My way Alpine (June 12 2023)

Here is a thread from 2 months ago started by someone on the My Way Alpine Tour: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/my-way-alpine-tour-tips

Many questions were asked and answered in that thread. I think it will be helpful to you.

We've not been on the My Way Alpine tour (yet) but here's my observations from the My Way Spain tour hotels: All our hotels were located right where we wanted to be in the central part of town. Each one was within 1 or 2 blocks of the metro or buses. Every hotel was comfortable and had up-to-date amenities whether it was more sleek and modern in decor or had old world charm, but always spotlessly clean. All had helpful staff with excellent English and a generous breakfast each morning. We've also been on the My Way Italy tour and found the hotels to be similar to those in Spain - very convenient in the town (cafes and transportation), laundry available or nearby (drop off or self-serve), spotless, comfortable beds, some with a view and others no view, hot breakfast buffets with numerous choices.

Thanks Dave - I did have a chance to go over that thread just now.

Thank you for your insight whitworthd, much appreciated.

I just booked the June 12 - 23 tour. Will start working on the itinerary soon, would love to connect with others on the same tour to bounce off ideas :)

Hi, Ramsha.

I did this tour a few years ago - solo female. I have taken RS guided tours, too. For the MyWay Alpine, I came prepared with a list of possibilities to fill my time. I was happily surprised that while I got to do things on my list, our group really jelled, and I did things I had not anticipated by hanging out with others. Maybe because it was all up to us, folks made an extra attempt to form community. At any rate, this was a convivial group. I always felt I had the option to be with others or go off on my own.

I also learned the lesson on this trip that sometime travel can be a vacation - that is when I ditched some of my list. It was much more fun to see what the day, the locations, and my tour mates offered: boar burger near Hohenschwangau, the Greek restaurant in Fuessen; an afternoon enjoying the views from Gimmelwald's Pension. It was a good group.

Of all the tours, I plan to take this one again. This time, I will walk the Lauterbrunnen valley floor trail, which is something I was unaware of during the last trip. Over Covid, I saw some lovely youtube videos walking this area in the snow. Heaven. I also want to explore, or at least reflect on, Tolkien and Lauterbrunnen when I am there.

Hotels: the typical RS mix, all fine, some in fantastic settings. I really loved the one in Chamonix - the river ran right by us, and we held an impromptu wine party on the mini-lawn. Enjoy!

My husband and I just booked the June 12 My Way Alpine tour, postponed from 2020. I’m looking forward to trying the My Way format as I’m not sure guided touring is for me. It’ll be fun to see what the balance is like and may be a springboard to independent European travel for us. So far we’ve only done a Viking river cruise (Danube) and the group excursions/dining frustrated me. I loved seeing Europe together and hope we can find something that works for us.

I flew to Vienna and spent a few days there, then took the train to Salzburg. There's a lot to see so plan to arrive at least a day before the tour begins. Unless you want to do a lot of hiking in Chamonix, you won't stay on after the tour. On my tour, everyone was gone by noon. Most went to either Geneva (for flights out) or to Annecy to continue their travels. I rented a car and drove through Burgundy and Alsace.

On my tour, the tour manager knew just about everything about each stop and used the bus time to give us an overview of what was coming and then helped each of us individually to plan our itinerary for the next day. I believe that is typical. It was easy to make plans to have dinner with other tour members. The tour manager arranged a couple of informal no-host happy hour get-togethers. After that a lot of us just drifted to the hotel bar or lounge before dinner.

Lahmusic, that’s great. I’ll see you on the tour then! I’ve travelled Europe independently so I’m really excited to try the My Way format.

Debbie, thanks a lot for sharing your experience. I will be adding these recommendations to my itinerary. I previously visited Lauterbrunnen and Wengen in 2019 but I’m certain I missed a lot of nice trails. I’m looking forward to exploring more of the region.

Chani, thanks for sharing your experience with me. I’m not too comfortable driving around Europe by myself just yet. Were you a solo traveller when you did the drive?
I have limited vacation days so I’m debating between spending 2-3 days in Geneva or Lyon after the tour ends.

I took trains from Chamonix up to Vevey for the weekend and flew out from Munich after my solo tour. Accommodations were all very central to the activities and fine from a comfort standpoint, no complaints. I enjoyed planning my on trip and got in ~15 miles a day. Enjoy.