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Backroads Announces June/July Schedule in America

Family Adventure in Bryce National ParkBackroads announced yesterday that they will begin running trips in the US the third week of June. Below is what is slated to run. For these departures, they are intentionally running small trips with guests who have been carefully vetted for their interest in getting back to travel. For more information about Backroads’ updated travel policies and safety measures being enacted because of Covid-19, please look here:

Yellowstone & Grand Tetons Multi-Adventure Tour
June 21-26
July 26-31

North Carolina’s Blue Ridge & Tennessee’s Smokies Walking & Hiking Tour
June 22-26

Bryce & Zion Bike Tour
June 28-July 3
July 12-17

Utah & Arizona’s National Parks Family Multi-Adventure Tour
June 30-July 5
July 14-19, 21-26, 28-8/2

If interested in any Backroads trips for 2020 or 2021, please contact ActiveTravels and we’ll help arrange with flights and pre and post hotel stays.

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New Trends and Rides at America’s Amusement Parks

July 4th weekend might be in the rear view mirror but the summer has just begun. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit one of the hundreds of amusement parks across the country to sample some of their new rides. According to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, the big new trends at amusement parks are virtual reality roller coasters and immersive 4-D attractions. On roller coasters, riders wear specially designed virtual reality headsets as they become part of the adrenalin-pumping storyline. For example, Six Flags Magic Mountain, celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, has added new virtual reality technology to the “Revolution” steel roller coaster, creating “The New Revolution.” Wind, water, and heat are just a few of the sensory elements, along with high-tech sound that ride designers are implementing to help create a 4-D immersive experience. At Epcot in Orlando, “Soarin’ Around the World” is a new 4-D experience that treats guests to an aerial tour of some of the world’s most distinctive landscapes.

 
 
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Self-Guided Inn-to-Inn Bike Trips in New England

For riders looking for a little inn-to-inn action this summer, it’s never been cheaper to bike in New England. Two outfitters, Bike the Whites in New Hampshire, and Country Inns Along the Trail in Vermont, are offering three days of riding for as low as $379 per person. What does that money get you? Detailed maps depending on you ability, from 20 to 80 miles a day, emergency roadside assistance, two nights lodging, two dinners, two breakfasts, and transport of your luggage from one inn to the next. Country Inns has rides in several of my favorite spots in Vermont, including Addison along Lake Champlain, where you spend the night at the Barsen House Inn. See the story I wrote on biking with Country Inns Along the Trail for The Boston Globe. 

 
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The Ocean Edge Resort Takes Advantage of its Waterfront Setting

With six pools, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, tennis courts, and bike paths that connect easily to the 22-mile long Cape Cod Rail Trail, the Ocean Edge Resort offers its guests more than enough outdoor activity. Yet, I’m most excited about the resort’s latest partnership with Cape Cod Museum of Natural History to go on naturalist-led walks on the mud flats of Bay Pines Beach. Throughout the summer, you’ll explore Cape Cod Bay at low tide, searching for clams, crabs, sea cucumbers, and other marine life. The beachcombing is appropriate for ages 5 and up and they don’t need to dress up like SpongeBob. Though it might help find other critters.
 

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Bike Cape Cod and the Islands this Summer

Those of you who have followed my writing over the years know I love biking on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. All three locales are blessed with a network of bike trails that line the coastline, snake through the kettle ponds, or roll atop the dunes of the Province Lands Bike Trail at the tip of Cape Cod (a favorite family outing). So I was delighted to see that Massachusetts-based Great Freedom Adventures will be offering a 6-day guided bike tour to the Cape and Islands this summer. They’ll visit Provincetown, ride along most of the Cape Cod National Seashore to the Rockwellesque village of Chatham, before ferrying over to Nantucket and the Vineyard to bike a good chunk of both islands. Dates are June   14-19, July 12-17, and September 13-18. Cost is $2,595 per person, including all lodging, most meals, guides, and ferry tickets. Also ask about their Maritime Bike and Beer Adventure Tour which visits many microbrews while biking the scenic Cape Ann region of Massachusetts. 

 
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Bike the Big Island with Backroads

Home to two of the most active volcanoes in the world, one would expect Hawaii’s southernmost island to be an angry land of deadened rock and rivers of red. But this ever-expanding island has a myriad of moods—the gentle rolling hills of Waimea; the inviting sand of the Kohala Coast; the almost impenetrable jungle-like interior of the Hamakua Coast; the enormity of two mountains that are nearly 14,000 feet; even a rain forest on the backside of a volcano. Indeed, Hawaii is more like a miniature continent than an island in the Pacific.
 
Cars whisk around the island, not experiencing that shift of terrain until they’re smack dab in the middle of it. Bikers have the privilege of slowing down to watch the sea wash against a narrow fringe of palms or to stop and smell the pink-and-purple bougainvillea (sorry, no roses here). After a week of circumnavigating this 225-mile island on two wheels like I was fortunate to do one November week, biking over squished guavas and mangoes and through fields of macadamia nuts, you not only feel incredible about your accomplishment, but you bring home a firmer body and a sense that the island has seeped into every sweaty pore.
 
Backroads features an inn-to-inn bicycling tour of the Big Island that costs $2898 and includes all meals and lodging. You average some 50 miles a day, overcoming such obstacles as sweltering heat, long up-and-down climbs, strong headwinds, congestion on the main road, even biking in rainfall, so best be in good shape. For something less strenuous, consider the outfitter’s six-day family multisport trip around the island. Along with easy walks in Volcano National Park and kayaking in secluded coves, the biking is downhill only. Cost of that trip is $2998 for adults, 10% less for kids ages 11-17. 
 
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10 Best Train Trips for Families

Parents of teenagers know it’s never an easy feat to wake them up before 8 am while on vacation. Now imagine getting them to board the Kamloops to Lake Louise portion of the Rocky Mountaineer trip at 6:30. Of course they complain, but once you’re sitting in the Glacier Dome seats of the train, staring up at the mountain vistas through the glass ceiling, my kids seem content. Even more so when a hot breakfast arrives and the train is quickly socked into a mesmerizing valley of towering peaks. 

 
The finest train rides for families do indeed slow down so you can snap that perfect photograph of a waterfall. They’re in no rush to get you to the next destination because the journey is the most important part. Family-friendly train rides offer meals in a dining compartment, movies to watch, and naturalists and train historians to learn from. It’s a great way to be immersed in majestic scenery while cherishing time with the family. Here are 10 of my favorite train rides for families, just published by FamilyVacationCritic.com. 
 

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