Best Rick Steve Tour Coach Driver Memories

On the 17 day Best of Italy our driver was Hubert.
Seems it was his 1st time doing this trip.
When we were approaching Orvieto for our stay at the agriturismo, the guide was telling him he had to pass the turn off ( sharp left turn) and go to a big space in the road a half mile or so beyond to turn around and come back and make a right turn. So that is what we did.
The road to the agriturismo was so narrow the bus barely fit. The next AM when we headed to Orvieto the bus somehow was facing out. Not sure how he managed that. The parking lot was too small to turn around in.

The real surprise was on the way back that evening when Hubert made the left turn off the main highway.
The guide was stunned and then announced it was the first time a driver had successfully made that left turn.

The rest of the tour our driver was 'Huberdini'

I was seated beside our driver Phillipe for our meal in Sarlat. Both of us are pretty quiet guys which made small talk difficult, plus he spoke little english. Somehow we got a conversation going and it turns out that in the Spring of 2020 he and some friends were heading to the US to rent Harleys and drive Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. I suspect the pandemic got in his way, but I've always wondered if he eventually made it.

Mine isn’t a RS coach driver but Tauck. We took my MIL, when she was in her late seventies to Switzerland on a Tauck tour, a lifelong dream of hers since both her parents and brothers had been born there but she had been born in the US and never been. The trip ended in Lucerne and by then our Swiss coach driver was “very aware” of her Swiss family origins. All she had was the name of the town, which was close to Lucerne and a picture of the family home from 1920. Our driver spent his day off after a 14 day tour to take us to the town and stopped people in the street to see if they recognized the house or the family name. We found the house and a living relative thanks to this very kind and generous man.

I've had five excellent drivers on my RS tours. All were polite, professional, extremely safe, and masters of putting the bus into a small space and driving down impossibly narrow roads. I appreciate that RS encourages the guides to include the drivers in group meals, they add so much to the tour experience. My Best of Spain driver spoke a tiny bit of English and I speak about 3-year old level Spanish. We had some interesting Spanglish conversations, including a hilarious exchange with me interpreting for a fellow tourmate who liked NASCAR racing - he simply did not believe that a woman liked car racing...apparently not common in Spain (she showed him a thing or two about her car knowledge!). He also loved asking people to show their houses on Google street view and was fascinated to see where we lived, palaces in his estimation as he lived in a small apartment with his family. On my Eastern Europe tour, we heard stories from our driver about serving in the Yugoslav army and how things changed for him after the country broke into pieces, a sobering and extremely personal story that left a mark on me. And my recent Best of Turkey driver taught me the proper way to eat kebab without using a single word of English and a lot of humor - made a fun evening even more fun.

In 2019, we did RS's Best of South Italy in 13 Days back-to-back with Best of Sicily in 11 Days. Our Best of Sicily bus driver was an excellent driver named Salvatore (he also drove us partially on the Best of South Italy). In our final city Catania, the group finishes up a little sight-seeing and lunch. We gather at our pre-assigned meet-up location near an elephant and obelisk statue in the square. We walk back to the bus where Salvatore is waiting for us and he takes us to our final hotel. Or at least he attempts to take us to our final hotel.

There are a lot of small cars parked along the entrance lane to the hotel and Salvatore cannot turn in. He steps off the bus to see how close he is to one car in particular. Salvatore gets back on the bus and asks for some men to help him move the car so he can maneuver the bus in the hotel lane. Just about all the men jump off the bus and they try to lift the car – one of those common very small European cars. The car’s front wheel is on the curb in such a way they can’t move it so they start to rock the car to lift and rock/move it closer to the curb enough so Salvatore can drive the bus in. I videotaped the action. It was the funniest thing that happened on our trip. Salvatore was the man!

On our Greece tour in 2014 we had a driver who was doing a RS tour for the first time. We stopped for a night in the mountain town of Lagkadia, which is a one road one way town. Our driver had to parallel park backing into the one space, between 2 staircases, that was just big enough for the bus to fit and let a car still pass. He did it in one go! WOW! Massive applause for that amazing feat!!

I don't have any stories to add, but I think this is a really fun thread and thanks to everyone for the great tales!

Ludwig, the driver, sat at our table for lunch one day. One of the group was talking about his genealogy and how he was unable to find out where one branch of the family came from. The next day, Ludwig came to him with a couple of suggestions as to the name origin and where to look. He had apparently done some online research in the evening and wanted to help.

He was the same driver that told me he loved driving for Rick Steves tour groups, because "we were above average, for Americans".

"we were above average, for Americans".

Stan, this made me laugh.

We did the GAS tour in 2019 and our driver was Big John. He was so proud of his brand new bus and yes indeed, the name Big John stenciled on to the side of the bus! Since we went to Salzburg of course the big topic was Sound of Music. He confessed that he had never seen it and we all convinced him that he had to! A few months later, he sent out an email to the group that he had finally seen the movie. He was a happily converted fan!

Richard!!! I had him for the GAS tour although at that time he was usually driving the 21 day Best of Europe tour. I walked by the bus during the day, perhaps in Hallstatt, and there was Richard...in the bus luggage bay, Ironing board set up, Ironing his shirt for the next day. No wonder he was always impeccably turned out!

Alan on the Scotland tour- In the parking lot at Stirling Castle a German Tour bus was parked next to us. As we were gathering to leave, Alan boarded the bus with a plate full of German sausage and kraut given to him by the German bus driver. We looked over and they had a kitchen in the middle of the bus. Alan wasn't sure about the German sausage so was giving it away because he didn't want to hurt the German driver's feelings...this from someone who ate haggis, hahaha!

@Stan...I'm laughing too!

Oh, wow, where to start? At the beginning! René, on our first Best of Europe tour. He was delightful, and thoroughly charmed us all. He and one of our young male tour members became best buds on the tour, and I was pleased when the tour member, in his post-tour review, lauded not only René, but also RSE's policy of treating the bus drivers as members of the tour.

Unfortunately, on one of our tours, Heart of Belgium and the Netherlands, some of our tour members were appalled that we were supposed to treat our driver as an equal. And they complained loudly when they saw the driver drinking a beer with some of us. There was no further driving that day, and indeed no driving at all the following day. But they had the temerity to complain to our guide. Pooh on them.

Richard, indeed! He was the driver on our second Best of Europe tour, teamed with guide Dimitri. As Pam said later, "The Dream Team!" Richard was a delight, and my goodness, did he always look good. He had part of the bus (not impinging on our space) set up as a clothes closet, and as Pam said, he tenderly cared for every item. I thought at the time, how differently we appreciated his garb. Colorful pants - like, lime green or musk melon colored - and he looked great. I can't imagine many American men pulling that off. Or even trying.

Adrian, on our Villages of South England tour. Adrian actually owned the bus company, and our tour was the maiden voyage for our bus. And was he ever proud! And strict! After our pasty baking session, we all headed for the bus with our warm and steaming pasties in hand. "Off!" he cried! We were allowed to bring them on board, but only if we wrapped them up carefully, and we had to wait until our next stop to eat them. We all commiserated with him when a careless motorist scratched the bus while passing, and cheered the fact that the motorist lost his wing mirror in the process.

Mario on our Village Italy tour! He and guide Tricia made quite the team. My favorite memory was the two of them spontaneously bursting into song - opera, no less! - at our hotel in Levanto. And a dandy performance it was.

Annie and Matt on our Paris and Heart of France tour. A great team, and they and guide Michaelanne were old friends. Stan and I were out walking one evening, and ran into the three of them sharing a private moment, away from the 24 or so tour members.

There were more, I know, but these were the standouts.