Tourist Traveling on same Tour

There is still a list of the first names of tour travel companions and where they are from. It is available at the same time that the hotel list is available under tour documents prior to the tour. These don't post until the month before the tour.

The list does not provide contact information or last names out of respect for privacy. Those who are posting on the forum are looking for ways to contact others prior to the tour.

Thank you. The list I have received in the past had last names, but no contact info. It does let one know who is traveling alone, so that an effort can be made to include them in any extra outings outside the tour.

The days of a roster with first and last names and contact information is long over. But, you will get a roster of first names only (and city) in your portal a few weeks before your tour date. It comes out the same time as your final itinerary that includes all of the hotels. I suspect your friend just didn't realize it was in her portal.

The roster is purposely private, and you won’t get contact info for your tour mates while on the tour either. Your guide won’t share roster info. So the only way you’ll get someone’s contact info is if while on the tour, an individual interested in sharing their personal contact info shares it with you.

On one of our tours a tour mate wanted to set up a private Facebook page so we could all share photos and he passed around a paper for people who were interested to share their info. Our guide was clear that it was an individuals choice to choose to participate and made clear it had nothing to do with him or Rick Steves' tours.

You are correct, the roster is really just a way to kind of have some first names in your head when you arrive. Or maybe see who might also be traveling solo.

We have about 6 people on our tour with some variation of the same name, so it will be easy to just call someone by that name on our tour, and likely be correct!

My experience was the same as Carol's -- first names and home towns provided along with the full hotel list about a month ahead. No way to contact people other this through this forum, which I suspect doesn't work very well because we're such a small cluster of diehards. If Rick Steves didn't sell tours way beyond this forum's denizens, he'd have gone broke years ago.

It does help to have first names and towns before you meet people. But it doesn't take long to learn names and get acquainted. The "buddy" system helps. On one of my tours, a few days in, the guide asked people to sit at that dinner with those other than their travel partners, just to help with this.

On tours with Rabbies and Globus Journeys, a Whats App has been set up for the sharing of photos, but it does show your phone number.

"It does let one know who is traveling alone, so that an effort can be made to include them in any extra outings outside the tour."

Solo female travelers I know prefer to be selective with whom they share their full name and contact information. There are probably solo male travelers and couples who also appreciate the option to keep it confidential. I understand your thoughtful consideration to invite solo travelers to join you on excursions and when seated for dining. I have always appreciated this gesture from fellow guests.

I've been on tours where 2 women from different cities where traveling together, and another where a woman rooming alone and listed separately was traveling with her parents, so the list doesn't really help that much.
Traveling by myself, I often mention at the welcome meeting that I would welcome invitations to join others.

Thanks for the reminder! I’m leaving April 12 for the South England tour. I just checked and the roster is there and only 18 of us! Woo hoo! I usually take the very early or late tours and the early ones sometimes don’t have as many folks. Lots of fellow solo travelers it looks like, too.

I was on a 24 day road trip until Sunday so I’m a little late getting into gear for tour take off. It really is just around the corner. Getting psyched!

Why is it necessary or desirable to have a list of names, even just first names, and hometown before a tour?

I know this general topic has been discussed at length on another thread. I am still at a loss as to why a list of names and cities would be helpful.

Honest question - I don't "get it"!

ORDtraveler, maybe it's not necessary, but maybe it sort of gets tour people geared up for their trip. I think because we spend so much time together, and have many meals together, and people are very friendly on RS tours, that it just sort of helps to get the ball rolling with having some names ahead of time. Sometimes people are curious, and it's interesting to know where people are from. You may want to seek out someone you see is from your hometown, or something like that. Without a roster, it might not come up as not everyone spends equal time with everyone on the tour.

Look at it like a pregame warm up!

Thanks, KD.

Ordtraveler….my husband makes a copy of the list of names and then makes notes at the introductory meeting. It helps him associate names with faces. I just stumble along and normally don’t ever get all the names down. I suppose it really doesn’t matter whether you have that list ahead of time or not but as Kd said, pregame warmup.

.my husband makes a copy of the list of names and then makes notes at the introductory meeting. It helps him associate names with faces.

That's what I do, too. I think it's a nice gesture to call my tour companions by name. The list with the first names and towns makes it easier for me to make associations which I can remember.

I enjoy seeing the list of where people are from and it does help me to start to learn some names.
My daughter and I are on the South of Italy tour that starts on April 27. So our roster was just posted a few days ago. We are the only ones from the Seattle area and we have taken many classes in Edmonds in the past when those things used to happen in person!
This is my second RS tour, I went on the heart of Italy a couple years ago with a girlfriend.
It's coming up quickly and time to start making the hard decisions about what to pack!

It's possible it was missed because it's tucked in the documents section. We've taken 5 tours and have received a tour roster for each tour.

...so we could all share photos...passed around a paper for people who were interested to share their info...

We've been using the internet since the early 1980s. The only time our computer has been infected by a virus (which cost us a bunch to fix) was the result of shared photos from a RS tour mate. Not casting stones at RS tours, nor the idea of sharing info and pictures as computer viruses can be gotten from lots of places. But, even though we have very good anti-virus software, we are very careful about giving our email addresses. Just something to think about.

But, even though we have very good anti-virus software, we are very careful about giving our email addresses.

That's a great point considering all of the recent huge data breaches (not to point my finger at AT&T, well yeah I will considering how much data has been compromised to the dark web).

I keep a handful (5 currently) of "burner" email addresses that I use for such purposes. The financial and PPI/PII related tasks are highly isolated from other uses.

On our first tour last year, we also received a list of first names and locations with the hotel information. There was no contact information. I understand that not everyone will want to share their information with the group, but I wish there were the option to opt-in to a WhatsApp group so only those interested could contact each other. We arrived several days early. It would have been nice to know who else was coming early and if they wanted to meet before the official group meeting. Our group did set up a private Facebook page for anyone who wanted to join and share photos, but this was after the trip.

Actually, there was one situation during the trip, where we shared a locker with other tour members. We were separated and it was time to retrieve the items. We took all items, but we had no way to contact the other members to confirm that we had their items and they didn't need to go to the locker area. This would have been a GREAT time to use contact information. At the beginning of the trip, we were so busy having fun, we didn't think to ask for the info. That is why having it ahead of time (for those who are interested) would have been nice.