I am looking at booking the Europe Family tour for 2023, the dates of which have just been released. When I first started looking at the options, the 2022 tours were almost fully booked. Anyone have an idea how quickly this particular tour fills? It will take a bit of negotiating in the family to find the dates that everyone can accommodate. I know booking sooner rather than later is optimal but if anyone has more specific advice for how quickly we need to commit, it would be helpful.
Posted by
Wisconsin
466 posts
It's hard to say. Last year there was so much pent up demand, after two years of no tours. There was a lot of hype over when the 2022 tours were going to be released. The website encouraged people to register to get emailed notice, to get the first jump on the 2022 tours. I got the emailed notice. On the first day that tours were open (5/27/21 I think), I booked a spring 2022 Best of the Adriatic tour. Later that day, many of the departure dates for the BOA tour were full. The date I had picked filled up on the 5th day. I think every date for BOA was fully sold out by the start of summer. I saw a similar scenario with all the other tours. (Later, of course, there were cancellations and tours were once again taking registrations, but initially, things really sold out!)
The 2023 tours have been open for booking for a few days but I don't see any "filling fast" or "wait listed" tours yet, not even on the tours that the company calls its "top sellers." But I think today is the first day that the website has a bold heading announcing that the 2023 tours are open. People on this forum have known it for a few days, that when you click on "find a tour" you get both 2022 and 2023 options, but the website itself hasn't done much to promote that until today.
I would say that if you have a date you like, go ahead and reserve your spots. Your deposit is fully refundable for a very long time, can be moved to a different departure date, etc. Or, closely monitor the website to see when a bunch of the Family Europe tours start to say "filling fast," as when you see this, it's time to make your choice. I see that for 2022 tours, there's a new feature. Instead of just "filling fast," you see exactly how many seats are left. I hope they do that for 2023 too. It sounds like you are trying to get a large group coordinated for this tour. Once the date you like shows up as "filling fast," you're probably out of luck, so book it soon!