21 day best of europe tour

I’m booked on the last E21 of 2020. Sorry, I have no advice for you. I just figure the weather will be cooler and highly variable which I rather enjoy. Might be smaller crowds of us tourists but we still come in crowds. Maybe I’ll see you there.

I took a 21-day Best of Europe tour that started late May and ended mid-June, and that was a nice time of year to go. Weather was warm but not terribly hot everywhere except Amsterdam where it was still cool. I also liked the long daylight hours. The only very small downside was that I had to wait until quite late in the evening for nighttime views of Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

P.S. You may get more responses if you move this post from the Trip Reports section to the RS Tours section.

We are booked for the 21 day tour that starts September 22 of this year. The weather may be somewhat cooler and wetter overall, but we enjoy the Autumn period for a variety of reasons, and are very anxious to experience Europe during this time. That said, we spent 3 weeks in Ireland in May a number of years ago, and had absolutely fabulous weather conditions the entire time. Late Spring or early Fall would be our top choices. One more thing - as many have stated on this wonderful forum, add time both before and after your scheduled tour if you can. We’ve tacked on 3 days prior and 2 days post. Looking forward to an extended European extravaganza!

thank you for the info. we are doing the berlin/prague/Vienna tour this year in the fall. Have done munich / Vienna at Christmas and was fabulous.

We did it three years ago the very first part of June. We had one day with some rain at the beginning then no more until Cinque Terre. Both days the rain stopped mid afternoon. We had warm weather with several very hot days in Rome, Amsterdam and Paris. The crowds were horrible in these cities. The smaller villages weren’t so bad except Cinque Terre until evening.

It is a great tour!!!!

You will love the Berlin Prague Vienna tour! It’s so interesting and you will gain perspective on the major events of the last 100 years of European and world history. To be where so much history of the 20th century took place is amazing. I’m still thinking about this tour. I enjoyed the art and history museums too. I didn’t expect to like Berlin but it was my favorite city. That’s not to say Prague and Vienna are shabby in comparison, they are spectacular in their own special way.
Are you going early or staying after? I do recommend arriving at least a day before the tour begins to adjust from jet lag. Also, to see things that are not on the tour.

Have a wonderful time!

We did this tour May 1-22. I wanted to see the Keukenhof Gardens (fabulous!!!). It was cold in Amsterdam pretour, but warmed up on May 1, when the tour started. We did not have hot weather at all, though hiking in Cinque Terre was warm. The crowds were ok. (Be careful to avoid Rome around Easter or the week before if crowds are an issue for you). We had a little rain in Paris, but only briefly as we exited the bus. We stayed in Paris a couple more days with rain, so we took a bus tour to some chateaux.. the rain must have come back after we left as they had flooding.
No matter when you go bring layers and rainwear. It is a fabulous tour.

Note, we did this itinerary with our kids only using a Eurail pass starting August 15 and had great weather. A few rain showers, but never all day and we were lucky to have 70’s throughout Italy.

When I did this tour I did it the end of August. I don't know what I was thinking because I knew it would be too hot for me in Italy the first week of Sept. The other locations were fine weather-wise altho a couple of years later I traveled that last week of August for the GAS tour and it was 97 in Trier for the tour start!

Sometimes there can still be snow on the trails in the Alps in May in Early June, so I'd tend to go with September for that reason.

This is a wonderful, wonderful tour! I do recommend building up your walking endurance. Amsterdam and Rome are big walking days so be ready to go 10 miles! For myself that's also a reason to go September over Spring. I can't get in that good of shape for April or May. Usually my walking paths around here are not snow-ice free until end of March and that's when I can start putting in some miles.

I also agree with the others to add time ahead to Haarlem if you can and definitely add time in Paris. I did a back to back and added the Best of Paris tour on after the 21 day tour. Unfortunately that has created a slight Paris addiction and I can't stay away. Darn Rick Steves!

Enjoy your tour in Germany this year!

Early June several years ago (2008), we took our kids and grandkids on a Family Tour when the itinerary was the same as this one but a little shorter time frame. We had wonderful weather everywhere and even the slightly snowy trails high up in Murren were not all that cold for hiking. The wildflowers were glorious! We had to take this tour during the summertime when our our grandchildren were out of school and as it turned out, the weather was just about perfect everywhere and we also did not experience many crowds. BUT-as I said, this was several years ago (those grandchildren just started classes at CU today!) and having just returned from Paris, the weather everywhere has changed quite a lot! As have the crowds. I prefer to travel to Europe either in the late(r) fall but can't always make that work for me. As a matter of fact, I am taking that same family on the Adriatic tour late May this year. (still that school issue)....oh, and "hi, neighbor"!

We did this tour exactly one year ago, starting September 16. We had absolutely wonderful weather, only 2 days of rain, both the longer bus days. Would definitely do this time of year again. Enjoy!

We've booked May 10-30th, 2020. We wanted to hold off as long as we could to warm it up as well as to still be able to see the gardens. We also wanted to be out of Europe by early June. Hope our logic works for us!