Tour Site Visit

One thing about your plan to consider is that on a RS tour ( which we loved) is that if you book a tour and sign up for the single supplement (so that you aren’t rooming with someone you don’t know) you may be put in a truly single room which would not give you an idea of the bedding situation. But going on a tour would give you exposure to what we consider the big selling point, the local guides he uses that add so much to your trip.

One thing about your plan to consider is that on a RS tour ( which we
loved) is that if you book a tour and sign up for the single
supplement (so that you aren’t rooming with someone you don’t know)
you may be put in a truly single room which would not give you an idea
of the bedding situation.

This is true, but if you are doing a reconnaissance mission, you could politely ask your fellow tourmates who are bunking as a duo if you could peek at their room/bed size, it is likely they would oblige. On several of my tours we stayed at some unique properties and everyone was checking out others rooms.

I am at the opposite spectrum of your situation, but generally for the solo rooms it's not the bed that is "small", it's the shortage of floor space. I've stayed in a few closet-like situations on RS tours that made even a wee person feel cramped. But I've also had huge rooms to myself such as my recent Turkey tour where I had mostly very spacious rooms. It really does depend on the tour and the specific property. And BTW if you went on a tour with your spouse, you will not be put in a single room, you will be put in a room intended for two - which does have a bigger bed but not always more space (again, depends on the property).

Considering the guided tours more than the My Way which you can sort of do at your own speed, for mid 80s to mid 90s ages, will all three of you be able to keep up, and do the stairs and luggage moving which will be required for a happy tour? RS tours are not pitched to the younger folks yet do require a certain level of fitness... Just may be something to consider.

I agree that the true single rooms may be somewhat smaller than the standard double rooms, as will be the bed, so you might not get the data you are looking for.

I think you should let your wife go on a cruise with or without you. Why can't you do something she wants to do for once?
Just like you would go on a RS tour to see what it's like, go on a short cruise with her to see what's it like. You never know, You may actually like it. And if you book the high end suites on a cruise, you will get a bigger room and perhaps a bigger bed.

As for a solo RS tour, choose a short (one week) tour that interests you that visits a destination you haven't been too. That way you get to see a new destination and check out how the tour works. Also pay the single supplement to get your own room. I pity the other solo person who would share a room with you because of your snoring.

But if you are going on an RS tour only to check out the hotels, you will be disappointed. Each hotel is different. AND most hotel sizes in Europe are small and the beds are double or twin. The best we got was queen size. Never got a King size bed in Europe., even when traveling by ourselves and not on a RS tour. And just because you go on one RS tour and stay at this specific hotel, doesn't mean that the next time you go on that same tour you will have the same hotel. RS sometimes uses different hotels each year. (example: In Athens, one year, RS used the Hera Hotel, but the next year used the Acropolis Select hotel)

If you want to assure yourself of big beds, book an American style chain hotel. Look at the hotel pictures on Bookings.com or hotels.com and book 2 queen beds.
RS doesn't use American style big chain hotels (i.e. Hilton, Marriott, Four Seasons, etc)
so to get a big bed, you're going to DIY.

Also, if you do go on an RS tour as a solo and find the beds not to your liking, RS has a "No grumps" policy. The rest of the group doesn't want to hear you complaining about it and the tour leader can only do so much to accommodate you. And mostly likely, not at all.

Go on the cruise and make your wife happy.

Well there is no standard "tour" bed size. The hotels vary so much from one tour to the other, one country to another, etc., that I dont see how a test tour would be a meaningful comparison. One of the standard questions RS asks when you book for tow people, is whether you want two beds or one.

I thought I would hate cruises until I took one. Not quite the same experience as a tour, but have advantages of their own.

You might check with the RS tour office and talk to them about your concerns. As others have mentioned, taking one tour to get a feel for the type of hotel rooms isn’t really going to tell you much because all the hotels are different. After 12 tours, some of the rooms have been spacious, some have been really small and hard to find a place to open your suitcase but the only tours that have had a consistent type of hotel room throughout is the city tours where you stay in one place for seven days.

My husband and I have not been interested in any cruise, either. We haven’t taken any Rick Steves tours, either, although we’ve used other tour companies for more “exotic,” non-European destinations - Morocco, southern Africa (safari), and just last month, Vietnam and Cambodia. European destinations have been independent travel, with lots of guidance from Rick Steves and other sources. We visited some places, including Bulgaria, Romania, Sicily, and Iceland, before he had a guidebook for them. For those locations, Lonely Planet and other guidebooks were very useful.

My husband’s 6 feet tall, and lighter than 220 lbs., but many European beds have been shorter than he preferred, and “wider” beds have almost always been two beds pushed together, with a gap or channel that he winds up sleeping on. We occasionally still stay at a hotel, or more frequently at a bed and breakfast, but in the past several years have mostly stayed at short-term rentals - Airbnb lately, and previously at Vrbo or Gites de France. You’ll know the amenities ahead of time, and I like having a kitchen, for breakfast without having to get dressed for the day, as well as fixing potential dinners using local ingredients. A dishwasher and/or clothes washer (and maybe dryer) have been bonuses. We’ve usually gotten lower-priced places, and often that meant climbing lots of stairs, but there’s a variety of properties, at a variety of prices. Most are far cheaper than a decent hotel, and are very well located for sightseeing and activities.

While my mother-in-law was still alive, we took a number of trips to Europe with her, including that Bulgaria/Romania/Slovenia/Croatia/Bosnia/Venice trip. That meant enough beds (not futons or fold-outs) for 3, not just two. Again, stairs were as much of a concern as beds, but usable beds are always a factor. Stunningly, as tall as Scandinavians are, their beds are remarkably short, even for us shorter folks.

A note about Vietnam/Cambodia, somewhere I fairly recently wouldn’t have said I’d ever visit, it is a fantastic place to visit for sights, food, history, and people, but it’s stiflingly hot, even in November. On a tour, a guide can make the difference, and the one we had in Vietnam thru Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) was not fabulous. We ran across other guides who spoke understandable English, and maybe treated clients better. For Cambodia, we used Little Vietnam, who customized the itinerary according to our interests, and it was a better experience. In Southeast Asia, while hostels still exist for the backpacker crowd, we had modern accommodations but were not Western chains. Beds were American-style length and width, and that probably reflects the tourists they want to attract, and the recent economic and infrastructure developments that have happened in cities there. Our place in Cambodia had two queen-size beds pushed together. Plumbing is still not always First-world, though.

If I had to choose between an escorted bus tour, even a Rick Steves bus tour, and a cruise, I think I would go with a cruise. I know that wasn't your question, but that was my reaction, especially if your MIL is going on your next trip.