Alina, the pace has now been changed to 2 on 2027. Yesterday, I spent time doing a head-to-head comparison of 26 and 27. I don't think they added anything to 27 to make up for the loss of Annecy. What I saw is that there are differences during the riverboat portion of visits to towns (Tain L'Hermitage in 26, Vienne in 27). The rest of the changes have more to do with order of visits, perhaps because of traveling in different directions. I'm not going to be so quick to jump on board the tour for 27 at this point. I would have booked Sept. 26 but that is sold out and I have other plans for 26 travel already.
Being able to get large tour coaches into European towns is getting harder and harder. Paris on our 2014 tour vs 2021 was noticeably easier for the coach driver to get around and to make brief stops. When Paris started cracking down on traffic and promoting bikes it made it much harder in 2021. Many towns in Italy the big coaches can't get you close to sights often requiring an uphill climb. Bruge we were warned required 3 miles of walking from where the coach parked which differed from tours in the past. Other places either already are hard geographically or because they won't let the big coaches close enough. The price of travel being so popular.
It’s weird all these tours are sold out because I haven’t read a single review of any tours on this forum that have been full for ages when numbers on the tour have been mentioned.
We are on the September 2026 trip. I booked it back in April of this year and I was told there were only two Category 5 suites available. That is the only date that is showing as sold out so far.
Genie - Thank you for the information, I just looked at the map to see where the stops where, I took the GOT at the end as I spent a lot of time in Geneva this year and will go there again next September.
Alina - I will look into that and maybe take an extra day in Geneva to go to Annecy.
Comments
Alina, the pace has now been changed to 2 on 2027. Yesterday, I spent time doing a head-to-head comparison of 26 and 27. I don't think they added anything to 27 to make up for the loss of Annecy. What I saw is that there are differences during the riverboat portion of visits to towns (Tain L'Hermitage in 26, Vienne in 27). The rest of the changes have more to do with order of visits, perhaps because of traveling in different directions. I'm not going to be so quick to jump on board the tour for 27 at this point. I would have booked Sept. 26 but that is sold out and I have other plans for 26 travel already.
Being able to get large tour coaches into European towns is getting harder and harder. Paris on our 2014 tour vs 2021 was noticeably easier for the coach driver to get around and to make brief stops. When Paris started cracking down on traffic and promoting bikes it made it much harder in 2021. Many towns in Italy the big coaches can't get you close to sights often requiring an uphill climb. Bruge we were warned required 3 miles of walking from where the coach parked which differed from tours in the past. Other places either already are hard geographically or because they won't let the big coaches close enough. The price of travel being so popular.
It’s weird all these tours are sold out because I haven’t read a single review of any tours on this forum that have been full for ages when numbers on the tour have been mentioned.
We are on the September 2026 trip. I booked it back in April of this year and I was told there were only two Category 5 suites available. That is the only date that is showing as sold out so far.
Genie - Thank you for the information, I just looked at the map to see where the stops where, I took the GOT at the end as I spent a lot of time in Geneva this year and will go there again next September.
Alina - I will look into that and maybe take an extra day in Geneva to go to Annecy.