Has Anyone Repeated a Tour?

My husband and I are close to going on the My Way Europe Tour for a second time. It sounds kind of crazy but that tour was such a wonderful mix of different sites and locations. There are lots of things I know NOW that I missed and really want to see. I'm anxious to read what others experienced!

I have been on 14 tours and several were the week long tours, others were the bus tours. I went on some of the week long tours twice, Paris, Rome and the Florence ( when they had the Florence tour) and enjoyed them all. There is so much to see in each city and on each tour that going again and seeing the same things and then different things in the free time is a great way to see each place. I even enjoyed going back to the same hotels and restaurants. I found some great restaurants in all three cities and made sure I went to them again. The first time you go it can be overwhelming! But staying at the same hotel and knowing my way around makes the second trip easier and able to see a lot more and be really comfortable with where I am going and what I want to do.

It was great when I went on the Best of Europe tour ( after being on the week long tours of Rome, Florence and Paris) I knew what I wanted to see and do and where to eat. Since you have limited time in each city on that tour, I was able to make the most of it and not waste time trying to find places. Plus I knew exactly what I wanted to see before I even went on the tour.

I have not done the bus tours twice and if I had the money, I would do at least two of them again!

You know what you want to see and what you feel you missed, so now you can see all the things you did not see! It will still be a new experience!

Have a safe and great time!

I am going to do the Paris city tour for a second time this year. Both times are at Christmas. Like Ann, I have a whole list of places I want to see i did not the first time. I also go two days early to see even more places.

I am considering taking the Best of Switzerland again because I want to see things I did not the first timer.

Sicily. Both times "Winter/OffSeason" tours. For the second time around, the itinerary was slightly different so I was able to revisit some wonderful places and see a few new ones! And beside that, I love, love. love Sicily! I never mind repeating a tour as I always see something new from a different perspective given the passage of time and experiences between tours. Like other posters, I think there is also something to see that I wasn't able to fit in previously. You know that old saying: "Always leave something to come back for...." I do that frequently.

Sicily for us, as well. A few years ago, we took the Best of Sicily tour, and while we enjoyed it, we couldn't help but think we would have enjoyed it more with a few changes - a different route, for example. A year or two later, we were signing up for the London tour, and saw the itinerary for the Off-Season Best of Sicily; it was just the route we had wished for the first time. So we tacked that tour onto the London one. And we did, indeed, prefer the second itinerary. (We also preferred the second guide, but that's another issue.)

BTW, the revised regular Sicily itinerary is pretty much the same as the "Off-Season" one we took.

In addition, we are planning to repeat a tour next year. We took the 21 Day Best of Europe tour in 2011, and loved it. It has been my DH's favorite tour ever since. And as we are celebrating a milestone anniversary next year, he wants to mark the occasion by another go at the 21 Day BOE!

I would have no problem repeating any of the city tours, especially Paris, Rome, and Florence. There's always something new to see; different guides have different strengths and interests; and as someone commented already, every time you visit a place, you get more out of it. As Francesca (Rome local guide) likes to say: "The more you know, the more you see!"

I have not yet. When I first started taking RS tours, many had overlapping stops. So I have been to some stops on the tours multiple times. A couple of the tours even overlapped with another RS tour and we all said hello to each other! They have been rearranging the tours over the past few years and have eliminated a lot of the overlap.

I wouldn't mind retaking the Ireland tour and the Scandinavia tour. Both I felt there was so much more to see that I had missed.

I was just thinking this morning that I would enjoy the Berlin, Prague, Vienna again, it was wonderful and interesting the first time. I know the second time, being more familiar with each city, I would find other things to do and be more efficient in my free time. Also, my confidence level would be higher in finding places because I would have learned orientation points in each city! I'm directionally challenged.
I am going on the Heart of Ireland in 8 Days this Sept. and already I'm thinking maybe next year I would like to do the full 14 Day tour because it hits more places of interest to me. Especially, Northern Ireland where my mother's family is from.
Oh, the travel dreams!! So many places, so little time!

Judy B

We have taken the Village Italy tour twice....the second time because friends wanted to go, and we knew we would love to join them. I agree with others that you know about areas/sights/experiences that you want to spend additional time with. We were also lucky in that we had the same guide the second time...our fingers were crossed til we received that list! She was concerned that we might be bored, but nothing could have been farther from the truth. I think that the tours are constantly being tweaked, so I would be surprised if the second tour was unchanged.

If this counts, I did Best of Sicily & Southern Italy about 10 years ago and Best of Sicily this year. I chose to "repeat" because I wanted to get back to Sicily, spend a longer time than previously, wasn't keen to do it on my own, and several new stops and activities had been added to the current tour. Where it did overlap my first tour, it was places I wanted to revisit anyway. Had the Sicily portion of the tour not changed, I wouldn't have repeated.

All of these comments make me look forward to 2018 and my first tour. Best of Paris in 7 days.

It's a great tour, anthony. We had a wonderful time.

Hi Frank II, I'm planning to do Paris & the Heart of France again in 2018. I did it solo in 2009 and I think my BF would really like the itinerary, particularly Normandy. We've been to some of the places already (Paris, Chenonceau, Amboise, Giverny), but I'd like to see them again. Think we'll use this tour as the jumping off point for next year.

I have been waiting to see the responses to this.

I will be the voice of dissent....... as a single person in 2009 I took the very first RS villages and vineyards of eastern France tour and it was simply incredible! The food, guide, wine choices, etc. sure, they were still working out the bugs, but it was amazing. Fast forward to meeting my husband. He really wanted to take the same tour so in 2014 we did. The group was only 14 people and some of the tour stops had changed. Those things were fine, but for me (and my husband) what killed it were the restaurant choices. Simply unacceptable, especially given the first tour food choices. My husband doesn't eat fish and the tour wasn't able to accommodate that. The quality of the food and restaurants was drastically different that the first time I took the tour. In short, we would have rather paid for our own meals on the group dinners than to have had what was offered. Also, it was extremely hot and no, our hotels did not have AC.

It was so bad that it ruined us on RS tours for a couple of years. We're going to give it another try this fall in Sicily, which will be our first time there. Fingers crossed.

There are three things I learned, the hard way, to take with me on RS tours:

Earplugs

Eyeshades

Small desk fan

The first two are self explanatory. The last sits on my nightstand while I sleep. Since most RS hotels don't have a/c, I have the fan run all night to blow a small breeze over my face and head. This does make it a little easier to sleep. Or, you could just ask at your hotel for a fan. I do that first. Sometimes they have one and it's no problem. Sometimes they have to search. And other times they say no and mutter under their breath about Americans and air conditioning.

This thread has been a hopeful sign to us. We are on the off season Sicily tour this year, but we have traveled with other tour companies before this. We SO want to enjoy this tour so that we can travel with RS in the future.

We would definitely repeat the BOE 21 day tour.

Kathy, I'm with you!! I'd do 21 BOE over again! I might consider doing Best of England over as well.

I have been only on three so far. But I sure loved 14 day Ireland (1st); 11 at Holland/Belgium (2nd). I would go back in a minute on these tours. Just booked 7 day Ireland and 10 day Scotland back to back tours for 2018.

Why not see a Europe tour in a different season. We have not done any RS tours twice, but have gone to the same locals in different seasons and have had different experiences.