My Way Alpine Europe

I haven’t been on this tour, but I have been to Switzerland and pretty much everybody speaks English.

We are on the 7/5/23 tour. I can report back after our tour ends. We will have 28 people in our group. In the meantime, I'm happy to share the hotels for our tour. (I know the hotels can vary based on tour dates.) Hotel Hofwirt in Salzburg, Austria; Gasthof zum Wolf in Kastelruth, Italy; Alstadt Zum Hechten in Fussen, Germany; Hotel Regina Wengen in Wengen, Switzerland; Hotel Les Gourmets et Italy in Chamonix, France.

This is our first RS tour.

I was on the My way alpine tour in Early June 2022, here are my comments:

1. Hotels
   Salzburg: Hotel Hofwirt
   Castelrotto: Hotel Cavallino D'Oro
   Fussen: Altstadthotel Zum Hechten
   Lauterbrunnen: Hotel Staubbach
   Chamonix: Hotel L’Arve

2. Since most people focus on outdoor activities and hikes on this tour, there are really not many excursions that you need to book in advance. However, it is imperative that you do book tickets to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castle weeks, if not months in advance. And if you are staying in Chamonix for an extra day or so, then buying a Mont Blanc multi-pass a couple days before you arrive in Chamonix will score you the best price. The only other activities I ended up purchasing in advance were a Bobs Sound of Music and Hallstatt tour and Schlosskonzerte tickets for our extra days in Salzburg. We also purchased Salzburg cards, but we bought those from the TI when we arrived.

3. Our early June tour had 26 people, including two teenagers.

4. This was actually my first RS tour, despite using all his tour books and resources for many many years planning my own trips. I felt that this was a good lead-in to group tours while still allowing us all the freedom to plan and do our own thing. Our particular tour had a very active guide/host, Gretchen, who spent a ton of time educating us on the bus rides and she put together happy hours or group outings in almost every city. This may not be the norm, but she was great. The people on our tour were also all very social and larger groups often went out to dinners or hikes together. I would recommend reading the tour book several times in advance and plan out your option A and option B activities in each place, just in case if weather does not cooperate, and to make sure that you don’t end up wasting daylight hours choosing your plans for the day. I also spent a ton of internet research in advance mapping out the best day hikes that we wanted to do in the Dolomites, Lauterbrunnen, and Chamonix.

5. We used buses, lifts, gondolas, etc in every place we stayed. Super easy, efficient and plentiful. All the public transportation options are well explained in the tour book, so again just make sure to do your reading in advance and keep a list of what you want to take to get you where.

6. English is widely spoken in all cities, at all attractions and most all restaurants. But Learning a couple key phrases in the local language to start with (good morning, good evening, thank you, etc) is always an appreciative and thoughtful act.

Let me know if you any specific questions or are looking for activity planning ideas. I’m sure you will love it as much as we did.

In case it eases your mind, I thought the hotels on the Southern England tour were among the quirkiest of all the RS tours (10) I have been on. Not a complaint, but I can see a first time RST person wondering.

Any tour can have as many as 28 people, and most of mine have had that or close.

Thanks everyone!

JMH I can't wait to hear about your travels on this very trip!