66 year old grandmother taking 18 year old grandaughter to Italy

Travel independently! Not hard at all and. Much less expensive and more fun.

We have had younger folks on nearly all our Rick Steve's tours. I think she would enjoy Village Italy and it's not all that strenuous.

The RS guided tours are excellent, and there's usually a range of ages. The tour descriptions indicate how strenuous the activities are on each day of the tour. I'm also in my '60s and usually manage fine.

However, you could also consider one of the RS My Way tours. They take care of all the logistics such as transportation and hotels, and you'd be completely on your own for sightseeing in each location.

I don't know what your comfort level is for a trip, but I have traveled with multiple tour groups. ALL of them were very accommodating if people wanted to opt out of specific activities as long as the guide was informed ahead of time. (After all, they have to keep track of how many people are doing something so that nobody is left behind.)

There are many tour companies out there. I don't know what your budget is like, but I do think the Rick Steves company offers some great tours. BUT there are other travel companies that offer good tours with a different focus on tourism.

I'm not sure if it's okay to list other tour companies here on the RS board, but basically the sky is the limit when it comes to travel. Pick your destination. Decide on a budget. And then decide what's the most important thing you want to get out of a tour.

I can give you a review of three non-RS tour companies that visit Italy. (Still waiting to take my first RS tour later this year!) None of them were necessarily better than the others. They were just different experiences with different budgets.

From what I have read on the RS boards, there are a lot of different ages on any one trip. The same thing applies to all but one travel company I've used.

Is this a first European visit for either of you?

Strenuous is different on different tours. The Greece tour is listed as one of the "most active" and many people who'd taken several tours said it was the most strenuous. I thought there were only a couple days with places where group walking was a tad difficult. There were several places where there were optional activities during free time that were for the more ambitious. I went in relatively cool weather. The 2 days that were strenuous for me were because of the heat on uphill and/or shade-less hikes. Strenuous can just mean lots of level walking - some of which you can opt out of without a problem. The tour guide can advise you when it may be too much for you, what you can do instead on your own, and how to meet up with the group later on.

It is certainly possible to plan your own trip, adding private guides for certain sights or cities, and taking small group day and half-day tours.

In 2015 my wife and I took the Rick Steves GAS tour on which a grandmother took her 22 year-old grandson. He was the only person on the tour that was under 60.

It was that observation that caused me to decide to take my 18 year-old grandson to Europe (Germany, Italy and France) in 2016. We did it on our own, so I agree with Suki (above), "Travel independently! Not hard at all and. Much less expensive and more fun."

The key is lots of planning. I laid out the travel schedule, chose what to do each morning in each different city and let my grandson choose what to do each afternoon. The places he chose allowed me to see places I otherwise wouldn't have seen. It was a great experience for both of us.

We've taken eight RS trips and there has been a wide range of ages on all of them. The ones we've taken during the summer months all had teens and people in their early twenties on them. Strenuousness is in the eye of the beholder, but on our Italy trip even the seniors were able to keep up without a problem.

Rab, I love your response. I don't have kids, but would love to do this with my nieces. That's a great way of approaching it,and it sounds like you had a great time!!

Kim,

Thank you we certainly did. It was my grandson's first time out of North America.

I've long advocated travel to understand our world. Additionally, I have a plaque in my study that reads, "One day you'll be just a memory to others. Do your best to be a good one."

Have you thought about one of the family tours? That way he could sometimes ditch you and go off with younger people...or are they too young? Regarding strenuous, I took an RS Greece tour last spring. RS's use of strenuous had me nervous. I thought they were basing it on strenuous for 30 year olds, but instead I think it might have been strenuous for 80+ year olds. I am 63 and less fit than I want to be, but active. I had no issues regarding the RS definition of strenuous, and you could opt out and do your own thing at any point. In fact, there were much less active people on the tour, but no one had mobility issues; and our 87 year old did climb to the top of Monemvasia so... If you do a tour, if you want to opt out your grandson could still go with the group.