Suggestions for a shorter RS tour in summer 2020

Assuming you are heat tolerant being from Texas, my first RS tour was Madrid & Barcelona. It was a good tour introduction, and I loved Spain.

absolutely Venice, Florence, Rome in 10 days fits the bill. It has a bit of everything - art, culture, history, food, wine, and modern life. Three of the great cities of Europe in one tour.

I would like them to offer more tours of this length to choose from as well. You need a couple of days on either end, which makes it a two-week trip anyway.

I went on the RS 7 Days in Rome tour which is fantastic! I noticed you don't include any destinations in Italy.

Italy is defiantly an option we’ve looked at.

If you choose Italy. I suggest you go in June rather than later in the summer.

Excellent options to consider, C+C; in a shorter vacation/trip time frame do you prefer to keep it to one location or multiple stops? On the shorter length RSTs I have enjoyed, I have appreciated the more thorough immersion in big cities Paris and London. Barcelona and Madrid was nearly as complete and train transportation between the two smooth and easy. Heart of Italy with its four stops gets you a fabulous variety of locales in a speedy manner. Venice-Florence-Rome does a great job and the three nights in each city is nearly ideal for a tour of this kind. My preference is to add minimum 1 to 2 nights before and after and for the most part, have always stayed at the tour's hotels. Enjoy making your choices!!

If you can stretch it just a bit, Sicily was a terrific tour. You’d want to do that early in the summer as it gets pretty hot.

Most of the shorter tours are "city tours" where you stay in only one or two places during the trip. Personally, I'm far less likely to take this sort of tour in favor of those with more difficult logistics. I enjoyed the Basque tour a couple years ago, and the Scotland tour is on my radar.

I don’t do jet lag very well so I can’t do short trips. I need days to acclimate plus I want more bang for my money to offset the cost of repeat airfare.
We are doing the 12 day Heart of Portugal followed by the eight day Barcelona / Madrid city tour.
I am having a time of it trying to decide what city in Europe to stopover for a few days before heading to Lisbon.
I’m done with Italy, and want to keep that leg of travel to under three hours by plane. Flying from the west coast makes for a long travel day and long layovers just add to my misery.

I haven’t looked at flights yet, so I don’t even know if I can fly nonstop to Lisbon. That would be my first choice though.

I suppose I would prioritize: first if I really felt compelled to go somewhere, i.e., July 14 in Paris; but possibly that does not come into play, so second, summer with possible temperatures and crowds. It would be nice to have moderation for both, so possibly consider Ireland (8 days) or Scotland (10 days). You could perhaps sneak a day or so in London - who knows?

Then, if those do not appeal or meet the schedule, you have so many to choose from: MSV, VFR, Basque, new Andalucia, Istanbul. You may be aware of all the options, but if not, use the Search Tours tool from the Our Tours menu and select the time span you want to see what is possible. The shorter tours I have been on, VFR, MSV, and the defunct 7 day Venice, have all been in winter, say Nov-Dec., so not much help from me there. But I think there are many to entice and I have shared how I would prioritize in making a summer selection. Have fun!

I'd vote for Heart of Italy as well. It was my first RS tour and I traveled with family one of whom had limited time off. I do suggest you arrive in Rome a day or two before the tour starts. I loved the 2 big cities and the 2 smaller areas - very nice variety.

I've also done the Best of Scotland which is 10 days and Best of Belgium and Holland which is 11 days. I enjoyed both of them as well and the temps would be cooler than Italy in the summer. My view is biased on this because I am NOT very heat tolerant!

For ALL tours I'd suggest arriving at least the day before your tour start. That gives you time to make a little adjustment for jet lag/travel tiredness AND to give you some leeway in case there are some hiccups/delays in your travel plans.

I vote for the Switzerland tour- we loved that RS trip! [Sorry, I didn't check the current number of days.]
Safe travels!

Coach,

Is there any flexibility in the 7-10 day time frame? If you could add a couple of days, it would open up a greater range of possibilities. For example.....

• Best of Europe in 14 days (that would give you a taste of several different countries, and provide some ideas on which ones you might like to return to in future)
• Heart of Italy in 9 days
• Best of Tuscany in 12 days
• Best of Sicily in 11 days
• Venice, Florence & Rome in 10 days
• Best of Switzerland in 12 days
• Heart of Ireland in 8 days
• Best of Barcelona & Madrid in 8 days

As you've mentioned Italy as being an area of interest, one of the Italian tours would be a great choice. If you haven't been to Italy before, I think you'll find it to be a very memorable experience. Italy has a special "charm" that will draw you back.

If you go to the tour page, you can do a search by criteria - length of tour, type of tour, cost of tour. I found 14 tours that are 7 to 10 days.

I'm not heat-tolerant, so I'd look at Ireland, Scotland, St.Petersburg/Tallinn/Helsinki and maybe Basque Country.

Ken,

It's possible that we have much more flexibility, but not certain. That's why i am starting my search and discussion on the shorter end.

My position at work requires that my days off are matched against another supervisor so that we always have someone present for our officers. I won't know about the time until early in the spring.

I'm not heat-tolerant, so I'd look at Ireland, Scotland, St.Petersburg/Tallinn/Helsinki and maybe Basque Country.

Highly recommend Basque Country (last June) and St.Petersburg/Tallinn/Helsinki (just returned).

Both are well paced itineraries with interesting culture and no 1-night stays.

I won't know about the time until early in the spring. That might limit your choices for RS tours. Many tours are waitlisted months in advance, so don't set your heart on one particular tour.

Chani raises a very good point. If you'll be booking the tour on short notice, there may or may not be any space available on the tour you want. It would probably be a good idea to make a list with first/second/third tour choices.

There is actually a silver lining to not knowing far in advance. When you know your dates, look at the “tours on sale” page. You could snag a last minute bargain.