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Welcome to our digital scrapbook of our 2025 trip to Central Europe with Rick Steves!
We are Mark and Jeannie Burleson from the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas. Married for 32 years and proud parents of three adult children, we began our journey as empty nesters two years ago on Rick Steves’ “Best of Europe in 21 Days” tour. That amazing experience inspired us to explore further.
This year, we celebrated Mark’s retirement and seized the opportunity to dive into new cultures. Join us as we recount our adventure on the “Best of Central Europe: Prague to Slovenia” tour, which ran from September 7 to 21. We hope to inspire you to plan your own adventure!
See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream.
Our Tour
Best of Central Europe: Prague to Slovenia in 15 Days
Our tour covered five Central European countries over 15 days: the Czech Republic (Czechia), Poland, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia. We also enjoyed a bonus lunch stop in Slovakia, bringing the total to six countries visited.
The tour provided a delightful mix of vibrant cities, charming towns, and lush parks. Some days were filled with activities, while others offered free time for exploration or relaxation.
As with all of Rick Steves’ tours, once we arrived at the first hotel, we relaxed knowing that transportation, accommodations, activities, and several meals were taken care of.
Check out the official Rick Steves’ Tour Website for more detailed information.
Why a Rick Steves' Tour?
Camaraderie
One of the best aspects of a Rick Steves tour is the wonderful group of fellow travelers. Our tour was fully booked, featuring the maximum of 28 participants. This group size was ideal, as it allowed for both fun group adventures and more intimate conversations with new friends.
A sign of a tour group’s success is the presence of repeat customers. Everyone in our group had previously taken tours with Rick Steves. In fact, several couples had originally met on a tour and have continued to travel together since then.
Every tour includes a professional guide from the Rick Steves’ team. Our guide, Katerina Svobodova, known as Katka, welcomed the group with Becherovka during our orientation.
She provided a detailed itinerary, which helped us avoid dining at restaurants hosting group meals. Daily itineraries were also posted in each hotel.
Katka made an effort to know each of us and offered recommendations based on our interests.
As we left Prague, we met our driver, Oliver. The bus was spacious and comfortable, and Oliver navigated narrow villages and winding roads expertly. During our rides, Katka shared historical and cultural insights, including personal stories about life behind the Iron Curtain.
Rick Steves’ tours employ local guides who offer unique insights by sharing their personal experiences, heritage, and traditions. This approach allowed us to gain a deeper appreciation for each area and its culture. The guides we encountered were passionate and took pleasure in sharing information about their home.
Value
Here are some of the factors we considered when determining the value of our Rick Steves’ tour.
Time
There is a wealth of travel information available, including books, TV shows, online reviews, forums, blogs, and vlogs. While much of this information is free, researching and planning a well-organized trip can take a significant amount of time. How much is your time worth? Rick Steves' tours are regularly reviewed and updated to enhance your travel experience.
Cultural Enrichment
To gain a deeper understanding of a region's people, history, and culture, hiring a qualified local guide is highly beneficial. While private tour guides can be expensive for one or two travelers, Rick Steves' tours offer a cost-effective alternative by including multiple local guides in a small group setting.
Rick Steves’ local guides use whisper systems that come with wired headphones. If you prefer the comfort of your own wireless earbuds, consider bringing a Bluetooth audio transmitter. We purchased ours on Amazon for use on the plane, and we were delighted to find that it worked seamlessly with the whisper system.
Convenience
A significant portion of any travel budget is allocated to accommodations and transportation, with convenience often meaning higher prices. Fortunately, Rick offers fantastic centrally located hotels that provide easy access to the sites and public transportation. Within minutes, you can be in the heart of the action. Many of these hotels are not included in Rick's guidebooks. Transportation is a breeze with the group bus. It operates on the tour's schedule and is always within close proximity to the hotels.
Unique Experiences
Each Rick Steves' tour offers unexpected excursions that take you off the beaten path. Many of these experiences are made possible by the personal relationships that the guides have developed with local families and businesses. These special events greatly enhance the overall travel experience. During our trip, we enjoyed live music during dinner, spontaneous shopping at roadside stands, visiting a ranch with teepees, sailing on a sunset cruise, and honey tasting at a multi-generational family-owned bee farm.
Resources
In addition to the free, public information Rick makes available to all travelers (website, forum, app, and TV shows), there are extra resources for tour members.
Once your tour is booked, you will have access to your Tour Account page, which contains pre-planning tips, hotel information, packing recommendations, and links to PDFs, websites, and videos.
If there is a guidebook for your tour, you will receive a copy in your Tour Kit. Read the sections that apply before your trip. Being prepared allows you to enjoy your trip all the more.
If you have any questions about your tour, itinerary, or recommendations, call the office and speak to a staff member. The staff is super helpful and understanding. We found out that many of the staff members have been on tours, so you may end up speaking with someone who has taken your tour.
Please make sure to utilize these valuable resources.
Pre-Trip Tips
Packing
Rick offers helpful recommendations on what to pack and how to pack for your trip. It’s important not to overlook this information! Traveling light makes it easier to move in and out of hotel rooms and enhances the overall enjoyment of your trip.
Here are some of our packing tips:
- Pack two pairs of comfortable, supportive walking shoes. Alternating between them allows each pair to air out and, in case of rain, dry out.
- Plan your outfits so each item can be mixed and matched, allowing you to wear them multiple times. Don’t worry about wearing the same item repeatedly; everyone else will be doing the same.
- Use packing cubes to keep your clothes organized, making it easier to repack when transferring between hotels.
- Keep essential items, like medication, in your personal carry-on.
Reservations
Every tour includes free time for exploration based on personal interests. Research and identify museums, attractions, and restaurants that require reservations. Plan ahead to ensure you don’t miss any opportunities.
Keep your reservation confirmation emails and digital tickets on your phone. This way, you won’t need to print tickets or worry about losing them during your trip.
Arrival
If your schedule permits, consider arriving a few days early. This will allow you to acclimate to the new time zone and explore areas that are not included in the tour
Another significant advantage of early travel is the peace of mind and flexibility it offers. On our first Rick Steves’ tour, we boarded our flight in Dallas, only to discover there was a major mechanical issue. After exiting the plane, we waited for further information. While other passengers became anxious about missing connections and planned events, we took a deep breath, enjoyed a drink, and relaxed, knowing this was all part of our adventure. Our plans allowed us the time to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.
Trip Tips
Laundry
If you’ve packed light and plan to wear your clothes multiple times, consider that you may need to do laundry depending on the length of your trip. What are your options?
One option is to use self-service laundromats. You can obtain a list of nearby laundromats from your guidebook, tour guide, or hotel. Some hotels even have laundry machines on-site. This is typically the most economical and safest way to wash your clothes.
However, if you’d rather not spend an hour or two at a laundromat when you could be visiting a museum, exploring the streets, or enjoying a drink while people-watching, you can ask your guide for recommendations on full laundry services. Not all hotels provide these services, but there are often local businesses that will pick up and drop off laundry at the hotel.
Another alternative is to wash clothes in small batches in the sink and line-dry them in your room. This method is particularly effective for quick-drying materials and small items.
We highly recommend two items for washing and refreshing clothes daily in your hotel room.
First, Sink Suds are individual packets of pre-measured laundry detergent that you can add to your sink for hand washing. These packets are TSA-approved, so we had no issues bringing them in our carry-on luggage.
Second, ReWear is like dry shampoo for clothes. While it doesn’t clean dirty clothes, it refreshes them, allowing you to wear them multiple times before washing. It can also help smooth out wrinkles. Plus, it is available in travel-sized sprays that are TSA-approved.
Digital Wallet
We stored our credit cards in our digital wallet on our iPhones, which brought us two significant benefits. First, convenience: we could use tap-to-pay with our phones or Apple Watches instead of relying on a physical credit card. Second, enhanced security: the digital wallet generates a temporary, one-time-use number, rather than sharing our actual credit card number. This added layer of security helps prevent fraud. While we carried our credit cards in a money belt as a backup, we didn’t need to use them since retailers, including small family-run businesses, accepted tap-to-pay.
Google Translate
If you’re concerned about traveling alone and not knowing the local language, no need to worry – technology has a solution. We recommend Google Translate as an excellent translation tool.
You can use it to type in words or phrases for translation. The app also allows you to listen to someone speaking and translates their words into English.
One of its best features is the camera translation option. Simply use your phone’s camera, and the app can translate whatever it sees. So, if you find yourself at a restaurant without an English menu or need to read a sign, just open the app and let Google Translate provide the translation for you.
Download languages to your phone before your trip. This allows access to camera and text translate even with no wifi or cell service.
Ready, Set, Go
We are eager to share our Best of Central Europe: Prague to Slovenia in 15 Days experiences with you. Each country has its own overview page. Happy reading!
Travel is rich with learning opportunities, and the ultimate souvenir is a broader perspective.
Rick is correct about the ultimate souvenir of travel. However, if you also wish to buy physical souvenirs, it’s a good idea to consider them before you leave for your trip. Small and inexpensive mementos, such as postcards, refrigerator magnets, or beer coasters, can serve as reminders of each destination. By planning ahead, you’ll ensure that you don’t miss out on any locations.
We collected pins and added them to our Rick Steves’ daypack.
