requirement of 4 years old. When traveling with a young child, please keep in mind the following:
Bike Safety
For safety reasons, we do not allow children under 7 to ride their own bikes; on some trips the minimum age is raised to 9. Children riding their own bikes must be comfortable with light traffic, occasional narrow shoulders, be able to ride in a straight line without weaving or losing balance and be able to change gears and use hand brakes. If your Trip Leaders determine that your child is not riding safely, they will require your child to switch to a trailer bike (if available) or ride in the van.
Trailers, Trailer Bikes & Tandems
Pulling a child in a trailer carrier or trailer bike or riding tandem can be challenging. Your child’s age, weight and height are factors, as is the difficulty of the biking route. Hilly, narrow and winding roads can require more effort and attention to safety. And for similar reasons, our e-bikes are not appropriate for pulling a trailer bike or a cub trailer. We recommend you practice pulling your child in a trailer carrier or trailer bike or riding tandem prior to your trip to ensure that you and your child are both comfortable with this arrangement. It's important to understand that if your child no longer wants to ride in a trailer carrier or on a trailer bike, you will most likely need to join your child in the van. If you’re on a tandem, please keep in mind that it may not be possible to have a spare bike available for you should you decide mid-trip that you no longer want to ride your tandem; however, our tandems are quite suitable as a solo ride.
Other Activities
Rafting, canyoneering, climbing, horseback riding and some of our other organized trip activities have a minimum-age restriction—kids typically must be 6 years or older to participate without a parent. Sometimes an activity might have an additional safety-based height/weight requirement. To see if any such requirements exist for your trip, visit the trip’s web page for details or check here. If your child is younger than the activity age minimum, please plan ahead for an adult in your family to remain with your underage child during the activity, as the Trip Leaders will be facilitating these outings and unable to watch the little ones.
Formal Dining & Long Dinners
Some of our Family Trips have long and/or formal dinners, which can be tough on young kids. If you’re traveling with young children who can’t sit through long and/or formal dining experiences, you may want to consider these options: arrange for a childcare provider (if available through the hotel), choose to dine separately as a family or, if available, order room service and enjoy some quiet time.
Childcare on Trip
Trip Leaders do not provide childcare outside of daily kids-only organized activities and kids-only dinners but will do their best to suggest alternate babysitting options if requested. You may also check with our trip hotels or local childcare services before the trip begins if you know of a specific night when you’d like to get childcare.
Other Reasons You May Need to Stay with Your Child
It's also important to understand that if there are problems with your child’s behavior, the Trip Leaders may ask you to chaperone and manage your child during activities, including riding in the van.
Van Seating
Our trips involve vehicle transport either in a Backroads-provided van or a private shuttle bus. We provide booster seats upon request but do not provide car seats. You’re welcome to bring your own child safety seat.