Queer travellers on Rick Steves Tour

Rick Steves is a more progressive company and tour operator. I think his followers are likely more progressive than the general population. I've only done one tour, but people were friendly and inclusive.

I don't have experience in your situation, but I do have family members and friends that are gay, some nonbinary and a couple trans friends. Sometimes I'll call my friend's trans daughter by her former name/gender, by mistake. She told me that she gives people some grace. I'm certain you already have much experience with this and likely do not need my advice, but sometimes well intentioned people make mistakes.

My impression of the My Way tours are that you would spend less time in the group as site seeing is more on your own.

There are some gay folks that work for Rick Steves, do the Monday Night travel programs and also do some tours. I also know that there are local guides that RS uses that are gay. Perhaps you could contact to RS's office for input.

Based on the three RS tours I've been on, I think everything will go smoothly. I've found RS tour travelers to be warm, friendly, and accepting of everyone in the tour group. With that said, you never know who your specific fellow travelers will be with any tour group company. I don't think you'd have an issue at all with your tour group leader, but consider contacting the RS tour office to alleviate your concerns.

It is a group situation, so if you mix well, are friendly, make an effort to get to know people and can put up with "togetherness", then no problem. If you are wanting to head off on your own and keep to yourself, then that will kindle problems, group tours implies succumbing to the group.

I do think the general RS demographic skews older, a bit more professional and affluent, higher level of education, and maybe left of center, so that helps. I imagine in new situations, pronoun preferences can always be an issue, not maliciously, but subject to a person's habits and their experience with non-binary individuals. Best would be to say something at the introductions, and push for use of their name when addressing.

We’ve been on 5 RS tours and I believe all 5 of the guides we’ve had would be utterly respectful of your wishes. I strongly suspect all the tour mates I’ve run across on these tours would also not be an issue.

And while it was self-evident that my tour mates have skewed more on the liberal side, I certain a few were not. There is always a chance in modern America even with groups the skew liberal, educated, worldly and adventuresome that you’ll find someone who just has to be insistent that it somehow tramples on their rights to be considerate of yours. I doubt it will happen. And if it did, I suspect the RS guide would intervene on your behalf to make peace.

With that said, my faith in the basic decency of my fellow Americans has been shaken lately so I couldn’t tell that there is zero chance. Finally, what I will say is that every RS trip I’ve been on has been rewarding. This is a quality company.

Happy travels!

"I don’t want to spend a lot of money to have my spouse called “she” and be referred to as a “lady” for 11 days."

I don't think any tour operator can effectively put itself in charge of controlling the word choices of tour participants.

A third party who refers to your spouse with "she" or "her" would be in a conversation with you, right? And your spouse would need to be present at this conversation in order to hear these pronouns and to feel offended. Well, it's just plain rude, generally speaking, to be talking about another person in that person's presence. For example... If I'm with my brother and his wife Laura in the same room, I don't just start making comments about her right in front of her, so the chance of my using "she" or "her" in reference to Laura in this conversation are quite slim to begin with.

It's always possible that some jerk with a will to harass others signs up for a tour. But I'm pretty sure that tour leaders are universally trained to handle the rare individual who goes out of their way to be a jerk.

I have been on 12 RS tours and agree with those who say that RS travelers are generally progressive, educated and friendly. Rick Steves himself personifies this attitude and I have found his guides are kind, knowledgeable, inclusive and generally wonderful! I’m sure that there have been gay people on some of these tours. In one case (Best of Paris), there was definitely a gay couple. Six of us, including them, became quite close during that very short period (7 days). As a matter of fact, we are still in contact after eight years!

Tours always start with an introductory meeting where everyone has a chance to introduce themselves. I suggest that you clarify the pronoun preference at that time in a straightforward way. If there is anyone who has a problem with it, you’ll find out soon enough. In a group of up to 28, it’s pretty easy to avoid such a person. Mostly, I think you will find accepting and friendly tour mates, as long as you are too!

On a My Way tour, organized time together is limited, mostly on the bus between locations and orientation walks. I’ve heard that it’s common for people to join others for sightseeing and meals, but that is always optional. You will have a lot of freedom to do what you want with whoever you want.

There are numerous companies offering Gay Group Tours in Europe.

If you go to Google and search "Gay Tours of Europe" you will get many choices.

I have no experience with any of them but it could be a start if you would prefer that.

While most RS tour members can be described as the "PBS crowd," many are older and more set in their ways. So you may get someone who is not up to date with modern pronouns.