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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
6946 posts

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
11055 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
2210 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
9555 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
534 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
9248 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.

Posted by
1806 posts

The picture is clearly intended to show the spirit of the tours - happy traveller's enjoying a picturesque, foreign historical place. Nothing more. If this photo gives you pause, buckle up, because with AI photo manipulation now a reality, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Posted by
120 posts

I don't know about this specific town or tour, but on the Villages of Italy tour, we went to several places that were not on the tour itinerary, a couple due to other towns being unavailable due to a convention, and another because the tour guide was given some leeway to take the group to a place of their choosing. There is also time on this tour to explore on your own.

Posted by
736 posts

Add my husband and I to the list of those who went to Lindau for lunch and stroll in 2013 on his GAS tour. Pretty town!

Posted by
1810 posts

In answer to your question…No. We also stopped there for lunch and a stroll on our 2015 GAS tour on our way to Munich from Murren. After numerous tours, I can say that not every place a tour stops is listed on the tour’s general itinerary.

Posted by
3 posts

We too stopped in the beautiful town of Lindau for lunch and a stroll in 2012 on the GAS tour between Murren and Munich. It's a shame that such a statement would be made before checking the facts on such a reputable company as Rick Steves. We have been on 9 of Rick's tours and can vouch for them all being exactly as advertised and we thoroughly enjoyed them all!

Posted by
9248 posts

After all of our confirmations that many of us stopped at Lindau during the GAS tour, I think this is a post that could be deleted…

Posted by
11055 posts

I don't know if I am the only one who is starting to get a little bit concerned.

This was a very atypical post by the OP with distinctly odd timing. Looking at his track record I am somewhat surprised that he has not responded in the intervening 7 days to what people have said.
Nor has he responded to any other threads on the forum since.

Both actions (or lack thereof) seem to be sufficiently unusual for this particular OP as to raise question marks in my own mind.

Posted by
5854 posts

Perhaps someone who attended the Denver travel meeting on Dec. 20 could confirm Lee is ok. That WAS before this post, though.

Posted by
3955 posts

Having read the responses lee received, some since deleted, I’m not at all surprised he hasn’t come back to this one. I thought I had missed the memo for Let’s gang up on lee day.

Posted by
36216 posts

I had a personal message from Lee yesterday correcting my spelling on another thread

Posted by
13203 posts

It appears the photo that offended Lee is gone from the montage. ( at least I cannot find it now)

Perhaps deleting this whole post would be the best way to put this sorry mess where it belongs.

Posted by
6946 posts

Joe, the photo that Lee took umbrage with is on the RS website main page (not in any of the subforums), top middle photo with the Our Tours title. However, deleting the entire thread sounds like a fine idea, since Lee's accusation of false advertising has been proven false by multiple sources.