hotel list for central europe tour

Hi megan, suggest you contact the RS office to see if you can get advance info. Hotels change based on dates, whatever.

It may be difficult to get an exact list of hotels very far in advance since RS uses smaller hotels and, therefore, they aren’t necessarily the same for every tour group. You will receive (in your online account) a list of hotels about one month before the tour begins. You should know that virtually all RS hotels are in central locations that make it easy to visit sights on your own. The tour guides are always more than willing to suggest free-time activities and to assist travelers in their plans.

Another thing to keep in mind is that your free time may not always begin at the hotel location itself. For instance, the group may take a walking tour in the morning that ends at a distance from the hotel. Some people may return to the hotel. Others will take off for other adventures from the ending point of the walking tour. Again, the guide will help people with their choices. One thing I like about RS tours is the encouragement to be independent!

If there is a “vacation from your vacation day” in the itinerary, you will have the entire day to do as you like. You can even sleep in! This would be a good day to plan anything that would benefit from advance planning.

I have been on 10 RS tours and, other than perusing a guidebook and making a list of possibilities, I don’t do a lot of planning until I am on the ground. There are so many variables: weather, energy level, changes in the itinerary, new ideas from the tour guide or other travelers, etc.

As noted, the hotels will be in central locations but the office is unlikely to give you specifics (other than the first and last hotel that you get when you sign up) because they often use multiple hotels. You can look at recommended hotels in the current version of the guidebook and that will give you a flavor of locations, though they often stay in hotels not listed in the guidebook, but in same general area.

Look at each itinerary day and note where it says free time and develop a couple of options that interest you. For example, Day 5 says you go to Auschwitz in the morning and return to Krakow and your evening is free. Pretty high chance you'll be returned to your hotel (or very nearby) in central Krakow, so you'd want to have some ideas for things to do mid afternoon and later. Your guide will be a great resource - if for some reason your intended plans don't align with hotel or bus drop off location, just let them know where you want to be and they'll help you sort it out.

This was one of my favorite tours, have fun!