Reflecting on Sixty Years of B&R

B&amp;R's been biking and walking since 1966, and while a steady diet of good food, great wine and miles of biking has kept us feeling sprightly, we can't deny the truth: we're turning 60. As we mark the anniversary, we thought we'd start by reflecting on where it all began.Sixty years on, having traversed six continents, immersed ourselves in more than 80 countries and made more friends than we can count, it all seems so natural—the company's origin having long ago become lore:

Toronto law student <a href="https://www.butterfield.com/get-inspired/a-message-about-travel-from-our-co-founder-george-butterfield">George Butterfield</a> teams with his high school roommate Sidney Robinson and his wife Martha Butterfield (Sidney's sister). Itching for adventure, the three lead a student trip that meanders its way through Europe for a summer."We decided the only way we could afford to get back to Europe, where we'd travelled, worked and studied, would be to develop a student tour program," George recalls. "Our idea was to visit great cities, arrange history seminars and spend some time biking and hiking."It worked, and a company—not to mention an entirely new way to travel—<a href="https://www.butterfield.com/our-story">was born</a>.What doesn't get said, but bears keeping in mind, is just how damn crazy this idea was in 1966.

<h3>The Inaugural Odyssey</h3>That first trip was a 59-day odyssey taking 43 students—many of them barely younger than George, Martha and Sidney—hrough five countries. On a hodgepodge of rented bikes, they spent a week riding through Bavaria, from Munich to Salzburg. They hiked in the Swiss Alps. They explored the quays of Paris. They visited the galleria and palazzi in Florence. Along the way, they savoured all the local specialties, from croques-monsieurs and gelati to pints of Leffe and some great wines.After a few years of only running student trips, in 1974, George decided to offer an adult version of the trip. It was a brilliant idea—a sure winner. Forget the hostels that the students were using—find a few great hotels and bike between them! B&amp;R joined with Lufthansa to offer trips in the Bavarian Alps billed as "a deluxe bicycle trip featuring modest exercise in a great cultural region with the best in the way of hotels and fine food." (In hindsight, it may have been a little verbose.) George published 20,000 brochures, sent them out and waited for the bookings to roll in.None did.

Undeterred, George and Martha kept running student trips while building other ventures on the side—Martha in interior design, Sidney in law, George with a Toronto restaurant. In 1979, George tried again with Shipwreck Holidays: strand guests on a deserted Caribbean island with only a bathing suit, a bucket and a plastic sheet to survive on conch and collected condensation. He planned 15 departures.He ran one. Everyone hated it.

A brochure for Shipwreck Holidays, circa 1979

Innovation… For Better or Worse

But George remained undaunted. A true entrepreneur, he knew that success in business depends upon three things: innovation, surrounding yourself with talented people and good timing.

<h3>Undaunted Ingenuity</h3>In 1980, George re-introduced the concept of deluxe biking trips for adults. This time, after many valiant attempts and innovative spins, B&amp;R's concept of high-end cycling and walking holidays (finally) caught on. What started as one trip in 1980 became three trips in 1981, eventually climbing to hundreds of trips a year today. While the growth has been exponential, the company has always remained a family-run business.

<h3>Slow Down to See the World</h3>The very first Butterfield &amp; Robinson brochure promised, "We will travel Europe in a relaxed and leisurely fashion." It took a few years to both refine and expand that philosophy, and the exact origins of what would become B&amp;R's motto and raison d'etre remain something of a mystery—there are clues scattered throughout the archives, including a partially wine-stained napkin with "Slow down…" scrawled in spotty penmanship—but the root of the idea has been there from the very beginning.After 50 years, a stumble or two, a few more “eureka!” moments and an unfailing commitment to slowing down, today Butterfield &amp; Robinson is the world’s premier active travel company. We’ve spent half a century crafting incredible journeys and immersing ourselves in the world’s most amazing places.This is the point where most companies would add, “and we have no intention of slowing down.” But we’re not most companies.Slowing down has worked pretty well for us over the past 50 years—and we have every intention of continuing to do just that.&nbsp;

<h3>The Next Sixty&nbsp;</h3>Sixty years on, the roads have just gotten longer. B&amp;R now runs journeys across six continents, from trekking Rwanda's hills to biking Japan's back roads, and <a href="https://www.butterfield.com/2027-trip-collection">our 2027 collection</a> keeps adding to the list. The itineraries have changed. The instinct hasn't: find the right hotel, the right trail, the right glass of wine and let the rest of the day fall into place.But the real legacy was never the itineraries or the hotels. It's the guests who came back a second time, then a third, then brought their kids. The guides who started out as travellers themselves. Sixty years of B&amp;R isn't really one company's history — it's thousands of personal ones, each with its own version of that first summer in Europe.Whatever the next sixty years look like, they'll be written the same way: one traveller, one trip, one good story at a time. The 2027 collection is simply where the next chapter starts.

As B&R marks it's 60th anniversary, we thought we'd reflect on where it all began.