Boldly Go Solo

No more solo-only trips with Backroads but not to worry

Backroads, an "active travel company," is ending its singles and solos trips next year. The owners found that more of their solo travelers ended up on regular trips than on solo ones. There weren't getting enough people to make the singles and solo trips fun.

After doing some of Backroads solo trips years back, I realized I prefer a mixed group anyway. It's more relaxed. Less of that meet market feel.

Along with the change, the company has reduced the single room charges. Nice little benefit.

The part I like is where they say, "Just give us a call and we’ll help you find the departure with the most Singles+Solos, if that’s what you are looking for."

That's exactly what I did for my first major solo adventure, a rafting trip. I called Holiday Expeditions and asked them to find me a trip that other solo travelers had signed up for. I didn't want to be the only person traveling alone. I didn't need a LOT of solo travelers. Just some.

I ended up in a fivesome with one couple, one married guy traveling without his wife (she wasn't much of a rafter, he said), one single guy and me. We became tight as ticks. We hardly made make a move without one another. We simply enjoyed one another's company that much.

I would consider another trip with Backroads. I've taken three with the company. Biking in the Colorado Rockies, biking in the Canadian Rockies and biking and hiking in Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon.

They were all run well. And I wouldn't have gotten to those places without joining a group that was already going. None of my friends are that gung ho about biking to plan a week-long trip out West to do so.

And I did things I never expected, including biking 120 miles in one day. (Trust me, there was a lot of downhill. But the 80 mile-day uphill day it took to earn the downhill was a major killer.)

Backroads is not the only company that will provide the service of putting a group together and getting on the phone with you to discuss who is signed up for the trip. On the other hand, I would probably avoid a company that wouldn't be willing to share that information. 

Top 10 cities for live music, chosen by travel writers

There were only two surprises on the list of the top 10 cities for music chosen by members of the Society of American Travel Writers.

When I saw the email about the survey I ran through my head the cities I knew would be on there: Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, Memphis. Several others didn't come to mind but were obvious choices: Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Branson in Missouri.

The two that I wasn't expecting? Denver and Montreal. "Montreal is a hotbed of world music, and free music festivals," according to Nancy Lyon, freelance travel writer and photographer. As for Denver, "A concert at Red Rocks should be on everyone's bucket list...Red Rocks is one of a kind," says Kim McHugh, freelance writer. 

I have to say that music isn't something I do on my own much when I'm traveling. (Or when I'm not.)

I don't picture enjoying sitting in a smoky bar with a drink on my table and no one to talk to, or at a large music venue in between couples. But looking at that Red Rocks amphitheatre, 15 minutes west of Denver in the Rocky Mountain foothills, it seems like a place worth going. And one that might be comfortable for solo travelers. The great outdoors and all that. 

Anyone out there been to Red Rocks?

I don't keep a bucket list. But I could see why Red Rocks might be on someone's.

Top Ten Train Rides and the lure for solo travelers

Travel writers have come up with a list of their favorite train rides and it has set my mind to wandering. And daydreaming. About past and future trips. The only train ride they list that I've actually been on is the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad that chugs through Colorado's two-million-acre San Juan National Forest.

As the coal-fired, steam-powered locomotive climbed its way to Silverton, I got to know my compatriots on a week-long Backroads bike trip through the Colorado Rockies. The views out the windows were spectacular - forest, mountains and steep drops to a river below. 

When we arrived in Silverton, described on its Web site as, "a gritty little mining town with Victorian pretensions," it had clouded up and I was freezing. A quick visit to a souvenir shop - and there are many, trust me - for a Silverton sweatshirt solved that problem. (I loved that sweatshirt but lost it on some other adventure...)

That was a great bike trip and the train ride, though I remember it going on a tad long, was part of the allure.

The only other two train rides I'm a little familiar with are the Rocky Mountaineer, because I wrote about it in September after interviewing a big fan of the train. And the Flam Railway in Norway. Sadly, I never made it to Flam when I was in Norway years ago. I was hitchhiking with a friend on that trip. Our five-week journey started in the Netherlands and continued on to Bodo, a town above the Arctic Circle.

For five weeks, we went where drivers took us. We didn't have much in the way of plans other than to see the Midnight Sun. Mission accomplished.

 But we did get driven East to West (or was it West to East?) between Oslo and Bergen, a bit south of Flam. I can attest it is one of the more stunning regions on earth. So I'm sure a train ride into those snow-capped mountains with their many waterfalls is just as spectacular.

I'd really love to get back there and see! "Ja, vi elsker dette landet." (The national anthem of Norway. It just happened to be a clue in Sunday's NY Times crossword puzzle.)