Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe in 15 Days
Final Thoughts
This was our first Rick Steves' Tour. We had a lot of questions beforehand. I'd like to take a minute to talk about a few things you might find helpful.
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Itinerary
Rick's tours are set up with a tour portion of the day and free time. We quickly decided that this was a huge benefit for us. First, I'm going to confess that I'm a planner. Having a lot of the major decisions set up made it simple to plan the rest. We also found that if we didn't want to plan at all, George and our local guide would give us suggestions to fit our travel styles.
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This tour was a very good mix of places. We spent time drenched in history and also time surrounded by some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It made the tour consistently interesting.
Currency
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There are several different currencies used during this tour. In general, most places accepted credit cards. However, there were places that we needed cash. George was a great asset in that he was able to tell us what we would need currency for and the best places to get it. He would often show us ATMs and good places to convert currency on our get acquainted walks. It saved us a lot of time and stress.
Tour Mates
I was a bit worried about traveling with a group. Would it be crowded? Would it cause problems? What I found is that my tour mates were people who were curious, intelligent and willing to learn. It was a small group and we all got to know each other. It also had the side benefit of allowing us to break off into groups in our free time. For example, I love classical music and wanted to go listen to a concert in Prague. My husband is always willing to go but doesn't really enjoy it. However, I had a tour mate that also loved classical music. We walked over to Smetana Hall (The Municipal House) and listened to a lovely concert while my husband was able to do something that interested him. Once again, George made this so much easier to set up.
Travel
There was a fair amount of bus time on this tour (which I'm so glad I didn't have to figure out!). George generally spent part of the time talking about our next stop or places we were passing through. We also had time to relax, nap or just stare out the window at the often beautiful scenery. The bus was very comfortable and had a restroom onboard. We all had a lot of room to stretch out. We made stops every couple of hours. I found our rest stops were often sites unto themselves. I loved the cream cake at a rest stop in Slovenia!
Ukraine
One question on everyone's mind is Ukraine. Our tour started May 15th, 2022. The only way the war in Ukraine affected our trip was in the discussions we had with our guides. It was very interesting hearing the opinions of the locals as we toured. Like home, we often saw Ukrainian flags hanging in support. As far as the tour went, it was a non-issue.
Packing
As I mentioned earlier, we had multiple moments where following the Rick Steves' packing instructions benefited us. It also saved us a lot of headaches knowing that we wouldn't lose our suitcases. I wanted to give a few packing tips that help us on our travels. First, if you are able to carry a backpack suitcase I highly recommend using one. Stairs, cobblestones, all become a non-issue if you not using a rollerbag. They are also much lighter and give you more packing space. Packing cubes are also helpful. They keep your clothes in good condition in your bag and can be used for compression. As a trip goes on, I also use them to separate my clean clothes from my dirty clothes. Lastly, my best suggestion is layers. I am a Texan and I live in light weight, moisture wicking clothes with UV protection, year round. When I travel, I bring these clothes plus a couple of sets of long underwear that I can use as needed. Lastly, I have a set of rain pants and jacket that I can add. We had amazing weather on this trip and I didn't break out my long underwear at all. I'm so glad I wasn't hauling around a lot of heavy clothes that I would have been uncomfortable in.
Conclusion
Our first Rick Steves' tour was wonderful! We have learned over the years that it is worth purchasing Rick's guidebooks to help with our travels. That philosophy evolved over time into hiring occasional local guides. Those guides added another layer to our travels. Part of it is their ability to point out things or describe them in detail when we would have never thought to dive deeper. We found that our Rick Steves' tour took our travels to yet another level. We learned and experienced so much more than we could have on our own. Even our travel time was full of information. Not having to stress, or even think, about how we were getting from one city to another gave us time to focus on the beauty of the areas we were traveling through. It also took a lot of the worries out of our travel. I didn't need back up plans as I had George! We loved it so much that we are going on Rick Steves' Best of Germany, Austria and Switzerland this year!
Hope you enjoyed my scrapbook.
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Keep on travelin!