Rick Steves Tours

[MountainDon]

Some of us may be familiar with Rick Steves Tours from the travelogues that PBS screens. Others may have seen his travel books. We just returned from a Rick Steves 21 day Europe by the Back Door tour.



Rick Steves tours are a little different when compared to many of the others out there. I've been asked by a few folks to give my thoughts and impressions, so here goes...

Group Size and Bus Travel:  When K began talking about taking a trip a year and a half ago I was not too thrilled at the idea of a tour group. I guess I've seen too many buses with every seat packed drive up, the group disembark and rush about with cameras clicking, then reembarking on the bus to the next sight. The first thing that caught and held my attention was the fact that the group size runs from 24 to 28 people. Add to that that the buses used are 50 to 56 passenger models. That means there are 2 seats to every person on board. Everybody can have a window seat.

When we began the first travel day it was explained that we should not hog seats like the ones in the first row; they should be rotated among the group. We were the lucky ones on the first day. After that most people found an area they liked best; cooler towards the rear of the bus and warmer near the front with it's huge expanse of windshield glass. We usually found ourselves with our preference for first half dozen rows readily available. We would take an entire row so we could each have a window and space for our 'stuff' on the seat next to us. That also allowed us to always be able to switch from sunny to shady side if desired. Everybody was very pleased with the bus. (A brand new VanHool) We had a superb driver from Belgium. Jean could make that bus seem to bend in the middle as he negotiated narrow street and country lanes. Travel between our stops was mainly over AutoBahns and AutoStrada but we also covered a lot of miles over two lane country roads. In Switzerland we went over the Gotthard pass (wonderfully scenic) instead of through the more direct Gotthard Tunnel. That was not on the plan but Jean kept track of traffic and learned that there were delays of up to 2 hours through the tunnel on our travel day.



Hotel Accommodations:  No five star hotels, but something better. That will depend on one's sense of adventure though. If you is accustomed to or demands a room such as those found in any 4 or 5 star American hotel, you may be best advised to look elsewhere. We stayed in a variety of mostly older hotels. Some as old as 700 years. The newest was built within the last 20 years. The older ones were nicely remodeled in recent years, clean and located in old central sections of the large cities, or located in remote country areas; a widening of the road in an Austrian valley, a small medieval town along the banks of the Rhine in Germany or a 1920's Swiss Chalet located up a valley about as far as the bus could navigate.

The plumbing all worked, although there were idiosyncrasies with some; shower temperature changes when someone else flushed a toilet, low flow on an upper level floor. In one room in a 500 year old building accessing the shower required climbing over the toilet and your knees would contact the wall in front of the toilet when seated upon the throne. That made me think of the good side of building code restrictions that we face when building and renovating here.

Many of the hotels require a 10 to 15 minute walk from the closest point the bus can reach. Many also required walking up two, three and even more flights of stairs. Some of the stairways are narrow spiral affairs. Loads of character though. Elevators (lifts) only in two of them, those requiring four or five flights to be climbed. Small two or three person lifts.

700 year old tower, Bacharach, Germany


750+ year old upper floor, 4th level, Beaune, France


500 year old, more or less, Paris, France


400 year old, Rome, Italy (probably the nicest room as far as conveniences; 3 star)


40 year old, Steichelberg, Switzerland


The one most distressful common fault would be the efficacy or total lack of air conditioning. Only two hotels had A/C that really worked well enough and both were still not quite up to American standards. That would not be a problem if one was to travel earlier or later in the year. We knew from the git-go that July was a poor time to travel, but we were restricted by our work schedule. We had thought of putting the trip off until we were fully retired, but that's a few years away and who knows what could befall us if we waited.

The worst room would be the one in the glorious 700 year old tower in Bacarach. It was very nicely decorated, wonderful in it's quaintness and rustic character. It was built in a centuries old medieval tower that was once a part of the old wall that surrounded the town and castle. It was originally built on the bank of the Rhine River. Water came up to the tower base. It is called the Kraenturm, or crane tower. Goods from the river were hoisted from the river into the tower.

When Germany built railroads they dumped fill along the river bank to make room for tracks. Therein lies the problem. A double main line runs up and down each bank of the Rhine. Five hundred trains a day, but only 250 on our side of the river, so it could have been a lot worse. Some long thundering freights, some short fast commuters. All in all very noisy when located 25 feet below your window. On the plus side the windows were modern insulated glass units with double rubber gaskets. When closed they were extremely good at dampening external sound. Unfortunately this was one of the buildings with no air conditioning. We did have n oscillating fan though. That was balanced by the character of the room and building and the excellent local tour guide. Some folks slept with the windows open and used ear plugs (Rick Steves supplied).

Staying in a centrally located creaky hotel with iffy A/C is still better than staying in a modern building located miles away from everything you came to Europe to see. Being able to easily return to the hotel and have a nap in the heat of the afternoon and then walk a few blocks to find a grand assortment of local restaurants, ice cream parlors and pastry shops was wonderful. Paris and Rome were especially great in that respect with fruit, sandwich and pizza shops and medium to full service upscale restaurants all within a few blocks of the hotels.

Luggage:  You carry or roll your own bags, hence the limitationn that each person be limited to a single carry on size bag and one personal bag or small backpack. Remember those 10-15 minute walks between bus and hotel and the flights of stairs. At first that seemed like an impossible task; 21 days worth of everything you need in a carry on and one small carry bag? No fashion divas need not apply. Polyester is your friend. I carried five shirts and a pair of pants in addition to those I wore. Six pairs of socks and underwear. All polyester, easy to wash in the hotel sink, bidet or tub. And all easy to wring out and hang to dry in the bathroom. It's amazing how well and how fast polyester dries even in humid weather.

A benefit of such light travel was not having to deal with retrieving checked baggage in the air terminals.

Tour Guide:  We we lead by a really wonderful, knowledgeable and friendly guy from Seattle. He has been with Rick Steves for 6 years. I can't say enough good things about him. The local hired guides were also superb, even if a couple of them were a little long winded. We did learn a lot on the local tours.

Free Time:  We were provided with lots of free time to explore, do laundry, nap and so on throughout the trip. Much more relaxing than being herded here and there all day long. That also requires a little more effort by each member. Learning how to travel on the subways takes a little doing but is a reward in itself.

Meals: Breakfasts were all included. Breakfasts in NL, DE, CH, AT were great with a vast selection. The farther south we went the choices were fewer, but there was still enough. Lunches were left up to the individual members. Sometimes lunches were along the road at an AutoGrill, sometimes during free time in large or small cities/towns. About half the dinners were group affairs with the costs included in the tour package. Most were excellent, none were bad. All were filling.

The worst thing I can say about the dinners is that it was difficult for us to get accustomed to dinner lasting from say 7 PM to 9 PM, or slightly longer. It's the European formal manner. We agreed that the best meals were the dinners at the chalet in Switzerland.

So in closing, we heartily endorse the Rick Steves method. Keep in mind the quirks and go for it if it suits your frame of mind. It's all spelled out on their website as well.  Here's the link to the tour we booked...

http://tours.ricksteves.com/tours10/product.cfm/rurl/code/EUR10/212

I'll have some photo highlights to post later.

[Redoverfarm]

Sounds as if you enjoyed your trip.  If and when I would ever travel abroad it would be to Europe or Ireland.  I would lean more toward Ireland as it probably suits my lifestyle more. 

[rick91351]

Glad to have you back home.  Missed you!!!

Mark us down for Ireland and Scotland in a year or two.

Rick and Ellen

[glenn kangiser]

Sounds like a cool trip. Don.

I like Rick Steve's methods and watch his shows a lot on Hulu on the internet.     I like to see the foreign countries and he shows a lot of good scenery.

http://www.hulu.com/rick-steves-europe?c=Food-and-Leisure/Travel

[bayview]

   
   Quite the renaissance man . . . 

   Travel when you are young and able!

/

[John Raabe]

Welcome back Don!

Thanks for the great review of the trip. I'm going to hold off showing it to my wife - she will want to leave next week!

[Sassy]

Welcome back Don!  Appreciate the review of your trip, looks like you had a great time - the places you stayed looked really nice, even if the AC wasn't the best...  we're used to not having AC here in the cabin - the fans work pretty good.

I have a friend who has been on a few of Steve's tours - to Ireland & England - he loved them - says that's the only way to go - you get to stay right there where you want to be & meet the local people. 

John, I'd go in a minute, too!