We are on a waitlist for the Rick Steves Sicily tour; however, time is getting tight and since we already booked flights so long ago, we need to make some decisions on travel tours.
Has anyone traveled with Blue-Roads Touring Company? They have a Splendours of Sicily Tour that we are considering signing up for since time is running out.
We'd appreciate hearing if you've traveled with this touring company, and your thoughts on them.
Thank you for your help!
We took a trip to Norway a couple of years ago with Blue-Roads. It was a small group tour, which I liked, but the tour guide and the driver were horrible. The tour guide was from Finland and lived in London. This was her sixth trip to Norway, and she was not very knowledgeable. Everything we asked got a response of "I'll research that and get back with you". And some of her information about where we were staying was wrong. The driver was from some eastern European country and spoke very little English. So the two of them had trouble communicating. He drove way too fast and she couldn't get him to slow down.
How soon is your RS tour? We were on a waitlist and go on our preferred tour.
I took a Blue Roads tour to southern Spain and Portugal in April 2018. The guide (Australian) was very good- knowledge, fun and engaging. The driver was very good too - he was a Spaniard and didn't speak much English. I liked that it was a small group , only 13 in this tour and small comfortable Mercedes bus. The hotels were very nice, 4 star is my guess. Most of the stops were two or three nights in one place, there were a couple of one night stops. For the visit to the Alhambra and La Mezqita they had local guides, both excellent. I think they changed one of the guides for one of these prior to the start of the trip, based on feedback. Luggage was taken to our rooms and back to the bus on departure days- they would tell by what time to have the suitcase outside of our rooms.
There were couples from Britain , US, several women from Australia and New Zeland and me as the only Canadian. Several singles. Age range was 50 to 80s. One person was a travel agent- I take it that she was on the tour as part of her work to see what the tour was like. She would try out the hotel services like laundry,
Maybe they over emphasize the small "blue" roads aspect. For most of the travelling I think were on major roads. For a few we were on smaller secondary roads.
Having to pay the pay the deposit and full payment was complicated, Likely that has changed, I think had to get a money order or certified cheque and mail it to an office in Montreal. It wasn't straight forward.
Thank you for your response naalehuretiree!
We leave in October, and got on the waitlist for Rick Steves Sicily late October 2026 tour. Our fear is missing out on a tour if the Blue Roads one sells out, and we aren't selected for the Rick Steves tour.
Do you know about how long you were on the Waitlist for a Rick Steves tour?
Thank you too Susan ToCA! We will take it all into consideration when deciding what to do!
The tour currently shows 1 seat available. Can you grab that and call the office in the morning to see if they can add your partner?
I already tried to add myself and partner to the trip and received a notification that it was for one person only. Not sure if we can do anything about that.
Sorry, I don't remember how long we were on the RS waitlist. This was about five years ago, but I have heard other people say that they got the tour they wanted after being on the waitlist.
Okay, no problem. Thank you for getting back to me naalehuretiree! We really appreciate it!
