Backroads

Really good daily snapshots that are more pointed than the travel planner. Backroads gives you access a week before you trip which informs my final packing choices. On trip, it eliminates the thousands of questions my spouse and kids ask about the plan for the day. Not the most sophisticated app but I think that’s intentional. You don’t need to be tech savvy to use it and I believe it works offline/when you have no cell service. Also really helpful when planning the On Your Own (OYO) activities and meals.

I love backroads travel but this app is really not great. I can’t find it in the App Store, I occasionally freezes into a white space and has to be closed and reopened, and the on the ground trip leaders have no ability to update it with changes. It is hard to open as the user is sent to Ride with GPS with no explanation and there is no way to have more than one trip open simultaneously so if one loss a new one, one has to go back through the entire routine to get the other one! Also we he links only come in email with a NUMBER of the reservation, not the location of the trip which is super confusing. And finally, the actual dates of “day 1, day 2 “ etc aren’t displayed which is just ridiculous.

Just at the start, the Waldorf Astoria is no more. It is now the Caledonian. It may have confused a few folk, including me. Just a thought.