Hi Everybody,
I'm looking into my next RS tour and I'm having trouble deciding between the RS Eastern France versus the RS Loire/South France tours. I don't drink wine or champagne, so that's not a way to help me decide. I'm a teacher, so I'll be going in the summertime.
Any thoughts on how to pick? Have you done both tours?
Thanks,
Gretchen
Gretchen,
I happened to be on the flagship eastern France tour in 2009. Although there were itinerary bugs to work out, which they have since done, this was an amazing tour. It was educational, informative and simply incredible scenery. I loved our guide (William) and met some wonderful people that I still stay in contact with. I did that tour single and my new boyfriend and I took the best of the Adriatic tour last June. It was his introduction to RS and he really enjoyed it. He loves France and wants to take the Eastern France tour above all of the other France tours that Rick offers. It was that great of a tour and with the changes, I know that it will be fun and exciting for me for a second time. We will take it next year, as Italy won out this year. My friends that were on the tour with me in 2009 agree that they would also take it again.
I have never taken a tour of or been to the areas in the other France tour, but I can assure you that you won't be disappointed either way. Rick's tours and guides are so great and you will enjoy either choice that you make.
Gretchen - We have done both of these tours and enjoyed both very much. If I had to choose one though, I would definitely pick the Loire/South France one. Really enjoyed Carcassonne, the Pont du Gard is magnificent, Sarlat is delightful, canoeing was great fun, and Arles is very interesting with its Roman history. Oradour-sur-Glane is very thought provoking and not to be missed.
Happy planning and enjoy your trip.
Oh wow, it is a hard choice. I had the same problem when I went on the RS Loire/South France tour. I had to choose between the same two tours. I loved the tour! It was a lot of fun, beautiful scenery, wonderful food, and Sarlat was so quaint. I love wine and I too felt that the Eastern France had a lot of wine tastings and more emphasis on wine and champagne and I would have liked that. But, I choose the other tour as I really wanted to see the French castles more and I could still drink wine. That was the deciding factor, seeing the beautiful french castles and gardens. Everyone is going to tell you what tour they loved and i agree you can't go wrong with either tour but in order to really decide, go on YouTube and look at videos that show you all the towns both tours go to. Take out the RS videos on France from your library. Go to the book store or library and look at books that show the French towns that both tours go to in France. It really is the only way to decide, to see what you think you would like to see more. Go to the RS scrapbooks and look at the two tours that people posted. Great way to see the tours itself and what people saw and wrote what they saw and thought about the tours. I looked at the RS scrapbooks and decided to go to Ireland that way as Ireland had never even been on my list! it was a great way to determine what tour I wanted to go on and it was amazing. Whatever you decide, you will not regret it and don't look back just go and have a great time!
