Children allowed on Rick Steves Tours?

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/tours-faq

What is the age range of kids on these tours?

Families with kids 8 and older are welcome on our Family Europe: London to Florence in 13 Days tour and on all Rick Steves My Way® vacations. Teens are welcome on all Rick Steves tours.

According to the FAQs, no.
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/tours-faq

Are there any age restrictions for tour members?
We have no official upper age restrictions as long as you're physically fit and a strong walker, but we do have some guidelines for children. Teens are welcome on all Rick Steves tours. Kids 8 and older are welcome on our Family Europe tours and My Way® vacation packages. Tour members under 18 must room with a parent or guardian.
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-help/tours-faq

Probably should contact the RS office to discuss your situation and tour you are looking to do.

The other thing to think about is even if they tell you they’ll let you bring your 10 year-old if there are no other children on the tour will you child have a good time

I expect they made the teens rule because they discovered the younger children on the tour where everybody else is an adult were bored

I realize it may not be the itinerary you wanted , however years ago I took my then 11 yr old in a RS Europe family tour ! I do not like to take tours and we travel a lot to Europe on our own - but with 2 older brothers who had also had one on one trips with their dad or me - I really wanted something fun for my daughter. We tacked 12 days onto front and back of tour .

The tour was amazing ! I kid you not, when we were going to Louvre and remember thinking oh this will be a bit boring for me ( I’ve been going for visits there since I was 12 yrs old ! My granny was French so of course I have been to all the major sites dozens of times ! )
But RS hires amazing private guides that somehow made the tour fun and interesting for kids , and still entertaining for the adults , with added tidbits that make didn’t know about even my favourite pieces!!

The kids were all very well behaved and social on our tour too ! There were no tantrums or fusses from the kids at all ( think there was 14 kids between 9-16 ) and 12 adults - both t it really felt like a like minded group . A few grandparents bringing their grandchildren, a few women alone like me ( two of us married one widow ) with their kids - lots of parents 30-40 with kids in tow .
Really intelligent fun group that loved exposing their kids to new experiences and cultures

As others have said, the answer according to the RS website is no. Most the RS tours we have taken would probably not be enjoyable for most 10 year olds. The tours just aren’t geared to that age group with activities such as wine tastings and social hours before dinner. When we travel with our grandkids ages 7 and 10, we have done things like taking time to find playgrounds, attending plays such as The Lion King, archaeology museums, rib boat rides, family tours such as the Globe Theater.

Well I understand rules may have changed but our daughter did take the Paris one week tour when she was 10. Her brother was 14. I did call and ask if she could. She did great but there were no long bus rides and she grew up going to museums. Since then she has taken 5 tours. The last the Heart of Ireland tour in Aug of last year. She is now a young adult so it was a while ago.

If you can’t do a tour I suggest going to one city and mixing in some things the kids might enjoy. That trip we went to Disney Paris for a few days before the tour.

We had an 8 year old on our May Way Spain tour last year.She did great and everyone seemed to enjoy having her as part of the group. The My Way tours are a great option because you’re setting up your own pace and activities. The standard tours have less flexibility in terms of length of day to day activities.

"My Way" is one of the rule exceptions.

We were on a tour years ago that, oddly enough, had only 9 tour members, 4 of whom were a family with kids of (if I recall correctly) 9 and 12. The family stuck together, understandably, but to the point of pretty much barely interacting the the other 5 tour members.

The others of us included an older couple who seemed to have a kind of "Same Time Next Year" arrangement, a young Iranian woman who worked in the US, and me and Stan. There wasn't a lot of group bonding. The family stayed to themselves, as did the couple, pretty much. Stan and I spent time with the Iranian woman, mostly, or by ourselves. Very unusual group dynamics.

That was a city tour, not a bus tour.

You should probably just call the office, and explain your situation. Exceptions to the age limits seem to be rare, but do occasionally occur.