Best of RS GAS October 3: Questions

There is no mandatory hiking. Your choice to do so, and your choice of trails, but that was only during the Swiss portion (3 nights?). Most of the stops are in cities where "hiking" is not an activity. The ones in Murren we walked were well groomed and we wore our regular walking shoes. If you want more strenuous, have at it.

Laundry day? Thats pretty much on your time in your allotted free time. Not an organized activity, or managed by the tour leader. Some people just got by with sink washing, and some had one of the hotels do it for a price. Laundromats in most of the cities were available. Ask at the first meet-up when the best opportunity to do that is. One of your choices in spending your free time.

None of ours were communal bathrooms. It's not a tour of hostels. A couple the hotels were downright luxurious. No guarantees.

We loved this tour!!
1). For most of the tour I wore running hiking shoes, they were lightweight but had a bit of traction and worked perfectly. The guide took us on an optional hike in Switzerland, and we were really glad we did it. There was no snow and really didn’t have any issues — our tour was in mid May
2) We didn’t go to the Opera so can’t help you there.
3) Our tour started in Tier, so we went to Cochem first which was a lot of fun and a perfect way to get over jet lag
4) We are big fans of having the hotel do the laundry for us, this was offered twice on the tour (I can’t remember the first one but the 2nd was Salzburg). It cost a little more but we don’t like to waste anytime at the laundry mats.
5)No communal bathrooms for the hotels we stayed at.

The RS GAS tour was our first RS tour. Such beautiful scenery!

1. We just wore our regular shoes that you wear when taking a long walk at home. Something with a decent sole is fine. When we returned to the same area in Switzerland during a subsequent independent trip, we stayed up in Wengen, and I was probably wearing my Keen sandals that have a sturdy sole.
2. The Vienna Opera house is special. We went during a subsequent trip, and I purchased tickets for the ballet held in the opera house. I bought us two seats in the front row of the lowest side seats that are almost perpendicular to the stage. We were probably in Seats #1-2 of #4. I definitely would not recommend just getting standing “seats” and leaving during the opera! That sounds much more like a “check-the-box” experience.
3. Ours started at St. Goar, so I’m no help with this one.
4. We just washed out items in the sink each evening. It worked well for us and what we’ve done since that trip. I bring the Earth Breeze laundry sheets that look like a dryer sheet - easy to pack!
5. Our group had none, except our guide shared a Jack & Jill bathroom with my husband & me at the Lauterbrunnen hotel. We didn’t mind, and the room had a gorgeous view from the balcony!

At the Vienna Opera, the standing room area is crowded with folks, and not everyone can see. It's not like standing behind the seated folks , it's a special box- like area, and the line for tickets starts a few hours before the performance. Tickets are very cheap. Not everyone in line gets tickets. Have a great trip!

Re 2: You are looking at the performance on 10/17? There are not many seats left, and most of the obstructed view seats have been sold - they are cheaper, thus they sell quickly. For two seats together, you may have to spend 150 Euro or more - each. It may be two single seats for anything cheaper, if any remain.

https://tickets.wiener-staatsoper.at/webshop/webticket/seatmap?eventId=3376#

Availability is better for 10/16 - you may be able to sit together for a little over 100 Euro.

There are only a couple of itineraries that have shared baths. GAS is not one of those. To see if that situation is a possibility go to the tour description page, select Physical Demands and it will be listed there. I’m traveling and on my iPad so it’s not linking right to the page, sorry!!

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours

To see one with the possibility of shared baths, go to 21 day Best of Europe, open Physical demands and you’ll see that is a possibility there.

I’ve been on this tour and another tour in Switzerland and I just wore my regular athletic shoes. They are low cut trail shoes which I wear everywhere. Unless you are going to do aggressive hiking, boots are not needed. As mentioned one of the trails with jaw-dropping views, Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg is flat , wide and well-trodden.

This is a wonderful tour! I always have a waterproof (not water resistant) jacket!

Rick Steves actually says to just get a standing room ticket for the experience but not stay for the whole thing.

That might be enough if you just want to say that you went to the opera in Vienna. I regret not spending more money for a better seat. The music was fabulous, but we couldn't see the entire stage.

We took this tour in early September 2018. Here’s what I can answer:

1. You don’t need hiking boots or shoes per se. Sturdy walking shoes or sneakers will work, and you’ll need those for rainy days anyway (and seeing the waterfall). I would just have a second pair of shoes along, in case your walking shoes get temporarily wet or muddy.

2. Your guide will tell you where and when you can drop off your laundry. You don’t have to stand around a laundromat and spend time doing it yourself. (Be sure to follow your guide’s advice, though! In Salzburg, there was a laundry up the street, where we left our clothes in the morning and picked up that afternoon for $. Someone else in our group used the hotel laundry service instead and it cost them $$$$$.)

3. During our one night near Hallstatt, each bathroom was shared by two bedrooms. (That was the only time I’ve ever had to share a bathroom in 5 RS tours.) By then everyone knew each other pretty well and worked out an informal bathroom schedule. It was no big deal.

You will love this tour!

Re: Question 2 - the opera in Vienna - my friend and I bought tickets to Rigoletto at the Staats Opera in Vienna and it was totally worth every cent. We purchased them online before we left the US. We had wonderful seats and could see the action very well, it was a treat to be amongst an audience who loves opera. There were super titles so we could follow the plot and music. If you are even a half way opera fan like me, you will be glad you bought tickets for a performance because music is such a big part of the culture in Vienna!
We were on the Rick Steves Berlin Prague Vienna tour which by the way is a terrific itinerary.

Alan and Paula, regarding the all important laundry question, splurge and have a service do it IMHO. If you are lucky enough to stay at the Hotel Jungfrau in Murren as our GAS tour did, and if they still provide the service...you hit the laundry service jackpot. They have some kind of laundry folding ninja artisan working there and it was cheap(2022). I've never seen laundry folded so precisely and creatively. Have fun, we loved that tour and agree, no need for full on hiking boots.....

THANKS everyone for all the helpful suggestions!!

Alan & Paula,
Howdy! We are going to be on this tour with you. :-)

Rick's notes say that no hiking boots are necessary. That being said, we will be taking ours. I like to have them as waterproof shoes on rain days. Also, we plan on doing more hiking in the Alps.

Sounds like you got some good answers on laundry. We haven't done this tour before. But on our first RS tour, the guide gave us good suggestions for when to do laundry. We also usually take some laundry detergent sheets with us. (cut into small pieces) That way we can hand wash some things in the sink if needed.

See you soon!
Rebecca

Thanks Rebecca, We look forward to meeting you both. Paula

One laundry tip, if you're going to have a hotel do it. Have it ready to turn in as soon as you get there, so as to maximize the likelihood it will be ready for departure.

We just finished this tour, we had a wonderful time.
1. It was so hot we started Sept 2, I wore Ecco walking sandals everyday except the hike in Murren, I packed way too many clothes for cold weather. Double check weather right before you go. No walking on ice, we took gondola up and did the beautiful walk he talks about, no serious boots needed. I used Keen light weight hikers.
2. We did standing room only at opera, really hot up in the noise bleed section and obstructed view. If you really love the opera I would get seat. We stayed for about an hour.
3. We walked around Cologne on our own and enjoyed a nice meal at Em Kurtzche, We ended up going there 2 times.
4. We had laundry done in Murren at Hotel, there is a self service laundry near by but the hotel was very reasonable and did a cold and warm load for me. The other laundry we did was in Lake Hallstatt. Very rushed, but we had extension to Budapest and needed more hot weather clothes.
5. Not one hotel with shared baths but only 2 with A/C whew! Hot nights.
The one thing that was sad and disappointing on our trip was Covid. We got an extra booster before we went even though the doctor said wait for new one. So glad we did, out of 28 people 18 were left at the end. 8 of us had gotten extra booster 2 weeks before trip. The dinner the first night was not a good situation, loud, hot no ventilation, 28 people that just got exposed to everything on planes. It started 3-4 days after that dinner. The food was lousy. I would skip it!

@tablescape2, thanks very much for the info. We did spring for seats at the opera, and we'll check out that restaurant in Cologne. Also watching the weather, still in the 80s! Hopefully it will be back to normal soon.

@tablescape2,
Thank you for your response. The detailed information on the laundry was very helpful. We got the new booster, a flu shot and are planning on wearing masks on the flight there. It isn't fun, but we are doing everything we can not to get sick before this tour gets started. There is so much going around in Houston. Luckily, the temperatures have dropped significantly in the last month. The highs for this week are in the low 70's. Thank you again for sharing your experience.
Rebecca

For other people reading this for the future, I thought I'd share my thoughts post tour. Our tour started on Oct 3, 2023.

1. We only had a couple of hotels with A/C. I'll also say not to expect the A/C to do as much as it does here. Luckily, we had beautiful weather with cool nights. Using the windows worked pretty well. Bring your earplugs.
2. All the hotels were very nice and good sized. Showers are usually pretty small in Europe and many were at our hotels. About half were tub/shower combos.
3. We had a full group of 28. The bus holds 52. So there was plenty of room.
4. No one got COVID during the trip.
5. I enjoyed the first restaurant in Cologne. We were in a large room. It didn't feel any more crowded than the rest of the trip (especially since our tour started on a national holiday in Germany). Our guide didn't take us through the cathedral. He only talked about it from the outside. It was free to go in and we did it on our own.
6. Many of us wanted to listen to music on this trip. Salzburg was an easy place to do this. I chose Mirabell Palace which was very close. I was really happy with my choice. The guide recommended letting the hotel book it for you. But it was going SLOW... So, I just got on my phone and did it. It was very easy. Plus, I was able to use the RS discount. Many people went to the castle, and they enjoyed their concert too. We went up during the day and hiked back down the long way.
7. We had amazing weather during the tour and especially in the alps. It was my favorite part of the tour. On the down side, I was pretty disappointed we didn't get more time in Baden-Baden. We arrived at dinner time and were gone in the morning. So if you want any real time there, you should plan to go beforehand.
8. Going in October... I selected this on purpose. I did NOT want to be at Octoberfest. I wanted fewer crowds and hopefully good weather. We got lucky and it was warmer than expected. I'd say the only real downside was that they were preparing for winter. So many of the flowers were being taken out to be stored for the winter. They were planting more cold hardy plants. Basically, the gardens were lovely, but not in their full glory.