Family Tours

How old are your kids? According to their FAQ kids 8 and older are welcome on My Way tours (4 different options) and teens are welcome on any tour (endless options).

Welcome to the RS forums, Karen!
Great to hear that you enjoyed your family trip! As far as future trips, could you tell us more about your family? How many of you, ages, interests, etc? If your children are not very young, It's entirely possible that just the regular tours or the My Way tours would work for you.

The year I did Best of Rome, I went Holy Week/Spring Break week for many. We had six high schoolers traveling with mom and dad or just one child and one parent. For Venice, Florence, Rome two years ago, we had college-age brothers on the trip (also spring break). Everyone got along great. Granted, these were social, young adults who were comfortable in a group environment. Depending on ages, you all can most definitely go on one of the regular tours.

I'd be interested in a My Way Tour for a family reunion type group where we could specify which areas of the country we want to visit.

I have a reunion every year with descendants of a French Huguenot couple, so we are all related, but more like 4th cousins twice removed or 8th cousins. We have talked before about a trip to France, but one where everyone just shows up there for specific dates and not an organized reunion tour. If you organize it, you become responsible for everyone else and no one wants that job.

But a RS My Way Tour would be great. Someone paid to make the hotel and local transportation arrangements and be available to assist when needed. Those who want fast-paced hikes and those who want leisurely strolls could each do their own thing.

Check out the “bridges” tours by Tauck. Considerably more expensive than RS but a lot of choice within Europe and elsewhere in the world.

We've been on regular Rick Steves tours where children were amongst the tour members, and it always seemed to work well. Most of them have been teens, but we were on one tour with a family with two tweens.

If your kids are teens, no problem. If they're younger, call the office and chat with them.

Khansen - I think you may be misunderstanding what My Way tours provide. They are not custom tours where you specify exactly where you want to go. They have a set itinerary with transportation between locations and hotels provided. It would also likely not be a private tour just for your family. Other travelers would be part of the group.

Here’s what the RS website says about private tours:

“Do you offer custom itineraries or private tours for large groups?
We don't offer custom itineraries but we can reserve a tour date on one of our existing tour itineraries for a private group. The private group needs to be 25–28 participants and the accommodations are 16 double rooms. If there are fewer than 25 participants in the private group, the tour price will be adjusted or the tour date will be opened to other non-group participants. To request a private group tour, please contact us at [email protected].”

Smithsonian Journeys offers “Tailor-Made Journeys” that are custom tours. I’m guessing they would cost more than an RS tour.

I understand the My Way Tours concept. Just would like to expand on it.

If we can provide a "bus full" and want to go places specific to our ancestors would that be possible?

Start in Paris and go to the North coast and West coast instead of South and East. I would also be open to non-family members coming along if they filled seats to keep the cost down.

Just throwing it out there.

The OP's question was, "Are there others that would like choices for a family tour? Please write your wishes so that we can create more family tours."

Those are my wishes.