Hotels for My Way Europe tour citys and pre and post

I doubt that there's any certainty that next year's tours will use all or any of the hotels used this year or in prior years. During one season, different tour dates for the same tour often use different hotels. Before the trip, you'll receive a hotel listing which can help your planning. Make sure to get reservations for pre and post tour stays as quickly as possible when you receive it. They fill up quickly!

On two tours to Paris, we stayed in a hotel near rue Cler and another near Bastille. Not close to each other but great locations. It seems that the common denominator for the hotels , other than being in the city center, is being close to public transportation. The Metro/Bus system in Paris can whisk you to wherever you want to go quickly and inexpensively.

Neuschwanstein Castle is just over 2 hours from Munich by train and taxi.

Without knowing how long you would intend to stay in Sicily, it's difficult to recommend places to stay.
For a short trip, you could fly FCO to Palermo and take the train to Agrigento. Other places to consider are Ragusa, Siracusa (stay on Ortigia), Catania. In Agrigento, the tour overnighted at an agriturismo:

Baglio della Luna
Via Serafino Amabile Guastella 1 C
Agrigento, 92100 - ITALY
Tel: 011 39 0922 511 061  Fax:
Email: commerciale@bagliodellaluna.com
Website: www.bagliodellaluna.com

If you are interested in Greek temples, and Roman ruins, consider a few nights in Naples. You can get to see the great archaeological site and museum in Paestum, a little over an hour away by train, both Pompeii and Herculaneum are easy to reach and Napoli has great museums. If you want to spend a night in Paestum, I stayed at an agriturismo called B&B La Chora Di Paestum, Via Laghetto 15. But realize without a car, it's not easy to get to. I don't remember seeing any taxis in Paestum.

I agree that the hotels the tours use this year may or may not be the ones for next year AND they may use different hotels for different departure dates.

Having said that, I will also say that as soon as you sign up you'll get the names of your first and last hotels and you can book them then. I would probably go ahead and book immediately (particularly with 5 people - is that 2 rooms or 3?) then if after research you decide to stay somewhere else you can cancel. The tour hotels do get booked out. I'll also add that I am pretty lazy and don't much like to change hotels so I tend to stay at the tour hotel if possible.

I first stayed near Rue Cler on my first visit to Paris on a RS tour. I like that hotel and often stay there on my own. I've stayed in about half a dozen hotels around Rue Cler and feel very comfortable in the neighborhood. I enjoy walking along the Seine from Notre Dame, the Louvre or d'Orsay back to the 7th so it doesn't seem far to me.

Another day trip you might consider from Munich is Dachau. It is a very powerful memorial. There is also a lot to see in Munich. I really enjoyed the Neue Pinakothek art museum (some very lovely Van Gogh's).

When you do book, know that there is usually $100 off the tour price from when the tour dates come out in late summer to about the end of November. There is also usually $100 off around the 3rd week of January when he has his Test Drive a Tour Guide travel festival in Edmonds.

There's no guarantee that tour hotels will be the same from one year to the next, or even from one season to another. Some hotels may be available in June but not in Sept, etc. So, until you book a tour and get a list of hotels, you won't know for sure which hotels will be used. You can call the office and maybe they'll have the information before it's printed in the tour brochure but not guaranteed.

Neuschwanstein Castle is just over 2 hours from Munich by train and taxi.

If you use the train to get to Füssen, use a Bayern-Ticket (25€ first person, 6€ each up to four more) for the round trip. The Bayern-Ticket is also valid for the buses that leaves from the Füssen Bahnhof for Hohenschwangau (castles) shortly after the train arrives - no need for a taxi.

If you use the Bahn query webpage, put in Munich Hbf to Hohenschwangau, and it will show you both the train and the bus.

The bus stop in Hohenschwangau is at the bottom of the hill, a short, 1/8 mile (4 minutes) walk to the ticket kiosk.

The round trip train and bus trip from Munich Hbf takes about 4½ hrs. If you have a reserved tour (recommended) you need to pick up your tickets one hour before tour time, which gives you plenty of time to walk up the hill to the castle before the tour. The tour takes about 40 minutes and you can easily walk back down in 45 minutes. That's 2hr25 from arrival in Hohenschwangau until your ready to leave. The time between bus arrival in Hohenschwangau and leaving back to Füssen Bhf is 2h35 to 2h40 minutes, so if you don't dally and everything works out right, you could do the trip in just over 7 hours. Just over 8 hours is very doable

You could leave Munich just before 10 am and be back in time for dinner. Or, you could stay in Füssen for dinner and take a later train back (they leave hourly until about 7 pm; there's one more later train at 8:30 pm).

But, with only 2 nights (one whole day) in Munich, I think I'd stay in Munich rather that go to Neuschwanstein.

As others have mentioned, I don't think that you will be able to count on the same hotel being used again for your tour.

If you want to make sure you are staying in the same hotel, you will need to wait until you get the confirmation email immediately after you pay your deposit for the tour. This email will list the first and last hotel on the tour.

I have stayed at the Hotel Relais Bosquet in the Rue Cler area before and loved it. We were looking for proximity to the Eiffel Tower and the Pasteur Institute and this hotel worked well for us. We also enjoyed how easy it was to walk to the Seine and the cafes on Rue Cler.

I am going on a Rick Steves Tour this June, and the first hotel will be the B Montmarte. The last hotel will be the Hotel Waldorf Trocadero. You could look at those to at least get an idea of the types of hotels chosen for the tours.

Thank you all very much for your experienced insights, recommendations and help! I sort of gleaned that in looking at the tour scrapbooks. I guess it depends on too many factors to make a prediction doesn't it?

Nancy