I need help choosing my first tour destination

You've seen a lot of Western Europe, maybe time to see Eastern Europe.

Yes, how about the Prague and Budapest tour?

I agree--Prague & Budapest

I don't see Italy and Sicily on your have visited list. Maybe it's time to visit there. RS has several tours in Italy including Rome if you want just one city or Best of Venice, Florence and Rome if you want more. No matter which tour you choose, you will love the tours. I took my first tour in May, RS South of Italy, and can't wait for 2021 for my next.

How about Italy? I KNOW you said immersion - but Heart of Italy was my first RS tour and it has such a good mix of big city/smaller towns that it was a fun introduction to Italy for me.

It's 9 days but I'd want to arrive in Rome at least one day ahead of the tour start...2 is better. Then an extra day in Florence wouldn't go amiss either. That's more than your 10 day limit but worth it.

BTW, I've done 11 RS tours, 6 of them solo and have had a wonderful time. There are often a Canadian or two on each tour as well. Tour members are generally very welcoming to others!

We've traveled independently in Europe until this past fall when we took a three week trip in Italy with the Rome RS tour in the middle of it. We choose Rome because we felt its a more difficult city to get tickets and manage crowds and because we thought we'd benefit from guides to provide information and context at some of the sites.

Greer- How about a tour of Portugal or Southern Spain in the Fall as your first Rick Steves' tour experience? Take a look and see if that interest you.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/spain-portugal

Greer,
Great ideas up thread. We spent time in Central Europe this past fall. Since it's still fresh in my mind, I would give another vote to Prague and Budapest. I think this would allow you to immerse yourself in a new culture. It sounds like it could be a great first tour!

Portugal, Greece and Istanbul

I have taken one-week RS tours in Istanbul, Prague-Budapest, Paris and Rome. They were all terrific. I don’t think you can go wrong! Istanbul is an amazing city if you want to try something a bit different.

Alpine areas always draw me. I have Heart of Italy on my list, but want to recommend Village Italy as diverse and really fun. Probably my favorite tour for its diversity has been Eastern France - Alsace, Burgundy, Chamonix, Provence, Mediterranean. Wonderful. Oops, Eastern France may exceed your time limits.

I just returned from Munich, Salzburg, Vienna during Christmas market time. Totally enjoyed it.

Happy planning.

I don't take the tours but can talk a little about places you might enjoy that the tours cover. Two notable exceptions on your list that I love are Italy and Greece If you like one city focus, then a Rome tour is a great idea. If you want to go a little broader, then maybe Venice, Florence, and Rome? Or Athens and heart of Greece.

The only drawback is that these are easy to do on your own, especially for an experienced traveler like you, especially the Italy cities and Athens. Perhaps a tour of somewhere harder to do on your own would make more sense. I've done Sicily on my own and it's not hard but there are more logistics and a bigger area to cover. Or go further off the beaten path to something like Bulgaria (I've never been but it seems fascinating and somewhere that may be a bit harder to do independently).

Finally, I will plug my favorite region of Europe just because I can: Andalucia! Yes, it's easy to do on your own, but if it interests you the tour looks great. It's a magical place, very different than anywhere else in Europe (including Barcelona).

A plus for Greece or southern Spain or Italy - you can go anytime in your window and expect OK weather. Some other places might be good in September - October but too cold by November-December

I agree with Mira. I have yet to try an RS tour, but if and when I do, it will be someplace that is logistically hard to manage independently. Bulgaria, the Adriatic, Greece, and Turkey come to mind.

Bill, that makes good sense. Even then with a bit of creativity you can do it cheaper yourself. I have used canned tours to help planning, but that's been it so far. But someday, who knows.

Bill describes what I've done. I've taken 3 RS tours, Greece, Turkey and My Way Alpine, because they are places I didn't think I could manage well on my own. I've also taken other group tours to Ireland and Southern England for the same reason - not gonna try driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and there's limited public transportation.

Have you used the Search function on the tour page? I did a quick 7-10 day length search. Results: Venice/Florence/Rome,
Heart of Italy,
Paris,
Munich/Salzburg/Vienna,
Andalucia,
Barcelona/Madrid,
Basque Country,
Prague/Budapest,
London,
Scotland,
Ireland,
Istanbul,
St.Petersburg/
Tallinn/Helsinki.

As some others already said - Do R.S.tours which would be harder to do independently either because of logistics or because of lack of English speakers. For example - Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania (not sure if R.S. has a tour for Romania). This is generally but it could be for different people different countries. Let's say I can speak Czech therefore I would do Prague and Budapest independently and much cheaper than with R.S. (I know, James, they don't speak Czech in Budapest {unfortunately} but you can get around pretty well with English). My observations - it is hard to get around just with English in French and Spanish speaking countries, it used to be also German speaking countries - not any more.

Greer,I think you will be pleased with your tour experience. I was a little wary about touring with a group and called my first tour “the great experiment.” It was a very positive experience. I then took a second tour that I enjoyed as well.

I would like to suggest that as you will be traveling by yourself on this one that you go ahead and purchase the single supplement. The groups I have been with have been extremely friendly and inclusive. Even so, I was glad for my own space at the end of the day.

Good advice so far. Please note that RS tours don't run to all locations all year round. For example, in November, they only offer seven tours, several to places you have been already. You can search for tours by month on this page https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/all to see what your options might be. Also, even in September where there are more tours offered, many are sold out already, so it may be you approach your question from the "what's available" angle instead of "where should I go?" end. Whatever you choose, I'm certain you will have a great time.

I agree with others above regarding choosing a tour that is more difficult to do on your own. My one and only RS tour so far was the Greece tour. It was solo. I chose it because: 1. Greece was on my bucket list 2. Important-The locations would have been a lot harder and take up much more time for me to travel to on my own (I am not interested in renting cars solo). 3. It was described as being one of the more strenuous trips (I'm not getting any younger) 4. I needed refreshing on extensive ancient Greek history and mythology.

I like my privacy so I bought the single supplement. I am a fairly well travelled independently ( > yearly trips to Europe the last 19 years) and I enjoy solo independent travel as well, so I was very stressed about traveling in a group on someone else's schedule, as well as being stuck on a bus with people with whom I didn't want to interact. In hindsight, I don't think this would happen with a RS tour, as everyone is quite friendly, considerate and engaged. Also, there was much free time for my own explorations. I loved it! My husband is going with me on our RS tour in the spring, Berlin-Prague-Vienna. This one is obviously easy for transport, but two of those cities are on my bucket list, and I could not decide on how much time in each so the trip is a taste for a return. The main reason for picking this trip is the extensive history on the spot by experienced guides, although we have already begun additional extensive history, their guides are outstanding, if Greece is an example.

So those are some of the considerations that go into choosing a tour for me, if that helps at all for your decision. I didn't think I was a tour person until I took the RS tour.

For a first trip to Europe I like the idea of a few familiars and if time allows one unexpected experience. I think London, Rome and Paris are a must first trip. Then if time permits maybe Budapest or Athens or Cairo or Istanbul or .....

My first few trips in the 1970's were with package tours. I was young and irresponsible and they helped keep me out of trouble and learn the ropes and get comfortable with the idea of being so far from home. In other words, package tours can be a great thing to get started with. Then there are those who love the comradeship of groups. For those that come together easily and love sharing experiences, a package tour is hard to beat. I've read the itineraries of most of the RS tours and with the exception of his best of Eastern Europe (I don't like where it ends - makes it very hard to extend the trip), I think they are marvelously planned.

After a lot of years planning my own trips and doing all my own transportation I have come to where I enjoy private tours and I have come to where I want to see what is still a bit more pure in a tourist sense and while I have more time for travel, I really don't have that much more money.

I found that Eastern Europe fills all the needs. There are beautiful places full of history, architecture, food, and wonderful people not yet burned out with tourism. I have found wonderful guides with cars who I talk to for hours and hours about life and culture as we cross the country. Best of all its relatively cheap

Ricks "Best of the Adriatic in 14 Days Tour" in the fall when the weather is perfect in Eastern Europe is $8,000 for a couple. That's $615 a day. Do keep in mind that one of those days is the departure day so I dont count it. Move a bit further south and do a little less in Croatia, a lot in Montenegro and Albania to Corfu and you can do it with a private guide in hotels as good or better for no more than $300 to $400 a day (and that's sort of on the high end). So for $8,000 I can spend an easy three weeks or make two trips each for about 10 days for about the same cost as the one RS tour.

The trick is the guide. Get a lousy guide and have a lousy time. But I've turned picking a guide into an art form and so far have done very well.

So, this is where I enjoy myself the most
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8n9bMtE8Kk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIm0pXZayK4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6557M-_uwk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-Jmq7BLFE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHynwzAGDI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0kf2nuXa7I

And of course my beloved Budapest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Hfmp-z7AE

And a few of the other great cities of the East
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kexQH2w28jM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UDzKdsaSrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxvgWUrJT3I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2vmfwDNdU0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS7Q30XXjug&has_verified=1

James E certainly has a wealth of information about private guides and is a great resource for anyone looking for that information. However, Greer asked a different question.

I would love to see Rick Steves Tours offer James E a free tour. He has never been on one ( he is always clear about this). In all honesty, I can see why it might be hard to see the value in a tour if you’ve never experienced this type of travel. Many of us have asked the same questions. The difference is we stepped up, tried a tour, and discovered for ourselves if this type of travel provides good value for us. That is what Greer is planning on doing.

Will a Rick Steves tour be for everyone? Probably not. It does seem a bit unfair to constantly dismiss them as an option without ever actually having experienced one.............

We've taken 4 RS Tours, Loire to the South of France, Portugal, Greece, and Adriatic. We've also taken 2 other group tours to Italy. In addition to group tours we will add on independent time before and after a tour. When we travel independently we hire guides along the way. Our most recent independent journey was Budapest, Vienna, Cesky Krumlov, Prague and Amsterdam. All doable. As mentioned up thread, due to logistics we would opt for a group tour. That said we are challenging ourselves next fall for an independent tour of Sicily using public transportation. Looking forward to it! Our inspiration came from Forum contributors Priscilla (in memory of Zoe), jmauldinuu, and acraven.

Carol, I answered her question, I would take a RS Eastern Europe tour. Or st least that was my intent

Greer,

As others have mentioned, you haven't seen anywhere in Italy or Switzerland yet, so those would be good destinations to consider.

With a RS tour, one thing you'll have to consider is whether you're willing to share a room with another single traveller of the same gender, or pay the single supplement and have your own room. Keep in mind that RS tours are priced in U.S. dollars so you'll have to include that in your decision.

RS tours also don't include airfare. I've found over the years that Air Canada usually offers the best connections to get me just about to wherever the tour is starting. I would highly recommend arriving at least one day prior to the start of the tour (two days if you can manage it).

If you want to have a look at the various tours before the brochure arrives, they're all listed on this website, along with prices and dates.

Greer,
I also noticed you haven't been to Italy so the Venice Florence Rome tour in 10 days would fit your time frame. Heart of Italy also.
If you are trying avoid the heat and crowds, I would try to go in October when both have eased up. I did the 17 Days Best of Italy tour in mid-October and the weather was very pleasant. Crowds also were lighter.
Enjoy your first tour! And let us know how it went.