Have you ever been on a tour with this couple?

I spent a few years as a tour director. In all that time, I had to lecture a few people on tardiness. But once I did leave a couple behind.

It was the first full day of a tour. We were about to depart a major tourist attraction and drive to out hotel for the evening that was 90 minutes away. One couple was late. It was the first day so I was a little lenient. I waited 15 minutes and the other passengers seemed okay. I waited thirty minutes. Still no restlessness. But it was thirty minutes, we had a drive ahead of us, and people were getting hungry. So we left.

About two hours after we arrived at the hotel, the front desk called to say the couple had called and were on their way to the hotel.

I met them as they arrived. They were apologizing profusely. What happened was that the husband fell at this well known tourist attraction, and the management of the attraction wanted to take him to the hospital to make sure there was no serious damage. He told them he had a tour to meet and they said they would send someone to tell me what happened. (They didn't.) But they did pay for a taxi to take the couple the 90 minutes to the hotel.

Showing up late is very disrespectful to the other tour members. I would tell my passengers that time is tight but I did have a little wiggle room here and there. If they showed up on time I might be able to add few things here and there.

While it didn't happen to me, it happened to a tour director friend of mine.

One of her passengers died in his sleep while on tour.

You probably want to know what we do...well.....you may not like it but.....

We contact the authorities, make sure the hotel is on top of it and assisting, make sure any person traveling with the deceased is okay. and then continue on with the tour.

Hahahahahaha that piece was excellent

Funny piece.

I facilitated a number of internal corporate group tours during my career. We left people behind all the time. They had detailed itinerary information and caught up to us as the could.

For me, the question to ask was "Who is being inconvenienced". And the answer was always, "Never the group or our guests".

I was on a small group tour in Marseille and a group member was left behind after being significantly late. A friend of hers said that she did it all the time, on every tour she was on, because as she put it, "they would always wait for her and wouldn't think of leaving without her". Unfortunately for her, not this time. The rest of us were all very happy when we finally left.

Great story! On our several RS tours, no one was consistently late; there were just a few random single times of less than 15 minutes. I do believe any of our guides would have left someone behind if they did it more than once. If someone was late once, they definitely got feedback and never did it again.

We were that couple once on a day tour. We were so late - actually forgot about the tour - that the driver/guide came to our hotel and collected us. There were 6 other people on the tour - an American couple who looked about our age, a much younger American couple, and two young Korean women who were doing research for a Korean language European travel guide (one of the big names, but I forget which one). As we found our seats in the rear of the van, the younger Americans reassured us that they were almost as late as we were. The Korean women welcomed us with smiles. The other Americans gave us two of the biggest stink eyes I have ever seen. I was struck by the realization that I had probably given that same stink eye to someone who felt as bad as I did at that moment.

The day before the scheduled date of this tour, we found out that my brother had been found dead in his apartment. My family assured us that there was no need to return immediately - it would be at least two weeks before the Coroner would release the body, and we were coming home in three days anyway. I had completely forgotten about this tour until the guide gave us a call.

We did apologize profusely for the inconvenience we caused, without providing any details. The wife of the older American couple reminded me of Dana Carvey's "Church Lady" character on SNL when I tried to apologize to her personally. I did share the information about my brother's unexpected death with the guide, the Koreans, and the young Americans over the course of the day.

Since then, I try to cut people some slack when they are running late - no telling what is going on with them.

Sometimes, you can tell that people are late because they stayed up late, drinking. No sympathy there if they get left behind.

Lane, thank you for sharing that story--it was hilarious! I remember having a terrible boss years ago whom everyone hated, and my colleagues and I joked that in a Murder on the Orient Express situation, we would all be pestering each other to pass the knife around so that everyone had a turn.

I appreciate the stories from other posters who noted significant and unusual circumstances like family emergencies and accidents that can cause tardiness; it reminds me to give others grace--ONE TIME. I think it was the repeated, persistent, and unapologetic lateness of the couple on Brent and Michael's tour that pushed them (literally) over the edge.

Lane, I loved that story! I have not been on a tour, but have had the annoying experience of waiting for someone whose lateness affected my own schedule, and hate it! In a case like that, I think I would have joined in with the tour director and let the couple know (probably with a few four-letter words) that their actions were affecting everyone else.

So disappointing that the volcano part of the story wasn't true. I'm not sympathetic or understanding for people who are chronically late.

We were on an Adriatic cruise in 2017 and in two ports people were late. The first was in Corfu and in the morning prior to deboarding for the the day announcements were consistently made that we were in a new time zone and to check your watch because the ship was sailing at 4pm. Sure enough, 4:00 came and went and we were still docked. I got the sense it was common at this port for people to be tardy due to the time change and the captain had some buffer time worked in. We finally set sail at 4:30 with the final couple sauntering up to the gangway. I could see but not hear what was said, but it looked fairly obvious. The crew member tapped his watch and said you're half an hour late and you almost missed the boat. The female half of the couple who appeared to be in her late 60's got furious and literally jammed her wrist and watch into the crewmembers face letting him know she still had half an hour and then walked on board. Hopefully the restaurant staff was instructed to spit in her food for the rest of the trip. Later on in that trip, at Dubrovnik, the ship left on time and the captain announced they had left two people behind.

Last March on the way to Tampa we were ready to pull away from he gate when the FAA apparently closed the airspace in that area due to severe thunderstorms, and we needed to sit at the gate for further instruction. Half an hour later were were told it may be up to two hours so we were deboarded. We were specifically told though not to leave the gate area because circumstances could change at any moment. Sure enough, within half an hour, we were told we had a window and to get back on. However, 4 people were missing. According to law, a plane can't cross an international border with checked luggage on board that doesn't have an owner on the plane. The pilot said they were scrambling to find that luggage and get it off before they missed the window to get in the air. Sadly, it didn't happen and we missed the window. About half an hour later the 4 people arrived back and were allowed on the plane and the luggage was reloaded. Long story short, we sat on the tarmac waiting for another window and arrived in Tampa eight hours late.

If there had been a volcano I would have led the angry mob.

Funny story and yes, I agree about wishing the volcano part was true, lol!!

I was on a RS tour and 3 people were late back to the bus in Cong. We were several days into the tour by then and they were NOT chronically late folks. The tour guide called them and they'd gotten turned around coming back from Ashford Castle. He was going to leave them but the rest of the tour members asked he wait for 10 minutes which he did. They did call him and tell him what had happened and where they were so he directed them on where to meet the bus and we moved down the road toward them. That worked out really well. The 3 were sincerely apologetic and very grateful for the tour waiting for them.

On most of my Rick tours the guides emphasize at the first meet up that members must be on time. Nearly everyone is very good about that. The few times there have been people who are late, I've seen the guide pull them off to the side and have a talk with them. They were never late again.

On one Road Scholar trip there was a chronically late couple. My feeling was that a Rick Steves guide would have had a private talk with them after the first time and would have left them after the 2nd incident. They were exasperating.

As a solo traveler, getting turned around and not making it back to the bus is a worry. Now I've got travel experience that I know I could figure out how to get back to where I need to be even if a bus leaves me, lol!

One year my wife and I were going on a cycling vacation to Europe. A frequent cycling companion was going on a cycling tour that a local cyclist had put together for Austria/Germany/Switzerland. We all went on a practice ride before our trips. One couple was late, arriving just as we were starting off. I commented to my friend ‘I bet they will be late every day on your trip’. My friend poo-pooed my assertion, but when she got back home said that I was right. After a couple of days of that, my friend would just get the daily map and head out.

Years ago, on our 2nd RS tour, the bus did depart when a tour member was late. It was the Greece tour and we had a specific meet up time with a guide. The tour member had gone to church and it lasted longer than anticipated. She got a taxi to take her to meet up with the group. It left an indelible impression on us! On our RS France tour in 2023, a couple got horribly lost in St. Remy. It reinforced why the buddy system is in place as the bus driver wasn’t allowed to linger on market day and fellow tour members quickly pointed out who was missing.

The buddy system. I was just on a non-RS tour where the accountability was counting heads on the bus. When some heads were missing, it took a while to figure out who, and nobody knew where they were. So, yeah the buddy system is smarter.

We've been on 3 Rick Steves tours and nobody has been late more than a minute or two ever. We've never been held up significantly as a group. And yes, the RS buddy system works great.

Our first RS tours were back when the tour had a guide and an assistant guide. Our assistant was unintentionally left at a concentration camp stop. The guide noticed when we were having lunch at a different city afterwards, so she and the driver had to go back and pick up the assistant while we finished eating lunch.

I haven’t been on a RS tour where tardiness was an issue, otherwise.

The buddy system works well when your buddy is looking for you when the group is back together during the day. I happened to have a buddy on my last tour who usually had headphones on during the “buddy check” time, and I noticed the person wasn’t looking my direction a few times. Since I was traveling solo, that could have been a “Jean’s left behind!” risk, although I always try to arrive back five minutes early. So, I asked a couple of people to do a quick glance my way as a just-in-case situation.

My mom and I were on a three week, multi-country Globus tour twenty five years ago. At her age then, she was one of the older people on the tour, and at every stop, she would be one of the last back on the bus (“Honey, just let me comb my hair…”). They never had to wait for us, but she truly lost track of time. We were the only mother and daughter duo, and she became affectionately known as “Mom”. We had a wonderful Belgian bus driver, who always before pulling away, would ask in a booming voice, “Is Mom on the bus?” Everyone would always check, all with huge smiles….an early RS buddy system prototype.

I met a senior man at the airport in Dallas years ago. He was late returning to his cruise ship somewhere in California, I think, and he got left behind. His wife was still on the ship. We were on the same flight to Costa Rica. He asked some questions about getting to the port where he could get back on the ship and I helped him as best I could. He must have luckily had his passport on him. I felt sorry for him but…..

I loved this! I’ve never taken a tour for this very reason. I am very impatient with people who are late. I’ll be on a tour in April while I’m in Australia and hope I don’t have to plot the demise of any fellow tour members. The friend I’m traveling with insisted that we include a tour during our independent travel. I told her I would do a small tour only. No big bus tour for me.

"We had a wonderful Belgian bus driver, who always before pulling away, would ask in a booming voice, “Is Mom on the bus?”"

Cathy!!! That is hilarious!

Both DH and I wish the late couple were thrown in the volcano!

We are the opposite - chronically early. Of course this makes people who are right on time seem a bit late.

We were once "those people ", on a day long tour of Milan. There was a lunch stop. We went to one of a handful of places the guide recommended, with another couple who were on the tour. Well, service was so slow, we didn't even have food before the guide came and found us. She told off the restaurant staff and we finally got food that we shoveled in at top speed. When we got back to the group, the dirty looks were fierce!!!

And here's a late guide story. We were on RS Best of Adriatic, and it was the day of the happy hour pot luck boat cruise. The entire group was waiting in the hotel lobby. No guide. Someone finally got a hold of him. He was tucked up in his room , because he put the wrong time on the daily planner sign. We all laughed about it at the time, and at the final dinner.

Every late person always has an excuse. They have a whole bag of them because they have to use them all the time
I like zero tolerance.

We are usually early to every time schedule and have zero tolerance for chronically late people, but having said that.......

In Pamplona, our alarm clocks didn't go off. so we were awakened by a phone call. It was the tour guide asking us if we were going on the walking tour that day in Pamplona.The group was waiting in the lobby and the walk was about to start.
We told him we overslept.
He asked if he should come back in an hour and get us.
We told him no. We would find him and the tour group. He asked how would we find him?
We said the other couple we were traveling with is on our Find Friends App on our iPhones. We would find them.
Half hour later, we left the hotel and using our Find Friends app, found them.

We were so glad it wasn't a bus travel day. From then on, we set 3 alarm clocks and were never late after that.

Hmmm … if the couple had been pushed into the lava, they probably would’ve taken longer than usual to burn up!