Back to back tours? sicily-poland

Really just a matter of logistics to get from the one to the next. And giving yourself a bit of 'vacation' between, to be ready to go again.

Personally not done it but have read here of many who have done so, and seemed happy having done so.

I've not done either of these tours but I have done a number of back to back or in one instance back to back to back tours! I love doing them.

The ONLY downside to me is that I learned that I enjoy them more if they are different cultures which yours definitely are. I did Southern England and Scotland and was pretty bored with castle ruins by the time we were part-way thru Scotland. A few years before that I did Best of England and Paris and Heart of France and really enjoyed that. Very different areas, different food, different scenery.

IF the dates work out, I'd do at least 4 or 5 days in between tours. First, to travel without stress to the new destination, then time to rest up a bit and get some laundry done, time to "forget" the names of tour members on the 1st tour and allow yourself brain time to be ready to learn a new set of people. In your instance, brain time to switch from Italian to Polish!

I'd go for it! Carpe the h*!! out of that diem!

I'll echo the other comments about making sure you have some "downtime" between the 2 tours so you can relax and refresh. I've done back to backs and the extra 3-4 days in between was very helpful. In your case, after spending the extra days in Sicily, you may want to consider getting to the first city for the Poland tour a day or 2 early so you can explore, get your bearings, and relax. Enjoy!!

I enjoy doing back to back RS tours. Having a minimum of one full day (two nights) in between tours has worked great for me. Having additional days is like gravy. An essential ground rule for me has always been to treat each tour as a separate entity enjoying each without reflecting or comparing the others to the current one. Energy levels have not been an issue - I’m past the retirement age. Consider yourselves mature and experienced rather than aged.

We have done a number of back to back cruises with time ranging from a few days t o few hours. Always worked. Don't see a problem. We prefer at least a day between to do laundry but have walked off one ship at 8 and boarded anyone at noon.

I haven't taken a tour like Rick's since 1972, but I'm 72 years old and have traveled in both Sicily and Poland. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to do what you're considering. They're both fascinating places and very different. Just give yourself that buffer time.

We took the Best of Portugal and the London tour back to back (in that order). We were in our early 70’s. We were glad to have the city tour second-no packing and unpacking, no bus. Even so, it was tiring and we are in great shape. Have at least 2-3 days between tours, rest when you have the chance.

We did back to back RS Best of Istanbul followed by RS Best of Turkey. To Pam's point about variety, the city tour was dramatically different from the country tour, so we didn't find ourselves numbed to any particular type of sight.

Our Istanbul city tour ended in the morning and our Turkey country tour started that afternoon. We were ready to go again! Of course the tours were just cross-town from each other, a quick car ride and hotel change. Obviously, I wouldn't recommend that timing if you're changing countries, and especially if you have any tricky connections.

If we had been going to a new city to start the second tour, I would have wanted a couple of free days there before the 2nd tour. As it was, we'd been in Istanbul for 9 days, with plenty of free time before and during the city tour.

We leave for our 2nd go-round of back-to-back RS tours on Thursday. . Both of us are in our 70’s and both ends of the age. We’ve combined a My Way tour with one of the formal one each time, because of the energy factor. Mobility isn’t currently an issue, but we don’t hesitate to take our RS free time to rest if needed so we can go the distance on our tours. We endorse adding extra days between tours, usually 2 days, and move on to our new destination the day the tour ends. That allows us a relaxing way to reorient.

We’ve done back to back tours several times. We did Sicily followed by South Italy and 2 other couples from Sicily did the same—we met on the Sicily tour so not pre planned. We spent 3 days in Rome between them. Most of our back to back tours have been farther apart—Scandinavia and Village Italy and Loire Valley to Switzerland. Twice we were upended by Covid (2020 and when I caught Covid in Ireland so couldn’t join the Portugal tour.).
If not two tours, we add on at least a week before and/or after. Coming from the West coast, if we’re flying 10-12 hours we try to “bundle “.

Thanks all
yes I like "bundle" the trips and makes sense to have a few days either/or before and each trip tour.

BUT is seems that one does not know what hotel WE WILL HAVE IN EACH CITY That makes IT HARD TO FIGURE AND MAKE RESERVATIONS in advance. It there a "list" of the places RSTours book for the tours in each city?

thanks
annie

Hi, Annie! When you sign up for each tour, you are given the name and contact information on your first and last hotels for the tour. Then, 30 days before the tour starts, you are given that info for the remaining hotels, and the final itinerary. Happy travels!

When you book your tour, they give you the names of the first and last hotels in case you want to extend your nights on either end.Then the full itinerary around 30 days before. What type of reservations are you referring to?

We did the Best of Sicily tour in 2023, late Sept to Oct. Phenomenal tour with our guide, Jamie Blair Gould.
Arrived 4 days early in Palermo, Street Food Tour with Streaty's, train to Cefalu for the day, sights not on RS tour schedule, etc. Highly recommend! The only downside is that it was incredibly hot! Pick your tour date with the heat in mind!
Doing the Best of Poland in June 2024, so can't update you on that yet.

If you do book back to back tours, give yourself time to recover, rest and do laundry!

Sicily is fabulous and delicious!

We put off Poland because, despite many trips to Germany, it was never convenient to "add-on" (independent, not Rick tour) Poland. I also don't like making repeated trips to an airport, because of all the time and fuss. You may wish to investigate getting to Ricks starting city from Sicily, which is a bit out of the way anyway. Eventually we flew direct to Warsaw from NYC, and visited friends in London on the way home from Krakow.

I just did the Sicily tour in early March, and when they say it is a very "active" tour, they are not kidding! However, I am 63 and did not do much walking prior to the tour and 2 weeks before leaving I hurt my knee somehow. I wore a knee brace all day and was still able to do most of the walking with the group. Because of the knee issue, I did "opt out" of a couple of hill climbing walks, but for the most part I was able to keep up. This was my very first tour and it was amazing. The food was absolutely fantastic. I agree with everyone else, make sure you have a few days buffer between the two tours. I would go to Sicily after Poland, simply because it was very active. If you do go to Sicily first, we had plenty of free time during the 11 days. Some days I took time to rest and other days I was out and about. In any case, this sounds like an amazing trip.

I've done back-to-back (ish) tours and think it's a great idea, especially in terms of maximizing air fare, provided you build in a little downtime. RS tours are active (mentally as well as physically) and you're going to be tired. Also, you want to be sure to have some wiggle room for travel hiccups.

The Sicily tour (which I did in 2017--wonderful tour!) ends in Catania, but is there for barely 24 hours. I, personally, wouldn't have minded another day or two there. The same goes for Poland (I haven't done the RS tour, but I've visited twice on my own and loved it). You may want a couple of days to explore on your own. The RS tour starts in Gdansk, I believe, and you may decide that you'd like more than two days there. It's a beautiful city with a lot to do and also some interesting places nearby (Gdynia and Sopot come to mind; Malbork is covered in the tour, I think).

Lastly, depending on the time of year you're going, Poland may be a lovely break after Sicily. I was in Sicily in mid-late June and, wonderful as it was, it was hot!

However you do it, enjoy Sicily and Poland. I did!

Caroline