On our tours, the smoothest and most efficient way to get
from one destination to the next is, generally, by bus.
Robbie Kyle: I actually was more anxious about
the bus part than any other part of this tour.
I thought, you know, I don’t want to be on a bus the whole time.
And it was nothing like that.
Amanda: I was very hesitant about the bus.
When I saw the amount of bus time on this tour, I
was like, “That’s not going to be good.”
But, y'know, first stepped on that leather seated, well-lit coach,
like I was thinking, “This is going to be okay.”
Sarah: We get off the bus and I’m thinking, “Was that really
four hours?” because it felt like an hour-and-a-half.
Bob: I hate to say this, but you almost look forward
to the bus rides because it is so relaxing.
Cecilia: The bus, especially in this part of the world, are fabulous
because you travel 20, 30, 40 miles and the landscape changed.
You have views that you could never enjoy being on a plane.
You have views you could never enjoy being
on a car because the car is not high enough.
Trina: On a Rick Steves’ tour, the buses are
really, I think, probably different than other
tours, because we use a full-size bus but
we only have a maximum of 28 people on it.
Ben: There’s always plenty of room to move around
and feel comfortable, and if you feel like sitting next
to somebody you can, but if you feel like having
a seat to yourself, that’s usually a possibility.
The buses are all comfortable.
They’re air conditioned.
Margaret: We’ve all got plenty of room.
We can stretch out in two seats ourselves.
The bus is big enough that we all have our
own little aisle to sit in if we want to.
Tom: You can stretch out.
You can ask questions, have long conversations
with people around you and get to know them.
Margaret: You can go to sleep.
You can watch the sights. You can read.
You can chat with those around you.
We’ve shared food up and down the aisles.
Somebody will pick up chocolate at one
stop and it goes up and down the bus.
Kiel Hynek: I really liked having that free time to catch up
on sleep or study up on the next place where we’re going.
Bill: We’ve all taken some pretty good naps I think, along the way.
The trips really well coordinated with frequent rest stops
and nothing’s felt like it was an all-day trip.
Ben: Usually, we’d try to stop fairly frequently.
We try to stop every two hours or so, either find a little
town to stop in or just use a regular rest stop along the way.
Chris: That gave us plenty of time to get a snack if we wanted to.
Some people even used it as an opportunity to buy little souvenirs.
Linda: And coffee.
Chris: And coffee.
Linda: They broke it up beautifully.
There was no big stretches, and all us women
had time to go to the bathroom when needed to.
Ben: Bitte.
All: Bitte.
Robbie: Before you get to a destination, you
already know what to expect, you’ve already got
a lesson in the language of the town, or culture,
or country, wherever you’re pulling into.
Ben: I like to give a mix of quiet time
and also take advantage of the fact
that we’re together, we have a microphone,
to talk about what’s coming up next.
Bill: Almost every day, Ben comes in on
the bus for us and talks about what’s
going to happen that day, where we’re going to go, where stops will be.
He usually goes through the history or background
of where the location is we’re headed for.
It’s always really interesting to get that information up front.
Ben: There’s a hike that you can do from Kleine Scheidegg
called the North Face Trail that
walks directly under the north face of the Eiger.
Margaret: He always gives us tips about places
to go and things we might want to think
about doing, and places we might want to eat
where we might get the most authentic food.
Ben: The great thing too, is it’s easy to answer
questions, to go around, to move through
the bus and to see if anybody has more specific,
personal questions that they need answered.
Robbie: It’s been informative, it’s been
fun, and it hasn’t really been intrusive.
Ben: We know the drivers, they know us, and we
have a good working relationship with them.
Margaret: Our driver, oh my gosh, he’s been great fun, Joe.
He’s wonderful.
Amanda: Our bus driver, Joe, was such a charming man, a lot of fun.
He’s an amazing driver, got us through some tight squeezes in Italy
and some really steep alps in Switzerland, so he knows his stuff.
He was a great addition to our tour.
Ben: He is always fun to work with.
He’s professional. He knows the route.
He’s always full of suggestions, different options.
For example, we had a situation on
this tour where a detour came up, they
were doing some road work, and he
suggested that we take the scenic route.
I think that, for a lot of people going up and over
the Swiss Alps and just seeing the side of Switzerland
that we, in a normal situation would have completely
missed, I think was a highlight for a lot of people.
Robbie: It’s amazing how he can get this
coach through these little narrow passes.
Katie is terrified of like heights and being on the mountains.
She was watching as he took these sharp turns up in the Alps but-
Kate: I wasn’t watching.
Robbie: -he let us up on this path that
took us pass the tree line in the alps.
It was amazing. It added so much to the trip.
We got out and we got to see something
we wouldn’t have regularly seen.
Ben: That’s the nice thing is that we’re flexible.
Having our own buses allow us that flexibility,
and having drivers that are willing
to go above and beyond what’s expected
from them is a huge advantage for us.