I just got our tour package for our May Best of Greece Tour and I was surprised that it didn’t include the usual tour badge.
Is Rick Steve’s no longer sending out those wonderful souvenir badges?
Minor problem, I know; but I always look forward to them.
Claire
We got our guidebooks a few weeks ago and didn’t get a badge. I had forgotten about them. I guess this is a cost-cutting measure.
It's probably best to ask the RS Tours staff about this.
We have no way of knowing, but the staff surely does !
I called the tour office and cost cutting is the reason badges aren’t be sent out. Understandable.
Oh dang! My first ever tour and no patch. Boo!
I have the upmost respect for the challenges faced by the travel industry in the last few years. If they have found ways to save money on the "extras" to keep providing the essentials, it is fine with me.
Agreed, Carol now retired. I really just wanted to make sure that the missing badge wasn’t just an oversight.
Too bad! I'd rather have the tour badge than another money belt :-(
And then there are those of us with 2020 badges. A collector's item! ;)
I can completely understand the reasoning, but darn! This year will be my first tour and I was hoping they’d still have them. I might need to find my own way to commemorate it. Maybe I’ll design a sticker for my water bottle. :)
I think they should sell them. When Robert did the polar plunge in Antarctica we bought him a badge at the gift shop to put on his jacket. And instead of a badge with the year on it (which expires) put the name of a country on the badge. So If you travel to Greece, you can buy a Greece badge. To Germany, a German badge. We don't buy souvenirs (take only pictures, leave only footprints!) but the patches are small and a nice memory. Just a thought.
Seems a silly way to cut costs. Really, how much cost could these add, a couple dollars per person? And it's one of those little things people remember and look forward to. They could definitely cut out the money belts (this topic has been debated ad nauseum, lol).
Having purchased badges for an organization (of course, no where the size of RS) they are way more expensive than I would have guessed. Spending money on dated materials in these times of uncertainty is surely not a good investment. Glad RS is managing costs to help keep the cost of travel reasonable.
I would pay for a badge if that were an option.
So was I, but I understand. I have a collection at this point. If anyone has a 2013, 2003, 2001 or 96-98 patch they would like to sell I would be overjoyed to buy it from you.
I could care less about the badge. OK with me if they sold it to people who wanted it.
I love the badge. I hope that starting in 2023 they will return!
I love the tour patch! I even have one for 2020, for the Poland tour that didn’t happen! I hope the patches will be part of our tour kit in 2023.
Last week I reorganized our travel "stuff" and found patches from other tours. For me, it brings back not good memories of bleeding, sore fingertips from sewing on dozens of Boy Scout and Camp Fire patches and beads. I would much more appreciate a sticker I could put on my suitcase or camping cooler.
I'm another that doesn't miss getting the patch. I'm trying not to accumulate more "stuff".
