What Are Backroads' Featured Collections and Trip Leader Picks?

Updated

Backroads' homepage groups trips into two discovery aids: Featured Collections, which bundle trips by theme, and Trip Leader Picks for 2027, a curated set of 2027 departures chosen by the company's trip leaders. Both sit alongside a trip finder (filter by destination, date, activity, and traveler type) and a guest-review section ("Our Guests Say It Best"), so you can move from a themed idea to a specific departure and then check what past travelers said. Use them when you don't yet have a destination in mind; if you already know where and when you want to go, the finder is the faster route.

Featured Collections: theme-first browsing

Featured Collections are curated groupings of trips that share a theme rather than a single region. The homepage presents them as a browsing layer above the full catalog — a way to see what Backroads considers representative of its style before you narrow by country or date.

What the site evidence supports:

  • Collections are a distinct homepage section ("Featured Collections") separate from the destination and date filters.
  • They function as entry points into the trip catalog, not as a separate booking product.
  • The underlying trips are the same ones you can reach through the finder.

How to use them: open a collection that matches your interest, note the trip names and regions it surfaces, then run those trips through the finder to compare actual departure dates and activity types. The collection tells you what kind of trip to consider; the finder tells you whether it runs when you can travel.

What the catalog covers, so you can read a collection in context

The finder's destination list shows the scope collections draw from:

Region Examples from the site's destination list
Europe Alps, Austria, Basque, Croatia, Danube River, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland
United States Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, National Parks, Utah, Vermont, Wyoming & Yellowstone
Latin America Argentina, Belize, Chile, Costa Rica, Galápagos & Ecuador, Patagonia, Peru
Asia & the Pacific Australia, Bali, Bhutan, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam
Africa & Antarctica Botswana, Egypt, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Antarctica

Activity types are Biking, Hiking & Walking, and Multi-Adventure (a mix of biking and hiking). A collection will generally point you toward one of these three styles — useful if you're choosing between, say, a pure biking week and a multi-adventure trip.

Trip Leader Picks for 2027: leader-curated departures

"Trip Leader Picks for 2027" is a homepage section highlighting 2027 trips selected by Backroads trip leaders. The value is editorial: leaders who run the trips flag departures they consider worth planning around, which can help you shortlist among many 2027 options.

Two practical points:

  1. It is date-specific. The picks target 2027 departures, and the site's date filter spans October 2026 through September 2029. If your travel window is outside 2027, treat the picks as inspiration and confirm availability through the finder.
  2. It is a shortlist, not a guarantee. A leader pick tells you the trip is recommended; it doesn't tell you seats remain on your preferred date. Always verify the specific departure.

Workflow: browse the picks → note trip name and region → search that trip in the finder with your dates → confirm the departure exists and fits your activity preference.

Using guest reviews as a tiebreaker

"Our Guests Say It Best" collects traveler feedback on the homepage. When two trips look similar on paper — same region, same activity type — reviews are the differentiator the site itself offers. Read for specifics (group size feel, pace, family fit) rather than overall star sentiment, and cross-check that the reviewer traveled the same style of trip you're considering.

A concrete comparison scenario

Suppose you want a summer 2027 trip in Europe and are deciding between a biking-focused week and a mixed-activity week:

  1. Open Featured Collections and note which European trips appear under biking versus multi-adventure themes.
  2. Check Trip Leader Picks for 2027 for any European departures flagged by leaders.
  3. Enter your dates and "Europe" in the finder, select Biking, and record the results; repeat with Multi-Adventure.
  4. Read guest reviews for the two or three trips that survive all three filters.

The expected result is a short list of departures that are thematically recommended, leader-endorsed where applicable, actually running in your window, and backed by traveler feedback.

Common sticking points

  • Treating collections as fixed packages. They are browsing groupings; the bookable unit is the individual trip and departure date.
  • Assuming a 2027 pick runs every year. Confirm the year and date in the finder before planning around it.
  • Skipping the traveler-type filter. The finder includes a "Who" dimension, and the homepage separately promotes family vacations ("Family Vacation Made Easy & Fun"). If you're traveling with children, filter for that first — it changes which collections are relevant.
  • Expecting prices on the collection pages. The homepage evidence does not show pricing; cost and payment details need to be checked on the individual trip pages.