• two pictures of tour groups

Festival of Tours

A Rick Steves' Europe tour is a vacation, an adventure, and a cultural crash course all in one — and from April 21 to May 2, you're invited to join our Festival of Tours to learn about our tour program and discover which of our 46 exciting itineraries could become your next trip.

To kick things off, Rick sets the stage by recounting the origins of our tour program — back when a Rick Steves tour was just Rick, eight travelers, and a minivan — and how the spirit of those early tours lives on in today's itineraries. From there, our Tours 101 session helps tour-curious travelers determine if a Rick Steves' Europe tour will be a good fit for them. Finally, our great guides join the party to show off their favorite cultural wonders region by region — from ferrying to Scotland's windswept islands to clapping along with a flamenco show in Spain to cooking up pierogi with locals in Poland — and to share how you can experience these "wow" moments alongside them on a Rick Steves' Europe tour.

It's all free, and you can sign up for any (or all) of these fun, informative sessions below. Plus, tune in for your chance to win a free Rick Steves' Europe city tour!

rick in bern

Monday, April 21: Best of Europe Tours with Rick Steves

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Each year, 30,000 travelers trust a Rick Steves' Europe tour to make their European travel dreams come true — many of whom have taken a dozen or more of our tours. Join Rick as he shares the story of how his tour program began, how it evolved, and how his early days as a guide helped mold the travel philosophy that continues to steer our tours today. Plus, Rick revisits his flagship 21-day tour — from Amsterdam, down to Rome, and back up to Paris — and shares how you can embark on that same odyssey with a Rick Steves' Europe guide at your side.

group of people in greece

Tuesday, April 22: Tours 101: Is a Rick Steves Tour Right for Me?

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Rick Steves' Europe tours brim with evocative art, history, and food, but if there's one thing that makes our tours unforgettable, it's the people. In this Rick Steves' Europe Tours 101 session, tour guide Lisa Friend and tour program manager Robyn Stencil dissect the Rick Steves travel style, give behind-the-scenes glimpses into how our tours are designed, and paint a picture of a typical day on a Rick Steves tour. Along the way, we'll hear from our European guides, tour alumni, and Rick to help you determine if your next adventure might be on a Rick Steves tour.

sheep in britain

Wednesday, April 23: Britain & Ireland Tours with Lisa Friend & Charlie Rawson

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Tour guides Lisa Friend and Charlie Rawson team up to explore our tours across the charming and dramatic British Isles. Starting in bustling London, we wind our way north through Georgian Bath, flower-bedecked Cotswolds villages, castle-studded Wales, royal Edinburgh, and underrated Glasgow before emerging among the mysterious lochs and mossy mountains of the Scottish Highlands. We then hop over to Ireland to enjoy music-filled pubs and historical sites from Dublin to Dingle to Belfast.

manarola in italy's cinque terre

Thursday, April 24: Italy Tours with Colleen Schaffer & Nina Bernardo

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Why is Italy our most popular tour destination? In this show, tour guides Colleen Schaffer and Nina Bernardo uncover the answer by exploring Italy's great cities—canal-laced Venice, Renaissance Florence, and eternal Rome; by sampling Italian countryside delights from the Chianti hills to the traffic-free Cinque Terre; and by marveling at the ruins, cuisine, and steaming volcano of Sicily. Plus, they share how you can experience all these wonders and more on a Rick Steves Italy tour!

neuschwanstein castle in bavaria

Monday, April 28: Germany, Austria & Switzerland Tours with Dave Hoerlein & Jim McDonough

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Dave Hoerlein was Rick's first employee, leading tours across Europe for decades. In this session, he's joined by new guide and German expat Jim McDonough as together they trace our itineraries across the Germanic world. We begin by visiting Germany's Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich before enjoying Bavaria's fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle and medieval Rothenburg. In Austria, we tour the grand capital of Vienna and Mozart-crazy Salzburg, along with Danube charm. We finish in Switzerland — licking gelato in Italian-speaking Lugano, savoring cosmopolitan Lausanne, and ascending cut-glass peaks to a nature-lover's nirvana.

granada spain

Tuesday, April 29: Spain & Portugal Tours with Robyn Stencil & Francisco Glaria

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

The Iberian Peninsula sizzles with colorful traditions and epic history, and tour program manager Robyn Stencil and tour guide Francisco Glaria are excited to show off our tours there. In Spain, we indulge in rich helpings of Catalunya's Gaudí, Toledo's El Greco, and the masterpieces of Madrid's Prado before heading south to Andalucía for iconic castles, dreamy hill towns, and fine cuisine. Next, we visit highlights from our Best of Portugal tour: trendy Lisbon, sunbaked Évora, beachy Nazaré, youthful Coimbra, gritty Porto, and the vineyards of the Douro Valley.

red bridge and church in Lyon France

Wednesday, April 30: France Tours with Gabe Gunnink & Virginie Moré

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

French tour guide and researcher Virginie Moré is a font of France knowledge, and in this session, Monday Night Travel host Gabe Gunnink gets buckets of information from her on our France itineraries. We start in Paris with the Louvre and Orsay museums and the extravagant Palace of Versailles. We then visit the powerful D-Day beaches and mesmerizing island abbey Mont St-Michel before wandering the châteaux of the Loire Valley, markets of the Dordogne, hill towns of Provence, and half-timbered villages of the Alsace to find your next French adventure.

lake bled island in slovenia

Thursday, May 1: Central & Eastern Europe Tours with Cameron Hewitt & Marijan Krišković

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Guidebook author Cameron Hewitt teams up with tour guide Marijan Krišković for an inspiring sweep through our Central and Eastern Europe tours. We begin by touring the Czech Republic with perfectly preserved Prague, Hungary with cosmopolitan Budapest, and Poland with lovable Kraków. We then continue along the Adriatic Sea: weaving together Slovenia's charming Ljubljana and fairy-tale Lake Bled and Croatia's seaside Rovinj, waterfall-laced Plitvice, historic Split, and picture-perfect Dubrovnik.

lady-in swiss-alps

Friday, May 2, Best “Wow” Moments on Tour with the Rick Steves’ Europe Team

6:00 p.m. PT / 9:00 p.m. ET | REGISTER

Each year, we ask our 30,000 Rick Steves' Europe tour members to share the top "wow" moment of their trip. To finish off the Festival of Tours with a bang, the Rick Steves' Europe staff reveals a highlight reel of these most memorable moments, which often extend beyond the marquee sights — intimate experiences from cooking up pierogi in Poland to sipping wine beside an Italian volcano to watching sheepdogs at work in Scotland. Plus, at the end of the show, we give away Rick Steves' Europe city tours to two lucky travelers!