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Why Rick Steve's Tours?

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As we were planning our trip, we looked at a lot of different tour options.  Over the years, we have watched many of Rick Steves television programs on our local PBS station.  Several years ago we took our first trip to Europe with a different major tour operator.  I had gotten a Rick Steves Guide to Italy, and we used that a lot during our trip.  We loved all of the self-guided information in the book, and it really helped us choose what things to go see in our free time.  We also found that we enjoyed all the restaurants and gelatto shops that were recommended in Rick Steves guide book.  While we had a great trip (it was Italy after all), I now wish we had taken it with Rick Steves.

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Here are some of my reasons why. 

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1) Great local guides. 

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With Rick Steves, we had local expert guides all throughout the trip who took us through neighborhoods, as well as cultural and historic sites.  They gave us many local insights not found in typical guidebooks or by normal guides.  (Our previous tour guide often told us what we were going to see once we got off the bus, because they were not authorized by the office of tourism to guide in many of the locations.)

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2) No tipping or sales gimmicks.

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Have you ever been on a tour where your tour guide tells you not to tip the bus driver or local guides? I hadn't until this trip, and it was really nice!  Rick Steves pays their guides and drivers well.  There were also no time-consuming stops at designated "artisan factories", or souvenir shops/traps.  (Our previous tour had a lot of those scheduled sales stops, since the tour company, guides and bus drivers usually receive kickbacks.)    

 

3) Centrally located hotels.

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On this Rick Steves tour, all of our hotels were located in fabulous central locations, all within walking distance of major sites.  This allowed us to enjoy and more easily experience our locations, since we were right there in the middle of it all.  We even stayed on Mont St-Michael itself, which was one of the highlights of the trip.  Most of our hotels were 3 or 4 stars.  While some of the rooms were small, by American standards at least, they all had comfortable beds, high quality fixtures, and great service.  Most had air-conditioning, which was really nice during the 2019 heat wave. (Our previous tour stayed at  hotels that were nice, but some were located many miles from the town center.)        

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4) Great balance between guided and free time.

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This tour gave us all of the benefits of a guided tour,  but still gave us a lot of free time that we could spend however we wanted.  That was something that was really important to us.  This tour also gave us an actual schedule that would have allowed us to skip something if we had chosen to do so.

 

5) Small tour size with audio whisper system. 

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Rick Steves relatively small tour size allowed us to do somethings that would be impossible with a larger group, like taking the subway together in Paris (which saves time), or going to smaller family run restaurants.  The whisper system also allowed us to clearly hear the guide as we were walking through sites.  I particularly enjoyed this option as I could wander a bit to take photos yet still hear everything being said. 

 

6) No divas allowed. The bus only waits so long.

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The last thing I want to listen to on vacation is someone grumbling or complaining.  Rick Steves tour members are committed to taking things in stride without complaining.  Every tour member is expected to handle their own suitcase (carry-on size) including walking from the bus and carrying it up the stairs to their room.  While the brochures say you might have to share a bathroom we certainly never did, and quite far from it.  We went on the tour knowing we were going to walk a lot, and that we did.  But the travel experience was so much better since there were no divas or complaining allowed.  It was made clear to us that out of respect of all of the tour members time, we were expected to be at the bus at departure time. The bus waits for no one.    

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7) Great value.

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There certainly are other tours operators that are cheaper, but having experienced both, I'm not sure there are any that are a better value.  We were able to see and experience a lot of things simply because Rick Steves tours prioritize things like smaller group size and providing local expert guides who share their love for the history and culture of that location.  We particularly appreciated staying in centrally located hotels which gave us much more access and time to enjoy our locations.  Rick Steves tours also provided us breakfast buffets each morning, some lunches, and half of our dinners, many which were amazing!  We truly had a wonderful travel experience and Rick Steves tours will certainly be our first choice for our next European tour.