Rick Steves Tours sleeping accommodations

Hi Thomas, can't help with the Spanish Tour hotels, but, I can tell you that they do send you out a complete list, with all hotels names and addresses, about 2 or 3 weeks before the trip. I found that great as I was able to look up the hotels ( I was just curious) and give my family the list so they would know how to get a hold of me on any given night.

I took a 14 day tour this summer. My general review as to the type of hotels we stayed at is very good.
They are NOT luxury hotels, but they were all , very clean, and all had very nice staff. Some of the hotels were really, really nice, and two of them were not regular hotels, but one was a agritourisma( country hotel in the hills in Tuscany area) and other was a converted old house in the country of the Burgundy , fantastic.
The hotel we had in Switzerland had stunning views, and character rooms with lovely down duvets, but character sometimes means carpets are a tad worn, and there may or may not be elevators. etc.
I liked all our hotels and would stay at all of them again .

If you have read any of Rick Steves books, and understand his travel philosophy, then you will be happy with hotels.
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Pat: What?!? I had no idea hotels in Europe even have elevators? I've never seen one.:)

Check the itinerary for the towns where you will be spending the night(s). Then go to the RS book on Spain. Find the cities and then his recommended accommodations. This will give you a pretty good idea of the hotel(s) you may be staying at. Sometimes the tour may be split into two different inns because inns or B & B's were not large enough to host everyone. This happened in England & Scotland. I have always received the hotel tour list at least a month to six weeks ahead of time. Sometimes you will get the first and last hotel early and then the rest of them later on. We leave early so I want to make reservations for early arrivals and stay a day later.

On the GAS tour, I believe four hotels had elevators! No a/c anywhere.

Kent, you need to get out more!

Hey everyone....thanks so much for the feedback so far. Earlier this year I got on this discussion board and found out which hotels RS uses for his tours for Rome and Florenece, I booked there, and could not have been more happy.

So I was curious if I could figure out where he has his tours spend the night in Barcelona, Spain? Any one do that tour? Thanks. Tom

Thomas - I just received my hotel listings for my RS tour leaving Oct.5th. We are staying : Barcelona Hotel Catalonia Albinoni --- Madrid - Hotel Europa ---Toledo - Hostal Centro ---Granada - Hotel Anacapri --- Arco - Hotel El Convento --- Sevilla - Hotel Alcantara --- Salema - Pension Mare and Lisbon - Residencial Florescente. I've been on their web sites and was pleased with was I saw - diverse - no big chain hotels - the type of hotels that Rick promises. I can't wait. I hope this helps.

We took this tour in the Spring and the hotel in Barcelona was Hotel Cataloni Albinoni. Wonderfully situated and a very nice hotel.

Thomas, phone RS ,, I wanted to book the hotel the tour started in ahead of time as I was arriving early.
Since I was travelling during high season I knew booking only a few weeks out would have been a mistake.

I phone RS months ahead ( likely closer to 4 ) and asked them if they set starting hotel, , which they had done. They gave me the name.

Note;
Almost none of the hotels we stayed in were in RS books, I imagine the ones in his books get booked up so early now that they don't need his groups .

Kent - You must have mistaken the elevator for the linen closet. Or the dumbwaiter. They're all about the same size. :)

Yes, I guess I'm not staying at the right hotels. If I stayed at The Ritz I'd probably see some elevators--and perhaps see Rick sneaking in the Ritz Back Door, now that he's got the royalty money rolling in from all of us back door types dutifully sleeping in 2-star accommodations in the Rue Cler. Oh well, he's earned it (don't ban me from the Helpline, Big Guy).