Which tour?

I've never done one of the week in one city tours, because it seems pretty easy to do myself. I'm comfortable with using the metro and finding things to do in a city.

I have done the Heart of Italy tour, and enjoyed it. It would have been harder to get to some of the places on the tour by myself. Since you've done a previous tour you probably know that the bus time is manageable.

Hope those thoughts help a bit!

The first tour my kids took with RS was the week of Paris tour but they were younger than your kids
At the time. We came in early and went to
Disney Paris first. We love museums and at the time the tour was heavy on them.
We also did the 14 BOE tour so did Venice/Florence/Rome & Paris then too when they were in HS. It was a great tour
The last tour we took was the week of Rome tour getting in early to go to Sorrento & Pompeii
That was over the Christmas break & there were many different ages of kids on it. They were in College then.
What time of year are you looking? Do you care if other teenagers/ College kids are on the tour? We did not.
You can ask the office if there are any College age kids signed up for a tour.
You can watch the Jan tour videos where they talk about each tour & look
At scrapbooks too.
Enjoy

If it were me, I'd stick with the Italy tour. Paris is great, but unless you have specific things you all are dying to see there, I'd want the variety of life you'll experience in Italy.

I know people are concerned about the Jubilee Year thing. But I would expect that (counterintuitively) being in a tour group will insulate you from some of issues of getting tickets, access, reservations, transportation, etc.

Not my business and rhetorical question - but, does the family trip have to be a tour?

Italy and Paris are both easy to DIY (as are many other places) and you get to choose and prioritize your own sites/sights. Pick dates that work for you so college students don't have to miss school. With "kids" that age, they might quite enjoy doing some of the research on venues for sightseeing, hotels, restaurants, etc.

Forgive me overstepping the bounds of your question. I'm sure you have personal reasons to prefer a tour which don't need to be shared, but as one who has had great family trips that we planned to meet our interests, I couldn't help asking.

Thank you for the feedback and thoughts about these tours! I'm leaning towards Heart of Italy. Our kids don't care if others their age are on the tour at all. I'm thinking that the varied itinerary is more appealing. I think Paris might be a bit museum heavy for our tastes. I think Olympic fever got to us! Italy was our original first choice. Not really interested in discussing or debating why we're choosing a RS tour vs planning a trip on our own...would prefer to stick to the original question. Thank you for your understanding.

I am sure the Italy tour Will be great. We did Italy by ourself a few years ago when daughter was studying abroad & I realized again the great value of a RS tour. My kids have been on 4 tours & one is soon to go on her 5th at 22 years old.
Enjoy Italy

I’ve taken both tours with my daughter who was college age on BOP and just over 30 for HOI. Paris is a fantastic city, ease of nonstop flight was great and we both enjoyed having one accommodation to stay at. The multi-stop Italy tour is excellent for its variety and easy contrast/compare aspect of the big city and small town experiences. The Cinque Terre portion very fun. No wrong choice here!

agree with others-HOI. sounds like you've traveled enough that you could do paris on your own (as a family; or as the kids become more independent, they could even go on their own or with friends!) if you want to continue with RS tours as a family, then by all means do so! but as your kids transition into adult life (meaning work!), their schedules may get tighter, so "just" a 1 week city stay may work better for them then! and even if you decide to tour independently, you can still crib RS itineraries and tweak to your interests! have fun!

As others have indicated you can’t go wrong. But since you enjoy the mix of city and country how about Paris and the heart of France? Add Paris time before and or after the tour.

I took the Paris city tour & added a few days after. It was my first Rick Steves tour. I have taken quite a few since. I am going on the Alpine tour with my daughter in September. The best thing about the city tours us you stay in one hotel the whole time.

For my first RS tour and first trip to Italy I did the HOI with my brother, SIL and their 2 young adult sons (one in college, one just graduated). We had a wonderful time! I was surprised they enjoyed the art museums since growing up in Idaho they were not terribly exposed to art, lol. Outdoors, yes, art, no.

They thoroughly enjoyed the wine tasting in Volterra and still mimic our wonderful sommelier when we are having a family dinner. There was nothing I did not enjoy!

I guess the surprise was how the kids blended with the other adults on the tour. They talked to and got to know everyone. I encouraged a tour because I didn't want to plan for all 5 of us and TBH I was afraid the guys would not want to get up and going every day. Well...the guide set the meet up times (of course) and the guys' sports training kicked in with the "Vince Lombardi Rule" of if you are 5 minutes early you are already 10 minutes late so they were always the 1st ones downstairs in the AM.

I do recommend arriving to Rome a few days early if you can with their schedules. We came in 3 nights ahead and were able to stay 1 extra night in Florence (older kiddo had very limited time off).

BTW, I have also done Best of Paris which I loved. It made me love Paris! I have never lived anywhere there was public transit so having the RS guide teach transit skills went a long way for helping me enjoy getting around. This would be fine for you and your family but I think they might enjoy the variety on Heart of Italy more. Save Best of Paris for you and your husband's next trip, hahaha!!

I took the heart of Italy tour several years ago. There were several family groups on the tour celebrating various graduations. The tour was great - but I took in the first week of July and it was HOT - like almost 100 degrees every afternoon. Personally I've not done a city tour as I've toured most of the proposed cities on my own. I did enjoy the Italy overview tour - even though it was so hot.

Thank you for all of these thoughtful responses. Always so nice to hear about everyone's experiences on these tours! We are officially signed up for HOI!

What time of year? My sister and I did Paris on our own coincidently during October fashion week. Not a huge problem but we did have to juggle a few things due to, say, a museum being closed for a private event. I have a weakness for Louis Vuitton black epi leather handbags and lines at the stores and department store boutiques were really long! Point being it doesn’t hurt to look for odd things like that and how it will impact you if there are certain limitations on your dates. It might be better than to do one over the other. (Note we did frequently get glimpses of the fashion shows which even my no way, shape, or form fashionista thought was interesting.)