Young at heart Seniors looking for the lesser active European tours here?

Probably the easiest to manage are some of the city tours. If you get fatigued you can always take a taxi back to the hotel.

I've done a number of Rick Steves tours but have also done a lot of Road Scholar tours. To me the Road Scholar ones are often slightly less active. Both companies have some kind of activity meter which are usually fairly accurate as to how vigorous you can expect a tour to be.

I've only ever done RS tours or traveled independently. I have noticed that RS tours give people flexibility to "skip" something if they need to or take a taxi instead of walk, etc. The key thing here is to communicate well with your guide. You can't expect the entire tour to change to meet your needs, but you can expect that you can change your participation in the tour to a level that is manageable for you.

Example: On a tour, the group was climbing up to the abbey on Mont Saint-Michel. A few people with bum knees felt that this wasn't going to be the best choice for them. They stayed at the coffee shop at the bottom and had a lovely time visiting together while the tour went on. After the abbey tour, the group reunited and went on.

Another option is to go to a city and sign up for day tours, take a day off from touring, and then sign up for a different day tour.

I thought the RS Venice-Florence- Rome Tour was very active, with longer days, but that the Best Of Switzerland was more moderately paced. I think you'd really enjoy the latter- many options for boat rides, cogwheel trains, and gondolas !
Safe travels!

Welcome to the forum Idalry. Look at the tours you are interested in. Each has an activity scale between least active and most active. Then look at the tour's itinerary. It will give a range of walking per day. You don't do all the walking at once. There are meanders through museums, meal time and bus time to break up the day. Note that you will be walking every day, but there is lots of free time to rest and recuperate if you want. You can also opt out of an activity if you need/want to.
My sister-in-law and I did the South of Italy tour three years ago; she was 71 and I was 68. About 1/3 of us on the tour were in that age bracket. Now I'm 71 and going on the South of France tour in September.

Welcome! We are young at heart Seniors as well.

Have you traveled in Europe before? Is there something you are aiming to see? Do you have any specific medical conditions that make walking difficult?

I'm going to suggest an alternative to taking a tour. That would be to stay in one spot and truly explore the region. Just before Covid, we did this. We stayed in the small village of Loches, France for a week. We rented an air B&B apartment that allowed us to take a leisurely pace. It was 1/4 mile from the heart of town. There was enough to do both in town and the neighboring countryside that we could go on adventures. There was no structure to our stay so we could go when we felt like it or just spend a leisurely breakfast at a local outdoor cafe.

I can think of lots of opportunities in Tuscany to do the same. Of course there's Florence and the heart of the city is small enough to walk easily. Siena would be another good choice, or if you wanted a village experience, Volterra would be fun. Lucca is a little bigger with plenty to do.

Time of year is important. If you are retired, you could go during the shoulder seasons and miss the hustle and bustle of the busy peak tourist time. We spent a wonderful stay just before Christmas in an agriturismo just outside Greve, in the heart of Chianti. We had a car and could easily explore the region with everything an 1/2 hours or less from home base.

You might also consider the My Way tours. On these, Rick Steves provides hotels, transportation between cities and a tour manager to answer questions - this relieves you of some of the logistical planning. You also have the possibility of meeting other tour members who might like to do something with you. But it’s up to you to decide how to spend each day, so you can go at your own pace.

Each of the RS tours has an "activity level" gauge. So you can browse those that are where you are interested in going.

The daily walking is broken up into 'bite size' segments. It's not an infantry forced march to cover 4- 8 miles with just one rest break.

You are not required to participate in every activity, but if you opt out just let the guide know.

Thank you to everybody who is replying. There are great ideas. Perhaps a "your way" trip and then City tours in big ones like Florence, Rome, etc. Thank you!!!

not to diss the host, but there are other tour companies as well and some of the tours will be less active than others

Just a note that some people may miss by making assumptions. The RS tours don't pick the group up every morning and bus you to and from the the sights you're visiting. You're walking or taking public transport daily, with a bus only for inter-city transport. So it is that walking that adds up.

You are still a go-go. 4 miles a day is pretty darn good. My opinion-- enjoy your go-go years and do as many go-go tours you can until you can't. Enjoy travel while you can before mobility truly could become an issue.

RS tours (from my one time experience) had moderate walking tours in the morning to see the sights. Then you are on your own to do what you would like to do in the afternoon. Aso, there were days where we were traveling from point A to B, so there wasn't alot of walking those days.

Depending on what tours you are setting your sights on, bring walking sticks. After taking a steep hike in Hawaii using walking sticks, I discovered how great they are. I moved faster and was more stable going down the rough lava/rock terrain. I would take them to Europe if I knew I was hiking in the mountains or uneven terrain. Even if it rained, walking sticks could be helpful on slick cobblestones. I also suggest good shoes with a good sole for stability and comfort.

You will truly enjoy a RS tour.

RS tours that take place in flatter countries may cover similar length walking miles but are less strenuous than walking the same number of miles in mountain or hilly areas. I suggest Belgium and the Heart of Holland, rather than Athens and the Heart of Greece. Both great tours that I enjoyed, but Holland was less strenuous.