In Rome, his tour does not take you to the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Church tour. In Florence, the guide does not take you to see Michaelangelo's David. I know we can get our own advance tickets, but we are not paying a little; yet, these sights are not included.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has done this trip. What did you think of it? Also, how are the hotels you stayed in during this tour?
Thank you,
Gloria Lewis
Wecome to the forum!
Here's a recent post with some info.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/best-of-europe-14-days-sept-15-28
I love RS for doing research, watching his TV episodes, Monday Night Travel, and audio guides. But, honestly, this is one of the reasons why we use a different tour operator. They take us to the most iconic sites. I was just watching a MNT recording where Rick was explaining that his tours no longer go into the Colosseum, they just view it from the outside and go visit another site. I would have been extremely disappointed if I had traveled all the way to Rome to not go inside the Colosseum.
In the past couple of months, I have viewed the online itineraries of a few RS tours of the same countries/cities that we toured with another company, and I noted multiple sites that RS tours don't visit that other companies' tours do. I understand it is a choice his company is making (apparently to avoid crowds as he explained on MNT), but if I'm going all the way to Europe, I want to see the big sites.
You may want to check into other tour operators. It can be difficult, sometimes, to get your own tickets to these sites. Often, tickets need to be purchased in advance, and being on a tour, you may not know exactly what time you will be available to visit. You're right--you are handing over a large sum of money. Make sure you get to do what you want to do.
We took this tour in 2019 and it was fantastic. It was our first RS tour and our first trip to Europe. It was a great introduction to European travel and there were so many ‘bucket list’ type places and sights. The tour was fast paced and well-organized and our guide and all of the local guides in the different cities were top notch. In our case the hotels were all acceptable, ranging from average to nicer. All were clean and comfortable (we are not fancy hotel type people) and were located right in the middle of the action (except for the agritourismo near Florence but that was intentionally meant to be a quieter, laid back stop). Two hotels that I can remember didn’t have a/c (Munich and Lauterbrunnen). This probably wouldn’t have been a big deal, especially in Lauterbrunnen, but we were in the middle of a big heat wave in June. But everyone took it in stride (at least I didn’t hear any ‘grumping’ about it). Quite possible the hotels have changed since 2019, though.
I do see that the itinerary has changed like you said. In our case it started in Paris and ended in Rome. And instead of a stop in Munich, it now goes to Fussen with a visit to Neuschwanstein. I don’t think we were guided in the museum with the ‘David’. Instead we were given a ticket by the guide and we were on our own. So I guess the difference now is that you have to buy your own ticket. It’s a small museum and I think it would be reasonable to visit on your own.
Our hotel didn’t include Orvieto, and I see it’s now been included. I would have liked that, I think, and it sounds very nice.
As for the Vatican, we did have a local guide who showed us some highlights in the Vatican Museum on the way to the Sistine Chapel, so that’s a change. It was ridiculously crowded, because of so many people just rushing through to get to the SC. It does seem unfortunate that this isn’t included, but I remember reading that it’s due to the way the ticketing is handled these days. I’m pretty certain the local guide left us in the Sistine Chapel to explore on our own and then our regular guide took us through the ‘special’ door to St Peter’s (which may not exist anymore?), where we were also on our own. We used a RS Audio App Tour, which works great. So again, I don’t think you’re missing out on a lot of ‘guiding’ by those things not being included, but it would be an extra expense if you wanted to visit on your own. I’m not sure what the official guided tours of the Vatican are like, but it might give you a chance to see other parts of the museum and maybe not be as crowded as that main hallway?
Logistically, we arrived in Paris early, staying two nights before the tour started and went up in the Eiffel Tour and visited Versailles. We stayed three nights in Rome at the end and made a return trip to St Peter’s (to climb the dome and attend Mass) and we also took 2 day trips: one to Assisi and another to Pompeii.
I would say it’s a great introduction to Europe. A good way to see a lot of the ‘big’ sights and maybe get a taste of what you’d like to return to in the future. We liked it and are set to take our 3rd RS Tour this summer.
All your responses have been helpful. Thank you! Any one taken the RS’s Best of Europe in 14 days more recently than 2019?
Gloria while you wait for more answers, you might want to scroll through the "Reviews" section on the RS web page for this specific tour (it's about half way down the page - click the + button to expand). This might not be all you want to know but it's a start. https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/europe/europe-14-days
You can also look at tour scrapbooks submitted for a RS annual contest, which often have more candid information. There are Europe in 14 day scrapbooks under 2022 and 2023 (note, there were few to no tours in 2020 or 2021) https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks
And FWIW, even some of the Italy specific tours no longer go to Sistine Chapel/St.Peters/Vatican due to the difficult ticketing processes. Glance through this recent discussion on the topic https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/does-rick-steves-italy-tours-no-longer-go-into-the-sistine-chapel-or-roman-colosseum
Based on the 2025 schedule some 600+ people take the tour each year.
If I counted correctly there are 24 tours. Many are 'sold out'..
I think that answers questions about 'Is it good; Are the hotels habitable, etc.'
How many of the 600 participate here is unknowable, so getting a lot of responses from those who have taken that particular tour are going to be limited.
I think maybe one realization to come to about this tour (though I have not taken it, just looked at the itinerary) is that it really only touches on a number of cities,
The tour, by design, only spends an evening and a day in Rome, only part of a day in Florence, and similar in several other cities.
You are just touching only a few things, in each place, to really see any of these places would take several days each.
If you have bigger goals, want to see more in each place than what is included, then maybe another tour spending more days in each city, just not as many cities. That said, I am not sure any of the tours include St. Peters and The Vatican Museum anymore.
On The Accademia website the list of rules explains why the RS tour doesn't go inside.
Inside the Gallery, the profession of tourist guide is allowed only to authorized guides in accordance with current Italian legislation
Groups of up to 20 people including the guide are allowed
We just got back from Italy and visited the Vatican Museum on a tour with one of their official museum guides. (It was the only way to get advance tickets on Jan. 2, all the regular tickets were sold out.) The guide explained that she was not allowed to accompany us and speak to us inside the Sistine Chapel because it was too crowded, so she talked about it beforehand with a multimedia display and then we went in on our own to see it.
As we were leaving we also saw the “secret door”, where a tour group left through an unmarked door opposite the regular exit. I think you could try and blend in with the group to slip through to St Peter’s, and just plead ignorance if they stop you, but we had already toured St. Peter’s so we didn’t need to.
Welcome to the forum! Have not taken an RS tour, but I like his general philosophy.
I'm assuming this is your first trip to Europe. I looked at the Interary and it looks good. It covers a lot of ground in 14 days and gives you a taste of the different regions of Europe. When trying to cover so much ground, some hard decisions have to be made. There's just so much to see in stops like Florence, you can't see them all.
I went to Europe for the first time on a People to People tour in 1966. It was a 21-day whirlwind tour, covering Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and England. It was a great introduction and through the years my wife (who was on the first tour as well) and I have returned many times. Consider tours like this as a scouting expedition.
As far as hotels go, I'm sure RS Tours stay at clean and comfortable hotels, but don't expect luxury accommodations at this price point. Expect something similar to Hampton. We actually love staying at even more modest accommodations. We once stayed in a spare bedroom on a dairy farm in Scotland and last year we stayed in a hostel in Slovenia that was a former prison!
Pack light, take a positive attitude and have a great time!
As we were leaving we also saw the “secret door”, where a tour group
left through an unmarked door opposite the regular exit. I think you
could try and blend in with the group to slip through to St Peter’s,
and just plead ignorance if they stop you, but we had already toured
St. Peter’s so we didn’t need to.
Very gently, I'll implore you not to try and do this. The groups who are allowed to access that door paid for tours which are specifically allowed to do that. Those tours cost more than the Vatican Museum's own general tour (current adult cost: € 40,00) which does NOT include the basilica/access to that door. It's not fair to the people who paid for the privilege, and it has been reported that the guards are checking for authorized tour badges. Anyway, just like lengthy eavesdropping on a guide's lecture to their paying customers, it's considered to be poor form, OK?
If you want a tour that combines the museums and the basilica - and have access to that shortcut - book a tour with an independent company - The Roman Guy, Walks of Italy, etc - which includes all that. Those are also generally not available of Wednesday mornings.
