Hey Gang, a few questions from a 1st time traveler in Europe, at 74 Years young.:-)

I'm glad to say the guides use whisper units - each person wears a battery pack around their neck with earbuds. So nice to not have a group of 26 or so crowding around the guide who is trying to be heard over traffic, etc. If you don't have to use your hearing aids most of the time, that will be easiest to just remove them. Hopefully, others who do need hearing aids full time can share their workaround. Enjoy your trip - you'll love it.

We are going on our first RS tour next year and there is the following statement in the tour information

If you wear a hearing aid, we strongly recommend bringing headphones that go over your ears to use with our audio guide system.

I assume their statement is meant for people who must have their hearing aids in all of the time, and would not be able to hear the whisper system without. We've used the whispers on another tour and as KC mentions just removing the hearing aids while using the whispers works fine if your hearing isn't too bad. That is what my husband does, just using his hearing aids at meals times and such.

There are two kinds of "earphones" that go with the whisper guides. The first is a traditional place in ear set of ear buds. The second is an "over the ear" looped pad that fits on just one side. I don't think I could wear the "over the ear" loop with my hearing aid, but I have worn it without. I have also seen people use over the ear foam headphones that take up very little space and fit comfortably over their hearing aids.

At least in the past, there was no blue tooth with the whisper sets. I did hear of one person who used a plug in adapter in the whisper set to make it blue-tooth compatible and then used the blue-tooth feature of their hearing aids.

PS I 'm very excited for your first European Adventure. I know you will have a wonderful time.

A blue tooth adaptor would be fantastic if that works with your hearing aids. I'm going to do a bit of research on that idea.

Since most of the whisper systems are only for one ear, I just take one hearing aid out since there’s volume control. Someone on our last trip had an adapter to make it Bluetooth compatible with the hearing aids like for using my iPhone. That’s on my list to check into before our trip next year.

I have a cochlear implant and (now) a hearing aid on the other side. On my last RS tour, I only had the implant and limited hearing on my left side. I wore large, over the ear, headphones and it worked fairly well. Now, with my new hearing aid and the implant I am going to try a bluetooth transmitter which (should) transmit to both devices. I bought an Aluratek Bluetooth Universal Audio Transmitter. I haven’t actually used it yet, although I did try it out and it synced to my bluetooth hearing aid perfectly. It is a small device with a short cord that plugs in the earphone jack. I got it on Amazon but B & H Photo also has it. Around $25.