We did a RS tour last summer and were scheduled for another this month, but we know how that ended :(. Now, I'm looking to book a trip over Christmas. At this point, I don't care what the destination is as long as it's a RS tour. Any idea if RS does tours over Christmas break?
Posted by
Orange Park, Fl
985 posts
Several of the city tours are scheduled for the Christmas season but all show as fully booked.
Posted by
Washington DC
27062 posts
I believe all this year's tours that haven't been canceled are marked as "Full" because the company doesn't want to take any new reservations at this point and potentially/probably end up having to refund the customers' deposits--which means paying credit-card fees.
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
2369 posts
Some of the Winter Escapes run over the holidays in a normal year--the Rome one does for instance. This winter is unknowable at this point.
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/winter-escapes
Posted by
Land of La
8646 posts
I know my 2008 Florence tour was scheduled over Christmas. Remember watching It’s A Wonderful Life in Italian on Christmas Eve.
As noted though, nothing is certain this year due to the Pandemic.
Posted by
Houston
3517 posts
Under normal circumstances there are several tours that are happening through Christmas. This year I doubt any will actually happen.
Posted by
Charlotte, NC
99 posts
We did Paris over Christmas with RS tour one year. It was a memorable trip. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, maybe not so much the cold and wet walks, but still fun.
We saw Versailles during a heavy snow storm which was quite magical for me. The city as a whole felt even more festive than usual.
Our group was small, 15 people and 3 of them were teens. Our RS tour guide was Arnaud Servignat and he was so wonderful that we took another France tour with him a couple years later.
We celebrated New Year’s eve watching fireworks and drinking wine near the Eiffel Tower. We went all in with the local celebrations around us and just went with the crowds until the wee hours of the morning. I mean how many times can you say you spent the holidays in Paris?
I wonder what it’ll be like this Christmas.
Posted by
New York
1203 posts
Rick Steves has been cancelling his tours all year. Tours are cancelled up to October 6. He will most likely cancel the rest of his tours as he said in his video. He is only going to do tours when it is safe to do so again. He also said his company is prepared not to have tours for the next couple of years as they have had very good years for a number of years. He also said that his staff of 100 is working hard and they are preparing for future travel and designing new tours.
He is canceling the tours in piecemeal so that is staff is not overwhelmed by all the refunds and paper work that needs to be done. He said in his video that once the tour is cancelled, they make sure the refund is sent immediately to their customers.
As someone said, all the tours for the all tours show they are full but really they just don't want to take new reservations as they will be cancelling the tours.
Once a vaccine is made available to the public you will see more things including travel open up.
Posted by
OP
19 posts
Ann, Thank you for that info. I saw his video, but did not hear him say his company "is prepared not to have tours for the next couple of years." Wow! That is very sad for travelers. I thought for certain that he would open up again for tours in 2021. But looking at what you said, it seems like late 2022 or even 2023 is the reality. To your point about waiting for a vaccine, Dr. Fauci just said a few days ago that even a vaccine may not provide us the necessary herd immunity. I guess our traveling dreams are going to have to wait 2, 3, 4 or more years. Until then, I guess we'll have to travel and explore locally. Happy (local) travels to all.