Rick Steve Tour Dinners

Wine being included in tour dinners varies, and on most tours is not included. Italy is different--a guide in Italy said restaurants can't imagine a wine less dinner. So probably wine will be included, but people often buy wine when it isn't. As I recall, most dinners included a dessert.

I was on a Village Italy tour in 2023 and wine was always included in our group dinners, as was dessert.

Not been on that tour, but on others on Italy and France, wine was often offered as a gift from the restaurant, ie., not directly paid for through RS.

I would assume that it is not included. While I have been on some tours where guides have included wine with dinner, most tours have not. Usually group dinners have a dessert.

Wine is relatively inexpensive, particularly the house wine.

I have been on a few Rick Steves Italy tours (VFR, Sicily, Heart of Italy, Village Italy, Southern Italy). Wine has been included on ALL of those tour during group dinners. If there are tour participants that do not drink alcohol or are too young to drink alcohol, the tour generally will provide soft drinks. But you cannot substitute the wine for another type of alcoholic drink (such as beer or cocktail) - you have to pay for it. On other non-Italy tours, participants have generally had to pay for alcohol. I vaguely remember that the Portugal tour also included wine.

On my Loire to the South of France tour, I remember we paid for wine at our dinner in Chinon, but I am pretty sure it was included at all the other tour dinners. Dessert was always included also, which I was happy about.