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Active Travel Trends for 2025

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10 Best Europe Vacation Tours for Families

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An Unlikely Journey

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Nine Trips, Four Nations, One Kingdom: Which UK Adventure Fits You?

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Welcome to The BackBeat!

Your go-to guide for epic adventures. Dive into tales from the road and trail, straight from our expert Trip Leaders, and get the inside scoop on planning your next escape. From pro tips and a peek behind the scenes to bucket-list destinations and unforgettable travel stories, inspiration is here.

Backroads hiking in the Alps
July 25, 2017

Active Vacations with Extended Family

I just returned from a biking trip through Brittany and Normandy and hiking trip in the Alps with extended family and was once again reminded of the ways a vacation like this brings families together. Backroads has been offering family trips since before I had kids (and my oldest is now 22). Why did we start them? Well, Backroads is just such a naturally positive, amazing environment for families to have a great time together that it didn’t take us being rocket scientists to see their potential. Once my wife, Liz, and I had our own kids, the beauty of designated family trips became even more obvious.

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Tom and Daughters history lesson
July 25, 2017

Bringing History to Life

At the end of a typical Backroads day, I find myself well fed, happily tired and awe-inspired by what I just experienced. I drafted this blog from a hotel balcony in Dinard, just across an estuary from St. Malo, reflecting on yet another one of those wonderful days. What particularly struck me about the day was how much my kids learned without even knowing the trip was actually educational. I’m sneaky that way.

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Backroads Croatia 2016 Biking with both dads
July 21, 2017

Backroads Biking with my Dad

"We're going up over that hill?" I said under my breath, looking ahead as the road went up, up, up and disappeared over a hill. It was a beautiful sunny day in Nova Scotia, Canada, ten years ago, and we had been riding on quiet, shady roads all morning. More talking than riding, I had slowly been getting tired during the ride, but I knew we were almost at our destination for the day, Lunenburg. I hadn't been mentally preparing for this hill though.

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Chateaux Chenonceau
July 17, 2017

Loire Valley Châteaux

In French, 'castles' translates to 'châteaux' and throughout the country there are many châteaux that embody the extravagance of French nobility from centuries past. The epicenter of this 16th- to 18th-century lifestyle was the Loire Valley, located two hours southwest of Paris and the perfect setting for royal summer escapades.

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Backroads Hiker on Dock at lake in Chile
July 14, 2017

Finding Backroads in Chile

I’m often asked how I found my job leading Backroads trips… Fate. Magic. Luck… Well, perhaps a combination of those things. It’s a unique story that involves a photography exposition, a small community in northern Chile and two random backpackers high in the Chilean mountains. And it’s a story that put me on a path to helping develop a brand new Backroads trip for this coming December in a corner of South American that is easily one of my favorite places in the world.

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Backroads Cyclist resting in Hawaii
July 11, 2017

Epic Biking on Hawaii's Big Island

Hawaii. The paradise of the Pacific. It’s a place that stems jealousy every time you tell someone you're going. And I get to live and work here. With its tranquil beaches, tropical breezes, exotic fruits and island pace, the Big Island—the youngest of all the islands—embodies all that is Hawaii.

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July 7, 2017

Falling in Love on a Backroads Trip

Well, I'm not a writer, and I've been asked to write about how I met my husband. I'll tell it to you straight, as I have so many times before--including to a woman who subsequently followed in my exact footsteps and meet her own future husband in the exact same fashion!

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The Old City from above with-the-Forest of Marjan in the distance
July 5, 2017

24 Hours in Split, Croatia

Welcome to Split, capital of Dalmatia and the second-largest town in all of Croatia. Thanks to the unstoppable style of its natives, this bustling city-by-the-sea is a fantastic place to visit and one of Eastern Europe’s best-kept secrets.

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Kathy in Mallorca on a Backroads biking trip
June 30, 2017

Why I've Taken Ten Backroads Trips—and Counting!

My husband and I love to travel. Years ago, we were on a trip to Paris and we took a day excursion to the Loire Valley. As we traveled by bus through the countryside, I was stunned by the beauty yet dismayed to be seeing it from a bus. We are active people and I was sure there had to be a better way!

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Backroads' Tom Hale trail run
June 28, 2017

How to Stay Active at Any Age

I truly believe that an active lifestyle has a profound impact on overall health and our ability to rebound from setbacks. So, what are some of the easiest ways to stay active, regardless of age or ability level?

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