Wifi on tour bus?

I've not ever had an RS tour bus with WIFI altho others report they have.

I did Heart of Italy in 2013 and had a terrific time. There aren't any huge distances to cover in this tour like in some of the other tours (thinking 21 Day Best of Europe).

Thanks for your feedback. I'm so excited about this trip. Any recommendations of things you did during independent time?

I believe that tour is driven by Alterini Buses, which are equipped with Wi-Fi, but it tends to conk out in tunnels and such, and also may not be have the bandwidth or speed to handle too many tour members online at the same time. So you can't really count on it. If you have something to download (e.g. ebooks or recordings in Rick's Audio Europe app), do it before leaving home.

The bus used on the Best of Italy RS tour I took did have WiFi. This was a first in the 10 RS tours I took. It worked very well, with the noted issues of not working while in tunnels and winding through some of the higher mountain areas where the signal was blocked. The driver was even nice enough to start the bus to allow us use of the WiFi at our agriturismo stop when their WiFi was out of commission. There were no noticeable bandwidth issues, but of course I don't think anyone tried to stream Netflix.

I'm wondering if any of the buses have power outlets for charging phones or cameras while on the road? With weight restrictions on our luggage, we've trimmed down the number of chargers we're bringing for 3 of us traveling together.

We're taking the France My Way trip next week, and knowing if there is WiFi on the bus might also help. Thanks!

They definitely had USB ports on the bus. We and others charged our devices on the road during our Best of Italy tour. I didn't use it much, but the WiFi seemed to work just fine whenever I needed it.

Bobtheplanner: You can get a plug with multiple USB outlets that will charge lots of devices at once. This will indeed save weight and space over having separate plugs for each device, and as a bonus you won't need to find so many outlets in the room!

Here's two examples, with four USB outlets each:

https://www.amazon.com/PISEN-Portable-Foldable-Technology-Blackberry/dp/B076SN5MV4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VH8G1SY

Put up your iPhone and tablet. Look out the window at the countryside. Enjoy a conversation with your fellow travelers. Be in the real moment, not the virtual one.

I’m sorry, but I have seen tourists in breathtaking areas completely oblivious because the had to find out what their Facebook friends ate for lunch. There is plenty of time in the evening to catch up with friends and share your experiences with family. Outside of using technology for logistical purposes, I think being online more than 30-45 minutes a day pulls you out of the experience you invested a lot of time and money to have.

If being connected is really important then have a backup plan. Assuming an unlocked phone or tablet, i would just get a local SIM card from TIM or Vodafone. For €20 or €30 I don’t need to find a cafe or store that has free WiFi and it’s nice to have when the hotel WiFi is down or otherwise unusable. On RS tours I find that the hotel WiFi is unusable about 15% of the time.