Looking for tour companies for my sister. She and her husband love to travel but hate the planning piece associated with travel. Their favorite trips have been river cruises with Viking because all they have to do is show up!
Do you have favorite companies? I’d like to give her a list of companies recommended by CC!
I remember one CC recommendation–Traveling Professor --from several years ago. My BFF took a trip with them and gave them very high ratings. Another friend loves OAT, Overseas Adventure Travel.
Tauck is wonderful - we’ve been on two of their trips.
If she is into doing things outdoors, we did a walking tour with MACS Adventures. Last year we walked 96 miles of the West Highland Way in Scotland. This year we are headed to Ireland to walk the Dingle Way. They book everything once you get there and move your luggage from hotel to hotel. Highly recommend!
I’ve used Tauck on two occasions – once for a trip through the Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion National Park, and once just this past August to tour Venice, Florence and Rome. Tauck is very expensive but, IMO, is absolutely first rate. For example, in Rome we got to tour the Sistine Chapel after hours, when there was only our tour group visiting. We got to spend around 45 minutes inside the Chapel. To me, that was worth the entire cost of the trip!
I have taken Rick Steves tours over the year. Enthusiastic and knowledgeable guides, smaller (24-28 people) than the typical tour group so they stay in smaller hotels. The company owner is the guy that has a travel show on PBS. However this may not be a great fit for your sister because they encourage/expect you to do things on your own (about every other day you have 1/2 to a full day free in town), they don’t carry your luggage, the tour does not include airfare. On the Rick Steves website they have a forum where you can read what others have said about their tour, ask questions, etc → https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours
My family has taken a few Rick Steves tours too. The guides are really good (as mikemac says), and I love that you have time to yourself. But what I’ve most enjoyed are the other people on the tour - I am not the most extroverted of people, but I’ve made real friends with some of my fellow travelers. Rick Steves’ clientele seems to include a lot of teachers and college professors, and there’s usually a broad age range on the tour.
Another thing I like about Rick Steves - the “no grumps” policy.
Used Odyssey Tour to visit Turkey. Not as expensive as some companies and we were very satisfied.
Moderate pricing: Odysseys ( includes airfare) and Road Scholar. More expensive: National Geographic and Llindblad. Very interesting and some off the beaten path more exclusive: Natural Habitat and Geoex. These last 2 - you will have some of your best experiences ever, but you pay a premium ( worth it). These are all group trips.
No personal experience with tours, but Sis and B-in Law have done multiple with Overseas Adventure Travel mentioned above to multiple locations and continents and have thought highly of them. EXCEPT, don’t buy their insurance. Sis-in-law broke shoulder in Africa and was denied most of the reimbursements for care she needed. After research, many others across the years had the same complaint.
Backroads and Sojourn for active/biking vacations,
We’ve had great experiences with Go Ahead tours. Groups are fairly small with excellent local guides. Each tour has ratings from previous customers so you can get a feel for what to expect.
I hate planning, love to travel. Did I mention that I HATE planning? Rick Steves tours are awesome, they figure out everything…best things to see, the right time, most interesting tour guides. All you need to do is be ready to have fun. A little bit of time on your own, but they make suggestions, so no planning there. Very nice, social people, you will make friends. I’d say most are fairly active people in their fifties, sixties and early seventies at the oldest. A occasional younger couple or adult kids. We are going on a Rick Steves trip to Portugal with some friends we met on the first trip, many years ago. After that first trip, I said that after I retired, all I’d want to do is go from one trip to the next!
Important that you are healthy and can walk easily, and have a good attitude if things get changed a bit.
My mother raves about the Smithsonian tours. She’s been on several. They’re not cheap, but they attract educated, sophisticated types my mother feels right at home with. (Yes. A bit of a snob.)