Enchanting Southern Italy 2025

We have just come off a Back Roads Highlights of Britain Tour 2023! Our tour guide and bus driver were amazing! Shabby our guide absolutely created magic for the whole bus! Magnificent itinerary, incredible commentary from young Shabby with music included to pay homage to the districts we were in! 🎶genius! Talk about an experience of a lifetime! A small group means going to the places the big buses can’t and time to get to know your fellow adventurers! Loved this tour and Back Roads if you’re reading this you have struck gold with your guide Shabby! Highly recommended 👍

ANZAC on the Western Front I highly recommend this tour for anyone who is interested in the history of WW1; whether a history buff or for those, like myself, who had a basic general knowledge. The information is presented with in-depth detail and immersive style by visiting and walking the battlefields. For me, this provided stark clarity of what transpired and has piqued a curiosity to learn more. Steve, our tour guide of many years experience in leading this tour and of studying the war, was very keen to share his encyclopaedic knowledge. The tour invited us to submit any personal requests and Steve went above and beyond to ensure these were met. It was incredibly moving to watch some of our tour members laying a poppy, a cross or even a cigarette at the grave of a fallen relative. It had a profound impact on myself when I walked on the Bullecourt battlefield where my Grandfather had fought and was wounded. After Steve explained so eloquently the futility and carnage of the battle I had a greater understanding of m age as he was then. There is so much ground to cover on this tour, so be prepared for full days. The accommodation provided an authentic experience. As you would expect the hotels used are older buildings, in-fact on our first night in Lille the hotel had been used by the troops in WW1. While the accommodation was a little quirky they were always very clean with friendly and helpful staff. I would like to thank Steve for bringing together such a diverse group with his humour and easygoing manner. And, I need to acknowledge, his endless patience. We all became a tight knit group, looking out for each other and at times being asked, jokingly, to tone it down at one of our pre-dinner drinks. I honestly don’t know how we had the energy, but obviously enjoyed each other’s company. An absolutely fabulous trip!

Backroads is a premium travel/adventure company. They provide structure but also promote making the journey your own. Guides highly trained and totally focused on making each person’s experience safe, fun and memorable. They seek out the best opportunities to play hard and rest well. Hands down the best tour company I have experienced.

ANZACs On The Western Front with Steve Western. We did this tour in 2018 and it was way beyond expectations. We visited every major battlefield and also experienced some spectacular accommodation along the way. Steve's knowledge is exceptional and he was very engaging, prepared to discuss and explain various aspects of the war for the ANZACs. The enormity of the challenges faced is well communicated and at various sites the grief at the appalling losses was very real. This tour is so good I intend doing it again once a couple of mates retire.

June 2024 Dalmation Coast tour of Croatia and Montenegro was excellent with an interesting and very comfortable range of accommodation and quality sites and experiences. Excellent tour leader, driver and comfortable bus. In contrast, the Eastern Europe tour a week later was very disappointing. No where near the quality of accommodation, meals and experiences eg no museums open during our one day in Krakow and no tour of the ghetto. Also totally inadequate legroom in bus, too much travelling and missed opportunities. Terrible organised meals. Excellent tour leader and driver. Suggest Backroads reassess this tour as our two experiences were nothing alike.

Norway Fjords & Glaciers was a terrible experience from start to finish. Driver & guide were definitely not local & neither were knowledgeable about the destination. Driver was erratic & too fast for such treacherous mountain roads. Guide was disorganised & unable to answer basic questions about Norwegian history. Dietary needs were not met and even accessing somewhere to eat was problematic. Accommodation was clean but basic & often very remote. Avoid this tour, Norway is far better experienced from the water.