Back to back tours

We did back to back Southern England and Scotland and can only offer one suggestion. Try to scheduled the trips so you have at least one full day (or more) between the two. You won't be rushed and have to worry about making it to the second tour on time.

We did 8 day Heart of Scotland, then 13 day South England, with 2 extra days in Scotland and 5 days in London in between. It worked well and I'd do a 2 tour combo again. Pacing was important and we mostly did that well. We flew in a few days early to acclimate, and the time in London on our own was a nice break from tour structure. If I did it again I'd plan a couple of single entire days with nothing to do but sleep in and be quiet. We were physically prepared for the activity level but that was a lot of "people time" for us introverts. It looks like the tour combos you're considering have a blend of city and country, which we found to be great pacing. I wouldn't, for example, do two city tours back to back.

We did back to back Italy Venice, Florence, Rome then 7 days Rome. The second tour started in Rome where the first tour ended. Since the hotels were different we ate breakfast, packed then went to a local laundromat and did our laundry. We took a taxi to the new hotel and started all over again. Since we had the experiences of the first tour there were some things we did differently ( spent an afternoon really exploring the Forum and skipped another Colosseum tour.). That worked out well. So if you are going to do a “city” tour maybe do it after the other tour that gives you a taste if the city. Then you’ll know what you really want to spend your time revisiting or maybe do something not included on the tour.

definite trips we want to do are Turkey

We took the Rick Steves Best of Istanbul and Best of Turkey tours back to back and loved it. Originally, we were planning our own time in Istanbul, and it quickly became clear that we were nearly duplicating the Best of Istanbul tour itinerary. So when back to back slots came available, we booked them!

There is some duplication between the tours. We participated in everything, and got a lot out of our 2nd visits, especially a different perspective from our different tour guides. We still added pre-tour days in Istanbul, with no end of choices for things to do.

Our Best of Istanbul tour ended in the morning and we started the Best of Turkey tour that afternoon. Our first tour leader kindly drove us to the hotel for our 2nd tour. We were excited and ready to go!

Either order can work: we flew into Istanbul and flew out of Izmir, without backtracking to Istanbul.

I've done 15 tours but only two that were back to back. Generally I take one in the spring and another in the fall. However, in 2019 I took the Scandinavian tour and then flew to London, took a train to Canterbury and joined the South England tour. One great thing about the second tour is that I was fully over my time change from the west coast and thus fully enjoyed the beginning of the second tour. Even though I now try to arrive at least 3 days prior to a tour, the jet lag time change of 8 or 9 hours is really hard. Also I only have to endure one long round trip to Europe and save on not purchasing two. I hope to find more back to back trips!

We have taken back to back tours four times and plan to do it again next year. For us it is more important to have a few free days between the tours than the geographic proximity of the tours. Since train and plane travel within Europe is rather easy, match tours with convenient dates rather than close by. We finished a tour in Berlin, stayed there a few extra days, then flew to Dublin for start of Ireland tour. We also ended Sicily tour in Catania, flew to Munich where we relaxed a few days before taking train to Ljubljana for Adriatic tour. Like others have said, after flying across the pond, we like to have 3-4 weeks in Europe before flying home. Saves money and reduces jet lag.

We've done back-to-back tours 6 times. The first time we did Best of Paris followed by Belgium and Holland. We chose those two because they revisited our favorite stops on the 21 Day Best of Europe we had taken the previous year.

The next combo was Best of London, followed by the (Off season) Best of Sicily; that was when there were two separate Sicily itineraries. We chose them because they both fell in February.

Third time we did Paris and the Heart of France, followed by Eastern France. That was a great combo, if you love France - and we do!

Fourth was Loire to the South of France, followed by Best of South Italy. We took those as "revenge travel," as soon as the tours started up again after Covid. We had been trying to take those tours for several years.

Fifth was the Best of Portugal followed by Basque Country. Another great combo, exploring different cultures in the same general part of the world.

And finally this past summer we combined Best of Poland and the Best of England. The Poland tour is one my husband has been wanting to take ever since it was first announced, and the England tour had been recommended to us by some travel friends.

We're also doing back-to-back tours this year, but only one is a Rick Steves tour. We're doing Rick's Best of Spain, followed by a Mark Seymour Southwest France tour.

I agree totally with those who say allow some time between the two tours. You'll want to rest up, spend some time traveling on your own, and resetting you mindset, especially if the two tours are in different countries. We were fortunate enough the last two years to be able to separate each set of tours by two weeks, a luxury of time not available to everyone.

I haven't ever taken back to back tours, however, I have read here on the forum the following advice: Consider picking two different cultures or definitely pick tours with a different focus. For example, don't choose two tours that are heavy on visiting churches or two that have a lot of Roman ruins. If they are too similar, you may get tired of the sameness. If one has a focus on art, maybe choose the next tour that goes to vinyards and the countryside.

Have a great trip!

I have been on the Turkey tour and the Scandinavian tour and they were both fantastic. They are very different also, so if you can get the timing and the transportation sorted, I recommend doing those!

We did Best of Paris and Best of Eastern France. Allow a couple of days in between to relax and reset. Just my personal opinion but I’m glad we did the same country so I didn’t have to try and switch gears on languages. The only thing that I found a challenge was after having just memorized 24 names, I now had to memorize another 24 names. On our Best of Southern Italy we had a number of people continuing on to or had just come from the Best of Sicily tour and raved about how the two tours complimented each other.

We did the South Italy and Best of Sicily back-to-back with three days in between. Loved both as they complemented each other well.

Margie, I'm with you, both on not having to switch languages, and the problems of memorizing two sets of names! I find I don't remember the names of folks when we've done back-to-back tours.

But it is fun, and as someone else mentioned, since you're going to all the trouble to get to Europe, then do more than one tour, or combine a tour with some interesting travel on your own.

Thank you all the great suggestions! We just booked Best of Rome followed by Best of South Italy back to back this fall and we'll look forward to booking more trips in 2026!

We haven’t taken back-to-back tours, but I did do the RS Adriatic tour after my husband & I spent two weeks in England & Wales. The flights in Europe are inexpensive. I used Easy Jet. It was a nice way to have variety in a trip, plus the Adriatic tour location has always been a bit of a hassle to reach from our location. Since I flew from London onward, it was easy. I arrived in Ljubliana two days early and attended a concert that evening, plus a very nice cave tour the next day. I’ve considered doing a similar strategy to join one of the RS Eastern Europe tours.

My husband hates the long flight from San Francisco so we’ve done back to back tours since retiring. Sicily and South Italy were similar enough that we next tried Scandinavia and Village Italy. Luckily in August the weather was not a big issue. Our first was Best of Europe, a week off, then Scotland. I did have to pack for cold and warm climates. It was cold in Amsterdam in late April (tour was May 1-22), warm in Italy. Scotland was unseasonably warm, so the long sleeves I had planned got switched out for the Italy clothes.
I think I preferred the 2 different areas but packing can be a bit harder. Of note we are going to Greece then Turkey this spring which helps coordinate flights.

I think Best of Rome and South Italy will work really well together.

I've done several back to backs either with Rick or Road Scholar or a combo. I did the 21 day Best of Europe followed by Best of Paris (followed by another week in Paris with a friend) followed by Village Italy. That was sort of catch up travel following my doing parent care for a number of years. I'd promised myself on the days when it was difficult that I would go everywhere I wanted to without regard to expense and I did, lol!!

I've also done Best of England followed by Paris and the Heart of France which worked really well in spite of the language and money change, lol. I also did Southern England followed by Best of Scotland and for myself that did not work well. I was VERY castle'd out by the time we got to Scotland (the way some get church'd out in Italy) and could not enjoy it. Plus the food was surprisingly similar and felt repetitive. I followed Rick's GAS tour with a Road Scholar hiking tour in England which was a good change of pace.

As referenced above, I feel like if you are doing 2 longer tours (not city tours) then changing cultures a bit is more fun for me.

Have a terrific time on your chosen tours!

We've done back-to-back tours in 2023 so that only one round trip was needed. That way we didn't sweat splurging on a comfortable flight. The only thing we wouldn't do again is taking the train from the first tour's ending point (Amsterdam) to the starting point of the second tour (Berlin). My partner said he will never agree to traveling that train route again.

We took 2 separate tours in 2024 but will again do back-to-back again in 2025.

I could imagine doing the Best of Ireland and Best of Scotland back-to-back but we've already taken the Best of Ireland by itself in 2024. I understand Rick Steves has reservations about taking those 2 together but I don't share them.

We too like to spend 4-5 weeks

Our first back to back was in 2017 Rhone cruise ending in Barcelona, then taking RS Barcelona/madrid with two/three days between tours
2018 - RS 8 day Ireland with one day , 10 day Scotland
2019 - RS 7 day London, RS Paris and heart of France
2022 was our revenge travel … weeks got longer. Igot2travel to Iceland , 5 days in Glasgow our own, then two week tour with Seymour travels to Orkney/Shetland. Dec was Christmas cruise Danube

2023 was the longest 6 week. Seymour travels sw England, 6 days Glasgow on our own,1 week outer Hebrides with Igot2travel, then two weeks on our own jn London. December back to Christmas in England with Seymour travels.

2024 5.5 weeks. Rhine River cruise, 5 days on our own in Bruges, then overnite stop in London, then off to No England tour with Seymour travels.

1. September I am doing 35 days in Greece.. RS tour , three days on my own, then Greek islands with Seymour tours.

I am leaving for Jordan and Egypt in a few weeks for Nile cruise.

I highly recommend multiple tours with time in between tours for rest and fun relaxation. I try to combine tours that I can easily transition to my next adventure. Use trains or short flights to each destinations.

Have fun planning and deciding