A friend of mine and her husband have gone on two or three and really like them. I've never gone on a tour but I think these sound fine.

I would never take them. It is just personal preference.

My dad loved these tours. He was 75ish on the first one and it sounded like the pace and activity level was just right for him. He was also a very gregarious person and enjoyed all the forced socialization (and would not have described it as forced).

On the up side, they had a lot of itinerary stops that would be harder to arrange as an independent traveler -- such as special walking tours, food and wine tastings. But not impossible to find/arrange on your own.

But personally I would rather poke my eyes out than travel on a tour (other than something like the Galapagos Islands or the Inka Trail, where there aren't many other options). Can you explore with your friend why she is so dead set on a tour and going with Rick Steves and then figure out how to accommodate those reasons? Is there some way to compromise -- maybe a short (less than a week) Rick Steves itinerary, if they have them, followed by traveling together on your own?

Anonymous wrote:Did people who spell the name “Steves” as “Steeves” go to the same school as people who spell the word “lose” as “loose”?

Did people who spell the name “Steves” as “Steeves” go to the same school as people who spell the word “lose” as “loose”?

Do a Rick Steves walking tour for a day or two, then be on your own otherwise. Europe is easy, and I totally agree with you re accommodations.

We took a nice Rick Steves walking tour through Pompeii and I really liked it.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh I did one of these tours with a friend way back in 2011. Now things may have changed but what I really didn’t like was all the forced socialization.

We had to play the name game at the start of the tour to learn everyone’s name. It felt like kindergarten.

We were also supposed to buddy up with someone we didn’t know on the trip and then give an introduction of our buddy to the group. Again, we are all adults yet this felt like school. I loathe icebreakers.

We were also supposed to sit with different people each day at breakfast. Again with the forced socialization.

Other than that it was nice but expensive for what you get - cheap “family run” hotels, most of which lacked any modern amenities and half the time you shared a bathroom down a hall.

You carry your own luggage which for a tour of this price, nahhhh…if I’m paying that much, I want it delivered to the room.

And it’s a lot of museums and art talks which I wasn’t really into.

It was okay, def won’t do it again. But again this is 2011 information. You should read his forum

That sounds horrible.

Ugh I did one of these tours with a friend way back in 2011. Now things may have changed but what I really didn’t like was all the forced socialization.

We had to play the name game at the start of the tour to learn everyone’s name. It felt like kindergarten.

We were also supposed to buddy up with someone we didn’t know on the trip and then give an introduction of our buddy to the group. Again, we are all adults yet this felt like school. I loathe icebreakers.

We were also supposed to sit with different people each day at breakfast. Again with the forced socialization.

Other than that it was nice but expensive for what you get - cheap “family run” hotels, most of which lacked any modern amenities and half the time you shared a bathroom down a hall.

You carry your own luggage which for a tour of this price, nahhhh…if I’m paying that much, I want it delivered to the room.

And it’s a lot of museums and art talks which I wasn’t really into.

It was okay, def won’t do it again. But again this is 2011 information. You should read his forum

Look at Backroads tours - they have different levels of luxury. I know high income (normal DC high income, not billionaires) who have done these and liked them.

I like Rick Steve's for itineraries but have definitely graduated from his hotel suggestions.

If you want to do something with structure, you could consider a river cruise instead.

My in laws love his tours. They rave about them. But I think the target demographic is much older that we are, so we haven't considered them.

The best part about the hotels RS picks is that they're generally in good locations. You don't really want to stay way out of the city center just to get an American style hotel. Some cities have big modern hotels in the city center, but not always.

I'm not big on group tours at all.

But if a friend wanted to do it and I was inclined to travel with the friend I'd consider it.

Here's an upside -- it can be challenging to travel with friends (or even loved ones) because of the push/pull that happens when inevitably you want to do thing X and they want to do thing Y, and you can't do both. Group tours do away with that problem. You can't plan what you want to do at all; but you can't argue with your friend about it either. Or do what your friend wants and then feel super resentful. Just a thought because I have traveled in Europe with friends before and this is inevitably a bit of an issue for most of us.

Anonymous wrote:Hard pass.

Same, it would be like traveling with Mr. Rogers (yes I know he doesn't personally do these tours buy YKWIM).

One thing to keep in mind, Rick Steeves is into budget travel and he has suggested in the past that one way to save money is to eat unfinished food off other peoples plates as a way to save money.

The hotels he rec's in books are crap -- two stars at best - if you like Marriotts you won't be happy.

Don't do it!!!

Hard pass.

A friend of mine wants to go on a trip with me and we were starting to plan it. She wants to go somewhere in Europe and is dead set on doing one of the Rick Steeves tours. I didn't know she was interested in doing tours before I agreed to do a trip with her. I've been to several places in Europe but I do all the planning myself...using trains to get around and in some countries, I've rented a car.

She's obsessed with doing a Rick Steeves tour so I looked into this more. She's not sure which one she wants to do but she's leaning toward Scotland or a Central Europe tour - (and these are places I have not been). I even watched an hour long youtube video to see if the tour is right for me.
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/101

...it's not for me. For a few reasons - a huge part of this is that I'm not a fan of the type of accommodation they use -- looks like they're really into 'authentic' accommodation with some shared bathrooms and no elevators/hardly any amenities, while I'm just not into that - I want my own bathroom and I'd rather go back to a nice modern Marriott at the end of the day, I don't want to be shuffled from place to place, and I just don't want to be on a tour! I like being spontaneous and I don't want to be told when I get free time.

That said, these tours get, in general, really good reviews. Have any of you taken one of these tours?