Want to visit Europe end of June 2014. Family of 4 (me, husband, 15yo son, 16yo daughter). Though I am a planner by nature, Rick Steves' Tours have been recommended to me.
Question: do families with teens take the RS tours? I have a feeling that both the "family" and "my way" tours may have families with very little kids, whereas the other RS tours may be ones with much older adults with no children at all. Anyone able to share their experiences?
Many thanks.
Jackie,
I've taken seven RS tours (so far) and have found that tour members on both the fully guided tours and the My Way tours are somewhat a mix of ages, but the groups tend to be comprised of more "mature" travellers (such as myself). However, there was a teenager on one of my tours, who was travelling with her grandmother. The groups are very accepting of any age group and it appeared that the teenager enjoyed the tour. I've only been on one My Way tour so far, and the age mix was about the same as on the regular tours.
Based on my conversations with other travellers, I believe families with teens do take the RS tours, especially the Family tours (that's what those are intended for). I'd suggest that you contact the RS tour department, as they will be your best source of information on what age range is typical on each of the tours.
Hopefully pat or one of the others that have taken a Family tour will spot this post, as they'll be able to provide more first-hand information.
Good luck and happy travels!
I have taken my daughter on 5 Rick Steves' Tours. She was 11 on the first tour, and will be 15 this summer on our tour. We have never done the "family" tour, always on the regular tour, and there were ALWAYS teens on the tours. Sometimes as few as 2 (Paris).. sometimes as many as 10 ( Heart of Italy tour.) It seems that if you travel during the summer months there tends to be more families with teens. Also think that some locations tend to have more families on the tour. I have heard that sometimes you can call the tour office to find out if a particular tour date has other teens signed up. Although I have never done this, we just luck out each time!
I highly recommend the tours! Although, you should be aware that most tours are heavy on the history/museums, and if you have kids that don't enjoy that, I think it would be a bit challenging.
I have only been on one RS tour (Heart of Italy in Nine Days) and there were at least five teens in the group. One girl traveling with mother and grandmother, two boys, friends who were traveling with the parents of one of them, and a sister and brother traveling with their parents. They all seemed to have a very good time. I observed no pouts, eye-rolling, heavy sighs and the like.
They inegrated well with the group (didn't form a knotty little clique) which included people of all ages from (guessing here) about 14 to 75 and everything in between.
The boys were very helpful too, assisting some of the older folks with their luggage up and down the stairs.
We've been on 18 RS tours and there have been children on only two of them. One group had a high school age boy traveling with his Mom and the other was a three-generation family of grandparents, parents and two teen sons. We thought they were all delightful to travel with and the boy traveling with Mom was my "buddy." The parents with the two boys had to each share a room with one of their sons, since the boys were not allowed to occupy a room without an adult. If it were me, I'd definitely talk to the RS office about the age mix on the tour for the dates you're considering because it can be heavy toward the more mature end :-). I'd also ask them about the family tours and if there are some filling with more teenagers. I think they'd be very willing to work with you on that and I think that the family tours might be a better fit for teens and their interests. We've taken our four kids (all in their 20's at the time) on two RS tours and, even at that age, our youngest son's eyes got a bit glazed over when seeing yet-another church in Italy. In spite of that, the kids loved the tours and they've provided some of our best family travel memories.
Wow, great opinions all around. When I called originally, the FS folks were not very forthcoming with my "are there teens on this trip or that trip" question...I will try again. Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to reply.
I meant RS folks, not FS folks.....I need a vacation!
him a kid,
Just wanted to mention that I would call the RS office back and just ask again. They are usually fairly forthright with the ages of people on tours. Sometimes it just takes talking to a different person.
:)
Jackie I took a 14 day Family tour with my 11 yr old. There were in fact 14 children on our tour.. our tour group was 26 people.
Kids ranged in age from 8 to 17. Eleven of the children ranged from 11 -16. ( we had one 8 yr old, one 10 yr old , and one 17 year old, the rest were 11 -16.
We met up with another RS tour group at a rest stop. They had two teens in their group.. both looked over 16 or 17. The rest of the group appeared mature ( over 35 or so )
I think your kids would have fun on either type of tour.. but I do think they would enjoy the Family tour more.
There are some slight differences ,, in many places you get private local guides.. the one for the Louvre actually worked for Paris Walks .. a local company and specializes in Family tours and making the Louvre interesting to children.. I had been to the Louvre on my own at least 7 or 8 times before I took this tour and I thought the tour might bore me a bit.. but this guide pointed out some trivia and interesting facts that I didn't know about even.. ( and when I was 13 I was given a private all day guided tour of the Louvre by my grandmother.. which was the start of my love of loving museums.. !)
As I said .. any RS is going to be fun,, but I do think the Family tours add a little something .. plus the kids on our tour were all so awesome.. we had no issues at all .. the kids seemed to all love being on this adventure together.. kids of different ages mixed easily, and even within the group kids got to learn about what it was like to live in different areas of the United States and Canada.. ( my dd had no idea kids in some States went to school in shifts.. and started at 7 am.. !)
I think points other bring up are good.. the type of tour you take and time of year may influence group make up. ''
I am surprised that RS did not give you an idea of group make up though.. I phoned and asked,, I did not want to book a tour with only older teens on it .. or only boys.. I wanted to be sure it was a mixed group at least. They did tell me that most kids signed up were between 10-16 and they were right..
PS we had one single adult on our trip. A young man( 22-23 ish ) .. his parents had given him the trip for a graduation gift of some type and for his dates this was the only tour they could get him on.. so there he was stuck with families.. and he had a GREAT time.. everyone adopted him.. the kids liked him, the adults liked him, and he shared a room with the assistant guide who was maybe 25-26 anyways. So my point is.. the tours are fun for everyone even if you are on a tour that may not contain the exact demographic you are looking for..( I still think if the destinations appeal I would choose the Family Tour though,, but if really interested in another area then go for it)
I am going with my family on a RS family tour this summer with our 15 year old daughter. We are also taking our 12 year old son and 9 year old daughter. We are under the impression that it will be mostly teens and that our 9 year old will be among the youngest in the group . We also looked into taking one of the other guided tours but were encouraged by many people to look at the family tour. The only other people that we have talked to who have actually taken the family tour had their 14 and 16 year old kids on the tour and they had a blast.
It is a tough decision deciding between independent travel and tour travel -- and then finding the right tour for your family. We are looking forward to our trip and we are confident that it is going to be a good fit for our family. Good luck with your decision.
Jackie I took a 14 day Family tour with my 11 yr old. There were in fact 14 children on our tour.. our tour group was 26 people.
Kids ranged in age from 8 to 17. Eleven of the children ranged from 11 -16. ( we had one 8 yr old, one 10 yr old , and one 17 year old, the rest were 11 -16.
We met up with another RS tour group at a rest stop. They had two teens in their group.. both looked over 16 or 17. The rest of the group appeared mature ( over 35 or so )
I think your kids would have fun on either type of tour.. but I do think they would enjoy the Family tour more.
There are some slight differences ,, in many places you get private local guides.. the one for the Louvre actually worked for Paris Walks .. a local company and specializes in Family tours and making the Louvre interesting to children.. I had been to the Louvre on my own at least 7 or 8 times before I took this tour and I thought the tour might bore me a bit.. but this guide pointed out some trivia and interesting facts that I didn't know about even.. ( and when I was 13 I was given a private all day guided tour of the Louvre by my grandmother.. which was the start of my love of loving museums.. !)
As I said .. any RS is going to be fun,, but I do think the Family tours add a little something .. plus the kids on our tour were all so awesome.. we had no issues at all .. the kids seemed to all love being on this adventure together.. kids of different ages mixed easily, and even within the group kids got to learn about what it was like to live in different areas of the United States and Canada.. ( my dd had no idea kids in some States went to school in shifts.. and started at 7 am.. !)
I think points other bring up are good.. the type of tour you take and time of year may influence group make up. ''
I am surprised that RS did not give you an idea of group make up though.. I phoned and asked,, I did not want to book a tour with only older teens on it .. or only boys.. I wanted to be sure it was a mixed group at least. They did tell me that most kids signed up were between 10-16 and they were right..
PS we had one single adult on our trip. A young man( 22-23 ish ) .. his parents had given him the trip for a graduation gift of some type and for his dates this was the only tour they could get him on.. so there he was stuck with families.. and he had a GREAT time.. everyone adopted him.. the kids liked him, the adults liked him, and he shared a room with the assistant guide who was maybe 25-26 anyways. So my point is.. the tours are fun for everyone even if you are on a tour that may not contain the exact demographic you are looking for..( I still think if the destinations appeal I would choose the Family Tour though,, but if really interested in another area then go for it)
Jackie - I have been on five RS tours, two in the summer and three in the fall. The fall tours didn't have any teens but both summer tours had teens, and neither were "family" tours. One tour was in France and had three families with six total teens, the youngest was perhaps 14. The teens spent some time together but also mixed well with the adults. The other was Barcelona/Madrid and had several teens and several in their 20s and also did well with the group. All of the teens seemed to enjoy the tours very much. The key here is the summer dates are more likely to have teens.
