Before signing up for our RS Switzerland tour, we debated on whether to do a DIY visit or a Tauck tour. We knew the RS tour would be lively, informative and active where a Tauck tour — options like an exclusive slow train and grand hotels — would be luxurious and fun. We thought DIY would be fine and thought it would take out some of the hassle of always waiting for the group to finish bathroom breaks and would force us to take buses instead of trains. But we knew we couldn’t match the content and curation that RS tours always deliver. We chose the RS tour and couldn’t be happier.
Right from the start, we arrive in Lucerne and our hotel isn’t the grand hotel Tauck would have chosen or even the one we’d have picked (we would have read the RS advice but using the Hilton points often steer us to their properties) and with RS we always end up with a place right in the thick of the action. But no air conditioning. And that is only an issue a few days a year. And we happen to be there on one of those days.
So, what? You open the windows. And out the window there is the chapel bridge. Right there. I could almost touch it. And shaking off the jet lag and going down to breakfast at the hotel’s breakfast, we are sitting outside in middle of the scene. And then there are three Swiss guys stumbling along the river front with fishing gear— half drunk from a night a partying.
Then these guys take off their clothes— down to their skivvies. Walk on the bridge, climb over the rail, and after minutes of loud banter, jump in. They swim back to where we are eating and start daring the guests of the hotel to jump in too. (I should have jumped in— maybe later in Bern I think.)
Later that day, the tour starts with the opening meeting. You get the intros and 5 commandments— things like be punctual, be flexible, be nice, try new things, think of the group— all presented in a funny manner. All to set the stage that you are going on a RS group tour that is going to challenge you to learn, that will expose you in multiple ways to the culture, the history, the art— if you let it — and that will do so in a good group environment.
And try as we like, we wouldn’t reproduce that ourselves nor would we get that out of a Tauck tour. And with that said, we’d have had a great time on a DIY trip or a tauck tour.
But the RS tour was magic. Our tour leader was a PhD who had written travel books, books on the Hapsburgs, on nationalism and music. He could only speak 8 languages and read 17 of them. But more importantly, he was a consummate professional— funny, a great lecturer, a great host but also demanding in the sense of making sure we learned to yodel, say things in German, Italian, French, make chocolate, hike the alps and learn to live with the odd hot or rainy day and still have a wonderful time.
It wasn’t exactly typical tourism. It was travel done well.
Anyway, we loved it.
Happy travels.