An 8 day GAS tour is too short to travel from the west coast. Any suggestions for tour combinations that would work?
Germany
Czech Republic
Austria
Switzerland
Are you asking about a combination of Rick Steves tours that would work over the Christmas holidays? How many nights can you spend in Europe? Are you limited to specific travel dates?
If you're thinking of independent travel, we need to know what sort of things you would like to see and do on a winter vacation in Europe.
Rick doesn’t really do tours after the first week or so of October. (Each tour has different ending dates) The exceptions are the week long city tour: London, Paris, Rome which end in November but pop back up to definitely cover Christmas. The last Paris and Rome are set up date wise in December so you could do both-back to back. I believe RS also does Sicily in December but that is about it. His hoped for 2021 Tours are up on the website for informational purposes with listed with potential dates so you can verify possible dates.
https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/germany/germany-austria-switzerland-tour
It does not operate in December, but it is 14 days, not 8.
You could do Best of Paris Nov 21-27 followed by the Munich/Salzburg/Vienna tour from Nov 28-Dec 5. From Vienna you can take a flight to London and spend independent time there for a week to 10 days! I would want to arrive in Paris several days ahead of the tour and travel to Munich the day that tour ends so you are in place the night ahead of the start of that one.
You could also do the MSV from 28-5, then head to Strasbourg or Colmar for Christmas Markets in Eastern France on your own followed by Paris on your own for a week to 10 days, and then possibly Eurostar to London with additional time there.
Hi. There is a section in Our Tours that showcases winter escapes: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/winter-escapes
The pickings are slim in 2021. I believe there have been a few more in the past that have provided opportunities for winter travel say in Prague and Berlin. Choices are most likely restricted because of covid.
I personally like the MSV tour. I have also taken the VFR tour over Thanksgiving if you can stretch to November. As Pam suggested, a possible option for 2021 is to match one of the late "Thanksgiving" tours to MSV. Paris does indeed mesh well with MSV.