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Deciding on which France RS Tour to take-Would enjoy feedback

Posted by (Gainesville, Florida ) on

We are veteran Rick Steves travelers (9 tours) and want to select a France itinerary next year. The 2 tours we are most interested in are Loire to the South of France and Best of Eastern France. Our plan is to spend 4-5 days in Paris prior to joining one of these tours.

I was curious if there are any Forum readers who have taken both of these tours, and, if so, if you had any highlights or preferences that you could share? My wife and I have already taken the Paris and the Heart of France RS tour so there will be a little overlap on the Loire to the South of France from that tour. That said, we really enjoyed the Loire Valley and would not have an issue with re-visiting the area as a small part of the other tours.

We enjoy wine, some hiking/nature walks, good cheese, villages and medieval history. Beaches are OK, but not a priority (we live in coastal Florida).

Any input would be appreciated!

Posted by
2560 posts

We’re tour veterans as well (off soon on #12 & 13). We’ve done both of these tours and my husband frequently comments that he’d like to do the Eastern France tour again. They were both excellent tours and we felt we got every drop of value possible, but the breadth of the Eastern France tour was sensational. We did arrive a day early in Reims, so we had chance to add some additional champagne tasting and cellar visiting. There hadn’t been a chance to visit a WWI site in our previous travels, so seeing Verdun was sobering. There is such a variety of towns included from Alsatian Colmar to calendar picturesque Annacey as well as Beaune, Vaison la Romaine and Aix-en-Provance. We still order wine from the Côtes du Rhône vineyard we visited.

You know you can’t go wrong either way.

Posted by
1037 posts

I’ve done both and I’d give a slight edge to the Loire V tour. Very slight edge. Both are excellent. The Eastern France tour is slightly more wine intensive, I’d say. I’ve done 12 tours.

Posted by
31 posts

Thanks for the excellent feedback! Looks like we can't go wrong with either choice so we have a decision to make.

Posted by
40 posts

We are in a similar position. The responses are very helpful. Thank you

Posted by
9752 posts

I haven’t been on those two tours, but I have been to most of those locations.

The eastern France one takes you to the cute French/German style Colmar & surrounding villages, plus if you like mountain hiking then the Chamonix region would be a highlight. I have a collage of 8 enlarged canvas photos from my many trips, and one of them is of a lane in a village outside Colmar.

If you do the Loire/south France, I would highly recommend spending extra days in Nice afterwards. I noticed the tour itinerary is light for Nice. There’s a lot to enjoy along the Riviera, and it’s easy to get around by the train that run along it or by bus. I stayed in Nice and had plenty of non-beach ways to spend five days. Interestingly, two of my other enlarged canvas photos in my home office are of scenes from the Nice region - at the Villa Rothschild near Nice and a twisty lane in the upper east portion of nearby Menton that has those gorgeous Italian gold & orange tones on buildings - used to be part of Italy.

I would lean towards recommending the Eastern France tour to give you more contrast to what you’ve already experienced from previous tours, but as you can see from my descriptions, I love both options. No wrong choice with either one!

Posted by
31 posts

Our group decided on the Best of Eastern France! Thanks again for the great info and feedback.

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