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False advertising?

On Rick's home page, under "our tours", they show two people with a German flag standing in front of a "muraled" building. That building is the city hall of Lindau. Lindau is an island city on Bodensee. But, as far as I can determine, none of Rick's tours go there. The only time I think any of his tours go even near Lindau might be on day 9 of his Best of Europe in 14 Days tour, when they go from Füssen to the Berner Oberland, but I really doubt that the bus goes onto the island, but goes past the island on the mainland and around the end of the lake, through Bregenz, Austria, to Switzerland.

Anyway, I can't find any of his German tours that mentions spending any time in Lindau. It's a shame. I've stopped in Lindau for a few hours many times on my way from Bavaria to Switzerland or to Baden Württemburg, and I spent four nights there in 2017. It's a beautiful town, with a lovely view out of the harbor to the snow capped mountains of Switzerland.

Posted by
36117 posts

I can't find the offending photo where I think you say it is. Can you post a link?

Posted by
19531 posts

https://www.ricksteves.com/

Duh. like I said, it's on his home page, under "our tours".

He shows it, like it's part of one of his tours, but I don't think his tours ever go there. I have no idea where he even got the picture.

I've been there, and I recognized the place immediately.

Posted by
6852 posts

Duh, you could have specified it was on the website home page and not the Our Tours home page. I couldn't find it either, until you reposted. Many of us have the Forum homepage bookmarked.
Is it that big a deal? There are, I suspect, plenty of towns and villages in Bavaria that are full of Luftmalerei buildings. And most visitors would be hard pressed to tell one from another with a single photo. On the Our Tours home page there is also a photo of a battered VW bus with a rather alarming number of people on top of it. But I'm not going to accuse RS that this is their standard of transportation. Bill Murray might have a recommendation for you.

Posted by
10950 posts

Maybe in the past he went to Lindau (his tours are always evolving) and nowhere does he claim to actually go to wherever the photograph is of.

Posted by
19531 posts

"Many of us have the Forum homepage bookmarked."

Well, I have both the home page, "Ricksteves.com" and the travel forum bookmarked. I rarely even look at the tours forum, because I'm a DIYer. Because I'm marginally fluent in German, I can travel in Germany for three or four weeks for what Rick charges for a one week tour. I don't think I've ever spent more than $100/day, single, for everything, accommodations, transportation, meals, and incidentals.

BTW, I think the picture of people on top of a VW bus is from one of his early tours. (Just kidding.)

But seriously, I graduated from Sammamish High in Bellevue in 1962. My German teacher from the last two years knew Rick; went to the same church, I think, and she said she went on one of his early tours, one he led himself.

Posted by
2203 posts

Maybe Rick is just showing two of his tour customers and not specifically the location. Also, on the same page he has a picture of himself sitting in a chair in a field of flowers stating Monday Night Travel. I doubt he has ever conducted MNT from that chair in that field. What's your point?

Posted by
9542 posts

We were on the GAS tour in 2014 and did indeed stop at Lindau for lunch. It was on the way from Switzerland to Munich, and it was a surprise stop. The tour leader decided to stop there based on the time we had and the light traffic. My impression was that it was one of the options they have.

Posted by
519 posts

What with current TV advertising, and most of the political garbage nowadays, Rick's old photo doesn't make my top 1,000,000 list of False Advertisements.

Posted by
9160 posts

Like Stan, our 2003 Rick Steve’s GAS tour stopped at Lindau for a long lunch break. We had time to walk around, go into a church, and I bought a blue plate from a shop.

I distinctly remembered the name because the city was the same name as our kids’ pediatrician when they were young.