Back-Roads Touring

Back-Roads Touring has run small-group tours across the UK and Europe since 1986. Groups are capped at 18 travellers and tours run by mini-coach rather than full-size motorcoach, which is the point: the vehicles fit down lanes that larger coaches cannot use, so itineraries can include villages, farm roads and coastal routes that standard touring skips.

Tours cover Britain and Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia and Central Europe. Accommodation tends toward smaller, characterful properties rather than chain hotels on the edge of town, which is a consequence of the group size as much as a choice.

Each tour runs with a tour leader and driver, and the emphasis is on local guides, growers and producers rather than headline attractions. Pace is slower than mainstream coach touring, with fewer one-night stops.

Departures are not all guaranteed; guaranteed ones are identified at the time of booking, which is worth checking before arranging flights.

Back-Roads suits travellers who have done the capital cities and want the countryside, and who would rather eat where eighteen people fit than where a hundred and eighty do.