Book Your Backroads Trip Now

Backroads Grand TetonsFor those of you who have credit or interest in booking a trip with the biking and hiking outfitter, Backroads, please note that many of their late summer and fall trips in 2021 are already selling out. This is especially true for North American destinations. We recently checked on trips to both the Grand Tetons and Newfoundland and were surprised to find that they were sold out. There is a possibility that more trips will open up due to demand, but it would be wise to book sooner rather than later. Realistically, this is how it’s going to be for many scheduled trips with outfitters in 2021, selling out early due to pent-up demand. Like most travel companies, Backroads is providing new, more flexible booking policies. Deposits are fully refundable for new reservations on 2021 trips if canceled before 4/1/21 or when final payment is due (whichever comes first).

Please let ActiveTravels know your interest and we’ll be happy to discuss our clients favorite Backroads itineraries around the globe.

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Biking the Shoreline of Lac-Saint-Jean

Three hours north of Quebec City, the mountainous ridges and anonymous lakes give way to a sylvan valley surrounding the massive inland sea they call Lac-Saint-Jean. Bright yellow fields of canola mix with the rolling green hillside, tall silos, and rolled hay that gives this terrain the unmistakable French countryside feel. Everywhere you look are cyclists biking on the celebrated Véloroute des Bleuets, a 256-kilometer bike trail that circumnavigates Lac-Saint-Jean, or fat-wheeling on mountain bike trails, even biking through sand on one of the 15 public beaches found around the lake. 

 
We chose to spend the first day and night at Parc national de la Pointe-Taillon, a peninsula that juts into the lake and offers its own 45 km circuit. We parked in the lot, grabbed sheets, blankets, bikes, and a small mini-trailer to carry all our belongings and off we went on a short ride to our lodging for the night, a Huttopia tent. Available in 17 of Quebec’s 24 national parks, these canvas tents are equipped with four beds, heating, and everything you need to cook a meal. We dropped our belongings and continued to bike along the peninsula looking at desolate beaches, large beaver dams, and a thicket of tall birch trees. This is prime moose country but we wouldn’t find the big fella this first night. After our ride, we dined on picnic tables overlooking the water, washed down with a local Riverbend pale ale. A perfect start to our week of adventure in the Lac-Saint-Jean, Saguenay, and Charlevoix sections of Quebec. 
 
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Vermont Bike and Brew Tour with Sojourn Bicycling Vacations

Biking outfitters have pounced on Vermont like miners on a vein of gold. And why not?  The state’s terrain is ideally suited to the sport. Lightly traveled backcountry roads are rarely used outside of a handful of dairy farmers who live and work there. Around every bend, there’s another meadow greener than the last, another anonymous mountain standing tall in the distance, another quintessential New England village where a freshly painted white steeple pierces the clouds overhead. This idyllic scenery is meant to be seen at a slow pace.

Now Sojourn Bicycling, already known for their intriguing bike trips like the one through the Texas Hill Country, is taking Vermont biking to a higher level, so to speak, with the introduction of their Vermont Bike & Brew Tour. Based in Vermont, owner Susan Rand knows this landscape intimately, including the close to two dozen microbrewers in the state. You’ll earn that pint after biking, on average, some 55 miles a day on this six-day jaunt that ventures to some of my favorite places to stay in Vermont, including Trapp Family Lodge and the Inn at Mountain View Farm. An added bonus is the chance to try some of the mountain biking trails Sam von Trapp has been designing in his backyard that are supposed to be stellar. Sojourn has two trips going out next July and August. 

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Day Two, Backroads Danube River Cruise Full Ship Celebration

Biking the DanubeOne of my top biking days of the trip, Day Two with Backroads was a 27-miler with 1600 feet elevation that you felt as soon as you climbed one long hill that crested the ridge. But then you were on top of the world for most of the ride, biking past fields of sunflowers and seeing the mountains of Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria in the distance. We would pass small towns where roosters and geese came to greet us before biking over a small bridge into Austria for lunch and yes, another radler. That afternoon, we would bike on a trail alongside the gentle slope of the Danube before arriving at the college town of Passau. A sweet ride enveloped in fields of green. And the weather couldn’t be better, warm and sunny in the 70s.

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Bike the Texas Hill Country with Sojourn

Many of the people I meet who founded their active travel company have a genuine passion for the sport. Tom Hale spent over 5,000 miles on a bike the summer of 1979 prior to opening Backroads. When Susan Rand was in college, she would load her panniers witch camping gear and clothes and hit the road. Then she became athletic director at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, and worked for four years at Vermont Bicycle Tours prior to starting her own company, Sojourn, in 1995. Her fall foliage trips along the shores of Lake Champlain in her native Vermont are still the most popular weeklong jaunts. Yet, it’s the itineraries I don’t normally see in a catalog that I find most intriguing. In the summer, Sojourn heads to the Columbia River Gorge to bike between glorious Mount Hood and Mount Adams. In late fall and mid-winter, Rand takes riders to the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson to bike, hike in Saguaro National Park, and horseback ride in John Wayne country at the Rancho De La Osa Guest Ranch. New this spring is a trip to Texas Hill Country, an overlooked biking region outside of San Antonio that I’ve written about for National Geographic Adventure. Rand personally tries all of the trips she designs and this has quickly become one of her favorites. You’ll be biking under tall cypress trees on lonely backcountry roads past large cattle ranches and fields of bluebonnets that are in bloom in early spring. You’ll also visit the Alamo and LBJ Ranch. So saddle up and get out there on your next sojourn.
 

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Biking the 15-mile Shark Valley Loop, Everglades National Park, Florida

If you happen to be in Miami and crave an authentic outdoor experience away from the trendy restaurants and clubs in South Beach, take an hour-long drive on the Tamiami Trail (Route 41) to Shark Valley Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. Try to get here on the early side (before 11 am), because the parking lot fills up quick, and bring water and sandwiches for lunch. Then rent a bike and head out on the 15-mile paved Shark Valley Loop. Far from the deafening noise of a propeller boat, a tourist magnet in these parts, you get to bike at your own pace along canals teeming with alligators, turtles, and an extraordinary amount of large birds. It took my family of four almost an hour to bike one mile because we had to stop every 50 yards to get a photo of that gator basking in the sun next to the bike trail. Don’t worry. They could care less about you and no one’s ever been attacked on the route. Usually near the alligator was an anhinga drying its wings on a branch and wood storks and white whooping cranes standing tall in the shallow water. There was every type of heron imaginable, from the stocky black-crowned night heron to the long-legged great blue heron. Another highlight were the pink roseate spoonbills resting in the dense sagebrush along the canal. Stop midway at the observation deck to get a good overview of the Everglades topography, a mix of sinuous waterways and tall swaying grass. This is also a good spot to have that sandwich or snack you brought before heading back.
 

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Ciclismo Classico Debuts New Bike Trip to Nova Scotia

A little over an hour west of Halifax is the growing wine region of Annapolis Valley. Once a footnote among grape-growing regions, the rolling green countryside now boasts 14 wineries that produce crisp cool-climate whites, decadent icewines, and Champagne-style sparkling wines that are attracting international attention. The college town of Wolfville is the gateway to the Annapolis Valley, where Victorian mansions have been transformed into bed and breakfasts. Similar to Napa or Sonoma Valley, an ideal way to see the wineries is via a bike, connecting the dots on quiet backcountry roads. Now Ciclismo Classico is doing just that, guiding a weeklong tour September 19-25, during the height of fall foliage. Along with Wolfville, you’ll be biking to another one of my favorite towns, Lunenburg. This seaside community is one of only two cities in North America dubbed a UNESCO World Heritage Site (the other being Quebec City). What UNESCO found fascinating was the fact that Lunenburg was a perfectly planned British colonial settlement, a 48-block grid designed in London and plopped down on the coast of Nova Scotia in 1753. Cost is $2795 per person and includes bike rentals, guides, lodging, and all the lobster, Digby scallops, and clams you can stomach. 

 

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