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Germany, Austria & Switzerland in 14 Days - Walking Standing

We are thinking of this for July 2025. My one concern is around the amount of walking and standing.

We did the Rick Steve's tour to Ireland 2023 and it was great, but that was a lot of walking and standing during presentations.

Thanks
Rich

Posted by
698 posts

In general, if you want to reduce your walking and standing time you need to consider doing travel "on your own" rather than with a tour. Tours pack as much as the reasonably can into the time they have in a city. When you go on your own you have full control over where you go, what you do, how long you stay and how you get there. Tours are great untill you move out of the middle of the pack by wanting to do more or less than what the tour provides.

Posted by
21204 posts

The tour states this:

This is a very active tour! Most days are moderate to strenuously paced with 2–8 miles of walking, including hilly terrain and lots of stairs.

So that is the RS tour opinion.

Posted by
7089 posts

These 3 countries can be visited independently easily enough. English is commonly understood and widely spoken, not by everyone, but by most of the folks you will have contact with. When you travel on your own rather than on a pre-structured tour, YOU are largely in control of how much standing or walking you do. Germany has 5,000+ train stations that make getting around easy. You can buy a month-long Deutschland Ticket (€58) to cover most train trips. Book rooms near the main train station for easy transport as you move between base towns or do outings to other places - and so that you are near a pick-up spot for any city bus tours you might want to take. Take a walking tour through a museum or through an old-town center only if you feel like taking a walking tour.

Posted by
2674 posts

Both of those tours have the same activity level on the tour pages, so I would expect a similar amount of walking/standing.

I've done 12 RS tours and there is always walking and standing, it's unavoidable.

Posted by
21 posts

Hello my wife and I are planning those same countries in September for the Oktoberfest asking kindly if you have lodging yet in any of the places, thanks Leonard

Posted by
8276 posts

I am nearly 77 years old and have been to 83 foreign countries and done a lot of on your own travel, cruises, river cruises, day tours and full guided tours.

We like touring with guided tours these days, since the tour company handles lodging, most meals, transportation, parking, admissions into site and more.
Decades ago, you didn't have to book key sites in advance, these days you need to book in advance.

The three countries you mentioned are easy to do on your own, however, if you are planning on a fast pace to see a lot of places, I think a tour works best.
Of course, the alternative is to do a mix of booking your own lodging and arranging your own transport, but booking day tours when you need to do so.

Some tour companies offer small group tours, with something like 15 persons that work very well. We have do some with Gate 1 Travel.

You list three countries that cannot be seen in two weeks. In fact, you can't see Germany in a month. I suggest that you check out different tours to see just WHAT would see and if the pace of the tour works for you.

Posted by
3040 posts

In July 2025 Switzerland is planning to host UEFA Women's EURO 2025 (football). Likely this will cause higher prices.