What happened to the SF Travel Group?

Very active group. You may be looking/searching under the wrong name. I believe they call themselves The Bay Area Travel Group or North Bay. Travel Group. Meetings are in Marin, not San Francisco.

There is also a group in Sacramento. Haven’t attended but they post meetings every month in the Meetings sub forum.

Travel Safe

One Fast Bob

Hi Linda, “SF Bay Area Travel Group”, we’re still meeting. We were getting too many people so i stopped posting it here after our June mtg. Was posting up to then so don’t know why you didn’t see it. Some of us will be away traveling until Nov, but after that i’ll reassess and may start posting it again at some point. I’ve missed you all these 5 yrs since i started this group! I know we communicated a lot just before that, and you always hoped to come... : )
We meet at a restaurant with table service and have a limit of how many people can attend.

The Sacramento travel group is great and a lot of fun. It was my inspiration for starting a group in the SF Bay Area.

And there's a new group forming in Silicon Valley -- I've heard good things about it.

Hi Susan, I had a great time when I joined your group one month. I've been traveling a lot, plus it's a long drive, so I haven't been able to join again.

Given that your group is reaching capacity, would you mind if I test the waters to see if there is interest in a group in the East Bay? I thought I might look for a location near 680 and 24 and see if we have interested travelers.

CW--I live in Alameda and would very much be interested in an east bay travel group!

CWsocial, absolutely! I’ve often wondered why no one has started a group in the east bay and one in sf.
That said, we’d love for you to join us again and we’d love to have you Christa!
I just need to know ahead as 20 is our limit.

Thank you Susan, that's great on both counts! If we have sufficient interest, I'll be sure not to schedule on the same recurring Saturday as the Marin group (or the Sac group) so that people could attend both if they wanted.

And thank you, you all made me feel very welcome when I attended in Marin!

HI Susan - Good to hear. I'm not sure why I couldn't find it on here. I assume you still meet on the second Saturday. As such, again this month, I have a prior commitment. Good news is that I am retiring on October 4th! So, going forward my weekends should be a little more relaxed. I am also leaving for Europe on October 11th! I'm spending 2 weeks in France and 3 weeks in Italy. I haven't been to Italy in 25 years, so I am really looking for some suggestions! I am going to try to make it to the Sacramento meeting this month. I look forward to rejoining the SF group.

I was going to ask yesterday about an East Bay group! that would be fun – and more doable than SV or Marin ;-)

It does seem there is interest in an East Bay group! Our first meeting is Saturday, August 24th at 11am in Orinda - chosen to be accessible for those on either side of the tunnel.

We'd love to meet our East Bay travelers. Please send me a pm for details and so that I have a count.

I would be interested in checking out an East Bay meeting. Thanks for not scheduling it to conflict with the Marin meeting on the 2nd Saturday and the Sacramento meeting on the 3rd Saturday. I'm going to miss my Sacramento meeting this month, but I may be able to make the EB meeting on the 24th. Don't forget to do a separate meeting post under Travel Group Meetings.

I think it's a good idea to have more Travel Groups in the Bay/Silicon Valley area - because we seem to have many avid travelers interested in meeting up. Since we meet in a public place (a cafe of some kind), we have to be respectful of their rules, and have to limit the number of people. There is a considerable amount of work involved in doing this. Kudos to anyone who wants to start a group!
The SF Travel Group meeting in Marin, is on the verge of having too many folks for our venue, so this is why we stopped advertising our meeting for a while, to assess the situation.

It may not be possible to schedule new Travel Group meetings so they do not overlap with others in the area -- so people can attend more than one -- but we can try.

The problems of success!

CWsocial, if you decide the 2nd Saturday is best for you at some point, it won’t interfere with ours in Marin. As BG said, we’re getting too many people. So you choose what works best for you!

Susan and BG, that's all so helpful to know. Thank you! I think you're right that there is a lot of interest. And I know there are people, like me, who would love to participate - but the Bay Area distances and bridge tolls….and traffic …. can be prohibitive. You also bring up good points that we can't overwhelm the locations.

So, with that said ….we'll stick with the meeting on August 24th for this month. As it happens, I'll be traveling later in September and would like to hold a 2nd meeting on the last weekend before I leave - which would be September 14th. From your comments, it sounds like that won't cause a problem!

Thank you all for your input! I was worried as to how a "new group" might be received. I really appreciate all your support and input! And I love that there is this much interest and we have, as you said BG - the problems of success!

It’s not a problem at all CWsocial. You do what’s best for you and your group. There’s enough to organize and juggle when you start and keep a group going, you should not have to worry about other groups on top of everything else.

And i don’t think there’s a coffee shop/ restaurant big enough that would welcome both your group and ours together... lol.

I’m very happy you’re willing to start another group... Kudos to you!!

CWSocial -- the new Silicon Valley Rick Steves travel meeting is meeting on August 24th. I don't think that they have settled on a permanent date but I personally think it would be nice if all of the "local" groups could meet on different Saturdays.
I think that is plenty of interest and people to go around but it would be nice to not set up some kind of competition. I say that as a loyal and enthusiastic member of the SF Bay Area group who sometimes treks up to Sacramento and would likely come to an East Bay meeting as well.

CWsocial, thank you for organizing an East Bay group! You are right, traffic can be a bear.

Unfortunately we will be in Boston that weekend, but maybe we can catch the next meeting!

SharYn - I wasn't aware the SV group will be meeting on the 24th. I had considered attending the July SV meeting and a couple of Marin meetings, but decided against making the drives. With that, and learning that the Marin group may be reaching their own practical seating (or chatting) capacity, I decided to see what we could do to give more people options to attend a group.

In August, there isn't a (remaining) Saturday that doesn't overlap with another group. I chose a date that would be far enough out to give people notice, and one that I knew I could host. The following Saturday is Labor Day, which I wish to avoid. I'll be avoiding my own travels with meeting dates in September and October. After that I'd like to assess and settle into a regular schedule.

For our August 24th meeting, it looks like we'll have at least half a dozen East Bay residents, just from those who have read this thread and a few pms that I sent out to gauge initial interest. And I haven't posted the notice yet!

For those who wish to visit our group some week(s) - "visit" in the sense that you already feel an affiliation with a different group - of course you are welcome! If you'll be in the neighborhood, please join us! If you'd just like to meet new people one week, please join! If that's not possible every week, we hope it will be to everyone's benefit to have a local option, or continue to attend a group they've been going to for years.

And if the time comes that someone starts an SF group, and perhaps a Dublin/Pleasanton/Livermore group or a Fairfield/Vacaville/Davis group....well, let's hope the interest continues to grow!

Laura, I'm sorry that you won't be able to make the first meeting in August, but I'm glad you'll try to join us in future meetings!

Hi again CW --
I was pretty sure that you wouldn't have known about the SV meeting date. I only knew because a friend of mine was there and let me know.
I wasn't trying to make your life (and scheduling) more difficult.
And I hope to make one of your meeting myself.
Good luck with this, and happy trails!

Thank you SharYn! I appreciate your support and enthusiasm for all the groups. And I do hope to see you again. The friendliness of your meeting in Marin has been an inspiration. It would be great if you can make one of our meetings!

I can’t attend on August 24 due to a conflict, but I am interested in future East Bay meetings.

Hi Barbara - so glad to know you're interested in future meetings. I sent you a PM with the link to the "official" post announcing the first meeting of the East Bay travel group. I'll also include it here for convenience and for other readers.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/travel-meetings/new-east-bay-sf-area-travel-group-meeting-sat-aug-24-2019

That post includes details of date, time and location of the upcoming meeting (August 24th) as well as meetings in future months.

I hope you can join us!