rsbob 

Traveling in groups was never our thing.
We always were revolted by large groups of people being led by someone carrying a flag or umbrella with everyone wearing name badges - 100 to a group. We avoided them like the plague and did all our own planning, travel, driving/bus/train, hotels etc. After 3 trips driving on the left side and having to always concentrate to not make an error, as well as some super narrow carriage-ways we decided it was time to let someone else do the driving and let us instead enjoy the scenery, as well as commentary on interesting historical and geographical features. We did approach it with some trepidation but several of our longstanding friends raved about Rick Steves and especially the wonderful people they met. Tour are limited to 26 folks. And we were pleasantly shocked at how wonderful our fellow companions were from all walks of life ranging from physicians, to an appellate judge, business owners, social service directors and so many more. They were interesting, very funny, outgoing and as a ground rule established no discussion of politics or religion allowed. Everyone complied and it was an experience that well exceeded our expectations, COVID aside. Several of out travel mates were repeat Rick Steves participants and a couple went with other groups and said only Rick Steves for the future. Oh and we joked that our guide had encyclopediac knowledge since he couldn’t be stumped, but also had fantastic organizational skills, an outstanding sense of humor, personable and wonderful people management. We are now staying in contact with several people we met on the trip and have open invitations to stay with them, and one is even coming for dinner in Oct. From skeptics to believers. We didn’t know what we didn’t know - until now.