2017 Tour Catalogue

So excited to hear this news! Maybe it will be in my mail when I get home tonight.

I'm already booked on the 7 Days in Rome tour in March 2017 but want to go to Scotland in Sept., possibly. I call it my "dream book"!

Judy B

Ours came today. Sadly, it is bent in half, torn and crumpled. It's a rough world!! I always enjoy looking, dreaming, and wishing, too. We have our plans set for 2017, but we are highly interested in the new Germany Tour.

Hope mine is there when I get home!

Tours beautifully presented.

Debra, call the office or drop them an email. They'll pop another one in the mail right away.

I have been taking RS tours for 15 years (14 tours) and this is by far the best catalogue that the RS folks have ever put out. It's a "keeper" for sure.

What's in the catalog that isn't on the website?

Shiny pages you can hold in your hand. Flipping easily between tours in Italy, France... It's all in one place, right there. And it's always available. Mine lives in a basket next to my chair. I find myself reaching down and grabbing it at odd times, not just when it's new and shiny, but for months afterward. Getting ideas for future travel, reminding myself what the different tours cover...

And it's always interesting to compare the tours from year to year. For example, as someone noted earlier, many of the tours, especially in Great Britain, are less expensive this year. (And some of the 2016 tours were less expensive than their 2015 counterparts!)

So for me it's partly tactile, partly convenience, partly - and somehow weirdly - comforting.

One thing I do miss: last year they quit listing individual tour dates in the catalogue. It was much easier trying to pick a tour, or to combine two tours, when I could actually have several pages open at once, side by side, comparing date ranges. I miss that.

But for those of us who love and appreciate the catalogue, this is a lovely week.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that the best and fastest way to order our new 2017 Tour Catalog is from our website. If you scroll down to the bottom of any page you will see a dark blue section with five columns. Under the middle column ~ Publications ~ you will see Tour Catalog. Just click on that and then you can enter in all your information. Our mailing house then will get that information and ship a catalog out to you directly. The catalog looks beautiful this year. We hope you all enjoy it. Cheers.

Jane, I don't know if I want to request a new one. This one is perfectly fine, if somewhat dog eared. The folks at RS are very accommodating. When we moved 2 1/2 years ago I discovered I had misplaced a tour patch. The missing patch wasn't even the current year, I believe it was from the previous year. They very kindly shipped me a new one.

As to why a catalog, some of us (old timers) still enjoy perusing an actual book. Currently, mine is on my nightstand, fun nightly reading material.

Are there fewer My Way tours than there were in previous years? I only see 5 itineraries. Any plans to add more? I'd love to see some of the more "off the beaten path" tours done as My Ways.

Mine was in my mail tonight - yippee. Beautiful book. I will compare it to 2016 to see how many My Way tours there are. The My Way France tour looks good as well as the Loire & the South of France one!
Judy B

Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I was just curious if I was missing information. I live by the computer screen . . . ☺

Oh boy.... we were out of town on vacation. Post Office is holding my mail. Going on Monday to pick up hold mail. Hope it is there!!

I checked the 2015 catalogue; there are the same number of My Way tours offered, but there may be more or fewer departure dates, depending on the tour.

A RS employee told me recently that the response to My Way has been somewhat disappointing. We've tossed around the idea of a My Way, but there are still too many regular RS tours we want to take. Sigh. So many tours; so little free time.

Kim: we'll see you Saturday at our Tulsa Area Travel Group!

Thanks, Jane. The My Way tours are kind of pricey for what you get, but as I'm the planner and work full time, it's been easier to let someone else navigate and drive for us. We are not full-on-tour people.

Judy, The My Way France is the one we did this year. Second departure ever for that one. It was good, but honestly just reinforced that we can do something like that on our own. When we did My Way BOE three years ago, we covered SO much territory in five different countries that I really felt we got our money's worth. I wouldn't have been able to plan all that on my own in my limited "free" time. France is so easy to get around in, if we were to do it again, we'd go on our own.

It came.. it was in my stash of week of mail. I am perusing the catalog with a glass of wine. Woot Woot!

Got my catalog Monday! Probably was there sooner but I have been traveling.

I like the Activity Level gauge given for each tour. Helpful if you are trying to fit a tour to how much activity you want (next year, I am looking at some of the lower activity tours, getting lazy in my old age I guess).

The printed catalog makes it easier to check tours for overlapping stops, seeing if you can link one tour to another (although not so much now that the tour dates are not included), and doesn't require an internet connection. :-)

My memory is fuzzy, but I think RS tried something like the My Way tours previously and had to discontinue them because of low interest. While the overall concept sounds great, I think if I am going the route of a packaged tour I want a fully guided option instead of the drop you off and you are on your own approach of the My Way tours.

We check out the activity level as well, although some of them surprise me. The Barcelona-Madrid tour, for example, is listed as a "most active" tour. We found it not at all challenging. We were busy much of the time, but I don't remember many hills or stairs. There were a couple of people in our group, however, who said there was too much walking. (They were there as guests of their children, and I'm sure hadn't read the pre-tour info.)