Jenny Hicks has been guiding travellers for 26 years, and for the past several years she's run just one route for Back-Roads Touring: the eight-day Corners of Cornwall trip, capped at 18 guests per minicoach. A recent interview with her pulls back the curtain on what a tour leader really does — and why it changes what you get out of a small-group trip.
Hicks isn't a parachuted-in guide reading from a script. She moved to Cornwall at 18, studied and worked there, and holidayed there as a child. Back-Roads hired her off the strength of that local knowledge, and she now runs the company's most popular premium Cornwall itinerary on repeat. Her onboarding was brisk: one shadow tour with a veteran leader, then her own groups.
The job, it turns out, is less storytelling and more constant problem-solving. Hicks briefs guests the night before on footwear and timings, chases stray phone chargers from hotel safes, checks tide times, coordinates with the driver, and always knows where the nearest toilets are. When a road closure or storm scuppers the plan, deep local knowledge is the difference between a wasted afternoon and a good detour — she keeps a running list of alternatives and weathers forecasts days ahead.
The small group size is where the magic happens, she argues. A coach of 50 can't pivot to catch the Falmouth sea shanty festival or a local regatta; 18 people can. Leaders are encouraged to add personal touches to the itinerary, so travellers end up on back roads and at small events they'd never find alone. Hicks says returning guests often admit they saw only a fraction of Cornwall on previous self-guided visits because they simply didn't know these spots were reachable.
Then there's the social side. Back-Roads guests skew older and well-travelled, so groups tend to gel — but part of Hicks's role is making sure nobody feels excluded, learning everyone's name by day one and reading the group dynamic as it forms.
As for Cornwall itself, Hicks is unambiguous: it's the best place in the UK. The rocky north coast and the sandier southern beaches each have their charms, and the light has inspired her artist's eye for decades. Her verdict, slightly defiant: nobody visits Cornwall and comes away hating it.
For travellers weighing a small-group tour against independent travel, the takeaway is clear: the value isn't just transport and tickets. It's a resident expert who can reroute around a storm, flag a festival you didn't know existed, and get you off the A-road and onto the lanes where the crowds thin out.
