Best of England Tour Review

Best of England Tour Part Two

HOTELS-
We have taken 6 RS tours. We expect small rooms that are clean and comfortable. The hotel rooms we had on the Best of England tour were by far the worst rooms of our previous 5 tours. There were no elevators in any of the hotels except for the London hotel, and even then we had two flights of stairs to get to our room.
Bath: Brooks Guesthouse. Our room was 50 steep spiral steps down to the breakfast room. ( and 50 up to brush our teeth). That meant 100 stair steps before our tour began each day. It is 16 steep, slippery steps from the street into the hotel. My arthritic knees were not happy, and the cortisone injections that usually sustain me for six months were exhausted by the end of this two week trip.
Our room here did have a king size bed, but we had to buy an extension cord to make use of the limited electrical outlets. There was no closet or storage of any kind, so we lived out of suitcases on the limited floor space. Quite the obstacle course.
Stow: The Sheep on Sheep street. This was our only nice room of the tour. More stairs, but at least they were not spiral this time. We had a closet, a dresser, a big bed and two actual chairs to sit on.
Conwy: Castle Hotel. More stairs and a room with a double bed and modern bathroom. Two chairs to sit in. All good. Except for one fatal flaw. Our room was directly above the outdoor smoking area of the hotel bar. Very noisy and smelly.
Keswick: More stairs. Lots of stairs just to get inside the hotel, with no hand railing. The alternative was a "back" way that was a steeply sloped driveway area. Smaller than a double bed. No storage and no place to sit other than the bed. A view (and smell) of the dumpsters.
York: The York Minster. Yikes. More stairs. One 40" bed. One child-sized twin bed. I took the twin which hit my legs mid-shin. The mattress was so sagged that you could feel the hard wood bed frame underneath your bottom as you (tried) to sleep.
Radisson Blu Kensington: One 40" bed. Tiny, tiny room. Our last night before fiying home and I needed some sleep, so I actually asked at the front desk if they had anything else. They graciously found us a room with a king-sized bed. It had a closet and a chair and couch to sit on. It also had a shower tube that was up two steep ceramic steps and about 20" square. Plus, right outside the bathroom window (like 6 inches away) was some huge black piece of machinery occluding the entire space. . We opted to just keep that window closed.
In summary, the rooms we were assigned on this tour were very uncomfortable. To add insult to injury, our tour leader told us that he was going to engineer room assignments so that if "you get a small room or one up a lot of stairs" one night he would try to make it equitable the next night. Given that our rooms just got worse as the tour went along we struggled not to take it personally.

FOOD: This was a highlight. We had the best group meal food of any of the 6 RS tours we have taken. There were choices for almost all meals. We felt that the choices were selected to represent regional and ethnic reflections of modern England. The only loser here was the fish and chips. My husband choked on a bone in his second bite, and my fish and chips were lukewarm. (actually some of my frozen french fries were still pretty chilly) Our final meal did include a taste of Prosecco and one glass of wine. We never did get to taste the scrumpy advertised in the RS itinerary. We had a glass of boxed cider during our picnic at Glastonbury, but it didn't seem quite the same.

Thank you for this honest and informative report, I appreciate it. Must have been nice to come home to your own bed after this trip... : )

Best of England Tour Part 3:

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

There were some very enjoyable moments in this tour, and as usual we traveled with a group of flexible, hardy and fascinating tour members. We definitely could not have easily traveled to these destinations without driving ourselves or stressing about finding and making bus connections. We had balmy, clear weather to enjoy the villages that were as unique and charming as we had hoped. Our tour leader was very experienced and always professional.
Given that this was the first tour of the season, it felt like some aspects were not quite up-to-speed yet. We especially missed the special treats, stops and experiences of previous tours. Call us spoiled, but on our other 5 tours the leader routinely provided small bus treats of local delicacies, hosted multiple happy hours on non-group meal evenings (we were given one free drink in Keswick), and took the time to make a few unscheduled stops ( or at least made them feel spontaneous). We appreciated the honesty of our leader admitting he didn't remember our names, but by the end of two weeks it felt impersonal.
We have one more RS tour scheduled for this year, and I suspect that after that we may "take a break" and just return to independent travel. We enjoy the process of picking out our own hotel and eating meals outside of large groups. We didn't mind the early starts of this tour, but we also appreciate that when you travel independently you have the freedom to create your own schedule. We also realize that for us the power of the RS tour is the instructional abilities of the tour leader and local guides. When those folks are well-matched to our purposes for a trip, it becomes a trip-of-a-lifetime. When that is not a good match, it is very disappointing. We end up with regrets about spending so much money knowing how much cheaper it is to travel on our own.

Just our experiences, but I hope it helps someone in their discernment. Feel free to PM me if you have more specific questions.

I have only taken one RS tour, but I have taken multiple tours with other tour companies. I have yet to find one that is 100% consistent across the board.

I appreciate what reads like a very impartial tour experience. I'm sorry that the rooms were such a trauma. That is one thing I really enjoyed on our RS Sicily tour - the unique variety of hotel rooms.

At least the food (save for the fish and chips) was outstanding!

There was no instruction in the habit, ritual and tradition of the
English tea here or at any time during the tour.

This made me smile a bit. This isn’t Japan with its tea ceremonies. Contrary to the perception some tourists seem to have, there really is no traditional ritual. We in England like a cuppa. Sometimes we like it with a scone or cake or sandwiches. To be honest I think the “ritual”, such as it is, was invented by the big hotels.

You make a useful warning - I really think any tourist who plans to stay in old historic small independent hotels - of the sort Rick Steves recommends - needs to be prepared for stairs, tiny rooms and small double beds. An old house that was not designed as a hotel is terribly difficult to retro-fit. How do you cram a lift and large en suite hotel rooms into an old Georgian house, for example?

I’d be interested to know where you ate fish & chips: was it a pub rather than a proper fish & chip takeaway?

aquamarinesteph, I wouldn’t describe the hotels as traumatic. Just uncomfortable. And costly.

Jane, you have burst my bubble. 😏 I want to believe in such traditions since our world seems so lacking in civility now. I agree that historic buildings make challenging fits for a hotel. However, replacing a worn out mattress should be doable. It was the Old Keswickian, labeled as a “ fish and chips takeaway”. Of course we ate there as a group upstairs where they have seating.

Jane beat me to it!

Afternoon Tea was started by some Duchess with evidently too much time on her hands. It was something to occupy the time of bored wealthy people between lunch and dinner. There is no real tradition of Afternoon Tea observed by the wider public, I've never had one (having a mug of tea at 3 pm does not qualify as afternoon tea) and the only people who do are tourists and those who use it as an excuse for soclialising, usually groups of women at grand hotels. Personally I'd rather save myself for a decent meal in the evening rather than fill up on sandwiches and cakes in the late afternoon.

Your experience of the hotels is one of the reasons that puts me off tours. I like to be able to choose my own accommodation as I'm quite picky and I know from experience that not everyone's idea of "high end" is the same. I will also reiterate what Jane said about hotels in the UK, the majority of old hotels, B & B's etc were not designed to fit in with the expectations of 21st Century travellers and sometimes it can be difficult to accommodate these. That being said, there are plenty of old buildings that have managed to combine luxury with the limitations of an old building however size is always going to be an issue.

As for the fish and chips! They should never be French fries let alone frozen ones! Proper fish and chips should be made with thick cut fresh potatoes and ideally from a dedicated 'chippie'. I'd be interested to know where you had such an abomination and it's a shame that you had such a poor experience considering the wealth of decent chippies across the country.

*Edit

I've just read your response to Jane whilst I was writing mine. I've just had a look at The Old Keswickian website and it certainly looks like a proper chippie. The picture of their fish and chips does not show French fries (they're those long, thin crispy things you get at McDonalds and the like) but proper chips. They certainly don't look like the ones supplied as frozen, I don't know any chippie that does use frozen chips as it's more expensive than chipping potatoes. Was this your first taste of fish and chips in the UK?

You may get a fancy ‘tearoom’ in Bath or some posh hotel in London - with fancy prices. The ‘tearoom’ at Stokesay Castle (run by English Heritage) is simply a place for visitors to have a reasonably priced cup of tea / food.

You mention the lack of elevators in the hotels. Many of the places you have stayed are ancient towns with very old buildings. Some of these hotels might even have existed in the days of stage coaches. Modern hotels with lifts would generally be found in the bigger cities in the UK.

JC, Rick Steves has never claimed the hotels used on his tours are anything but basic. Standard B&B, historic small hotels, and other business traveler hotels have always been used. "High End" is never used to describe them, although the last tour I took did have better hotels than I experienced on any previous tour. So if anyone goes on a RS tour and expects High End accommodations (or even just air conditioning), they are definitely on the wrong tour.

On the 10 RS tours I have taken, there have been some unique rooms in the hotels that I ended up in. Strangely shaped, few plugs for my electronics, not the best view (sometimes no view). But every one has always had a decently comfortable mattress no matter whatever other shortcomings there were. That and a bathroom that is not down the hall is really all I need for my room. And yes, there were few elevators to be found meaning lots of stairs. All of this is stated in the tour documentation.

I think it's really sweet of you guys to jump to the defense of RS and his tour company. However, the OP said this was by no means their first RS tour - and the accommodations on this one were the worst they'd had on any of those tours. To the extent that you were implicitly lecturing the OP on her expectations being unrealistic, I respectfully disagree. As the OP said, the age of the building doesn't excuse worn-out mattresses. Sounds like this particular RS tour was a lackluster offering and probably not up to the usual RS tour standard. With bad mattresses and unusually difficult steep circular (!) staircases thrown in. (I've stayed in B&Bs and hotels with no lifts, but I don't think I've had to climb steep slippery steps or navigate a circular staircase. Just saying.)

I give props to the OP for a balanced, thoughtful, and honest review. Lesser mortals might have posted a hack job, which this definitely was not.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I appreciate the very specific information. I shy away from tours but I do take a few here and there - I've taken the RS Scotland. Your report affirms why I generally decide to go it alone even though the tours often look so "easy" as I can just show up and have fun. For me, lodging is enormously important. I want a large room, usually an apartment, and I want a balcony and a prime location. I spend an unbelievable amount of time choosing my lodging. Your information will certainly help others make a measured choice about how to spend their vacation money based on their own priorities and your efforts towards that will hopefully be appreciated.

I am a bit puzzled why the tour includes Stokesay Castle (which is not really a castle), but misses out the superb market town of Liudlow nearby. Ludlow has a large ruined castle in the town centre and plenty of excellent places to eat. A bit further away is Powis Castle - a vast stately home packed full of interesting items (including beautiful gardens and a whole museum of things looted from India by Robert Clive). From the nearby town of Welshpool, you could catch a ride of a steam railway - the only one I have been on where the guard has to get off the train to open and close farm gates which cross the line.

TravelingMom, I am sorry this tour was somewhat of a disappointment to you but I appreciate your honest appraisal of your journey. Please be sure your end-of-tour feedback reflects all you have posted here as only a few RS employees read the forum posts. It definitely sounds as if your guide needs more training and could ultimately benefit by all you have to report. I would have been sad to have missed all those "little perks" that are often offered on tours by more experienced guides, too. I am happy to hear your positives re the Scotland tour as I am signed up for it this coming September!

JC, Rick Steves has never claimed the hotels used on his tours are anything but basic

I've never suggested he's claimed otherwise.

Thank you for your honest report. It's nice to see reports that confirm some of my opinions: Mom and Pop type hotels can be excellent, but they're not always. Big, bad chain might not always be full of charm, but when it's time to replace the mattresses, it's done on schedule, whereas the friendly, local place can put it off if money is tight that year. Climbing lots of stairs is ok if you're young and only paying 20 pounds a night. It gets old, quickly, when you're a working professional and you could have gotten a Premier Inn for the same price (or less).

If you are still interested in small group tours (maximum 24 people), check out Odysses Unlimited.

I just took one of their tours and it was IMHO much better than RS (I've taken 3 RS tours.) Nicer hotels, better food, local guides everywhere, hotels more centrally located than many RS ones, no shopping stops, all tips included except to the tour director. The prices given on the website include airfare so you need to call for land only prices. When prices are matched for the tours alone they are very similar.

If you are still interested in small group tours (maximum 24 people), check out Odysses Unlimited.

Frank II - I see that this company travels to many places which RS does not. I am always interested in good tour groups that go other places. You had a good experience with these people???

a well-researched/reviewed independent that has a good write-up in a newspaper travel article.

I've had good luck with the reviews and pictures on booking.com ('reviews by verified guests only') for finding historic properties that also are eat off the floor clean and have comfy mattresses at reasonable prices.

Aquamarinesteph--I just finished a tour with Odysses and it was excellent. It was my first time with them but the majority of my fellow passengers had traveled with them numerous times. I would not hesitate to travel with them again.

If you have any questions, send me a private message.

Thanks to all for good suggestions. I really tried to write an honest but fair report. I also made it clear that it was only MY opinion. I feel like the official tour reviews are often so glowing as to be useless, and they are so limited in characters allowed that you can't fully explain yourself.

Frank, I immediately checked out the link to Odysseys Unlimited. Their Adriatic/Dalmatia itinerary looks excellent, and I like that they tell you the hotels at the outset. I don't like the tipping part, but I can see how that might affect the effort a tour leader puts forward. Do they give you a guideline of how much to tip?

For those of you who chided me, one of the reasons my tour reviews go into so much detail about the hotels is because the RS company keeps those such a "secret". It is easier to make informed decisions when you have some information ahead of time. I realize that the RS company uses different hotels for the same location, but it tends to be the same group of properties. It would be possible to provide that information to potential travelers. If I had known ahead of time how many stair steps were involved in this particular set of hotels I probably would have selected a different tour. When you have mobility issues that could create a fall (like bad knees on steep stairs) those considerations are not just preferences. I am not a princess and peas don't bother me, but mattresses so saggy that you can feel the board base underneath you are a problem. As is a bed that hits me mid-shin when I stretch my legs out to sleep (as I must do with my knee and back challenges). By the end of tour we were actually looking forward to it being over so we could move on to comfortable beds and fewer stairs. After 6 RS tours that was unexpected which is why I went to such lengths to provide details.

I agree with Travelingmom about the hotel rooms. I did not have as many problems as she, but the mattress at the Brooks Guest house in Bath was so worn out that when I would get into the bed my knee would go all the way down and bang against the floor. Knowing what I know now, I should have insisted upon another room. Not sure they had one, though. Our other hotels were quaint and satisfactory, and the beds I had were comfortable. The Radisson in South Kensington was OK for South Kensington, but just the nature of where it is and how it is converted from former townhomes makes for an inconvenient stay. Small rooms are to be expected, but this hotel also has only two elevators, not located near each other. The larger one holds three people, the smaller one only two. The cleaning staff likes to bring their equipment up from the basement about the same time you are trying to get ready to go up after breakfast before beginning the day, so after a few times of the door oprening and the cleaning crew saying "sorry" and the door closing I finally trudged up the 5 flights of stairs to my room. I know RS and lots of others like South Kensington as a location, but believe me, there are better choices with better hotels.

As for the meals provided as part of the tour package, some were good and some were not. Knowing what I know now, I should have asked for a menu and paid out of pocket at a couple of restaurants, rather than settle for what I hoped was the best of the limited offerings we had to chose from. Our last dinner, for instance, was a choice of salmon, which many like but I do not, Ox Jaw which I shall not eat, and a baby chicken. I took the chicken and got very little food. There were not even any vegetables! And the night in York at the Indian restaurant was a fiasco. We were only offered a sampler plate of food, apparently they thought none of us knew anything about Indian food. They force-fit 5 people per side of our table, though it was designed for 4. The table for 8 became a table of 10. Then a sampler plate was set before the four people on one end of the table, and another set before the 4 people at the other end of the table. Remember, there were 5 per side, or ten total. The two in the middle got what was left over. Mostly it was the lamb, and I do not want to eat a lamb. Sorry. Our naan (flat bread) was hung from a metal tree, with two pieces for the 4 people on one end, and 2 for the other 4 people. Remember, we are 10, not 8. Forcing so many of us (26) into much too small a space created a safety hazard since egress was very limited due to over crowding.

Our tour guide was OK, in that he was very knowledgeable of English history, but he has been doing this a long time and it showed in his lack of enthusiasm. Think of a college professor who has been teaching the same course semester after semester for 30 years and is bored out of is mind with it. That was our guide. His talks on the coach turned into lectures, including political ones. We were encouraged to learn the names of our other tour mates before the tour started and I did so. Not our guide. At the end of the tour he admitted he did not know our names. I think he was the only one of the 26 of us who did not. He was also inflexible in plan, never adjusting for weather or other conditions. For instance, we were to take a walking tour of York our first evening there on the way to the restaurant. It was cold. It was pouring rain. It was quite miserable. We could have walked directly to the restaurant and taken the tour the next morning. But no, we were paraded around in a rainstorm because the tour said to do so.

For those of you who chided me,

No-one chided you, some of us simply pointed out the difficulties involved in adapting old buildings into accommodation comparable with that of a modern, purpose built hotel. I don't see anyone suggesting that you shouldn't expect a decent mattress, well maintaindd furniture or clean rooms but to complain about spiral staircases or slippery steps (probably due to hundreds of years of use) seems to be missing the point somewhat.

Yes, TravelingMom, Odysses does give a guideline (the equivalent in local currency of $10-15/day. That should get people here reminding you that tips are included in RS tours. Yes, they are, you are paying for it ahead of time. With the option, if you are not happy, you don't have to give as much.)

Bellman service is included in Odysseys so you don't have to lug your bags up and down from your room. (I was the only person on the tour with only a carry on size bag so in most cases I carried my own bag.) In some hotels, elevators are small because hotels are old and they were added later. However, no one had to cllimb stairs unless they wanted to. We never had to walk more than 5 or 10 minutes to be in the center of whatever town we were in.

In most cases, with the included meals, you had choices. The food was very good and no one complained about walking away hungry. Most were 3-4 courses including wine. (It was Italy.)

Surfdog, I concur with everything you wrote. Having said that, believe it or not it was still overall the best group meal food of our 6 tours. Draw your own conclusions about that 😏. On some tours there have been only set menus with no choice at all. I agree the seating is often problematic. Often I couldn’t even egress to use the WC not to mention escape a fire.

Frank, thank you so much for that information. And for the perspective about tipping the tour leader. Food for thought for sure.

JC, we will have to agree to disagree about stairs being a problem. I was not intending to complain as much as I was alerting people about potential mobility and safety issues. In the US we are used to accommodations for the handicapped being everywhere. I remember many years ago on our first overseas trip being shocked that wasn’t the case in Europe. (As a special needs teacher I had students in wheelchairs so I was more aware of the differences I suppose ). On this tour there were no accommodations in hotels for handicapping/ mobility issues. People deserve to know that before they plop down nonrefundable $.

Just wanted to pipe in and say I took this tour in 2010 and the only hotel I think is the same is the Castle Hotel in Conwy. I never had a problem with any of my rooms. It's too bad they have changed the hotels and or the hotels have gone downhill:(. I honestly can't remember the name of our Hotel in Bath, but I don't think it had a spiral staircase and don't remember it being an unusual number of stairs to get to breakfast. I do suspect I had the same tour guide though:)

First of all, let me say that my husband and I were on the same RS Best of England tour with TravelingMom, and every word of what she says is true. She has nailed the descriptions of the hotels perfectly. For anyone who objects to her honesty about the flaws (and there were some), why are you objecting?

Who's objecting? How has this idea that the OP was being criticised for her honesty come about? I've read through all the posts and cannot see anything that could be construed as such.

Odysses Unlimited operates most of the Smithsonian Journeys tours. The only difference is you get an "expert" on your Smithsonian Journey tour and will pay about $1000 more.

I really don’t see people objecting to, or criticising what the OP wrote or indeed chiding her. What in fact you have is a bunch of British posters (like me) saying: yes, you do need to be aware of small rooms, lots of stairs etc in the type of small independent hotel RS seems to prefer. As I said upthread,

You make a useful warning - I really think any tourist who plans to
stay in old historic small independent hotels - of the sort Rick
Steves recommends - needs to be prepared for stairs, tiny rooms and
small double beds. An old house that was not designed as a hotel is
terribly difficult to retro-fit. How do you cram a lift and large en
suite hotel rooms into an old Georgian house, for example?

I struggle to see how that’s a criticism of the OP nor did she take it as such, initially.

Anyway, I stay in Premier Inns wherever possible. I’ve often found that “character” in a hotel means weird-shaped rooms, old furniture, too many steps and hotel owners who want to know your business.

I find it interesting that there are numerous threads here on the forum with people asking about traveling with a knee replacement.
And asking about Rick Steves tours.
The latest one is here:https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/travel-after-knee-replacement

As the one who started the latest knee thread, I'll chime in here. First, I really do appreciate Traveling Mom's very honest (not grumpy!) appraisal of her tour. The post has spurred a lot of great discussion.

We've taken two RS tours -- Best of Paris in 2015 (before my knees got really bad) and VFR in 2017 (when my knees had grown significantly worse). We loved both tours, with Paris getting the edge as our favorite. We really like the knowledgeable guides and the activity level of the tours. I was prepared in both cases for lots of walking and dealing with stairs. For Italy, I tried to schedule my cortisone shots for maximum effectiveness, but still found myself popping a couple of pain pills on several days. I managed and it wasn't that tough, though if I never have to slog up and down the Rialto Bridge again, I'm good.

My worst stair experience actually came when we visited the Arc de Triomphe in our free time one afternoon. I got up the stairs to the top OK, but going down any kind of winding staircase unnerves me a bit, and I take my time, watching every step. A group of 20-somethings were vaulting down the stairs three and four at a time behind me. I hated it, and finally stopped and clearly motioned them to pass. For some reason, they didn't understand and got angry with me. But I survived that, as well as all the stairs up and down at Metro stations.

All that said, I've got to say that Traveling Mom's description of 60 winding steps on a dark spiral staircase just to get to breakfast and steep, slippery steps in and out of the hotel sounds pretty daunting. As others pointed out, while the RS travel philosophy encourages active travelers and discourages the needy grumps, they absolutely should recognize that probably the majority of their guests are no longer spring chickens. Both of our tours had a fair number of younger folks, including our son, but most were older, ranging from early 50s to late 70s. Older people can enjoy strenuous, active, high-mileage itineraries despite age-related limitations. I'm sure as heck not ready for a 50-person tour with a bunch of people who can barely get up and down on the bus. But I also can't spring up and down stairs the way I did 40 years ago. Traveling Mom's report definitely would give me qualms about that particular tour.

As for hotels, we've had mostly good luck. Our favorite would definitely be the lovely Hotel de Londres Eiffel in Paris, but we were very happy with our rooms in Florence and Rome. Least favorite would be the Pensione Guerrato in Venice (also our least favorite of the cities we visited), which seemed musty and spartan. But even there, the beds were fine and it was an interesting, historic property in a good location, and we were up just one flight of stairs from the lobby. We did hear complaints from a few other people on the tour about their rooms. We had a lovely, large room with a four-poster canopy bed in Florence, while another woman said she and her husband were in a tiny, spartan shoebox. Luck of the draw.

Speaking of, I'm curious if there's any pecking order for room assignments based on when you sign up for a tour. We committed to the VFR tour almost as soon as dates came out, some 10 months in advance. We were given good rooms just a floor or two upstairs. I wonder if those who seemed to consistently have less-satisfactory rooms signed up much later? No evidence for this, just a thought.

I am not saying anything against the OP at all. This was her experience and reporting as she did is appreciated.

Any comments I have made are just out of shock that RS is using what are apparently now inferior hotels and the group meals seem to have taken a step down (as posted elsewhere, RS never had high end hotels or 5 star dining included but in the 10 tours I took were never this unacceptable). I realize the last tour I took with RS was 2 years ago and things do change and not always for the better.

Is the company trying to cover lost income from the Turkey tours they had to cancel? Are there other downturns in the tourist industry that are negatively impacting RS in general? I don't know. But this isn't the only topic about how bad some parts of other tours turned out to be. Have they grown too large with too many different tours to be able to properly update things like hotel room comfort and just continue using their tried and true (and now uncomfortably worn) hotels? I had noticed in some of my last few tours the locals, instead of the "Welcome Rick Steves Tour!" response in the TV shows, many had moved to a "Oh, not another Rick Steves bunch." response. We still received good service though.

stoutfella - that is an interesting thought about room assignments. We signed up early for our Ireland and Scotland trip last for April 2018. Only due to having certain dates and wanted to make sure I can good back to back times available. We had excellent rooms in Scotland. Ireland was decent to sub par.

Kim

I have been told by multiple RS tour guides that rooms are assigned by the hotels in most cases on the day of arrival and the assignments are communicated to the tour guide close to arrival time. The guides do know which rooms are what at some hotels and can influence the assignments when necessary. What influence they have and what they consider necessary, I don't know.

I have always booked tours late. My rooms varied, but looking at other rooms other tour group members got I doubt I was singled out to get a worse room than anyone else. In other words, if I got a crappy room at a specific hotel, most everyone else did as well. Being a single traveler who paid the single supplement, I always got smaller rooms except in those hotels that had only larger rooms.

Frank II

We have done both RS and Odysseys tours and I agree that Odysseys is the better company as far as accommodations are concerned. And yes, with Odysseys you never have to handle your luggage once you arrive at your destinaion. The guides were good on both.

TravelingMom,
Thank you, sincerely, for your honest and well-written review, and I also thank Rebecca for her perspective, too.. Feedback is the ONLY way a company like Rick Steves' can know what needs to change. I think it will be telling if the tour company makes some changes post-haste for the following tours to this location for the rest of the season. If a company hears about a problem and corrects it, it is a consumer-oriented company. If the company just reacts with no changes, then potential future customers can evaluate if they think there is a problem (I would consider it a HUGE problem).

I've traveled with Rick's company on a group tour (gosh over a decade ago), and we were pleased, but I do not know if I would be as pleased today since I have since had different experiences staying in upscale, small, often-locally-owned boutique hotels on some of our Tauck journeys and also our independent travel. Our Rick Steves' tour was our first group tour (outside of when I was a management host on a sales incentive trip to England) to Europe, and we took the Paris trip. (EDIT: Ooops...I just remembered, we also took the RS Heart of Italy trip about a decade ago....hotels on that one were very good, and one room we considered fabulous (but we lucked up...others in the same hotel were not as pleased). Our more recent group tours have been with Tauck, and they are first class.

I agree that I absolutely want to know which hotels will be used when I make my deposit (Tauck and Odesseys Unlimited tell you), then I hit Trip Advisor and web sites to take a look. While I have not been on an Odesseys journey myself, a very good friend has been on many (university alum trips) and loves them, and we have heard favorable things from fellow travelers we have met.

I hope that those reading TravelingMom's and Rebecca's comments that are signed up for this trip later this year and who might have some concerns about what they have read, that they call the RS organization and see what changes have been made (or will be made). I also hope those taking the trip in the future will then post tour reviews so we can all see what changes are (or are not) made.

ANOTHER EDIT (with this addition): On a trip that included Iceland with National Geographic, our first hotel in Iceland was less than desirable (it needed updating and remodeling, which was in process, but slowly since there appears to be a shortage of hotel rooms with so many people going to Iceland these days, so that hotel seemed to stay booked up and apparently it is hard to get some of the materials needed for the remodel (we were told). NationalGeo issued a significant credit to those who stayed there and had problems toward a future NationalGeographic trip. We let the tour guide know of the issues, and we were pleased to be changed to a different very pleasing small hotel on the return trip to Iceland from Greenland. RS's tour group might evaluate if issuing some sort of credit should be done for those on this particular England trip.

Thank you.

I just need to throw one comment into this discussion. I've seen a couple of posts lauding Tauck here. I traveled with them once. I will never travel with them again. Ever.

So it is possible to have a bad first experience no matter who is your travel company.

I forgot to mention that there are two things you do get with a Rick Steves tour that you don't get with any other company:

1) Buddy System. On other tours you are not responsible for making sure someone else is there. Your tour director does this and it doesn't take up any time.

2) The Name Game. Sadly, on other tours, you are treated as adults and not made to play silly games that may cause embarrassment to others.

Frank: Sounds like this guide might not have been capable of keeping track of everyone.

FWIW, neither of our guides on two RS tours made us do the name game. I suspect most of the guides are no more enthusiastic about it than the travelers.

aquamarinesteph, I would be interested in the details of your trip you mentioned here:

"I just need to throw one comment into this discussion. I've seen a couple of posts lauding Tauck here. I traveled with them once. I will never travel with them again. Ever.
So it is possible to have a bad first experience no matter who is your travel company."

I am not thinking of traveling with them. You obviously had a bad experience. So please tell us more.

Rebecca -

I don't mean to bash another company. There are loads of people who adore Tauck and rave over its programs. They do have a lot of positive features. They arrange for your transfer from/to the airport on arrival and departure. You never have to handle your suitcase during the tour. They generally stay in very nice hotels which you can see listed before you book your tour. They do provide some exquisite meals at very fine restaurants. You will see what was promised when you booked the trip. If for some reason something becomes unavailable, they will compensate you in some way. They will handle booking pre and post nights at the hotels where the group stays. Once you have traveled with them, they will give you a free pre-night at the group hotel. They have a lot of plusses.

My feelings are based on three main things. A guide can make or break a tour. I don't think we were a good fit with our guide, even though this was someone who's worked for Tauck for years. Our guide gave us a detailed sheet that told us to the minute what we'd be doing each day. We kept strictly to our schedule. Our guide was available for about ten minutes in the morning for any questions. Period. Our guide was not approachable in the slightest. When it came to hearing the history of an area or describing places we were seeing from the bus, they reeled off facts about what we were seeing as if we were in a classroom, exam to follow shortly. There was a seating list for the bus which changed daily and which some didn't bother to follow at all.

Our meals were lovely, but we were forced to specify table companions before many meals. You may be thinking, great! A chance to get to know some of your fellow travelers better! No. The same people always signed up together first, leaving the same four people to sit together again. And while the restaurants were lovely, there was a lot of dressing up required. You definitely wanted a nice dress for ladies and a jacket for men on this tour. Often the menus were limited, and this wasn't when we were eating as a group. This was when you had 'dine at your convenience' meals, but again - you were dining with the people who were signed up to eat at the same time.

And finally - this is the reason we tried out RS who has a no-grump policy - there were people on this tour who started complaining at the first reception and did not stop for a second. Too much that. Not enough this. Why were following such a stupid travel pattern? Why not this? I'm not eating that. And this from people who described themselves as having traveled more in a year than I've probably traveled in my life.

Not every Tauck tour is like that, I'm sure. Like I said, there are loads of people who are devoted to the Tauck product. But this was my experience. Both my husband and I were just staring at each other and wondering why we'd spent the money on this tour, but it DID have the itinerary we wanted. So we did what we always do when things go awry - we smile at each other, and we cope and deal with it. There were other little things along the way as well, but those are the easiest to describe highlights. It just left such an unpleasant taste in my mouth that I decided that I'd spend my money and time better elsewhere.

I’ve never considered taking a RS tour, and after reading this report I know I won’t. But, the biggest reason is the cost, I can go to the U.K., including airfare for four weeks for what RS charges plus airfare for one person. But, again I really enjoy doing the planning, booking tickets, etc.

Thanks for the honest review. Reviews like these really help.

I just had a chat with my Villages of South England guide over breakfast. He said on the tours in Britain the guides don’t do any changes to room assignments as most of the rooms in the hotels across England, Scotland and Wales are similar in his view.

He also said when he first started with RS he was an assistant guide on the 21 day Best of Europe (with Dimitri) and that Dimitri told him the guides on the continent did do shifting of rooms as there were so many rooms that fell in to good/bad categories.

Not to bash another company either, but Tauck is a lot of exactly what I DON'T want or need. I'm sure there are many people who believe that Tauck's way of travel is the only way and would never take a RS tour, and good for them. And the extras offered sound good. But ...

First, their tours are much much more expensive than equivalent RS tours are. While I would have no issues paying that for a tour, I just don't see the need at this point in my life as long as other options exist.

I don't want to dress up for meals while on vacation. I am not a slob, but I also don't find wearing a jacket necessarily improves my dining experience.

I don't want my days planned out to the second, I like free time to explore a location more or even to return to a site the group visited earlier to dig a little deeper, or even just to relax and enjoy the view.

I like being able to discuss things during the day with the guide (at appropriate times that don't interfere with group activities of course).

I like the smaller simpler B&B places and the "quaint" and family run hotels RS uses. While the hotels listed on the Tauck tours are fantastic, they are just too "fancy" for me. I get nervous staying at 5 star places where everyone knows my name -- and everyone has their hand out for a tip.

Never having to touch my luggage? That does sound nice after a long day of what can be exhausting activities. But, no, I don't need someone delivering my luggage to my room when all I have is my one carry on that will arrive at the room the same time I do when I am responsible for carrying it.

I remember my time when I and my wife visited.
Both of us had worn tradition Indian clothing, me a kurta and she had worn one of her kurtis when we went to visit this Indian restaurant(can't remember the name since it was a while ago). It was just such a pleasant experience. I remember speaking to the people at the restaurant in Hindi and we got to speak in Hindi after a long time since we had taken a packaged tour of Europe entirely.
England just seems to be a wonderful place for me.
I have nothing but good things to say about the United Kingdom.

Travelingmom,

Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I plan on taking this tour back to back with Southern Villages in Sept 2019. It has been fantastic to read comments/reviews from 3 travelers all on the same tour.

Again, thank you.

Sid

Pam said: "I just had a chat with my Villages of South England guide over breakfast. He said on the tours in Britain the guides don’t do any changes to room assignments as most of the rooms in the hotels across England, Scotland and Wales are similar in his view. "

Interesting, because out guide on the BoE tour in April made us think it was he who made the assignments. He mentioned this numerous times.

You may want to copy and paste this trip review over on the section titled "Tips & Trip Reports
Discuss your latest trip and share your top travel tips." The boards are usually monitored quite closely, and the information might need to get over to the people who can change it.
Thanks, I hope your next trip is lots better.
-Alison

Last July I was on the Villages of South England tour and stayed at the Brooks Guesthouse in Bath on the last night of the tour. All the other B&Bs and guesthouses on that tour were acceptable, some were quirky and also had many stairs. The description of the building and rooms is spot-on. Very many steps to the front door with no handrail and small room with tiny bath which needed updating. I didn't remember the mattress but it was not the best. Since it was the last night before I was heading to London for an extension, it was bearable. My room happened to be on the main level but the other tour members had to go up the steep stairs. Also, since I had an early train from Bath to London, I missed the breakfast as I left the guesthouse very early. Going down the steps with no handrail from the front door to the street with my rollerboard was tricky - I just took my backpack down first and came back up for the rollerboard.
Most members of the tour group understood the RS philosophy of getting your bags in/out by yourself. Sometimes it was difficult as some of the B&Bs had numerous staircases, some steep. Yes, it is time to accommodate some of the Boomer generation travelers who may have mobility issues.
Yes, it is a converted large house and I have stayed in such guesthouses in London near Victoria Station and Bayswater but none in this condition.

I totally agree with those who have stated that sooner or later RS tours needs to accept the fact that the typical tour participant is aging and that aging carries with it all the aches and pains of older knees, backs and hips. The lodgings could be re-evaluated every year and adjustments made. As much as I hate to admit it, I have knees that don't like stairs anymore and am extra careful going down steps now. Extreme example here, I know, but a man I use to work with was traveling in Europe with his wife. She fell down a set of stairs leaving a cathedral, suffered a head injury and passed away.

As far as the room assignments, I was told by one of my RS tour guides that if given the option, the guide will assign rooms and try to rotate the "best" rooms throughout the group. Some hotels don't give them the option and do the assigning on their own.

Lisa, I specifically choose hotels with elevators so I can save my knees for sightseeing and for the steps in the Tube, although I do use elevators whenever they're readily available.