Exploiting several tours for personal reasons

So you want to pay for a RS tour, but leave the tour at some point to venture off to a different country for a few days to go watch soccer? Is that what you’re saying?

I would just plan your own trip. You can do it.

Yes, you can always opt out of a day's activities with an RS tour. The only difficulty is if it is a transit day where you are moving from one city to another.

Are the soccer events you are looking at coinciding with the towns you will be in on the tour?

If you are on an Italian tour and want to go to Germany for games that is going to be slightly awkward. You'd need to get yourselves to an airport/train station, travel up and then travel back to meet back with the tour.

Honestly it might be better not to try and do tours with everything else you want to see?

I'm with Pam and travel4fun. Just thinking about all that makes my head hurt. Why not just plan your own trip? It would so much easier than trying to scramble to fit your games into a tight tour schedule.

Start off with a spreadsheet or calendar showing the dates of the games and the locations, then figure out the beginning and the end. Once you have that, figure out a mode of transportation and hotels and bob's your uncle! Seriously, if you start with a very basic itinerary, post it here and people would be more than happy to help.

I agree with the others, at nearly $700 a day for a tour, to take off a day or more for other things, and even a couple times during a tour, pay for additional transportation and hotel somewhere else, just does not make sense.

Easy enough to plan your own trip.

take personal days off

it isn't like a job where you get so many vacation days. These tours are not cheap and you won't get money back for days you are away from the tour. Every time you leave on your own you will need to inform your buddies (you each get one) and the tour leader. Usually that is for an event during a day, not running off for days at a time and overnights.

Are you intending to leave your luggage on the bus while you are away?

You always have the option to “opt out” on a tour. However, in your case, it seems like you are trying to do two things that don’t really fit together at the same time. Could you attend the events before or after a tour so it works a little smoother?

Great information. Thank you, but I'm not entirely convinced.

Let me try and explain myself more. The Germany trip from June 23 to July 5. For us it would be:

tour day, tour day
Cologne
tour day, tour day, tour day
Florence, Gelsenkirchen
tour day, tour day, tour day, tour day, tour day.

Yes, we would miss 3 days but we would get so much more out of the trip if we stayed with the tour. Yes, it would be more financially, which is a good point, but with transportation being so cheap and flexible it may be possible to leave and return to the tour on the same day. Soccer games are in the evening and LeTour (Florence) is usually later in the day.

We will be moving on to an Italian tour on the 8th with (hopefully) the same options. After Italy, we might be on our own to go to England and Paris. Haven't figured that one out, yet.

there is a Germany tour from June 23 thru July 5. There are soccer games on the 25th and the 30th. Letour kicks off on the 29th in Florence.

Unless your RS tour is in same city as your games, it makes no sense to take the tour only to leave it for a day or two at a time. You're paying for a tour you're not taking; there is no discount for days not participating. It makes so much more sense to plan your trip for independent travel as most have suggested. Map out where you need to be on which days, then fill in travel time and sightseeing. Germany has a good train system, as does much of Europe. As suggested, once you get a rough itinerary, let us know so we can help. It takes homework and planning on your part, but it sounds like you have already started that. FWIW, I hope you have your Paris hotel booked for the Olympics since they are filling fast at a premium rate.

EDIT: Exactly which tours are you thinking of? Are you taking into consideration travel time? For a very rough guide to travel time, you can use Rome2Rio, just keep in mind it's not accurate and definitely don't book anything through them.

This is not something we would do. I’d kill 🤭my husband if he dare suggest such a thing.

I'd note for your example of the Germany tour that two of your "tour days" are arrival and departure days, which aren't activity heavy. Other than a dinner and breakfast and hotels, these are not high value days.

But besides that, I think there are some logistical issues with your plan. One is that on a RS tour you are responsible for your own luggage, so any day the tour is moving locations and your travel to and attending a match falls outside the group schedule, you could be faced with hauling your luggage with you. The RS guide and driver are simply not going to take care of it for you unless it's in line with the group schedule. Another issue is that you won't know for certain which smaller towns you are staying in on the tour until about 90 days out. What if there aren't good transit options to your matches of choice? Or they're all sold out? Last, you have zero room for error, full/late trains, or other travel drama. It's going to be a stupendously busy summer in Europe and that will happen. This also could result in you missing much more of the tour schedule than just the match days. And I certainly would not try to go from Munich to Florence to Gelsenkirchen and back to Munich in two days - the train between the latter two cities is 6 hours.

Unless the match is in a town you are already in, I'd find a pub and watch football with the locals. Catch the Tour de France in France.

If you’re thinking of getting from Florence to Gelsenkirchen the next day, have you checked that there actually are flights that leave Florence in the late afternoon/evening to get you anywhere near Gelsenkirchen in time for the match? And how many are there of you? How much will the plane flights cost you, on top of the cost of the lost tour days? I don’t want to sound nasty, but it sounds like you imagine that Europe is small enough to bounce around from south to north easily and cheaply, but it’s much more complicated than that.

Have you thought of skipping the RS tour completely and focusing on what really seems to interest you - the Tour de France and the soccer? With some planning you could blend following the Tour for as many days as you want with going to the soccer games, see parts of Europe you never would otherwise and save the cost for the RS tour.

This thread may help you with your game planning. Especially the ticket lottery information and trains to Gelsenkirchen.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/germany-hosting-euro-cup-summer-2024

there is a moral issue here also. You are taking a tour spot but using only some of the tour., seemingly for some convenience as you do to seem to want the whole tour. Someone else who wants to be on that full tour will be denied taking that tour even though you are only using part of it. Does not seem right. This is right up there with the practice of making several refundable for lodging for the same period, and cancelling the ones you don't want at the last minute.

I don't see any problem with your plans. I have friends who once booked a package tour, and stayed in a house that their friends had booked instead of the hotel included with the package. They're still alive, and I doubt very much that this action will eventually send them to hell.

Your level of planning makes my head spin, but anyone who implies that there is somehow a moral issue here must have onion soup for brains.

I think you can do whatever you want just as long as your guide is aware of your plans and you manage your own luggage and your own worries if you don't get back in time to catch the bus. It's your money so you can use it as you like. I have relatives that take tours just for the transportation and hotel arrangements (not RS tours that I know of). To each their own. It's your trip.

You obviously have more energy than I do! LOL

This is right up there with the practice of making several refundable for lodging for the same period, and cancelling the ones you don't want at the last minute.

But he is paying for the tour while those who cancel refundable lodging at the last minute are not and can cause revenue losses for the hotel.

Hi, on the RS Adriatic tour last year, I planned ahead of time to have one day/night away from the tour because I wanted the chance to be on more islands in Croatia. Here’s what I wrote on my trip report, and I think those comments are valid for your consideration:

Hvar (I planned months ahead to have one night on my own riding the ferries, so I chose Hvar on Hvar Island & didn’t go to Bosnia.). I enquired with the RS office before I signed up to check which town on Korcula they typically stay to see if this opportunity would work for me. I purchased my ferry tickets on-line at home for the 1-hour ferry from Split to Hvar and the 75 minute ferry from Hvar to Korcula. I used the Krilo ferry company and rode the passenger catamaran ferries - very easy & convenient. I shared it with Mariam early in the tour and also gave her a paper with all of reservation details, so she wouldn’t need to worry about me. I think it’s worth mentioning that I’m very comfortable traveling alone, and I also didn’t expect my RS guide to spend any of her time working on my plan for ferry reservations, etc.”

I was at our next location (island) on the RS itinerary hours before my group arrived, so the group noticed me having dinner at a special outdoor spot when they were doing their orientation walk of Korcula.

Well I had time to kill so here you go!
6/23 BoG RS tour
6/24 leave group in Hamburg or 6/25 leave group from "village in Lower Saxony", travel on own to Cologne
6/25 Cologne match
6/26 meet back up with group in Cologne
6/28 leave group in Rothenburg or 6/29 bus with group to Dachau then Munich in afternoon, leave group and travel on own to Florence??
6/29 Florence TdF start
6/29 or 6/30 leave Florence for Gelsenkirchen??
6/30 Gelsenkirchen match
6/30 or 7/1 leave Gelsenkirchen for Erfurt to rejoin group
7/1-5 finish with group (Erfurt, Dresden, Berlin)
Additional costs: transportation, meals on own, possible extra hotels. UEFA Euro is happening! Are you sure transportation will be "cheap and flexible"? Hotels and restaurants available?
Lost value of RS tours: sightseeing admissions and experiences, hotel breakfasts, group meals. Also less development of rapport with guide and camaraderie with tourmates, late and separate check-in to tour hotels may irk hoteliers, greater risk of "exposures"!
If you left off Florence for TdF, I think you could much more easily make the 6/25 and 30 matches; the Cologne match in particular could fit smoothly into the tour schedule. (Also by trying to get to Florence, you will essentially miss out on all of Munich.)

7/5-8 on own to Venice
7/8 VFR RS tour
7/9 or 10 leave group in Venice, travel on own back to Germany/Dortmund??
7/10 Dortmund match
7/10-11 leave Dortmund, rejoin group in Florence (again??)
7/13 or 14 leave group in Florence (7/13 missing Uffizi/Accademia!), travel on own back to Germany/back to Berlin??
7/14 Berlin match
7/14 or 15 leave Berlin, rejoin group in Rome
-7/17 finish with group (Rome)
Same cost/value issues as above. I think back-and-forth'ing multiple times between northern Germany and Italy is also a terrible waste of your time! Since you're less likely to score tickets for these later games, everybody's concern here may be moot, and you can just enjoy this tour! (Join a bunch of Italians watching the matches on tv! :-D

I noticed the word in the header - exploiting - which I think says it all.

I do think it is worth thinking for a minute about the buddies. Their purpose is to make sure that their buddy is ok and is where they need to be and that the bus doesn't leave without them. And it is mutual - both are looking out for each other.

The post is about "we" which I presume is at least two. So at least 2 buddies won't have anybody to watch for - jam for them! - but also those at least 2 buddies won't have anybody watching for them during the football and cycling. hmmm

I do think it is worth thinking for a minute about the buddies. Their purpose is to make sure that their buddy is ok and is where they need to be and that the bus doesn't leave without them. And it is mutual - both are looking out for each other.

You must be kidding right? Surely people can figure out they need a new buddy if someone is leaving for a day or 2 -it ain't rocket science

buddies are matched up at the beginning of the tour. So the left-behinds find new buddies - who are already somebody else's - during the absence and then give them up for a day or two while the football fans are back visiting the tour..... maybe it is rocket science (at least based on the last couple of launches in the US)

Do yourself a favor, a plan your own trip.It will work out cheaper and spending almost a thousand dollars on a tour where you won't do all the activities sounds honestly pretty crazy to me unless someone is flushed with cash.

However, if you go on the trip please call and discuss with the RS tour team ahead of time

You know, I think Heather has the best suggestion of all. Instead of coming here and asking all of us, just call the Rick Steves' office, explain what you would like to do and have them tell you if it's feasible or not.

We don't know if it will work. Even those who have been on RS tours can't speak for the future. Quite frankly, I'm wondering why you even posted here. You have never posted before on this forum and are a very new member.

That said, if you are sincere, just contact the Rick Steves tour office. Email is tour@ricksteves.com or call 425-771-8303.

This idea will make it difficult for the tour guide to manage the group meal selections. You make these individual selections days in advance and it's really not fair to add such complications to their already complex job. You also will make your own experience less pleasant if you weren't available to make an advance selection for a tour meal that you do end up attending.

I would either do your own trip or do the tour--it seems to make life needlessly complicated to try to combine the two. Stresses me out just to read the proposal.

Lissie said: "You must be kidding right? Surely people can figure out they need a new buddy if someone is leaving for a day or 2 -it ain't rocket science."

Have you ever been on an RS tour? Seems like you don't understand how the buddy system works. Everyone matches up with one person who is their buddy throughout the tour -- a quick easy way to check to make sure that everyone is present and ready to get on the bus, to move on to different locations, etc. There aren't just stray people waiting around for someone to be a single for the day, as would happen everytime the OP leaves to go to a football game. If my buddy decided to leave, then I wouldn't have someone alerting the tour guide if I happened to wander off and get lost. Some people don't like the buddy system, but I've been on three RS tours and find it great fun.

I agree with Mardee. Seems to me, if you’re serious about all this and the expense and time involved, all you need do is contact the Rick Steves organization. Sure got everyone going, though, if that was your purpose….:)

Man, seeing part of Le Tour has been on my bucket list, but alas the Hot Wife isn't interested in the super crowds we would deal with. Part of it stemming from an incident at Versailles where a stinky, sweaty guy bumped into her and she got the stink on her for the rest of the day.

Anyway, Poland this fall because Mary loves Polish pottery and we both like history. When I suggested she can just find the pottery online and order it, she gave me "the look."

Once again I'll mention I'd love to go to Russia, but that seems unlikely any time in the near future. Maybe when I'm dead I'll visit as an apparition of something?

$700 per day? Yowzah! Out of my price range, my friends, but I'm happy and envious of those of you who can swing it. I'm just a poor, white boy from the hills of West Virginny.

Out upcoming tour of Poland adds up to about $4400 for two total, including flights and everything except for tips and, um, Polish pottery.