New Tours for 2016

Thanks for the heads up! I'd be interested in either (or both) of the tours!

Ooooh. I agree, both sound good!

I would like to see the itinerary for Southern England, although Switzerland could be of interest also. Thanks for the information.

Ack, more marvelous choices! How will I decide? (Ah, that everyone should have such problems!)

Really looking forward to seeing what the Southern England itinerary is.

Yippee! I love when they add new itineraries! Can't wait!!

Wow. I had a really stressful day at work, but reading this has put a smile on my face! I am so looking forward to reading about the new tours and the 2016 schedule.

Debbie

Very nice. I was looking at the My Way tour for Alpine Europe for next spring, but seeing as how there will be on on just Switzerland, I may need to consider that as well.

Pssst! Actually there are three! Villages of South England, Best of Switzerland, and MyWay France!

The itineraries are so great, you guys, but we're gonna have to sit on them until August. Stay tuned!

Finally, more Switzerland. We couldn't be happier and can't wait. Thanks.

Great news! I am wondering if this was influenced in any way by discussions here in the forum. I recall at least one thread looking for new tour suggestions.

I like the idea of more tours in certain locations. It limits bus time. But, where is the Germany tour?

We'd also like to see an all Germany tour. Ideally a mix of cities (like Berlin) and small villages. Perhaps in the future???

Thanks for the info Kate! Do the Villages of South England and the Switzerland tours include 3 nites at each stop? Or are they the usual 2 nites? I like the idea of just a wee bit longer in most stops 😊

My Way France can't wait to hear about it!!!😍

Yeah!!!! I love when they add new itineraries and now we have a few more choices. Maybe someday we'll get a Germany tour too. If we keep requesting it here on the Helpline, maybe it will happen. :)

Although RS tours are far more expensive than any other "big bus" type tours out there, there is definitely a reason why that is (i.e., smaller group, central hotels, no tips required, all inclusive activities, etc.) but unfortunately it also means it's also out of reach for a lot of people. Which is why I'm delighted to see RS offers My Way tours and tours that are focused on one city only. I don't see this type of thing from any other operator. I'm excited to shoot for the My Way Alpine tour next year but if something else comes along I will consider that too. When I've planned my own trips in the past, the lodging and transportation logistics took the most out of me, so I'm looking forward to letting someone else take care of that.

There was a question about the new South England and Switzerland tours, and how many nights in each stop. Right now it's looking like we have two stops on South England where you'll be staying three nights. The rest are all one or two nights. On Switzerland, it looks like every stop is two nights, except for one stop, which is one night.

And I agree with everyone about introducing a Best of Germany tour! It's way past time! Keep up the suggestions!

Hi Kate, can you tell us the total number of days for the Switzerland tour? thanks!

Hi! Best of Switzerland will be 12 days.

Hi Kate, How many days will the "My Way France Tour" be? Will it include some stops in both N and S France? Anxious to see the itinerary.

Oh no......too many choices! I look forward to seeing itineraries on these new tours....and just when I thought I had our next tour figured out (Village Italy). We won't be able to go until early 2017 anyway. Heck, there will probably be even MORE to choose from by then!

Kate, thanks for the info on Switzerland. I can't wait to see the itinerary!

Also looking forward to the info on the Switzerland tour. Imagine with the higher prices in Switzerland it will still cost about the same as a BOE14 day tour.

Also would love a Best of Germany 12 or 14 day tour.

Are there any plans to have tours in Cuba?

Pretty sure Cuba will not be a destination for Rick's Tours.

Kate, I would also like to see a 14 or 21 days "Best of Germany."
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I have done both the Italy 21 days and a 28 day "Best of the West" along with "Feast thru the East" France tours.

The longer time frame in a Germany tour would add depth.

Since we seem to be proposing some new ideas for future tours here, I'd like to propose that RS and staff consider developing a Village Italy II tour. Italy seems to be a favorite location for so many people, and there are so many other wonderful towns and villages in Italy that I certainly believe it would not be difficult to devise another itinerary that covers some of the less touristy areas of Italy. As folks in this forum have mentioned previously, visiting large cities independently is not that difficult because of all the transportation options, however, unless you rent a car, travelling to less well connected areas is a challenge many people would prefer to leave to someone else. I would sign up in a heartbeat if another Village Italy tour were offered!

Hi folks! I can't give you the full itineraries, or even which towns are on the agenda, for any of the new tours yet since they're still works in progress. But do check the website around mid-August (we'll also make an announcement) when those tours are launched!

Love the Germany and Village Italy II ideas! We have been grumbling to our tour planning people for years about the lack of a Best of Germany tour. Hopefully one day they'll get so sick of us they'll put one together. ;o)

For clarification, Rick does European tours, and that's all he'll ever do (but no, he won't be doing Iceland tours, no matter how much some of us beg!). No Cuba, no Asia, no South America, etc. The reason? It's better to know a lot about a relatively little bit than a little about a lot, if that makes sense. Being an expert in European travel is his business, and to go outside of that will be to stretch himself too thin.

I loved the Village Italy tour and would love to see more little towns. Also, I would love a tour that included Milan and the lakes. Italy is a wonderful country.

Poland some day?

I would like to see more regional tours of England, and also of Wales.

We have always wanted to go to Switzerland. Now we'll have no excuse not to!

I vote for a Wales trip--just Wales, covering the best of the castles.

Switzerland sounds great. Always wondered why there was so little of it included even in the Germany Austria Switzerland tour!

I will have to find a way to do both new tours. :-)

omg, Switzerland sounds wonderful. I have just been to Lucerne. would love to visit other places there. Gosh which trip to I do!!! LOL. Belgium/Holland is on my list for 2016 in april or may.

I love the idea of a "Best of Rome II" tour. A few years ago, we did a Best of Paris, and our guide said there was an attempt to add a "Best of Paris II" as well. She indicated, however, that a major problem there was accommodations: Paris hotels are always full; they don't need RS tours, especially at discounted rates.

I thought we had our next year's itinerary (almost) worked out, until I saw the Southern England Villages mentioned. Damn. I wonder if Roy will be the guide? He was wonderful on our London tour this spring.

I'd love seeing "follow up/part two" tours for almost all the tours I've already been on. I agree with your assessment of Roy (our guide for London 7 Days) and can't wait to see that new Southern England Villages itinerary. Right up my alley......

And doesn't Roy actually live in a village in Southern England? Hmmm...

Cool, new tours for me to fantasize about! I cannot travel, but I can sure fantasize and armchair travel!

I'd love to see Amsterdam added to 14 day best of Europe. I know it's on the family tour.

Here is my idea for a new tour. Since Rick got started by using train travel how about a "Europe's Best by Train" tour? This tour might end up being a mostly major cities tour. It also might be for those of us who like trains and other public transportation modes of travel.

London to Paris to Amsterdam to the Rhine River area (including a Rhine river cruise) to Munich (or Lauterbrunen Switzerland) to Venice to Florence to Rome. And could include one of Rick's favorite (but not mine) things to do - a night train segment. It could be kind of a Best of Europe tour only using trains. Where some people dread the bus rides of Rick's regular tours some would think the train rides were a major highlight.

A Nostalgia Tour - A European Tour like we did it in the 70's!

Just an idea for the Tour Planning Department to work on. I was thinking it would be a good fully guided tour with the great local guides at each stop. It could also be a My Way Tour with just an escort.
What to you think?

Great idea Robert! Would love a train tour.

Love the train idea, Robert. But on the Nostalgia Tour would we be limited to $5 a day? My '70s tour was actually in 1968; the highlight was sharing a sleeping compartment with two strangers, one of whom was so tall he had to sleep catty-corner across the compartment, while the other girl and I curled up on either side of him in the resulting triangles.

Jane,

Had Roy as guide on my London tour. Fantastic and one of the best on any RS tour.

Maybe if he lives near a stop on the new South England tour and he is the guide he will invite us all over for tea? :-)

The only problem with a train tour would be the possibility of a train strike, especially in Italy.

Well I was just on the tour section of this website and it looks like the new My way France and South of England tours are posted. It also looked like the peak season tours were posted also, but I did not check every tour.
J

Yay! I know how I'll be spending my evening tonite... browsing and dreamin' about 2016 destinations :)

I've spent all day on it and, yes, all of our 2016 tours are now available including the new South England, Best of Switzerland, and My Way France tours. :)

I've got a few other things for our 2016 tour launch to tweak tomorrow, then we'll send our big email blast to notify everyone on Thursday. At least, that's the plan!

Ooooh. Switzerland looks good as does South of England, but then I was sure I would like those itineraries!

All three of the new tours look wonderful and I notice that all most all the tour prices are down at least a couple hundred dollars from last year. Even better.

Going to be difficult deciding which of the new tours to take. The new Southern England tour looks the most interesting to me so far. The stop at Stonehenge is what has roped me in.

Just signed up for Switzerland, yeah!

Mark, I agree. Roy was probably the best RS guide we have ever had; or at least in the top two. However, I suspect he'd be much more likely to invite us for a beer than for tea. Even better!

I just looked at the itinerary for Southern England. Oh. My. God. We are so in. I had promised myself (and cajoled DH) that we would finally make it back to France next trip, but the Southern England is too good to pass up. Now, where's my calendar...

Changed my mind from the BOE14 to the new Switzerland 12 days tour in 2016. With the schedule for that tour, I can spend 3 days in Germany before the tour and still save about $900 over what I would have spent. Switzerland tour is what I had been looking for since I was over the last time. Also, good to see all the prices down a few hundred dollars.

Just signed up for Villages of South England! Mark, when you mentioned Stonehenge I had to check it out. And DH was lured in with Canterbury and Portsmouth. The whole tour sounds wonderful.

There has been changes in the itinerary of some of the 2016 tours as compared to the 2015 tours. Be sure to review each day carefully to make sure that the sites that you want to visit are still listed in the tour's itinerary.

The new 12-day Switzerland tour sounds fabulous! It was pretty much our favorite country on our tour in June. I wonder if there will be free time after touring the Castle of Chillon to allow travelers to walk along Lake Geneva to Montreaux. If so, do it!! Such a beautiful walk and the flowers, scenery and homes along the walk are incredible. We did that walk and our meeting place was the bronze statue of Freddie Mercury ;). Hard to miss and a very neat area. For those not wanting to walk, the bus drove them to Montreaux and they had shopping time or time to wander around the area and eat.

I also loved our Zermatt day! I can't tell if the tour spends enough time in Zermatt to ride the train/gondola up from Zermatt to the Sunnegga Summit area - but if so, THAT is where the views of the Matterhorn are amazing. We could see it from Zermatt, but moving a few thousand feet higher was the real treat!! I hope they allow time for that, but can't tell from the description.

And the best tip we got on our tour was to head to grocery stores to buy the must haves, like chocolate, bread, fruits, snacks, etc for picnic lunches, or for travel food when we changed countries. We bought almost all of our Swiss chocolate & Swiss wines in the grocery stores ;)

And eat the cheese & breads & yogurts at every meal (if you can). Nothing like it!! Well, we continued having great cheese, bread & jams in Austria's Tirol area (Seefeld & Innsbruck) & in Rothenberg, Germany.

If a Best of Germany tour ever gets put together, 2 nights in Rothenberg ob der Tauber should be the minimum in my opinion!! That is another wonderful town that we loved!!

I would never take a train tour. I take tours to places I can't do on my own and one of the major perks for me is that the tour bus is door-to-door. If I have to schlep my luggage on and off the trains and then to and from the hotels, I'd rather plan my own itinerary and spend some of the savings on guides where wanted.