Who’s watching RS test drive a tour guide now

Kim, I didn't even think about previewing our 2019 tour!

Anyone know of a way to see one that was missed earlier today?

Just finished watching Southern Italy and Sicily. Trying to figure out when we can go. It sounds like two amazing tours. Would love to do them back to back. So many places, so little time.

Maybe on their Facebook page or website

Yes so many to choose and not enough time or money (lol)

Sicily independently, and watched the segment live. Learned a lot of helpful facts.

The only bad thing about the presentations is that I end up wanting to do them all!!

A few years ago my brother and I were in Edmonds for the day and just needed a place to sit until the one we wanted to see was up...so we went to that room ahead of time and watched the presentation on Greece. Darned if I didn’t decide that sounded great!!

I’m hopeless. 😂

I watched the England show as we are doing two of the tours back to back. Then I watched Southern Italy and Sicily, and as other have said, I want to go.

My wife and I did the 17 Day Best of Italy a couple of years ago. It was our first tour after traveling many times independently. I highly recommend it. Now we are thinking of doing the Best of Southern Italy. I would be interested in any comments by someone who has taken this tour. The presentation today was very good.

Just finished watching for the day, watched England; Italy and Sicily; and just now Germany, Austria, Switzerland. I do enjoy watching them, especially the comments from the guides, even though I've no plans to take a tour.

We attended the RS Reunion today. Rick mentioned they were streaming all over the United States. Fortunately we live close by, but great to know that it was shared with all of the rest of you to enjoy. We had a large contingent from all over the country. Another successful reunion. We missed you!

I watched a couple of the sessions today. They were very informative. Like others here, I want to go on all of them! Are these going to be available online? I missed some sessions that I would like to see.

Because of my wife's health issues, we are not going to Europe in 2018. So watching this was bittersweet. But we sure enjoyed South Italy and Sicily. This past summer we did back to back, Portugal and London. We're sold on city tours! For 2019 thinking of South Italy, which begins in Rome, train from Naples back to Rome and doing the week in Rome.

These usually end up on YouTube so I'm hoping they do for these sessions as well. It's certainly the right time of the year as I'm starting to make my 2018 European plans!

If you want to see what you missed, send a PM to the Webmaster and ask him if/when they'll be posted somewhere on this site. In prior years, I believe it took a little while, but the links eventually appeared. I'm almost sure these sessions are recorded, so making them available after-the-fact shouldn't be an issue.

So glad they are being streamed so we can watch all the wonderful tours here in the Mid West. I am traveling to Scotland this year independently, but for 2019 it will be a Rick Steves Italy or Spain tour for us.

Margaret

Now I have to add the Basque tour. Never really thought of them being seperate from Spain, so now I have to read up on their history. We planned on a return trip to Ireland/Scotland for 2019, 2018 plans all set already, no surprise there, but may have to add another trip. Retirement cannot come fast enough.

Think I added several tours on my bucket list. Retirement is grand but wish I could afford to go more than once a year

Basque, 17 day Italy, Paris and heart of france(2019).

This year is back to back 8 day ireland and 10 day Scotland

Basque Tour alumni here! Hidden gem. Awesome food. Unique history. Agustin was our guide. I think it was his first year as a RS guide. At the time Pamplona was not an overnight stop. We visited for a couple of hours the day before San Fermin. The hike on the El Camino was great. It was cool weather until we got to Bilbao....then it was HOT!

And.......... my 2005 RS Sicily Tour included most of the South Italy Tour stops before it was broken into two separate tours. It was initially listed as Sicily & South Italy in 2005. Thinking I need to repeat Sicily. I like the all Sicily itinerary.

What are RS test guides?

“The Basque History of the World” is a very readable history of the Basques in Spain and France.
Great live streaming today.

A hidden gem of the RS Reunion weekend.....the charming town of Edmonds, Washington.
A genuine delight.

I meant to watch all day but got sidetracked. I was just in time to see what I really wanted - Southern Italy and Sicily. Those two tours back to back would be marvelous. I would not be willing to try a spleen sandwich though.

Kim,

I smiled when I saw your comment about retirement. Just the other day, my husband was asked if he was retired and what did he enjoy most. His reply was, "It's my favorite R word". Yet, he still works a part time job, because he likes it and still wants to work.:) We watched the Ireland presentation, since this is our upcoming trip. I watched several others; England, Southern Italy, and Germany. Watching these sure made us want to go to the event.

Thanks to those who suggested ways to possibly see the sessions we missed. Will give them a shot.

Debra - I we watched it too, since we are going there and the Scotland tour in about 11 weeks. DH said "are you really going to watch it all day" .... yup.... All day and thoroughly enjoyed it!

We went last year and probably will go again in a few years.

I do work part-time which pays for these trips.

"What are RS test guides?"

Diveloonie, Test Drive a Tour Guide is a day of presentations Rick offers once a year in conjunction with a reunion of all the folks who have done his tours during the year. The tour reunions are scheduled throughout a couple of days and on Saturday at 3 different venues in Edmonds, Rick gives talks as do many of his tour guides. So...if you wanted to do Best of England, you could go to that presentation, hear a guide which may or may not be your actual guide and see a slide presentation of the sights. Then you could see another 3 or 4 presentations and add those to your list as well, lol!! Plus I love Rick's talks. He is so enthusiastic about travel and really is fun to listen to.

Here is a link to some talks, some of which were previous Test Drive a Tour Guide presentations. The Sarah Murdoch packing light seminar is great! She is one of the Italy guides.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/travel-talks

Here are future travel classes he offers free a few times a month if you are down in the Seattle/Edmonds area. This is where the Test Drive a Tour guide class registration is when they get the program worked out by summer/fall. There is usually a day's worth of presentations in November as well.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/travel-classes
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/travel-classes/travel-class-descriptions

The January meet-up is also at the end of the week where Rick brings in ALL his guides for a guide summit. They discuss itineraries, evaluations, toss around ideas and modify tours based on guide and tour member input.

Yeesh...it really looks like I am a shill for the company but I'm not! Just a happy customer!

Apparently, bus drivers get to come, too. The driver for our tour last summer said he'd been to a reunion.

Patty, on RS tours the bus driver is considered one of the group. On our 2011 21 Day Best of Europe, our guide Jennifer made sure we all understood that before we met driver René. Some drivers participate in the various group activities, and many interact socially with the rest of the group - joining in for a drink after dinner (NEVER while on duty!). They also have their meals with the group.

We've only been on one tour where the guides and the bus driver seemed to stick together, distancing themselves a bit from the rest of us. Not all the time, but enough that I recognized it as unusual for a RS tour. We also had one tour on which most of the tour members didn't like the driver. That was disturbing.

But in general, the bus driver is a valued member of the tour group.

Edit to add: on the tour where most of the group didn't like the bus driver, it occurs to me that many of them didn't care much for our guide, either. In retrospect, it was one of the least congenial groups we've traveled with. No, definitely the least congenial group. Although we did become friends with one couple with whom we are still in touch.

"Apparently, bus drivers get to come, too. The driver for our tour last summer said he'd been to a reunion."

Yes, not all but a few are invited each year. One driver told me he and several guides added on to the trip to Edmonds by driving Route 66 afterwards! Not actually what I would want to do in January but they had a good time.