$100 Credit in Rick Steves Travel Store

Mary - I think you need to find a contact at the Rick Steves tour office (where you reserved the tour or paid the deposit).

This is a travel helpline which is mostly answered by fellow travelers, and only looked at intermittently by the staff of Rick Steves.

I think they send you info about it approximately 5 weeks after your tour is confirmed. Could be wrong so just give them a call, or send an email to the tour dept.

Thanks everyone! I will contact the tour office for details since we haven't booked yet but I would want the guidebooks right away and can always find something else in the store to spend the $100 on if I've already bought the books.

David is correct on the timing for receiving your shopping code. The Rick Steves' Travel Store only carries printed books. For 2016 tours, I would also want to wait until the newest edition is released for your destination. 2016 editions for the most popular countries are starting to come into stores this month, but one-by-one. The store shows expected publication dates under "specifications" for a particular title.

Electronic versions are sold separately and directly through regular ebook vendors, such as Amazon Kindle format or Apple iBook format, etc., so you can keep them together with your other ebooks. Timing may be later than the print version. Our publisher, Avalon, also has made a book reading app, but their shopping cart remains separate from ours, so unfortunately, the shopping credit doesn't work there.

I like this new approach.

On a related note- No more patches?

You still get a patch. Came in the mail with the confirmation letter. We're booked for Spain!

Hello fellow travelers!
I am booked on the France My Way tour, beginning in late June, 2016. I received the "patch" in the mail with my tour confirmation information. Just today, I received the info for the $100 credit and have just splurged on some items I've been coveting for some time. Really appreciate the opportunity to not receive another money pouch and earplugs! Just entered the code in the PROMO CODE space when checking out - no problems whatsoever.
Marlene

P. S. I did not purchase the "Tour Kit" - just other items available.
Marlene

Your $100 store credit promo code is only good for ONE shopping session — don't check out until you've selected additional items for your trip!

Actually, the tour kits aren't a bad idea, especially for "newbies" who don't already have the money belt. The tour kit includes all the things (except the patch, which comes separately) that RSE used to send us as part of our tour package. And they do announce on the tour kit page, in bold print, that the credit code is only good for one shopping trip. My only problem is that the 2016 edition of the book for our tour doesn't come out until April, and our tour begins in early May! So we may wait it out, and in the meantime study the Travel Shop making a list of what else we'd like to have. Oh, the $100 credit does cover shipping, according to the award email.

I just got my email for the $100 store credit the other day. My trip is scheduled end of April 2016. This will be my second RS trip, so I don't need the earplugs, money belts etc. I already bought my RS tour books on Amazon because I had Discover card cashback bonus, so they did not cost me anything. Make sure you know what you want to use the full $100 at check out. I ordered two bags and only had to pay $5.??. Not too bad.

Kim

To answer David's question: no, you do not have to buy the tour kit (aka the kit which includes a book, earplugs, and a moneybelt).

We strongly, strongly encourage people who do not already have a book specific to the tour country or countries they're traveling in, and who do not already have a money belt, to please use part of their $100 promo code to buy the kits. It makes it difficult for our guides to teach when our tour members do not have books with them, and of course we strongly encourage all travelers to travel with a money belt to keep yourself safe from pick-pockets.

All that said, if you're going to, let's say, Italy next year and you already have an Italy book and a money belt? Spend that $100 promo however you'd like in our store!

And yes, everyone still gets our awesome patches. :o)

Just curious, can we use the $100 credit to buy a RS gift card?

Nope, you can't use the $100 promo to buy a gift card. Sorry!

Darn! And I thought I was being so clever!

I have taken 13 RS tours and have every imaginable thing I could every want or use. I plan on taking Tour #14 in 2016 so do not know what I would do with that $100 credit. I have e-mailed several RS web folks but have never gotten an answer. I will be back in Seattle for Thanksgiving and plan on driving up to his headquarters in Edmonds, WA, to see if I can get a live person to answer my question.

If anyone has any specific questions that they would like to ask about this new program we have in place now for our tour members - The $100 Discount Credit in our Travel Store - please feel free to call us in the Tour Department at 425-608-4217 and we would be happy to answer any of your questions. Cheers.

keith at RS sent me an e-mail inviting me to call him or visit their store in Edmonds regarding "What can I do with this $100 credit when I already have everything I will ever need after taking 13 RS tours". Nice touch.

Charlie, it is my understanding that the RS folks are offering the voucher in lieu of sending the standard tour packet they have always sent in the past. I am guessing this is because many people, such as yourself have done previous tours and may not need or want another guidebook or moneybelt. For instance, last year I took 2 different France tours and received two identical tour packets. I would have rather had the option of getting one France guidebook, French phrasebook, a small backpack and a guidebook for Belgium, which is where I went on my own after my last tour. With the $100 voucher, you have the option to do just that, buy anything they sell. Seems like a good idea to me. You will at the very least need a new guidebook, since these are updated yearly. If you don't need anything at all, then you don't have to use it.

I received my "code" five days ago, about 5 weeks after I paid my deposit for my April 2016 Best of Spain Tour. Placed my order the next day, and my box of goodies just arrived this afternoon. Very terrific, think I. Got just what I wanted, and nothing that I didn't want or already owned. For someone who really has everything they want from the RS store, other options might include gift shopping, or perhaps getting books or DVDs to donate to local libraries, schools, or senior centers, or for donations for drawings or silent auctions at various charitable events. No?

"For someone who really has everything they want from the RS store, other options might include gift shopping, or perhaps getting books or DVDs to donate to local libraries, schools, or senior centers, or for donations for drawings or silent auctions at various charitable events. No?"

Wow! What a great idea! Thanks, Larry.

Are the guidebooks in the tour kit different than the other books for sale on the website? I noticed it said at the bottom that the only way to receive this guidebook was in the kit. We are doing the BOE 21 and I had planned on getting the Best of Europe 2015.

There are some "guidebooks" that are not the mass produced ones for sale. I got one for my Alpine tour. It was a collection of excerpts, from the guidebooks, for the places included on the tour in a spiral binding. Otherwise, for a BOE 21 tour you'd need to pack books for 4-5 countries and several cities.

Thanks, Chani! Sounds like it will be beneficial since it streamlines some of the countries that I don't need for this tour.

Rachel