back to back tours

I also travel from the Western US and I agree about using your time wisely!

I’ve done a number of back to backs and one back to back to back!

2014: 21 day Best of Europe + 7 day Best of Paris + Village Italy
2015: 14 day Best of England + Paris and the Heart of France
2016: Germany, Austria and Switzerland + a Road Scholar hiking program in England
2018: Best of Southern England + Best of Scotland

The other years I’ve usually added on independent travel time before and after.

I think the combo I enjoyed best was Best of England + Paris and the Heart of France. I added time in London before and after and added time in Paris before and after. The culture and history are different for the 2 countries but it’s easy to travel between.

The combo that was least successful for me was Best of Southern England and Best of Scotland. I never thought I’d get sick of castles and castle ruins but yes, I did. The food felt similar.

For myself I decided it worked better for me to have a complete change of culture if I do 2 tours.

Do you have any tours in mind?

We’d love to do two fully guided tours but just don’t have the stamina anymore. What we can do is one fully guided tour and one My Way Tour, or a fully guided tour and a river cruise or a fully guided and extra days in a place we love. We did the Best of Sicily and My Way Italy with extra time in Sicily and Venice. Our next one was My Way Spain followed by the RS Basque Country with extra days in Barcelona and Bayonne. This year we’re doing My Way France combined with the Best of Switzerland.

Hi Jackie, my first two weeks wasn’t a tour, but I combined two weeks in England & Wales with the RS Best of the Adriatic tour. Since it is more difficult to get to the Adriatic for my location, this was perfect since I just took an Easy Jet in-Europe flight from London to Ljubljana. After the Adriatic tour, I took another Easy Jet flight from Dubrovnik to Amsterdam, stayed overnight in nearby Leiden, and I took Delta flights back to Spokane, Washington. (So I think the northern England tour would pair nicely with the Adriatic.)

As Pam mentioned, it’s nice to have a variety of food & sites between the two locations.

We did the Best of Central Europe a few years ago, followed a few days later by the Heart of Italy. The BCE tour ends in Lake Bled, Slovenia. From there we took a 3 hour shuttle to Venice for a few days. From Venice to Rome, the start of the HOI tour, it was a quick 3 hours on the high speed train.

In 2024 we did the Best of Eastern France and Paris and the Heart of France as almost back to back tours. The first tour ended on Saturday and the next one started on Tuesday. We spent the weekend in Arles on our own and then took the train to Paris. It was nice to have some touring time without a group and we also used the time to catch up on laundry and generally slow down a bit. Both tours covered very different parts of France so it didn’t seem repetitive. This September we are planning a two week non Rick Steves tour in Romania followed by Rick Steves Prague and Budapest.

We did the Best of Paris followed a couple of days later by the Best of Eastern France. Worked out well except for having to learn two sets of group’s names. My husband is good with that while I struggle with one group.

We did the shorter Scotland tour, some independent travel in Scotland and London, and then the Best of South England tour. Less structured time between tours, and not being in a group, was a helpful reset. We really enjoyed both, food and sights included. If you do two tours, highly recommend a break in between, unless you are exceedingly social and flexible.

I did the Italy Venice - Fl - Rome then the "Best of Paris" back to back pre-COVID. Though I did add a couple of days in-between in Rome.

I studied Italian for the first one, and didn't need it, and neglected French for the second, where I did need it. If these health difficulties relent I'll probably do a back to back Ven-Fl-Rome again and Village Italy.

My first back to back tour was in 2009 - Best of Turkey followed by Athens and the Heart of Greece. A couple of years later I combined the Best of England with the Best of Ireland. Fast forward to today - the overall number of tours and types of tours have changed perhaps allowing for even better combinations.

Nowadays, I combine personal time and travel in front of or after an organized tour.