Best of England June 2025

Lots of previous posts about RS tours, solo travelers, age range and activity levels. On this website also see pages under Our Tours including tour videos and traveler scrapbooks for a literal better picture of what the tours are like! Hope they help you decide!

We tend to travel in April or late September. While most of the tours have consisted of a majority of “older” retired couples, there still have been a variety of ages and usually 3 or 4 solo travelers. I believe people have commented on here that there are more “younger” people during the summer tours. I’m not sure what you consider slow paced. You can check out the itineraries on the tour section of this website. I normally register about 18,000 steps per day, sometimes as high as 28,000. It all depends on how much you want to walk and see in your free time. And I’m sure there are tour companies that cater to young solo travelers if this doesn’t sound like something you would be comfortable doing.

I think it may depend on where the tours go, I did Tuscany/hill villages when I was I mid-sixties and it seemed everyone was in that age-range. Did southern Italy a couple of years later and the age range went from mid-30’s to early 70’s. I traveled as a solo both times, others were either couples or a few friends traveling together. I was never short of company if I wanted it. I did not find the tours slow placed and they had lots of opportunity for going as fast or slow as you.

Thanks. I’m not sure what defines ‘slow-paced’ either, just was feedback given to me by someone who has been on many tours (not necessarily RS tours). I’m thinking maybe having lots of downtime? Agree that the itinerary seems to be a good amount of sightseeing. Just curious if anyone has felt there wasn’t enough to see during group sightseeing.

I've been on many tours now with some back to back. The first was with my daughter who was 34 at the time. She was sure she would hate "being on a bus all day with a bunch of old people". However, she loved that tour and the people. We've done 10 more together. We've both met and made some friends that we now continue to travel with -when we can coordinate schedules. I've only traveled in the summer once and there was one 8 year old and several 18-20 year olds on that tour. The spring and fall tours have more retired people. Most tours are quite active, but I remember the England tour being more moderate in the amount of walking (and less up and down and stairs than some tours). I took the England tour as a solo and there were four other solo women. Most tours seem to have at least one or two solo women and the occasional solo man. However, on all my tours, the whole group bonded well. The activity level can go way up depending on how you decide to use your free time.

The Rick Steves’ team just put out a video, Is a Rick Steves Tour Right for Me, that has some great info. about their tours.

You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4BCROdJegg

I’ve been debating taking my first tour. Sometimes you just don’t know if you’ll like something until you give it a try.

"I’m not sure what defines ‘slow-paced’ either, just was feedback given to me by someone who has been on many tours (not necessarily RS tours)."

In the case of tour companies, you really have to compare apples to apples. If someone has not been on a Rick tour then you can't really compare the activity level to other tour companies.

I've done a bunch of Rick Steves tours as well as Road Scholar. Road Scholar is definitely focused on the senior market. I agree that the times I've done a June trip there were more younger people on the tours, often traveling in family groups. There is plenty of free time and you can always add activity then if the tour is not getting you the activity you want. For instance, when I did this tour I added on a walk up to Castlerigg Stone Circle from town. It seems like it was a couple miles up there and it literally was uphill, lol.

There are usually a couple of solo travelers on the tours. I'm generally traveling as a solo. I figure out ahead of time what I want to see in free time and if others want to come that's fine. In general the other tour members are fun to be with and open to having solos join them for activities and meals.

I hope you find something that works for you!

I meant to hop onto this thread when you first posted, but didn't have access to something I could actually type on! (I.e., other than my phone.) My husband and I have been on over 20 RSE tours, so consider ourselves fairly experienced. Oh, and we are now in our (gulp) upper 70s, but have been taking these tours for some time.

You're asking several different questions, both in your original post, and in your followup.

Is the tour group mostly retirees? Sometimes; even often. Depends on the tour and the time of year. I will say that the demographics do skew older - older folks tend to have more free time, and (sometimes) are more likely to afford it. Of the 20+ tours we've taken, I can honestly remember only one or two when everyone "looked like us." Usually there's a range of ages. The first tour we took had folks from about 30 - 60+; the second one included a 13-year old and about 4 or 5 20-somethings.

Do most people travel solo or in a group? I'd say most people travel in couples. I don't think we've ever been on a tour that had no singles; a recent tour had 6 singles. Groups traveling together tend to be rare. I find that in general, family or work groups traveling together tend to be a little less likely to "join in" with the rest of us. Not always, of course.

I’m not sure what defines ‘slow-paced’ either, just was feedback given to me by someone who has been on many tours (not necessarily RS tours). I’m thinking maybe having lots of downtime? Agree that the itinerary seems to be a good amount of sightseeing. Just curious if anyone has felt there wasn’t enough to see during group sightseeing.

A couple of comments: There is always "a good amount of sightseeing," and I've never felt there wasn't enough to see during group sightseeing. On the contrary!

One of the things we love about these tours is the amount of free time, which could be used as down time, to rest or catch up your correspondence. Or for most of us it's time to get out on our own, guided or inspired by what the group has done together. The guides are great about getting you ready to tackle a place on your own, giving you basic instructions on using public transportation, finding your way around, pointing out places of interest, teaching you basic local etiquette...

I have also found that the overall pace of the tour depends very much on the guide. Some guides take off at a rapid trot starting day one. I remember on our first tour, the first day, after introductions and basic rule covering, our guide met us in front of the sidewalk for our first group activity, to see the David in Florence. "Don't worry," she said, "I don't walk as fast as Rick!" Then, ka-pow, she was off and a block away before the rest of us looked to to see where she had gone.

We've had several like that; tour members are warned ahead of time that the tours are active. We have had a couple of guides who did slow down quite a bit: one because she herself had had a recent injury she didn't want the group to know about; another because he felt the sights we were seeing deserved a more leisurely pace.

Now, the Best of England tour? We did that tour this past June, and enjoyed it very much. It was not uncommon for our guide to add on optional activities to fill our our "free" time, or to enhance our experience. This kept the more active folks happy, and gave the ones who were less so or just wanted to wander on their own the chance for private time.

Oh, and you can always beg off a particular group activity, as long as it isn't a travel day. Many people do this, to either add their own private excursions, to skip something they aren't interested in, or to pursue other interests.

...I’m not sure what defines ‘slow-paced’...having lots of downtime...a good amount of sightseeing...wasn’t enough to see during group sightseeing...feel more comfortable if others were solo travelers...

Have been on many RS tours and they are not, in my opinion, "slow-paced". You will have some free time to do your own thing, but it is not downtime. There is a good amount of sightseeing. There was never a case of there not being enough to see and do.

Ages varied from early 20s to 70s. Despite the difference in ages (or perhaps because of it) everyone always got along and meshed very well.

There have always been solos on our trips. Sometimes one or two, and once as many as five.

In short, I don't think you will regret doing that tour. It's a great tour.

I have been solo on over a dozen RS tours starting in my 30s and now in my 40s. Due to work commitments, I usually go on RS tours in mid-June. I find the summer tours have a younger crowd, mixed in with some older participants. A lot of times there will be families with teenagers or college-age kids. There was only one tour (back in the early 2010s) where I was the only solo person. I don't think I can make a blanket statement that RS tours are slow paced because the tour is comprised of many retirees or older people. The pace of the tour is often dictated by the location and itinerary. For example, the Village Italy tour was very relaxed and slow paced because it was designed to be that way - we visited mostly smaller towns, no "must see" super-sites, or heavy on museums. That tour was mostly about relaxing, great food and wine. Other tours include museums, long walking tours to learn about the city and its history, guided tour of impressive cathedrals or castles, hikes through national parks. Read the tour itineraries and activity levels carefully to understand the pace of the tour. Also, check out the tour alum scrapbooks for a better feel for the tour you are interested in.

We did this tour a few years ago. York, Bath, London, more to see than you'll have time to see. The rest of the tour in in rural locations so it's going to be a slower pace. I suggest looking at online scrapbooks https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks for this tour and deciding whether the activities per day are enough.

As for composition there have always been 1-5 single travelers on the RS tours I've taken, the rest have usually been couples. Ironically on the Best of England tour we took there was an extended family of 8 people and it detracted from the group experience. I can't blame them, grandpop had paid a lot to bring everyone, but they just socialized among themselves and sat together at meals.

We have been on two Rick Steves tours, both in June. I would say the age of the participants skewed younger than I expected. And as others have noted, in both tours there were parents with teenaged/young adult children. There were many people around our age (40s-50s), and of course some older.

As for the pace, it definitely wasn’t slow. We like fast-paced travel, and we didn’t find either tour to be slow at all! One thing I like about the tours is that they make the most of the time and move very efficiently. And the built-in free time allows you to stay active if you want, or take the afternoon off and relax.

Our 8 tours have all been in April-May and September-October. All have really been skewed towards retirement age. Most of the participants have been 59+ with a few 30-something women. Most have been couples and the singles have mostly not shared rooms. We haven't traveled in the summer. All of our tours have had a fairly active fast pace and half demanded a fair amount of stamina. One had strenuous/difficult terrain where 5 people sustained various injuries (included several non-retirees). Several tours had too many "free" days where we had to determine our own activities. I liked the "Best of England" pace although we did add some days and additional outings of our own.

Based on our four RS tour experiences, the type of retirees you meet on these tours is not what you might expect. The RS "no grumps" policy encourages upbeat, active, fit people, regardless of their age. If you imagine retirees are slow moving and always talking about their aches and pains - nope. It is true that until you go on one, you won't know. View some of the videos and look at the tour albums, and then, perhaps, take the leap.

There tends to be older folks traveling in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall. It stands to reason the summer months when school is out the average age of travelers gets lower. Generally speaking, retirees have both time and money to travel. I'm going to be 71 and going on my 8th RS tour alone in September, the GAS tour. Most travelers are couples or small groups but most everyone has been great to experience the tour together. After 40 years of experience the tours are well conceived and implemented. You can see/do more than you can do on your own. Look over the itinerary and plan your free time the tour doesn't organize if you like. Some of us opt to take a breather. I enjoy the mix of people from all around the country and have made some long-term friends to boot.