Buses

I believe it's standard for RS tours.

Chani is correct, at least in my experiences with several Rick Steves tours. Always plenty of room, congenial passengers and beyond competent drivers!

Yes, very comfy bus on my GAS tour. Only difference that I've noticed is that RS uses buses from Heidebloem. Great buses, nice and clean everyday. Fantastic, safe, professional drivers. I had a nice chat over drinks one evening with driver on my eastern France trip. This was after he was done driving for the day. In Europe they have electronic driving logs. He has to insert a memory card or chip into the bus. It records hours driven, breaks and I think days off.

Yes, I think for the 21BOE (and probably 14 BOE), GAS and France tours RS uses Heidebloem. The buses are comfortable and drivers are excellent. The Heidebloem drivers I've had have had great English skills and were part of the group. The drivers in Italy (different company) didn't have as much English so it was harder to converse.

While the buses are comfortable, I still find I like to have a small pillow for my back on the longer drives.

In England, RS uses Morton's. The last tour, Villages of Southern England, was on a brand new coach. It was christened during the trip, another driver managed to clip the back fender. It had wifi and power ports. The only coach I've had, so far, with them. All coaches on all my tours have been spacious and clean. The drivers, for the most part, have been pleasant. Only had one that was disgruntled concerning the taxes he had to pay and was quite vocal about it one evening during a group meal.

Never had a problem with comfort or anything else with the buses on many RS tours.