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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 in Cinque Terre, Italy
January 27, 2017

Backroads Leaders: A Guest's Perspective

I've traveled with Backroads on eight unforgettable adventures and from my first trip to Vermont, I was hooked! I could write a book about why I love Backroads, but this is a blog, so I'll pare it down to a few reasons why I continually choose Backroads over any other adventure travel company.

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Jacksons Corner Thai Salad
January 20, 2017

Food Paradise in Bend, Oregon

Bend lies in the shadow of the Cascade Mountain Range and sits on the edge of the Deschutes River. She's quaint. She has a huge food scene, roasts amazing coffee, brews delicious beer, hosts live music on the river every week, and offers incredible hiking, biking and fly fishing within inches of her city center.

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January 13, 2017

Backroads Cuba Trip Video

We're Leading a new revolution in Cuba! Backroads is the first active travel company with an official license to operate tours legally in Cuba – and we're the only US company to offer biking as part of our in-depth exploration of this fascinating and often misunderstood island nation. Our Trip Expert, an avid hiker and biker, has spent most of the past three decades living and working in Cuba. The inside knowledge she's gained while crisscrossing the island has allowed us to create a truly one-of-a-kind trip.

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Backroads 100 year old biker
January 10, 2017

100 Years Old and Biking!

This year I had the honor of attending my first 100th birthday party. Actually, my Great Uncle Mike is the only 100-year-old I've ever met. But age is only half of this story... Uncle Mike's 100th birthday party was a bike ride! 100 years of age is a crazy thing to wrap your head around. But can you imagine being 100 and balancing on a bike, managing traffic, flying down hills?!

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lavender field in provence france
January 5, 2017

The Luberon & Secret Provence

Provence rhymes with vacances ("vacations" in French). When I was a child, my family was renting every summer a mas (Provençal farm) in the Luberon. So when I came back to Provence years later with the mission of designing a new trip for Backroads, all my childhood memories came back to me!

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Copenhagen, Denmark bicycle sign
December 19, 2016

On a Winter's Day in Copenhagen

It's the second winter that I'm spending in Copenhagen, the city that also happens to be the destination of Backroads' Stockholm to Copenhagen cycling voyage. Up here in the North, the winter days are short, sunrise is late and counting the hours to sunset does not require all fingers of both hands. Sometimes it seems as if the cold is not only freezing the lakes and ponds in the countless parks and city gardens, but it is also freezing time. The hands of the watch slow their pace, as if they want to save energy for the long awaited summer, when suddenly music festivals, foodie fairs and street galleries pop up at every corner as if they were tulips and Copenhagen was not a city, but a large, fertile field. While summer is the perfect time to explore Copenhagen's art and food scene, the slow winter is well-suited to chat up the locals and engage in some philosophizing, especially when a few sun rays manage to break through the cloudy sky.

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The Backroads Experience
December 7, 2016

The Backroads Experience Video

What is the Backroads Experience? It’s the feeling of your body in motion, with the wind in your face and excitement as your experience unfolds. By bike or on foot, you explore hidden corners, meet locals and immerse yourself in the life of a region while traveling in the company of our expert leaders, the best in adventure travel. Since 1979 we’ve been exploring new places, dreaming up new adventures, and we never stop searching for the best, most inspiring ways to experience the world. We invite you to come and feel alive and engaged on your next adventure.

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December 6, 2016

Hut-to-Hut Hiking in the Dolomites

Back in 1996, I was tasked with a dream research assignment at Backroads. The mission, which I gladly accepted, was to create an all-new luxury hiking itinerary in Italy’s prized Dolomite region. Stunning mountain peaks, fairy-tale valleys, an abundance of cozy accommodations and, best of all, the comfort of Italian cuisine made me an instant fan of this compact alpine playground.

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Backroads trip leader with wildflowers in Alaska
November 23, 2016

Traveling in Alaska

It is easy to express the beauty of Alaska in words but seemingly difficult to articulate the impression this place leaves on the soul. Some say, once you visit Alaska you will never be the same. Not always such a dramatic life change but often times a subtle shift. It is the encounter with the wild that often times brings you closer to your true self.

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Backroads Amalfi Coast tour
November 11, 2016

Amalfi Coast Walking & Hiking Tour Video

Let Backroads be your guide on the Amalfi Coast, where the views are stunning, the seafood is fresh, and the fragrant aromas of lemon trees and wildflowers may send your senses into full alert. We’ll wind our way through pastel-colored villages, along coastal trails, and on to golden pebble beaches. The friendly faces, fresh seafood, legendary Italian cuisine, and enchanting activities make this hiking tour one for the memory books.

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