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Welcome to BackRoadsWest.com’s Virtual Tour Guide and Blog for the Anza-Borrego region.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could spend your precious vacation time doing what you love instead of searching for it?  Save yourself that frustration by using our guide to “know before you go”.

Let us show you all of the amazing things there are to see and do in Anza-Borrego and then you can create your own customized vacation or day trip.

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Our virtual tour guides aren’t like anything you’ve ever seen before.  You get a comprehensive look at the area by using our virtual video tours, interactive maps and thousands of pictures.  And they are so easy to use on any device – your smartphone, tablet, computer or smartTV.

This is not your old-fashioned paper travel guide with very few pictures or maps.  It is an innovative, new kind of travel guide for the modern age.  For more information about what’s included in our Virtual Tour Guides, scroll down.

About Anza-Borrego

The Anza-Borrego region is located in eastern San Diego County, south of Palm Springs and just west of the Salton Sea.  This desert covers a large area and includes the state park of the same name, a small resort town at its center and a large off-road park called Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area.  The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park itself is the largest state park in California and the second largest in the contiguous United States.

If you are someone who likes the peace and beauty of the desert, hiking through a desert palm oasis, cycling lonely scenic roads, relaxing at a posh resort, golfing at palm-tree-studded courses or driving up challenging 4WD roads, Anza-Borrego has something for you.  There is a lot to see and do here.

As you start planning your visit to Anza-Borrego, one of the things you’ll notice is that the small town of Borrego Springs looks like a little round island surrounded by the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.  That’s because it’s not part of the Park.  And the fact that it will never get any bigger adds to the charm of this little place where there are no chain stores or chain restaurants and not one single traffic light!  There is a kind of “retro” feel to the place with its small shops, art boutiques, hotels and cafés.  There are also campgrounds, posh resorts and golf courses nearby.

The best time to visit is in the winter or spring when the temperatures are milder.  And, after a wet winter, there can be some spectacular spring wildflower blooms.  Be sure to make the Visitor’s Center your first stop so you’ll know what’s going on in the area.

We’ve got a lot more to share with you about this area and it’s all included in our Anza-Borrego Virtual Tour Guide subscription.

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Our progressive Virtual Tour Guides can give you a real sense of ‘being there’ before you ever get there. We believe that being able to see what’s down that road or on that hike will help you not only plan your trip better but also get you excited to go there!

We pack a lot of useful information into our virtual tour guides and make it easy for you to just click or tap on the thing you’re most interested in.

Here’s what you get:

Activities Include:

Anza-Borrego offers many activities to enjoy.  For visitors seeking the great outdoors, attractions include scenic drives, rewarding hikes, colorful and unique geologic formations, rugged mountains, slot canyons, abundant desert flora, and more.  For visitors that prefer to relax and enjoy the desert air, there are several high-end resorts, complete with fine dining, swimming pools and golf courses.

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Anza-Borrego Area Tour

Below is our regional video tour of the Anza-Borrego area that will give you an idea of where different attractions are located.  Watching this video will help you see which areas interest you more than others so that you can delve into the chapter in our guide that further explains that attraction.

Purchase Options

There are two ways to use the Anza-Borrego Travel Guide:

  • Subscribe and use the guide on-line (this website)
  • Purchase all accompanying videos on USB/memory stick or Blu-ray Disc

To learn more about subscribing to the travel guide, see Subscription below.

To purchase the videos, see our BackRoadsWest Anza-Borrego webpage.

Subscription

Our Virtual Tour Guide of Anza-Borrego is subscription based.  To access and view all of the guide’s features and chapters requires the purchase of a 6 month subscription.

Since our guide is not yet completed, we invite you to look through the entire guide for free.  This will give you an idea of what the guide will look like when it is complete.  We won’t require a subscription until the guide is entirely finished.

Below, you can also subscribe to our email list.  When new content and chapters are added, you’ll be the first to know, complete to a direct link to the new content.

Subscribe For Free!

While our guide is being complete, you may subscribe to our guide for free.  Clicking the button below will give you a user name and password so that you can access our guide.

Clicking [Subscribe] below will take you to our guide’s Home page.  Or, just scroll down and browse trips by category.

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Email Sign-Up

Submit your email address and we'll notify you when there is new content.

We will not share your email address with anyone!

Trips / Chapters

Our guide is divided into many chapters that we call “trips”.  Each trip is a hike, place, road trip (both for paved and dirt roads), or points of interest.  Trips can also be categorized by topics, such as historical, geological, scenic or places.

Browse Trips by Category

The following section lists the chapters, or rather the destinations, found in this guide.  Each category is listed in the tiles below.

Mouse over the tiles (or touch them with your finger) to reveal the categories:

4WD Trips

Need 4-wheel drive for these trips

Browse Trips

Hikes

Hikes that bring you close to the scenic places.

Browse Hikes

Road Trips

Trips that can be taken with any vehicle

Browse Trips

Places

Places and points of interest

Browse Places

Geology

Trips with geologic intrigue

Geology Trips

Historic

Trips that visit historic sites

Historic Trips

Plants & Animals

Hikes that bring you close to the scenic places.

Browse Trips

Top-5

Top-5 best trips to take

See Top-5