When tours start again, what are the top tours on your bucket list?

Ah, the "wish list". I will rescheduled the cancelled Adriatic tour I was to take with my whole family this past May/June for (hopefully) next May/June. Also, listing like Justin in no particular order, Greece (also cancelled last April), Eastern France, Poland and finally, Scotland with one of my Grandgirls for her high school graduation.

1) Best of Tuscany

2) Buckfast and You: A Scottish Odyssey. (not yet introduced, but I'm currently in talks with the RS company to make this happen. And by "in talks" I mean I'm screaming outside Rick Steves's window in Edmonds until he calls the cops.)

3) Best of Brussels: AAHAAHAHAHAAHAH!! J/K

4) "Anywhere but Here"

-- Mike Beebe

The list of travels is getting longer, not shorter!

I want the redo on my RS St Petersburg, Helsinki, Tallinn tour. One of our travel group members shared her Turkey trip with us and I'm sold, but think I might enjoy that as a tour, as well. Maybe back to back RS Turkey and RS Istanbul!

I want to do the RS Turkey Tour.

Everything else I would do on my own probably.

In this order:
1. Best of Poland
2. Best of England
3. Best of Istanbul

The 14-day Ireland tour. I would have signed up for this fall if I could have. I also like the new 14-day Scotland tour just announced, maybe for another year.

Let someone else drive me around on the left side of the road! ;-)

All of the tours I have not yet taken. ;-)

And even some of those I have taken that have changed enough to make it worthwhile. The 14 day Scotland tour is #1.

I was signed up for Sicily this past April and hope that it (and I) are a go for next Spring.
I have my fingers crossed for all of us!

In changeable order must do tours:
1) Paris & Heart of France; after a week of independent touring in London and surrounding areas
2) Munich, Salzburg & Vienna; followed by independent travel to the Lippizan breeding farms in Graz and Lipica ending in Venice.

Then, in no particular order, followed by
3) Best of Tuscany
4) Loire to South of France, ending with independent trip to Venice
5) Heart of Ireland, timed before or after the Dublin Horse Show
Unless health/body says can't walk or finances changes or (life)time runs out.

Edit: my original plan until recently was to do Loire to South of France in May 2021, but that has all changed with Covid. Now I just want the virus to be go away or be controlled so we can all travel again. So many places to see and so little time to see them...

1. Scandanavia
2. Switzerland
3. Basque Country
4. Scotland
5. England

I have only done the Ireland 14 day tour so far. For the seasoned RS travelers, in what order would you do the above five tours; just curious!

1. Best of Sicily
2. Best of South Italy (perhaps back to back with Sicily)
3. Best of England
4. Best of Scandinavia
5. Best of Adriatic

1. Sicily
2. Switzerland
3. Greece

The RS Adriatic and the Sicily trips interest me the most of areas I haven’t visited, yet.

First, Best of South Italy. We were scheduled to go on this tour this past May. When it was cancelled we rescheduled three times! Then Loire Valley to the South of France, possibly coupled with a rerun of the Best of Belgium and Holland.

Those are tentatively planned for the next two years.

Eventually, if our health holds, Basque Country, Portugal, Best of Spain. Stan is interested in the Best of Poland, and I would happily redo Village Italy and Eastern France. I wouldn't mind going back to Switzerland again, either. And any new tour in Italy or France would have me standing in line.

Another vote for Best of Poland from another stan. Second will be the 8-day Ireland tour. We're hoping to do both in 2021.

Turkey
Sicily
Village Italy or My Way

I’m hoping to do the new 14 Days Scotland in the spring and 10 Days Poland tour in September.
Loire and the South of France
Switzerland
St. Petersburg Tallinn and Helsinki

My list keeps shifting so who knows what my favorites will be next week! Here’s hoping 2021 will be a banner year for RS and for us cooped up travelers! I’m ready to roll.

1) Basque (I was supposed to be on the tour right now)

2) Village Italy

3) Tuscany

4) Andalucia

5) Eastern France

6) Scotland

I’m not much of a tour person but the Best of Rome looks good. I have no idea if I’ll like Rome but the tour covers pretty much everything I’d like to cover should I go.

Never taken an organized tour. But, I REALLY want to take the Sicily tour.

Scandinavia!

1.-Scotland in 14 days
2.-Tuscany
3.-Scandinavia
4.-Adriatic
5.-Portugal
I can keep going but will stop there!!

You are all making me drool. I want to take all the tours on all your wishlists!

Safe travels everyone!

Scotland late May 2021, but I'm starting to think that's too soon, so maybe 2022 to be safe.

The vaccine may be available before May 2021, but it needs to be manufactured, distributed, and shown efficacy for the masses. All of that could take awhile.

What do you guys and gals think?

BigMike, the timeline for vaccines is just a hope for now. Its really important to read each word that the experts use when they talk about such things. So when I hear Dr Fauci or others say we will "have a vaccine" by xxxx, I understand "have" in that context and from that person to mean that they will have identified and tested one that is safe and effective (mostly effective, not 100%). NOT that it means that it will be mass-produced and available to everyone who wants it at that time. I expect that the politicians, rich and famous, professional athletes, and well-connected businessmen will be first in line, then the first responders and health care workers. Given the contentious political nature of everything these days, and the anger-against-everything crowd, I'm sure it wont be a clean and uncontested delivery when it is available. The plan for mass distribution of vaccines is pretty complex and untested, for one thing. For travelers, since we're withdrawing from WHO, we won't even know if any US vaccine will be recognized by the wider world to facilitate travel. So, the only prudent thing to do, is to expect chaos, confusion, and conflict, until something happens to redirect the confusion in another direction.

Our trip to France was cancelled for April but we've now decided our order will be...

1.) Best of Eastern Europe
2.) Village Italy
3.) France on our own

After that we need to start saving to take our kids to England/Wales and Scotland on our own.

Excellent points, Stan.

Jill-in answer to your question, I can't pick lol! They are all lovely-it's down to personal preference.

I was supposed to take the My Way Alpine in September so we will look to rebook that.
Next are the 14 Day Scotland, Eastern France, South of Italy and Portugal in no particular order.

I hope to do the 14 day Ireland tour that was canceled this year.

There are lots of others I'd like to do, but these days I don't like to dream too far in the future.

My H and I were to be on the Berlin,Prague,Vienna tour in May. So maybe that one, but as I feel we won’t travel until at least 2022 (and H will then be 81) we might choose France My Way, as we have a deposit voucher, and we’d just play with our cameras at our own pace.

After going on The Tour, we are more apt to travel independently to Normandy and/or Sweden. If I only have one international trip left in my future, I would head back to Sweden. Then more RS tours.

Oh , and recently been thinking of doing Camino de Santiago for my 70th bday in a few years. Starting to study that now.

Yes to the Camino! I always hope Rick would do an abridged version of
Camino:Northern Spain.
Also want to do it for my 70th birthday.
Gladys

Hello everyone! I'm brand new on here. Believe it or not, the pandemic was what pushed me to start investigating travelling internationally for the first time. I have been in grad school for many years, and now working for a couple more years, so as I hit my late 20's, and with COVID-19 making everyone re-evaluate their priorities, I realized I would like to renew my dream of travelling that I have procrastinated on for so long. I hope to go with my cousin (if I can successfully persuade her), who is in her early 40's.

I really would like to take the "Best of Europe" in 21 days tour. I'm hoping it can give me a great first time travel experience. My friend from college wants to see Spain and Portugal, so maybe I'll add that my to-do list as well.

We are booking . . .
1). Sicily tour with RS, hopefully April 2021
2). We have already booked another Xmas Market River Cruise on the Danube (our 4th) w/Tauck for Dec. 21
3). Tuscany with Tauck (a week in Venice & Florence on our own pre-tour)
4). We had to rebook the Passion Play in Germany which was postponed till 2022 - we are doing the Dolomite tour with Tauck for this
5). Spain with RS
6). - down the road, RS My Way Alpine Tour, Prague and Poland (probably with RS)

Dear wife is not letting me travel at all till at least 2021 and an effective vaccine or a mutation that takes us out of danger. I was going to take the Best of Europe in 21 this October but if I make it to Europe next year, it’s Switzerland or England.

Kbehnke2, welcome to the forum. You will learn so much from the nice, experienced travelers on the forum. They all helped me so much last year when I was planning for my first RS tour, South of Italy. They were also there for me when a non-RS tour fell apart a couple years ago. My advice as a fairly novice traveler is do your research and ask lots of questions.

The only tours we have ever done were those offered by a cruise ship. We prefer to visit/tour on our own.

I have been to Europe 5 times and we were supposed to do our second RS tour, Paris & HOF this past spring (thanks covid-19). It would have been our second RS tour. So that will be the first tour we take (next year hopefully she said with 🤞🏻 crossed).
Then I would love to take in no particular order;
Best Of Italy
Best Of Europe
Sicily
Turkey
Switzerland
I could go on, but will stop there. Basically, all the ones we have not taken!😉
I sincerely hope that we all get to fulfill our travel dreams next year!

I will start by saying that I am not a tour person, 20 or so Europe trips between Business and Pleasure (or combined), but never a tour.

However, now looking at retirement, still young, so we may combine a tour with some extended travel. In my logic, I am fine in Western Europe by myself, maybe even prefer it, but the tours that do interest me:

• The best of St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Helsinki...let someone else handle the logistics.
• The Best of Turkey, use it for a jumping off point to go back to Greece, a Tour might make my wife feel better about visiting Turkey.

this is so hard!! Makes me sad that we lost a year of travel or possibility longer.!

we were scheduled to go on the Villages of So England, plus 10 extra days on our own to Cotswold and ending up in London.
Not sure if we will do that next year. Also my Christmas market on the Danube was cancelled for dec 2020. It has been rescheduled for Dec 2021. Our 2018 Scotland guide does tours on his own, so we were going to do that in 2021 to the Hebrides. Found out our tour guide was Mark Seymour (for so villages) and he also does tours on his own. Too many decisions. We may not do an Uncle Ricky tour next year, said my husband. :(

RS tours : no order

Villages of So England
Scandinavian tour
Eastern Europe
Best of Italy
Switzerland
Germany
repeats - new Scotland 14 day and Holland/Belgium

love to try Iceland.

Too many to choose. Aarrgghh

Kim

1. Best of Turkey
2. Heart of Portugal
3. Best of Sicily
4. Southern England
5. Ireland
6. Scotland
7. France

That about sums it up. Big plans are to do a back to back in either 21 or 22 depending on the status of COVID-19 and a vaccine.

Kim,
Can we have the name of your guide in Scotland? We plan on going back as soon as possible to see more of the country but do not want to drive. Thanks.

1. Best of South Italy
2. Village Italy
3. Turkey
4. Scandinavia
5. Basque
6. Switzerland

To be perfectly honest, they're all about the same on the rankings. I guess I listed Italy first because it's my favourite country in the world and I'm sooo eager to get back. Plus, I really want to finish exploring the rest of it.

We were supposed to go on the Best of England tour in September 2020 with friends met on the Village Italy tour. In addition to Best of England, in no particular order:

Scandinavia
Poland
Portugal
Andalusia
Greece

With the great announcements this week on treatment breakthroughs and also multiple vaccine candidates strongly moving along in the clinical trial process, I am now full-speed ahead researching tours for Spring 2021! Such a relief to see science is cornering this virus. First up, Southern Italy and then Scotland!

I have wanted to take the Best of Europe tour for over 20 years. I've put it off because it's a big commitment of time and money. The pandemic has changed my mind and it is now at the top of my travel list. As soon as it's safe, I'm going to go. I also want to go to Spain, either with a tour or on my own.

ALpine, we're heading to South Italy as well. Unfortunately, we probably won't be able to go until September, and it sounds like you're planning to jump on one of the first tours.

I’ve changed my mind once again and think I will take the Loire and South of France tour, maybe late May next year. All depends on a vaccine and if RS runs his tours in the spring. Scotland 14 days was on my mind and Poland 10 days, too.

I love this topic!

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." -Yogi Berra

A vaccine is looking more probable, so 2021 is still ... possible.

BigMike, I like your optimism, but you still have to hope the vaccine works and then factor in how long it will take to mass produce it and roll it out to millions of people. And then account for the turnaround with bookings of the buses, hotels, venues, guides, etc. I just don't feel like 2021 is realistic. I hope I'm wrong!

And I love the Yogi Berra quote :-)

Brian, I know. I was listening to Dr. Fauci yesterday and said a 60 percent effective vaccine may be available by October-November. Other vaccine candidates may be much more effective. I wonder exactly what 60 percent effectiveness means.

I’ve taken four tours so far (Paris to South of France; 7-Days on the French Rivera; 9-Days of Italy and Best of Sicily), I want to take an easier tour. I want to be able to go to breakfast on my time most days and not stick to schedules. I’ve been to pretty much all the major museums in Europe. I hope to take the “My Way - France” tour in 2021 or 2022. I need them to get me there and supply lodging, I’ll do the rest!

Today, My Way Alpine tour is also appealing in addition to Scotland in 14 Days and Loire & South of France. So many tours and places and so little time. Especially the longer the Pandemic drags on! I’m so tired of it and all the other terrible news. But, I’m healthy and have a job so I can’t complain. Rant is over.

Hi, Judy B, my friend.

I would return for My Way Alpine, my second time! I want to learn more about Tolkien's visit. I would add on to it a leg from Colmar to Switzerland and a leg from Switzerland through the Dolomites down into Venice. And I would take my tiiiiime. If I get a little zanier, I think about starting in Ireland over to Scotland and making my way down to London and then to the Continent for Colmar, etc. Or maybe I could start in Venice and go north! Anyway, slooow travel. I am still employed, but eyeing retirement. Maybe I can work something out and become a 9 month employee and do this nice long trip. But, I am thankful for employment and health and memories. Be well!

Debbie,
I will send you a p.m. this evening. Good to read your comments about the Alpine tour. I’m glad you are well.
Judy B

I changed my tour goal for Fall 2021: Loire Valley and South of France instead of Paris and Heart of France.
I’ll have lots of questions about London and Paris in my own, so stay tuned as travel opens up. Rough plan right now Is London 6 days, Paris 5 days, tour 13 days, Venice 5 days + travel days between cities.
Covid vaccine should be tested and in use by then. Positive thinking.

1) Best of Eastern Europe
(I'm wondering why this seems to lag way behind in popularity to Best of Adriatic but I like the idea of experiencing a bunch of countries I'd probably never travel to on my own)

2) Best of England
(with a few days traveling independently in Scotland before or after)

I'm so glad to see Basque Country on several people's lists -- that was such a fun tour!

1) Poland
2) Best of Tuscany
3) Ireland
4) Village Italy

I just checked to see if RS has posted the dates for their 2021 tours. I’m curious to see which countries and dates he will include. Anyone else checking?

Judy B - I check weekly!

Judy B - Every day!

Hi All,

I have been checking every day as well. I'm wondering if they will 'push back' their original date of "late August" for tour release dates this year? I think ( although I may be mistaken), that that date was mentioned before our (US) COVID numbers started to jump up Again a month or so ago.

I hope they don't push it out too far if they decide to. My friend has finally decided to go to Europe for the first time (she was planning on going with her family, but that hasn't happened yet). We'll both be turning 50, so it will be good timing (fingers crossed). However, we are greatly restricted in our tour options, since we both work in schools on the East Coast. The earliest tour we can do will be around June 28th and of course, few run in July. I keep checking here so we can sign up immediately when the tours are announced. Again, I realize this may all be a moot point if a vaccine isn't readily available and/or the EU doesn't open up to the US. However, I want to make sure to get ourselves signed up on the tour list ASAP when it becomes available, so we don't miss our chance. I've been to Europe 10 times but my friend has been wanting to go for about 22 years. Here's hoping it all works out.

:).

Its likely that they don't want to be in a position where they take deposits only to have to refund them again. Lots of moving parts to renegotiate in order to have specific dates, and the market for travel just might not reappear. Perhaps they'll come up with a way to have people sign up on a waiting list until they have some certainty its a go.

Stan,

I was thinking the same. We'll see.

:)

Hi All,

So rather than continuing to speculate - I called the RS Tour phone number today and asked. Yes, the tour release dates will be pushed back until the Fall , with Rick due to make an announcement here on the website in the next few days with more information.

I hope this helps everyone.

;) Gretchen

Gretchen,
Thanks for taking the initiative to call the RS office! I have been thinking it might be early to announce his tours given the dicey state of US Covid numbers and EU not open yet.
I would feel better waiting until the fall- is that September or October? More uncertainty and I’m not very patient.

I will await his statement this week for more clarification.

Stan, good idea, perhaps, he will post an indication of interest list, no firm commitment, simply interest to give him information about the number of possible travelers.

When the time is right for me:
Switzerland
Greece
Tallin,Helsinki,St.Petersburg
Sicily
Poland

I’ve enjoyed the
2010 Best of Ireland w/pre independent Dublin
2011 Belgium & The Best of Holland w/ pre independent Brussels
2012 Berlin,Prague,Vienna with pre independent London then Berlin time.
2014 Loire Valley to Southern France with pre independent Paris.
2016 Eastern Europe.
2018 Venice, Florence, Rome, w/ pre independent Venice & post independent Rome.
2020 Best of Spain (PPD)

Independent travel:
2000 Italy 3 weeks
2005 Paris and Normandy 10 days
2007 Germany 2.5 weeks
2011 Schweinfurt & Berlin 10 days ( time w/family before their pre-deployment)