Hello All,
My travel schedule is dictated by my work and and I only have early May open for travel vacation next year (2023). If Rick Steves is already booked up for tours of England in May- can you suggest another good company to use in it’s place as the second choice travel company?
We are on the RS waitlist and still hoping to get into a tour -but need a back up plan for seeing England. Any recommendations? Thank you!
Carolyn
Look at Odysseys Unlimited to see if they offer what you’re looking for.
Thank you!
Carolyn, I haven't taken one of their tours but Rabbies is reported to be a highly rated company. Here are some comments from RS posters, and there are more if you do a search for them:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/rabbies-tours
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/legroom-on-rabbies-tours
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/rabbies-tour-from-edinburgh-4-day-isle-of-skye-western-highlands
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/experience-with-rabbies
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/scotland/how-to-see-glencoe-valley
A friend of mine who lives in England has also spoken highly of them. They offer both one-day and multi-day excursions; take a look?
https://www.rabbies.com/en
I have taken the Rabbies one day tour that visits Melrose Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel. It was excellent and I would highly recommend them. They also do multi day tours.
I have traveled with Road Scholar twice since COVID and will travel with them again next month in Italy. I have done France, Spain and Portugal with them - but not England. But I like them because they have interesting itineraries and because their pacing is good - many 3 night stops and almost no 1 one night stops. Their groups are smaller - max of 22 on their Small Group tours - and we had 19 on one tour and 11 on the other.
It will not be as efficient timewise as RS, but you can go to Bath on your own and take a Mad Max day tour to Stonehenge(or better, in my opinion, Avebury) and Cotswolds. See London on your own. Take The Rabbies tour that goes to Snowdonia Natl Park, Conwy and York from London. Rabbies also has a tour to the Lake District, which is on my bucket list. You may want to be aware that there does not appear to be any attempt to enforce mask wearing on Rabbies tours, if this is a concern of yours.
I took a Rabbie's tour of Scottish Highlands, and it was excellent and am doing their Wales 5-day trip at the end of October. I have also done their Avebury/Bath and Oxford/Cotswold day trips out of London which were very good as all trips are in 16 person mini bus so they can zip around and with not many people it's easier to see things. Also if you are over 50 yrs consider Road Scholar trips as they include everything even tips, great value for money.
I've traveled with Odysseys, Rabbies and Mad Max multiple times.
Odysseys is more of a traditional tour company. They are like RS but up a notch.
Rabbies offers multi day tours but you won't be staying in the same hotel as you fellow tour members nor have shared meals. Limited to 16 people due to the size of the minibus.
Tauck tours. Slightly more expensive than Rick's but more upscale hotels.
