Hello all!
A friend and myself are thinking about signing up for the GAS Spring 2017 trip on May 13-May 26, but I was wondering what the typical age ranges are on these trips. We are 22 and 23. I'm expecting it to be a pretty diverse group but I was just wondering since it would be nice to maybe have people on the trip that are close in age. I've been reading several different posts on this thread and it sounds as if most people are married or 30+.
Every tour is different so that is a super hard thing to say you will have young people on the tours. There are now the family tours where you will definitely find younger people but your not asking about the family tours. I went on the GAS tour late August this year and loved it. There were mostly married couples, a few single women and one married couple in their mid to late 20's. I think you should go, you have each other and the people of all ages are nice, fit and willing to travel and get up and go. I have been on 14 RS tours and usually anyone your age is traveling with family. It really is a quality tour but will there be people of your age, that is anyone's guess. I do find on most tours a few single women, sometimes several and mostly married couples. I know this doesn't really answer your question, but like I said who knows. It is up to you if this is what you really want to do and see these amazing countries and cities and scenery and the Swiss Alps then do it.
The tour office may be able to provide some information about the specific tour you're interested in.
Hi,
Just wanted to shed a little light on your question. In general, just due to the particulars of being able to travel (i.e. having the time and being able to afford it) most of our tour members will be in their 50's, 60's and 70's. But that's not to say that we don't have travelers of all ages come on our tours. Though it might not always be the case, our tour groups usually will contain a wide range of ages. Our hope is that folks won't think too much about the ages of their fellow travelers as being a deciding factor on whether to go on a tour or not. You will find that it is not their age that makes the traveler. It is the spirit and enthusiasm they bring with them, their wisdom and wit they share, and their friendliness and compassion for their fellow travelers that will make for your best companions...regardless of their age. Hope this helps. Call us if you have any other questions about this.
Age is definitely not a deciding factor for me at all! I've been on vacations with my family in other touristy places before but based on experience, most people would rather talk and hang out with their own family instead of getting to know fellow travelers. Since this is my second trip without my immediate family (my first was with my cousin and a large group of people my age), I was really just wanting to know (since it will be a rather diverse group), if there would be opportunities for travelers to engage with one another and really get to know each other.
To answer your last post, carlyn, you will find people of diverse ages, interests and best of all, experiences on Rick Steves tours. For every RS tour I have been on, I found nearly each and every person has a really interesting story and is willing to share. A couple of standouts for me include the retired woman who had worked for the CIA, a man from China who had been "smuggled" out and brought to the US by his parents in the 1940s . He spoke no English but eventually managed to get himself educated at one of the top Universities in the US and finally retired from a career teaching political science at UCLA. He was still on their "payroll" as a consultant. His daughter worked for Disney on several recent movie releases. On one of my most recent tours, an ex-Cappuchin Monk and his wife were most forthcoming with their stories; hers was as interesting as his. They met in South America while she was there building schools. As I said, you will find as many different stories as you will find tour participants. And best of all, plenty of opportunities to share yours with them.
Carlyn, we've been on 10 RS tours, and the age range has been from 13 to 80-something. As Keith said, available time and money are factors, but most of the tours we have been on have had a wide range of ages. We've only been on one tour where everybody "looked like us." And, interestingly, that was the tour with the least amount of interaction amongst the tour members, mostly because there were two or three large family groups traveling and hanging out together.
Usually everyone is open to meeting new people and sharing new experiences, even the family groups. You'll have a great time; go.
We've only done 3 RS tours. Two were in the time frame you are considering and one was in June/July. Interestingly, the Spring groups were far more interactive than the summer group. I think you get more families traveling together in the summer than in May, and in our case they wanted to spend time together as they came from different parts of the country. There were more young adults on that tour, but the families pretty much planned things together. On the two other tours, people really came together as a group.
If you look at the 'scrapbooks' from previous tours - both GAS and the others - you'll get an idea of the composition of tour groups. I took the unguided Alpine tour last year, the youngest was 8, the oldest was near 70, young adults, and mostly 40's-60's couples. Everyone was welcoming and most actively tried to engage with everyone else in the group.
Hi it is a diverse group of ages. If you could go in the summer I would think it would be lower with more families and college and teen kids and more families with older 20 something adult members joining them on the tour.
If you really want a 20 something crowd there are other tour companies that offer that mix.
We have been on 5 tours. On 3 of those with my kids. My daughter was 10 the first time. We love them being around people of all ages. This last one during the summer was the first time they had kids the same age on a tour. We also had 20 something adult siblings on the tour.
The tours are great and the front office was helpful when I asked about other kids on the tour. They might be able to help in your question too?
