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Forum/Tour vets- anyone have an old tour schedule?

Posted by (Andover, MA, USA) on

HI All,

I've been wanting to look at the general tour schedule for next summer again (yes, I realize how optimistic that is). However, I would like to see a list of tours that generally operate the last week of June/first week of July. Anyone have an old tour schedule, with dates (since they generally fall in the same time frame from year to year)? Perhaps you have an old website link or an old catalog you would be willing to photograph (and send me a PM of)? Anyone ?

A close friend of mine, who has been wanting to go to Europe for about 20 years finally decided to go next summer with me (before COVID). It will be our 50th birthdays. We are teachers though and are limited to tours that leave in that frame. I have already done 7, so I'm curious what our other options will be so that I don't have to repeat a tour - although I would if necessary again, being optimistic here).

Thanks as always!

Posted by
11872 posts

The print catalog has the day by day itinerary, but not the tour departure dates.

From memory, all the tours operate in June/July.

I did notice some had gaps for start dates from mid/late July through August, presumably due to heat. Greece is one such that I recall with that hiatus, during the brutal heat period.

Some time in August is when RS hopes to have a 2021 schedule published. I expect it will have caveats about the uncertainty of the future.

It will be August before you can buy air tix for June/July, so you should be OK waiting for the new catalog to come out

Posted by
16895 posts

In general, the Rick Steves Tours that DON’T operate in most of July and August are the southern-most routes, including South Italy, Sicily, Greece, Turkey, Spain (Barcelona/Madrid and the long version), Adriatic, and Bulgaria. These may each have a departure leaving in the last week of June when there’s lots of demand, but for next year, those edge-cases are not likely to open for sale. Almost any destination further north is a safe bet.

Posted by
559 posts

HI,

Thanks for the info so far. I'm mostly looking at the ones which actually depart around June 24-28 or July 1 - 3. There's usually about 7-9 that depart at that time (I've done most of them ;).

Laura, it looks as if Rick wants to send out the new tour brochures in late Summer (I assume without specific dates). Is this general release date mostly tentative at this point?

:)

Posted by
16895 posts

Yes, the actual 2021 booking release date is still under discussion. Look for news to be online and by email. I did check currently planned dates for the southern areas I listed above, and for several of them, the Last-week-of-June departure was already described as cancelled. I don’t have access to know which tours you’ve already taken, but am hopeful that there will be something new that you can do in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Benelux, Switzerland, France, Germany, “eastern” Europe, or possibly Portugal.

Posted by
759 posts

Gretchen,

I have old RS brochures, the last one with tour dates is 2015. Some tours have changed, added or subtracted but it paints an overall picture.

Any specific country you want checked?

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