Need Advice - Best of Europe 21 Day Trip

The very best tip I ever received was here on the Forum years ago- pack for ONE week no matter how long the trip and it eliminates trying to plan with the mindset of needing 3 entire weeks of clothes.
There's aready a plethora of advice in the archives including likely from those who have taken this tour, to answer your cobblestone question. I recently finished a RS tour and can assure you nobody will notice what you wear.
Also, when you get the hotel list you can use Maps street view to get an idea? The weight is likely more relevant if your airline has a restriction or if you struggle to handle it. The guide and driver typically work fast to get everyone's pieces on and then off under the bus in the storage area beneath.
I re-wear every top and bottom at least 3-4 times, sink washing underwear that can dry overnight or waiting til 2 nights in a location.
Have a wonderful trip!

The packing forum is a source for many useful tips. Some obsessive ultralight packers choose which clothes to pack by weighing clothes and sink washing them at home to see how long it takes them to dry. I obsessively sink wash clothes immediately when I arrive at a hotel where I will be spending two nights. The English company Rohan has pants that dry quickly.

There are different ways to handle tour packing and laundry.
I plan on hitting a laundromat once a week, and have had no problem doing that on RS tours. The guidebooks list locations for most towns, and google helps. I used to do sink washing, but now only do underwear.
I haven't had any trouble pulling a wheeled bag. I prefer 2 wheels, but I know others feel spinners work fine.

Enjoy your tour!

I’m in the described obsessive ultralight packers category, but that’s from years of European travel. So back to the basics:

People on your tour will have 2-wheel, 4-wheel suitcases or a large backpack as their main bag. It’s never been a huge problem to get those from the RS bus to a hotel entrance. The weight of it is something you want to consider - are you comfortable lifting it into the overhead in the airplane, etc.? Also, it’s very important to check your specific airline for their carry on dimensions (and sometimes weight restrictions).

Over many years, my main bag has been a Rick Steves 2-wheel suitcase, then an Eddie Bauer Expedition 2-wheel bag, and the last few years I switched to a Cotapaxi Allpa 35L backpack that I love. (I’m in my 60’s)

During my RS tour last year, I washed underwear and any quick-drying shirt or dress worn that day every night. Otherwise, I washed my pants, etc. during the first night of 2-night stops. That keeps my quantity of dirty clothes very small, so I can switch into something else in the evening if I want a quick late afternoon shower & change clothes after a hot day. I just wash my clothes in the sinks with a piece of Earth Breeze laundry detergent - looks like a dryer sheet, or some hotel shampoo. Wrap it up snuggly for a few minutes in a towel & hang to dry. The RS tours usually have a planned location for some available laundromats, although I’ve never used them. My last RS trip was combined with a 2-week independent trip with my husband, so those clothes were worn for a month. I usually take 1-2 dresses and three shirts & two pants.

Create your own packing list. Use it to do a trial pack of the exact items you’re planning a month ahead. Happy with the results? It can take a couple of iterations before you come to your final packing list. Then this is very important: do your final packing to that packing list. It’s easy for extra “what if” stuff to creep into your bag, otherwise. ; )

If you’re curious about the “weighing the clothes” aspect, I want my backpack bag filled to be no more than 13.5 pounds (I ride a lot of trains and move locations often.). I will weigh several favorite shirts that could be good for a trip on a kitchen scale. It’s easy to shave off some pounds by selecting the lightest weight shirts, pants & dresses. I also bring a lightweight crossbody tote on the plane as my personal item.

We did the Best of Europe in 21 Days tour in 2015. There were some cobblestones but that did not prove an issue for our wheeled luggage anywhere on the tour. As others have said, pack light. There is opportunity to do laundry or have it done on the trip. We brought a universal plug (a rubber disc) and did some laundry in the sink for items that were quick dry and we used Rick's clothes line for drying in the shower/tub overnight. Look at Rick's page for packing and check videos by Sarah Murdoch. We always use carryon size bags. Bon Voyage you are in for a treat with the tour!

I loved this tour! It was so memorable.

I, also am one of the ones that now weighs my clothes and makes choices based on that. You certainly don't have to do that BUT it can be an eye opener. 2 plain white tees might be radically different weights....

I now use a 2-wheeled roller along with a personal item. For the 21 day tour I used Rick's Convertible back pack and the blooming thing was so heavy I could almost not lift it at the end of my vacation. I was doing 3 RS tours back to back to back over 8 weeks and thought I needed a lot, lol. Lesson learned!!

Here is my Trip Report and my wardrobe choices. For some reason I took THREE cardigans....I would not do that now. I rarely take a cardie now at all, preferring to take a Long Sleeve quarter zip dri-fit which weighs ounces as opposed to the weight of a cardie.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/21-day-best-of-europe-8-26-14

I went at the end of August and it was a heat wave in Germany that year. I would probably take 2 pr of long pants (1 a pr of jeans for the plane and 1 a lighter weight travel pant) and 2 pr of capris. I'm not a dress wearer but if you are I'd take 1 long pants, 1 capri and probably 2 dresses (Jean, who posted above is a dress wearer!). You might not like capris at all but shorts are going to be harder everywhere but Cinque Terre as you will not be able to wear the shorts in churches.

You will want a personal item (tote or day pack) for your "bus bag" - something to have with you on the transit days for your rain jacket, water, book/Kindle/guide book, snacks, etc. You can also use the bus bag to take in to Venice for your 2 nights and leave your suitcase on the bus. The suitcase on the vaporetto in Venice is a pain in the neck as well as going over the bridges which are steps and not ramps.

IF you want to post a list of your clothes the group can give you an opinion on what you might want to keep and what you might want to leave at home.

One tip for in room washing. Almost all of our hotel/air BnB places have a towel heater in the bathroom. We make that a hanging rack & turn the heat on. Sometimes we have to adjust the clothes on the rack after a couple hours. We love the dryers. we investigated installing one at home but the outlet is in the "wrong" place

Do many of the countries we are visiting (Netherlands, France,
Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria) have cobblestone streets that
will make it difficult to roll/lug around?

Yes. From my perspective, not too bad with two wheeled bags. Horrible with spinners.

I have done this tour several times because I travel with my grandkids when they graduate from high school. Travel light. The end of August is still really warm, or even hot everywhere. You will layer. Take something to cover shoulders and knees for a few churches. You will enjoy having comfortable shoes more than anything else. For myself, a skirt and a top that can be dressed up or down with a scarf is useful, as are lightweight long pants and t-shirts. I always take a couple of ventilated long-sleeved hiking shirts with pockets (REI, Columbia, etc) that I can layer over short sleeved T-shirts. If you really need something, you can buy it in Europe. Shopping is a cultural experience, so plan to visit drug stores, grocery stores, and department stores. Have fun!

I will be going on this tour next week and found that our tour guide steve corkin has a youtube channel that he creates a montage for his BOE tours. He has a few on Youtube, but here's an example of one. I used his videos to get an idea of what people are wearing and luggage as well as the overall aesthetic of the tour. This will make my fourth tour with Rick Steve's:
https://youtu.be/giy2NAN61IU?si=sUCKlG-xZD5ivWo3

You will have at least two, if not more, chances for laundry offered at your hotels. I also did sink laundry for underwear and fast drying clothes.
We used carryon only, packed for a week and were able to wear clothing several times. I have thin skirts and tops that dry fast. I never wore my slacks. We wore a light jacket in Switzerland in July while the rest of the trip was blazingly hot!
We used a rolling bag. Spinners would be difficult for sure in some places. I never use a backpack preferring a small bag that fits over the handle of my carryon.
It’s a great tour.

Thank you to everyone who has provided information so far! It has been extremely helpful. I am going to attempt to go with a Briggs & Riley backpack and a Patagonia Black Hole Mini MLC 30L bag. I’ve ordered some of the products you all recommended and looked at Rick Steves’ packing list. I ordered the clothesline he recommended as well. I’ll plan to pack 7-days worth of clothes and wash them out when I can. I’ve got some thin Patagonia t-shirts and some REI and North Face quick dry pants and shorts so hopefully, those will work out. I can’t wait for the trip! Thanks again! If anyone else has any more information or helpful tips for this trip, please keep them coming!

Regarding laundering: On a recent walking/hiking 9 day trip to Canada I found that my sink washed clothes dried very fast using the hairdryer after wringing them out with a towel. My husband packs a braided clothesline. Regarding packing: 1 pair hiking pants, 1 pair capris, 1 pair leggings, and 1 skort. (I wore joggers on the plane). 1 hooded Royal Robbin’s track jacket (wore on plane), 1 rain jacket, 1 long sleeve shirt, 1 sweater, and 2 short sleeve shirts. Other stuff: Tilly hat, 1 umbrella, a bathing suit, 5 pair underwear, 5 pair socks (didn’t use all of them), 2 bras and a scarf for the very chilly plane. My bag weighed 16.5 lbs. My husband only carries a RS backpack that weighs about the same.

In lovely Québec, where we stayed, there are a lot of cobblestones and the RS two wheel bag worked fine but did make a bit of noise.
Our carryon luggage was gate checked because the flight was full and they were out of bin space. We were the second to last to board. Note to self: get to airport much earlier.

I use a 2 gallon ziplock for my "washing machine". I reinforce the sides with mailing tape because I even wash my jeans in it. I have never been able to get a clothesline to work so I carry a tubular plastic clothes hanger - the kind that has a hook on one side of it? I also have 4 clothes pins. I can do a shirt, underwear, a pr of socks and a bra and have them all on the hanger. It is very light so doesn't add much to my load.

How much does the B&R backpack weigh empty? Looks like the Patagonia is just under 3#.

When I went the hotel, in Reutte did laundry if you wanted it done as well as the hotel in Cinque Terre. I just hand washed all the time but you do you, lol.

BTW, take a small journal or start a journal on your iPad/Tablet/Phone. Try to write something every day even if it's just a list or bullet points. I promise you will not remember remember Rothenburg by the time you get to Paris!

ALSO....if your guide offers anything extra, take them up on it. My guide offered a wine tasting in Germany - he made reservations, we each paid the restaurant. In Switzerland he offered to take anyone who wanted up on the gondola to the Shilthorn on the earliest car up (and don't even blink at the price of cable cars/cog trains in Switzerland. Just put it on a card and think about it later!). In Rome he was going to a certain restaurant and offered to make reservations for anyone else who wanted to go.

This is such a wonderful trip, honestly, I still think about it 10 years later! AND I'm still in touch with some of my tour mates from then! Yea to FB.