Favorite things to add on to a RS Tour

At the end of our My Way France tour we rented Harley Davidson motorcycles and rode from Nice to Monte Carlo. Went up the hill and down into town. We noticed how nice the road was and wondered what all the advertisements were along the way and then realized we were riding on the road course for the Grand Prix which was happening the following week. It was so cool we made the loop twice. How many people can say they rode a Harley on the road course in Monte Carlo? The weather was perfect. It made for a memorable end to a great tour.

Motorcycles in Monte Carlo? That would never occur to me, but it sounds like a blast.

You sound very adventurous & fun, Tony!

We also swam in Monterosso al Mare during the RS Best of Italy tour, back in 2006 when it wasn’t crowded. Beautiful location!

During the RS Adriatic tour last year, I swam in the Adriatic Sea while we were at Korcula Island and bravely brought a cute bikini (I’m in my 60’s.). The beach areas there are sand, but buy water shoes there to avoid the sea urchin spikes!

Also, pre-Adriatic tour, there’s a fantastic way to spend a morning! “Carol now Retired” mentioned the Postojna Cave/ Predjama Castle tour in the forum which I thoroughly enjoyed and also recommend. The cave has 24 km of underground passages.

Pre-RS GAS tour we spent five days in The Netherlands. Pre-RS Best of Italy, we spent three days in Verona. Pre-RS Adriatic, I spent two weeks in the UK & Wales with my husband.

Not an RS tour, but I did a dawn hot air balloon ride over some of the temples near Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Amazing ride and views. My only regret was that the wind did not allow us to fly over Hatshepsut’s magnificent temple but still a wonderful and memorable experience.

Two days before the Best of Istanbul tour wandered around the Grand Market and discovered a small cafe on the roof top that served the best lentil soup!
Still dream about that soup.

On the Best of Florence tour which began on Christmas day spent Christmas Eve in a cafe/bar watching Its A Wonderful Life dubbed in Italian with the staff. Interesting to watch others tearfully enjoy the film.

On my Best of Turkey tour I opted for the hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia - worth all the hype times a thousand. I also did a pre-tour street food tour that was outstanding.

During my best of Eastern (now Central) Europe tour, in Krakow I took a Crazy Guides tour where they drive you around in an old school Trabant and visit several communist-era sites (restaurant, apartment, monuments). Helping push start a Pink Panther-themed Trabbie that died in rush hour traffic was memorable. The baths in Budapest were a delight.

Many of my favorite extras are visiting museums - seeing bog people at Dublin's National Museum, the science museum in Florence, the Borghese in Rome, all the art museums in Madrid. In Krakow I also got to see daVinci's "Lady with an Ermine" painting just after it was restored, and I was the only person in the room (besides the security guard), a definite wow moment.

Fun conversation!!

After my 2023 Bulgaria tour, I stayed 8 nights in Sofia. I spent half the time enjoying the city, visiting museums, relaxing in cafes and decompressing. I booked a really nice meal for my last night.

The remaining 4 days, I booked day trips. Two were within Bulgaria to their Rose Festival and to Belogradchik Fortress. The other 2 days, I booked day tours to nearby countries - Serbia and N Macedonia - to see if I might like to go back. And, in fact, I'll be returning to N Macedonia as part of a trip I'm planning in 2025!

What a great topic!

CL: We are on the Best of Central Europe Tour in September. Thanks for the recommendation for the Crazy Guides! That looks like something we would enjoy on our free afternoon/evening in Krakow. Just need to figure out what would be a good time to schedule it.

I try to add days on both ends of the tour for my own sightseeing. Memorable ones included multiple Venice sights, Padua, Ostia Antica, the Borghese, the Capitoline Museums, various Barcelona sights, Cordoba, Dublin's National Archelogical Museum and General Post Office, Newgrange, and the Ulster Museum. Memorable for other reasons was my unplanned week in a Dublin airport hotel, isolating with asymptomatic Covid before I could fly home. Extreme boredom punctuated by walks to McDonald's and watching the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee on BBC. But I also got to watch hurling on TV, one of Ireland's national sports and quite a surprise. I can thank Covid for that.

A hot air balloon ride would definitely be on my list.

During our Best of Turkey tour, we had sufficient time at Pammukale to take a dip at Cleopatra’s Bath. We also did the hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia.

I sandwich a RS tour between independent travel. 2019 with sister-in-law was Rome before South of Italy tour and Calabria and Venice afterwards

Solo trips: 2022 was London and Paris before the South of France tour and Venice afterwards. Last year was Munich and a day in Berlin before the Berlin, Prague and Vienna tour and afterwards more days in Vienna, Salzburg and back to Munich. This year will Venice before Village Italy tour and Florence and Rome afterwards. All have a solo day trip thrown in somewhere.

I’m not as brave as you. Everywhere I try to find smaller or unique museums. Those are usually more personal and less crowded; eg Salzburg Christmas museum and Musee du Palais Lascaris in Nice. I include something horsey like riding in Hyde Park, Lippizan performance in Vienna, riding on the Appian Way. I also attend at least one concert, play or opera somewhere during the trip, either during free time or solo time or both.

Love this thread, thanks Tony!
We always arrive a few days before the tours start. Sometimes we stay after a tour ends.

Memorable jaunts:
After Best of Italy tour, we took a fast train from Rome to Naples, then a local train to Ercano Scavi (Herculaneum), where we toured the ruins and saw incredible mosaics 2000 years old. Then we took a bus from Ercolano Scavi up to Mt. Vesuvius. We went as high up as allowed and saw the smoking crater. I recall the dust and cinders and rocks underfoot and lack of green plants. Our shoes came back tinted dusty grey and stayed that way for years.

In Trier, before the GAS tour began, we caught an incredible rehearsal performance by a local orchestra with soloists at a church.

Before My Way Alpine, we went on “The Sound of Music” day bus tour. What might seem to be a cheesy idea turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The tour stops at many places seen in the movie. On the way back, the guide led all the bus passengers in a medley of songs, with a singalong of “My Favorite Things.” Not a bad way to unite 25 strangers….

Same trip, we toured Berchtesgaden and the Eagle’s Nest, and learned more about World War II history.

In Chamonix, we happened upon the landing site for the paragliders. We watched many as they swept down, found their feet, wrapped up their gear and made way for others….and several in our tour group had lessons and enjoyed their rides. Later in the tour, we saw many take off from a popular spot, also interesting.

After the My Way Alpine tour, before the GAS tour started, we mostly stayed put in our gorgeous Lucerne hotel room with private balcony overlooking the tower bridge. Sometimes we just need to chill out after the fast paced tours.

Before the 7 Days Rome trip some years ago, I took a food tour in the Testaccio area of Rome with EATING Italy (now Eating Europe). THe area itself is really interesting and the food was great! Along with copious samples from many different stores and Market stalls, we had a pasta lunch with wine, visited some interesting Roman sites, the Foreigners Cemetery, one of Rome’s earliest soccer arenas; Mt. Testaccio created from the thousands of potsherds of the amphora used to bring olive oil to Ancient Rome; and the old Stockyards, now a major arts centre. It was a wonderful start to a great week in Rome.

Not associated to being on RSTours, but serendipitous and sometimes planned things we did: Choose the dates of our non RS tour to coincide with a festival in St Petersburg which celebrated the high school graduates of that year with a massive fireworks display and the entrance of the Red ship into the harbor. We were the only one brave enough to be out at midnight from the tour. Amazing and so fun with the people . Scheduled our days in Berlin to coincide with the Illuminate Berlin festival. Followed a group of lovely English girls all dressed alike to the small church in Venice where they were performing. ( we did ask if they were the high school choir staying at our hotel when we ran into them. They weren't but were a different choir and begged us to go) it was amazing. Thanks for posting this thread

Although there have been many, two come immediately to mind. The first is attending a performance at the Moulin Rouge (which was rated as "too touristy" by many fellow travelers here). So glad that we went with our gut rather than take the advice of others because we found the show to be fabulous! And the second was enjoying the thermal baths in Budapest. The baths are wonderfully relaxing and a great way to mix with the locals. Another very memorable experience was our tour at Auschwitz. I cannot say that this was an enjoyable experience. But it certainly is a memorable one that everyone that has the opportunity, should take. It makes that horrific time come to life in a way that reading about it just doesn't.

I’ve gone on 6 RS tours and always have spent anywhere from 7-11 extra days before or after the tour. I’m a museum junkie, art/history/military, so no bungee jumping to report, unfortunately. Wish I was more exciting 😉. Most of the time it’s after the tour ends, and is sometimes a pleasant break from a lot of activity to not setting an alarm to get up and a little slower pace. 3 more tours are on the agenda for 2024, I’m happy to say.

So many fun and interesting experiences! I also took the hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia while on RS Best of Turkey tour. I actually took the tour twice because the first time our balloon ride was cancelled due to weather while we waited at the balloon staging area. I was so very disappointed. I was determined to take this balloon ride and the following year went for it again and the ride was a go. This is an incredible experience!! And at the end they landed right on the trailer they use to haul the balloon. I have also included stopovers in Istanbul while on my way to Greece while on solo trips. During one of these stopovers, I located a rooftop bar/restaurant which has a fabulous view of the sea, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. It was a beautiful place to have a drink and view the lights of the city as well as they came on.

While on the Southern Italy tour, I also took a day trip to Capri and included the Blue Grotto. A couple on my tour also took the trip. It was great! Beautiful boat ride with 7 other people. They landed us on the back of the island which is less congested. It may be a tourist trap but I'm a tourist and I have a great video of my ride into the blue grotto with our guy singing. Later taking the chairlift to the island's highest point was well worth the trip. Traveling over homes, gardens on a small seat to arrive at the top with sweeping views of beauty.

I also love Rome, as well as the rest of Italy, I have climbed to the top of Saint Peters to enjoy the view and it is a marvelous view although anyone with claustrophobia might not enjoy the climb. Again, many tourists but there's a reason many people do this. And add on food tours for sure as they do not disappoint.

I added some days onto the RS Sicily tour pre/post. Pre tour in Palermo just so happened the Pope was in town. What excitement that was, although since all the streets were blockaded made for a long, long walk to my B and B but I got to see the Pope mobile.
Post tour I took the train to Cefalu which was well worth the visit.

For my upcoming Southern England tour, I have added on a visit to a Falconry right outside of Bath. The visit includes interacting with a hawk and an owl, using the glove on your hand/arm. I'm pretty excited about doing this.

On my last 3 tours (BOE14 days, Central Europe, and Belgium/Holland) , I have signed up for Photography Walking Tours of 4 different cities (Brugges, Prague, Budapest, Rome). In Budapest and in Brugges I ended up being the only person those particular tours, so I got 1:1 time with a local for 2-3 hours. I love getting photos of places I may not have seen or know about. In Prague and Budapest, I took an evening tours that ended both high on a hill overlooking the city as the sun was going down. Loved it!

We always add plenty of days before, after and in between our RS tours. One of the most exciting extras for our V-F-R tour was an additional visit to the Colosseum for the "Belvedere" tour to the 4th and 5th levels. I stayed awake very late to snag the rare and desirable tickets in 2018. These levels had been unavailable for 40 years or so and the demand for tickets was exceptional. Lucky us - our day in early October was beautifully lit, comfortable temperature and ideal for photography. I panicked my partner when I balanced precariously over a rail for a wonderful shot.

We've got plenty more that I could discuss (the substantial William Blake retrospective at the Tate Britain, etc) but the Belvedere visit was a standout.

Silas - don’t stop now! These are fun to read and give great ideas for others. Because of fellow forum members, we are signed up for two tours on our upcoming My Way Spain trip that we wouldn’t have found on our own. We’re doing The Spanish Civil War Tour in Barcelona and a Hemingway tour in Madrid with the Wellington Society.

We always try to arrive a couple of days early to any tour. Some of our favorite highlights were : Montserrat in Barcelona, the Museum of Surrender and a Tattinger Champagne tour in Reims, Gellert baths (and hotel) and Hospital in the Rock in Budapest, Domus Aurea in Rome and concert in Naples at Church of Gesu Nuova in Naples with fellow tourmates who had added an extra day, the Streaty Food Tour and NoMafia Tour in Palermo and the Duomo Museum in Florence.

I love this topic!

Pre Best of Barcelona & Madrid Tour I visited Casa Batllo, I loved having lots of time to just immerse myself in Gaudi's vision. The Shadow of the Wind is my favorite book, so the other memorable pre-tour adventure was a walking tour themed around Zafon's story. There were 20 of us on the tour from Argentina, Sweden, Spain, Cleveland Ohio and Pittsburgh, we all had found the book by random means and loved it dearly. One man had a quote from the book tattooed on his arm, a woman brought the candy characters eat throughout the story... it was magical! Here's the tour I took, in case you're also a fan of Zafon : )
https://www.getyourguide.com/barcelona-l45/the-shadow-of-the-wind-literary-tour-t2249/?lang=en&date_from=2022-09-24&_pc=1,1

Wow - talk about timely. My Dad and I who were on the same tour as Tony were just discussing this yesterday. We both said we regretted NOT doing the paragliding Tony mentions. I would highly recommend doing this.

Also, Tony was one of the best tourmates we have come across - miss you Tony and hope to travel with you again!

JEFF

Have done 4 RS tours -
The first VFR we went a day early and toured the islands and also went to a church that was not on the agenda, but can't remember the name. Post tour we stayed 5 extra days and went to more places and just hung out enjoying cafes, squares and the Borghese Gallery!

On 14 day Ireland, prior to start toured Newgrange which was amazing and I am not sure why Rick does not include it. Was supposed to tour a distillery on the last day (after breakfast) but flights got messed up and was unable to stay the extra two days - need to go back to Ireland!

On the Barcelona/Madrid tour - we went to Montserrat and loved it!!! Again stayed some extra days and went on to see Cordova and did the Game of Thrones tour (loved it) in Sevilla.

On Southern Italy we did an eating tour of Trastevere (prior) and really enjoyed the spots we got to see, and the food was delicious and the guide entertaining. Made a note to add a food tour when possible and have even done them at "home".

Getting ready to go to Scotland with RS for 8 days and planning for a day visiting Dunrobin castle and some distilleries outside of Inverness the day before the tour begins. After that tour we are heading to Copenhagen to visit family friends for a week - might as well as we are already going to be so close (relatively speaking of course!)

Thanks, Jeff! I hope you, Nina, and Russ are all doing well.

Tony