8 Days until July 19!

Portugal-already signed and sealed for October, 2019. I love to begin planning early😉.

Hey Judy,

I, too am super excited!!! I haven’t done a RS tour in two years, so I’m already thinking of choices for next summer. :). I think I may have convinced a friend to join me. She has never been to Europe before and her husband hasn’t wanted to go (yet). However, we both work in NY/Mass schools and we get out LATE in June, which affects our tour choices, as many that we want to do don’t run in July/August, so, I’m dying to see what will be offered that will match our availability. It will be my 7th tour. I told her if the dates don’t work out quite right, then we can plan our own trip, but I rather do a tour. That way, if something isn’t to her liking it won’t be because of MY planning. She’s fairly flexible, but still it would be easier to have all the transport, etc. taken care of.

Woo Hoo! Can’t wait til next week!

Fingers crossed they release them before next Thursday. :)

:)
Gretchen

I’m trying to distract myself so that the 19th arrives faster!

Paris and the Heart of France

Or

Best of St Petersburg, Tallinn, and Helsinki

Village Italy, signed and sealed for Sept 2019. It was one of the early postings. I do have my eye on Spain. My husband has decided he wants to go there, so maybe this spring. That is if the timing works out.

Edited to add

When I first saw your title, I thought you were getting excited for your upcoming tour.:)

We're also planning Paris and the Heart of France, probably in May. We're trying to coordinate our dates with a friend from our Tulsa Area Travel Group. Then we (DH and I; friend is going to London) are planning to tack on another France tour, probably Eastern France. Maybe. We have to wait to see how the dates work out.

We already signed up for the Village Italy tour (April 22, 2019 departure). This tour fills up quickly, so we booked in late June. We usually don't book tours until late August at the earliest. The 4/27, 4/29 and 5/4 departures are on waitlist status.. I also noticed that they added an additional departure for 4/20.

This will be our sixth RS tour, and the one that has been at the top of our list.

I check every day as well. I went on my 1st RS tour this past April-Paris and Heart of France. It was fabulous. So I'm considering Village Italy, but the My Way Alpine tour also sounds fabulous. Has anyone taken this trip? Anyway, hope to take many more RS tours during my retirement while I'm still active. How am I going to pay for them? Not sure yet, but never going back to work! Here's to all of us and our adventures.

My travel plans for next year are unsure right now. I would like to sign up for the Greece tour in spring but I may be going to Israel then. Information is not available yet on that trip. I’m thinking if Israel happens in the spring, I may wait for Greece in spring of 2020. Then I would do a RS tour in fall 2019. Oh, what to do! So many destinations, so little time!
Reynolds-Denise, Paris and HOF was my first RS tour! So wonderful, probably my favorite as it was my first. Don’t tell my other children (tours), I loved them all. This October, I’m doing the Turkey tour, number 6.

Eyeing the family tour from Amsterdam to Rome, ideally in June. My family (me, my wife, and two daughters, then aged 13 and nearly 11) did the family tour from London to Florence last summer, and it was the best thing we’ve ever done together. Made a family agreement on the flight back to the US that we would save our pennies for the other tour, ideally in 2019, and that’s still the hopeful plan.

Tedesco,
How lovely that you and your family are planning to take another family trip next year! Your children will have wonderful memories.

Gretchen,
Do you have list of a few tours that you would like to take? I don't think you mentioned it in your post.

Hi Judy,

I have several I'm eyeing (as always!). At this point though, it's going to depend upon my friend. She has three kids, so she doesn't want to be away for 2 full weeks. Since it's her first time to Europe, I'll go with what she can do and works with our school schedules. We both wanted to do Heart of Portugal, but we go to school until June 26th potentially (if we use all our snow days, which usually happens). So, that one is out since it doesn't run in July. Also, she would prefer not to do a strictly Italy one, since her husband does want to go there eventually and she'd like her first trip there to be with her husband.

If she doesn't go with me, I'm angling toward Best of Eastern Europe. I've been wanting to do it for several years, but the timing never seems to work out. Next year, it potentially would work. I also want to do Portugal, Spain, Adriatic, Turkey, Ireland, Paris and the Heart of France, Eastern France, Sicily, and Greece. I would also do the BoE tours (14/21 days), Bulgaria, Scandinavia, and the shorter 8-9 day city tours. Basically, everywhere! :)

I've already done: Village Italy, Scotland, Istanbul, Loire Valley/South of France, Belgium/Holland, and G/A/S.

I couldn't wait any longer! The Village Italy Tour is filling fast, so I signed up for the April 22 tour. Thinking of flying into Milan and taking a train to Padua the day before. Looking forward to meeting you and your wife, Bob.

Gretchen, you have quite a list! I have heard the Eastern Europe tour is amazing. I too have a list that seems to change daily, I guess that’s a good thing...I can’t run out of interesting destinations!
Greece
St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Helsinki
Loire/South of France
GAS
South Italy
Scandinavia
Eastern Europe
Portugal

I'm excited to see if any new tours are added. I'm hoping one day to see a new "village" tour.

OH my gosh Judy - I have been checking everyday for about a month or so. Am I obsessed or NOT!!. Yes.... doing two back to back to tours again next year. 1st one probably will be first part of May the 7 day London (2019 is already out), then going with Jane/Stan on the Paris and Heart of France for 11 days (2019 dates are not out yet!) Just have to wait to see what weeks will work with both. Maybe have to take a side trip on our own back to Bruges. We fell in love with that city from our Holland/Belgium tour in April, 2016. May be gone for about about 20-25 days again next year.

Our next travel meeting is next Saturday. I wonder what we will be talking about. Hmmmmm?

I have a friend who is in town this week at my work seminar. She is taking her first RS tour in a few weeks. She is doing the 7 day London tour. Asked her to give me the run down when she gets back. So we have been talking about travel and I took two of my scrapbooks to show her this week. She knew I took his tours and they decided to take the plunge. Hope they have an awesome first time trip

Edit : also it is my son's 31st birthday on July 19!

Edit again: after reading all postings....looks like some us of are wanting the Paris and Heart of France!! woo hoo!

Kim,
Nice to hear from you! Your plans to combine the 7 Days London tour with Paris & HOF sound wonderful. I loved Paris & HOF, it was my very first RS tour. It is so nice to travel with friends who also love to travel. I’ve read Jane’s posts on the forum and she seems like a lovely person, too.

I will step out on a limb and predict the tours will be announced before the 19th! So, I check every day. That’s just me.

Judy B, I'm checking them daily, too. Even on a Sunday! Thanks for the kind words. Kim and I have gotten to know each other through our local travel group - we actually "met" on this Forum, then decided to meet in real life to see if we could pull off a group. We clicked immediately, and never run out of travel talk. So when she suggested we take a tour together, Stan and I jumped at it. We love Paris, and want to learn more about the rest of France.

We're considering several possibles for a follow-up tour in 2019; right now Eastern France is leading. When I told DH there were four wine tastings listed in the catalogue, he said "Sign us up!" Here's hoping the dates work for us. Otherwise, I'm thinking the Basque tour, or the Loire Valley tour.

Yes!
Glad to know I’m not the only one getting excited!
We are planning to sign up for GAS:)

Jane, a friend of mine went on the Basque tour in June and loved it! I would love to do the Loire/South of France tour.

Well, I was hoping for an early announcement today but guess not.

Judy,

Definitely do Loire/South of France. It ended up being tied for first for my favotire among the 6 tours I've taken.

Only a few more days..

:) Gretchen

Gretchen, what was the other contender for first place?

I've read the itinerary again for Loire/South of France, and it doesn't interest me as much as the Eastern France or Basque Country. What made it special for you?

Jane— I sent you a PM about the wonderful Basque Country tour.
(I’m Judy B’s friend)

My Paris and heart of France for 2019 is out!!!!

Yay! Excited for you, Kim!
I had a feeling some tours would be popping out early, kinda like babies.

All the ones we're interested in - all in France - are out, as well. Now, we have to figure out which dates work, and coordinate the Heart of France tour with Kim. I see lots of staring at the printouts and calendar in our future.

Happy planning, Jane. It looks like many others are available as well. Best of Europe, 21 and 14 days. My Way(r) tours too.

Jane - London May 5 to May then hop over to france May 14 to May 24 fits. Not sure about your schedule. Now the big question is.... for hubs and I decide. We love bruges….. possibility go from London to Bruges for 3 days, then bruges to Paris for the next tour

Oh the possibilities.

Just checked, I think all the 2019 tours are on the website. We do this at my employer, a “soft” rollout of an enhancement to software and then follow up with an official announcement.

Kim, May 14 may work; there's also one starting May 17. I've printed out the dates for the other France tours, and will start studying them tonight!

We were thinking maybe the May 7 one, but I think we may have another conflict there.

See you at our travel meeting on Saturday.

Jane and Kim,
Can’t wait to hear about your final tour decisions! I love the idea of back to back tours. Enjoy the planning.

Jane May 7 will work, cuz we can back up our London tour. Woot Woot..... can't wait. I even check United on my flights and it gave me good times for flights. 60,000 points $187 in and out of London or 85,000 and $90.?? for into London and out of Paris.

I can handle those points.

See ya Saturday

Judy - has my friends Candy and mark ever show up at your meetings?

We are to go on a trip again together in 2020

No, Jane. I can’t recall, did they email me?
You can let them know our next meeting is Saturday, August 11 at 10 am. I post the notices on the forum. We would love to meet them. Which trip are y’all doing in 2020?

Best of Scandinavia 14 day with the two couples we met on our Holland/Belgium tour. Probably in August/September 2020. Not sure which month.

So I'm a little confused...are all the tours released now for 2019? I've never taken a RS tour (or even traveled to Europe) so I'm super excited but pretty new to all this =)

Yes, I believe all the 2019 tours have been released. Rick Steves will probably make the official announcement tomorrow, July 19!

Seeing these dates feels a little bit like Christmas morning!

Will be booking the family tour Amsterdam-Rome for June sometime in the next few days. And then the family countdown begins!

Kim, May 7 probably not a go. It interferes with my Dad's turkey hunting! I'm still in the family doghouse because I was gone last April, prime turkey season.

I'll check out the next two May dates tonight; we can make something work.

It is like Christmas morning! Family tour Amsterdam to Rome sounds fun! 🎄🎄
Happy travels.

Just booked the tour a few minutes ago--and there is much cheering in the house!

Yay! A cheerful family warms the heart! So glad for you.

Kim and I found a match for Paris and the Heart of France! We're signing up tomorrow. DH and I are following up with Best of Eastern France. (We'll save the other France tours for another trip.) Kim and her hubs will do Best of London before our joint tour. We're all excited, even though our tours are 10 looooonnnng months away.

Jane and Kim,
Should I call you the dynamo duo? Excited for you that your tours are going to sync up. I haven’t been on the Eastern France 🇫🇷 tour, the itinerary is enticing. Do you speak French? I think it’s handy that Rick has put some language learning on the website.
Well, I still have no information about my possible trip to Israel so I’m left hanging as far as signing up for a RS tour. Hope to know in August. Then I can pounce. As a good friend told me last night, you’re going to Turkey soon. You don’t need to think about next year now! Sigh.

Judy, I speak some French - not a lot - and plan to speak more by next spring. That's one reason for choosing two France tours instead of hopping down to Spain or somewhere else. I was surprised this last tour (BOE) how much French I remembered, so decided to follow up on it.

And yes, it's exciting having tours chosen. Now we start preparing! DH and I do lots of tour prep; it makes the time go faster, and helps us appreciate what we see when we get there. I just finished reading Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror," about 14th century France. Makes our current political system look downright attractive!

Just booked Paris and the Heart of France, followed by Best of Eastern France! Woo-hoo!

Woo Hoo- - Just booked 7 Day London followed up with 11 Day Paris and Heart of France.

Let the planning begin!

I will have several months to plan since I will be laid up after Aug 27. Having knee replacement!

So looking forward to this trip!

Jane,
I want to read the Barbara Tuchman book - it's a highly regarded account of 14th century France and just have not gotten around to it. I have read several books about English history and, in 2016, I appreciated our American politics better. At least, we don't murder our rivals for the throne, I mean, the Presidency! But, at this point, I need to be reading about Turkey since I'm going there in October!

So glad you have booked your French tours, it will be fun I know. And to travel with friends who also love traveling must be a treat!

Kim,
I think your combo of London and Paris & HOF will be a delight!

Btw, I'm adopting a grey tabby kitten tomorrow who is quite elegant and I'm naming her Paris!! She is pretty with white markings on her chest, a bit of white on her face and white paws. 3-5 months old!

Judy B, the Tuchman book is a monster - 600+ pages of detailed info about the history, religion, monarchy, and daily life of 14th century France. When I finally finished it, I knew that what I should do would be to turn back to page one, and start over. There was so much I missed! But my DH wanted to read it, so I passed it over to him.

What makes the book readable is it centers on one real, historical person, and how he and his family fit into the social fabric of the time. Great book; highly recommended.

And enjoy your kitten! After our last cat died, we made the difficult decision to remain petless as long as we're still taking long trips. Luckily, there are plenty of neighborhood cats we can enjoy.