Walking the Eastern France trip

Hi, jbodig. I have bookmarked this topic and will await others to reply. Thanks for posting and hope you can make the trip. I think RS tour members are the sort of folks who would be considerate of someone who is moving a bit slowly.

I'm on the May 29 departure of the Eastern France tour. It's my first Rick Steves tour and I'm eager to go. I have all fingers crossed that the world situation (Putin and Covid) will enable us to travel in the next few months. Others who have taken the tour will confirm or refute my suspicion that they kind of overstate the requirements for the tour to discourage those who have real mobility issues. I don't think we will do 2-6 miles nonstop walking. I think we will have breaks built in and may cover that much ground in total in a day. I'm fine with that and with stairs as long as there's something like a handrail. My concern is fitting everything in a carry on bag! I'm curious how many hotels don't have elevators/lifts. I live in a three story townhouse and will practice "walking" my suitcase up and down the stairs.

Thanks to all for your reply on this....

Hi, jbodig. I've been on this tour, as well as a number of other RS tours. On at least 3 or 4 tours, probably more, there were people who had some difficulty walking. At least one of my former tourmates felt that the tour wasn't fair to the slower folks. For example, the guide and the main part of the group would get to a certain point and wait for the slower folks. As soon as everyone was there, the guide would set off again, meaning the slower people got fewer breaks.

I will say that in all cases, the tour members were patient and considerate. And in most cases, if someone wasn't going to be able to keep up or to do a certain activity, that person has the option to skip the activity. On the Village Italy tour, there were, if I recall correctly, 4 people who opted out of the Civitá di Bagnoregio climb. They stayed back at an outdoor bar where they could watch us, and cheered us on.

On a recent Best of Europe trip, a person who was considerably slower than the rest of us wanted to do the 2-mile hike through the woods to the next venue. Her solution was to arrange with the guide for her to skip the various activities planned for the venue. She made that hike all by herself, even though several of us volunteered to walk with her. Our fun was "breaking trail" for her. Although the guide had assured us it was impossible to get lost, he was mistaken. (He had run on head to get tickets for the things we were going to visit.) So at every point where a decision had to be made, we left trail markers and notes of encouragement for her. She was touched, and said it kept her smiling the whole way.

By the way, I'll check my notes later, but I don't remember any 6 mile days on the Eastern France tour. There is one long, steep climp up to a winery, but the winery staff offered to ferry people up in their vehicles. The only part I found difficult was clambering around in the vineyard itself. I was not the only one who had trouble there, though. And the lunch and wine tasting that followed made it all worth it.

And one person skipped the vineyard clamber, and waited for the rest of us at the winery.

Hi GimmeGranache: (ah. I had to say your handle out loud to get the allusion.) This sounds like the trip for you. Agreed about the Covid-Putin complication. Thanks for the encouragement. I'm traveling solo so I'm a little more hesitant. My trip, if I take it, is 5/22.

Jbodig, save some wine for me! I love my Rhones..... Yes, I was convinced that this was the tour for me when a reviewer said he didn't realize the tour was so "wine intensive". Sign me up!!

Jane, had to laugh at your description of clambering through the vineyards. Hope we clamber before the tasting or it could get interesting.... thanks for your info on this trip.

One more comment - The itinerary may say "2 to 6 miles," but that doesn't mean all at once, or at a breakneck pace (usually.) That will be the amount of time you might walk throughout the day. And generally that amount includes what someone at RSE speculates you MIGHT walk on your own, in addtion to what you will walk with the group.

A lot of this will be up to your guide, but the guide will take the temperature of the group. We've had 4 guides who kept a fairly rapid walking pace. Not a gallop, but not a stroll, either. I remember on one tour (Belgium and Holland,) a number of the tour members were complaining that our guide walked too fast. They were startled, and a bit shamedfaced, at one point, when one of the local guides was introduced to the group, and then took off at a very quick pace. Our guide called out to her "Slow down! They're Americans!" Ouch.

Eastern France is a wonderful tour, by the way; it immediately became one of my favorites.

Hi Jane, Gosh. The best things so far have been the positive responses to my question about terrain difficulty. I used to be a gazelle, but that was a while ago. It's hard to accept that maybe one isn't quite up to it anymore. I was 75% decided not to go. It's swung around to 50-50. From experience I know that walking Roman ruins can be challenging. A hiking stick might be useful.

Don’t worry. You will be fine. I have severe arthritis ( headed to bilateral replacement soon). I had no problem keeping up. For sure don’t worry about the Roman ruins. It was basically all flat, and a very small area. Not physically challenging in any way.

There were only three situations that were challenging to me. One was our lovely hotel in Vaison. It was a steep incline ( no steps thank God). I was slow, but I wasn’t the only one. And it had nothing to do with the actual tour. They transported our luggage for us. The trips up and down were on our own. We solved that by buying Cremant ( sparkling wine) and sandwiches at the little grocery store at the bottom the hill in town. That meant only one trip back up, and a delightful dinner in our spacious room overlooking the town. Perfect.
The second was the most memorable lunch at the family- owned vineyard. There were a few steep steps with no railing. After the fact I discovered that other tour members just hitched a ride up. One of the best meals/ experiences of my life. I would have crawled up there on my hands and knees if I had to. It was that good. 😂
The third was our stay at the hotel in Beaune. SO many winding stairs up to our room. MANY other tour member had less challenging room locations. All we had to was ask.

SO…the lesson in all of these was to just speak up. Don’t just suffer through. Ask for assistance. I could have ridden up with the luggage. I could have had a ride up to the winery house for lunch. I could have specifically asked for a lower level floor for a room. But I was too proud ( read stubborn).

Be politely bold about asking for help.
We have done 7 tours and this was probably our very favorite. Enjoy every minute. And if all else fails, participate liberally in all those wine tastings. For medicinal purposes of course. 😉
I would not have missed any of those experiences no matter what. Such special memories. So much varied activity. So much good food. So many fun happy hours. All enhanced by Chris, the best RS guide by far. Empathy and experience abound in her.
You will love this tour. Such a good combination of history, culture, geography. The food was superb. The locations carefully selected to give you a feel for the variety of culture, food, and wine of this part of France.
And this is coming from people who only had negative experiences in France prior to this tour.
Go. Enjoy. Thrive!

We did it an loved it. You’ve gotten lots of good input from previous posters. We had a couple on our tour that were mid-80’s. The only place I saw them change plans was the day we went to a winery outside Colmar. There was a lot of walking through that vineyard with no shade on a hot day. That was a different winery than previous posters have mentioned. The couple made arrangements to stay with the bus and meet us at the tasting room in town. I would agree the hotel in Beaune was a little tricky, but it sounds like you’re used to stairs. The hill in Vaison was impressive, but the view from the hotel was totally worth it. We limited the number of times we had to climb, finding a restaurant part way down for the dinner on our own. There were shuttles to the winery outside Vaison ( Seguret) when we took the tour.

Just another aside: in Vaison, our group didn't stay in the hotel up the dreaded hill; we were in the heart of town, right on the main square!

Thank you everyone!! Such great info from all. I hope your upcoming trips are as wonderful as this one was for you.

Thank you everyone for this great info. I am going on the 5/22 departure after the 5/10 Paris & HOF. These are rescheduled from 2020 when I was two years younger and in better shape I will take your advice and ask for help when needed. Keep on Travelin.

It has been awhile since I took this tour, and it remains one of my favorites. Note that while the tiny blurb under the map says "fairly active", the bar graph below it shows this to be a less active tour. In my memory, the hotel in Vaison was the most strenuous walk, but well worth it - and it seems that other tours stayed in different locations.

Am I reading your note correctly and you have tried speaking with the tour department? They should be able to clue you in to the hotel in Vaison. Note that while a steep climb, everyone did it very slowly and at their own pace. There was at least one café on the way up. If it is the same one I was in, there is a beautiful pool. Guides kinda pick up on limitations, ages, etc., and in my experience, are sensitive to this. In Beaune, my room was on the ground floor. We did not visit Aix - this was several tour variations ago - but it seems others have made adjustments to get to the vineyard.

I love the tour for its variety. I doubt I would be able to accomplish all that on my own, definitely not in the time and locations the tour offers. I also travelled solo. Go for it!

StormyB, we did that exact combination in 2019, and had a wonderful time. You're in for a treat; in fact, lots of them! I'll post my trip reports, if you'd like.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/tour-report-paris-and-the-heart-of-france

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/tour-report-best-of-eastern-france

Jane: your tour report is so excellent that I feel I don't have to go! Just kidding. I'm an art person so I liked your descriptions of related sightings. Have until Sunday to decide. I can eat and drink anything/everything, but unfortunately not as much as I used to. :-(
I would have been delighted to be on a tour with you and DH. Joyce

I would say to go on the tour! We have only been on two other RS tours, but there was a variety of physical abilities, and it didn't seem to bother anyone. Someone was always quick to give a helping hand when needed. Be upfront with the group from the beginning that you might be a little slower. We will be on that tour in early May. Go and enjoy!