Welcome! - Willkommen! -Benvenuto! - Bienvenue!
Get to know usWe're a married couple from the west metro of the Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This is Troy's first trip ever to Europe, where Ashli has been visiting since a visiting Germany with a friend in 2002 as well as a high-school art trip through Europe exactly twenty years ago to the time of this trip! Troy is excited to experience a new continent and see first hand all that history he has learned about, especially the WWII era. Ashli is on the search for alpine wildflowers and revisiting both Munich and Salzburg and seeing brand new cities. We are both ready to get into the mountains and hike! As big fans of Rick Steves and the traveler/explorer philosophy, we knew this would be our kind of tour. We chose to go at the mid June into July 1 to have a good chance of seeing wildflowers, long daylight hours, including spending Summer Solstice in Europe and to just beat the summer tourist rush. This is our first Rick Steves tour! All photos are taken by us, except a few our tour-members took of us! |
Rick Steves - My Way® Alpine Europe in 12 Days
The DetailsClick below to be directed to the trip's website! Description from the RS site
"This trip delivers endless opportunities for fresh-air thrills — from Austria's Sound of Music country to flower-carpeted meadows in Italy's Dolomites, fairy-tale castles in Germany's Bavaria, cut-glass peaks in Switzerland's Berner Oberland, and spectacular scenery in France's Chamonix. For a dozen free-spirited days, this money-saving My Way vacation package gives you the freedom to decide your own daily priorities and pace. We cut the stress by providing comfortable rooms in well-located hotels, private bus transportation to each destination, and a travel-savvy tour manager to advise you along the way. Join us for My Way® Alpine Europe in 12 Days!" |
Why choose this tour?
Have you read the itinerary?!
Five European countries to be explored, making way from green pastoral Austrian-German-Italian alps to the "touching the heavens" atop snow-capped Swiss-French Alps is as dreamy as it sounds!
Gradually going from big city adventures to the highest point in the Alps is trip-planning perfection.
It's a big adventure, and having the logistics of the trip handled is worth every penny, especially when you are encountering three different languages.
Other perks include:
Five European countries to be explored, making way from green pastoral Austrian-German-Italian alps to the "touching the heavens" atop snow-capped Swiss-French Alps is as dreamy as it sounds!
Gradually going from big city adventures to the highest point in the Alps is trip-planning perfection.
It's a big adventure, and having the logistics of the trip handled is worth every penny, especially when you are encountering three different languages.
Other perks include:
The bus!Having an open-plan for each day but not having to worry about getting from A to B made a busy vacation stress-free!
Using the bus time to read up on the next destination, catch a nap, or just enjoy the scenery is extra-nice! Extra plus; having a super cool bus driver (shout-out to Rob!) |
The hotels!The hotels are thoughtfully chosen.
They are located centrally within the city - clean - comfortable - with character. You can trust that even though you are not choosing the hotels, you will be delighted with choices made by RS Team of seasoned employees/travelers - it's what they do! |
The new friends!Those who choose a Rick Steves tour are truly wonderful souls; with the My-Way tour, you travel independently but also with a group of new friends; you can create new adventures with them or you can stay independent from the group; it's your choice!
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Before you go
Study your trip plans
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Pack Right and Light
- We found Rick Steve's packing information very helpful!
- Some other items for thought or especially necessary:
- We each brought a reusable water bottle; airports have fill up stations as well as certain parts of this trip have free-flowing alpine water fountains
- Be sure to bring one plug-in adapter per traveler so your phones/cameras are charged and ready for the next day
- You may have old European currency from a previous trip; bring them with! I brought Euro coins from the early 2000s since you cannot exchange coins here in the states
- We each brought one stainless steel sandwich-sized food container to buy market snacks to bring along on our hikes which have double-use for storing small fragile gifts for the journey home
- Do not forget a rain coat/waterproof poncho! Layering is key on this trip as the weather can really vary.
- If you plan on hiking, no matter what your age, we really appreciated our trekking poles on some very steep and rocky areas; Note that trekking poles must be in checked luggage.
- Laundry detergent sheets are a great invention for travel; just a thin sheet or two (little to no luggage space) are great for sink washing of small garments! We used Tru Earth
- Some other items for thought or especially necessary:
The Destinations
Each day has it's own page for the Rick Steves tour portion of our trip and are categorized by the overnight stops location/area, shown below.
You can click on an image below to head to the page for that day, or click below to continue through in order!
You can click on an image below to head to the page for that day, or click below to continue through in order!
Let's start this amazing adventure! |