A Note from Tom: Spring in the Mediterranean

Since I first visited Mallorca on a Backroads trip in 2012, it’s been one of my favorite places to travel on two wheels. It’s a biker's paradise where you can rub shoulders with cyclists of all stripes on world-class routes, relax at luxurious hotels and enjoy great Mediterranean weather. So when my wife Liz and I were deciding on a destination for this spring, our memories of the island made the choice easy.

We just got back from Mallorca and Menorca, where, as you can see in these photos shot by Liz, I had a smile on my face for the whole week. Liz and I are officially empty-nesters now, and while our kids were busy with school and work back in the States, we had a blast spending time with 18 other fun-loving Backroads travelers. We tasted local wine, sampled olive oil at the grove where it was grown and pressed, visited a mushroom farm on Menorca and enjoyed the music and company of a Flamenco singer at dinner. And after all the ups and downs of the past two years, it sure felt good to be out and about again.

On the daily rides, we savored iconic settings like the Cap de Formentor and the Tramuntana mountains while pedaling along, arguably, some of the most spectacular roads ever. I got to see some new routes, as well, since we were on our Mallorca & Menorca Bike Tour, which takes you off the beaten path to Mallorca’s smaller sister island. It was a pleasure to explore the rugged coastline and tiny villages of this secluded Mediterranean isle, where the closest thing to traffic was a herd of hundreds of sheep that briefly took over the road. I had never visited Menorca before, and I was impressed by how peaceful and pristine it was—after all, there’s not many places in the world where you can enjoy, like I did, a gorgeous ten-mile coastal trail run from the local airport to the hotel.

The travel was easy, too, and I was happy to find that getting there and back was nearly hassle-free. We’ve been working hard to get ready for our biggest, best year yet, and it felt great to be in Europe as the season kicked off to enjoy six days of Mediterranean sunshine and Backroads bliss. I hope you’ll join us this summer on one side or another of the Atlantic to do the same.

All the best,

Tom