Tell us a little bit about your most recent Untour.
We combined a Viking River Cruise (from Amsterdam to Basel) with a one week Untour on the Rhine, in St. Goar. It really was a great combination. Our Viking Cruise was enjoyable, the times were well-organized and the excursions off the boat were interesting and well done. But for us, who are very independent travelers, a one week cruise is definitely enough. The contrast between the populated and scheduled week on the boat, and the following week, in our own delightful private apartment, with super-friendly hosts, in one of the prettiest villages (It was exciting when, on the cruise ship, we sailed right past the village we knew we’d soon be living in.) was hard to top. Perhaps the most delightful change was waking up every morning, and having the freedom to say “What shall we do today?” on no one’s schedule but our own.
What is your favorite UnTours memory?
There are so many good memories but two stand out. One was visiting Burg Eltz, which we did toward the end of our trip. And after the cruise plus the week on this castle-heavy stretch of the Rhine, we had had our fill of castles. But Rick Steves, and anyone else we asked said you can’t miss Burg Eltz. So we reluctantly went. It was definitely one of the high points of the trip. I am not big on ruins; Burg Eltz is a living castle; the family still lives there, it’s beautifully maintained. Our hike up to the castle and lunch there were just lovely. (That’s where the picture was taken.) The treasury of the castle, with its amazing collection of gold and silver, was really memorable.
The other memory is more general. Michael’s family came from a town in the region. He grew up speaking German. We’d worked for a year on genealogy from his family — the family came from a small town of Wittlich between Cochem and Trier. The ability to go back and discover the place where his family was from and the friendliness and helpfulness of all the people we met on the way, that is a memory for a lifetime.
How is taking an Untour different from other ways of traveling?
This particular trip was a great illustration of the difference –since we combined two different ways of travel. What I liked about the Viking River Cruise was that we covered a lot of territory, and they packed a lot of information about a wide range of territory into the programs. This worked out well, so that by the time our Untour started, we had quite a good overview of what to see. So our week on the Rhine, we could do pretty much exactly what we wanted, knowing we had seen the big picture. And to tell the truht the ability to delve deep — the culture , the food, the local details — just learning how other people live on an everyday basis, that is more our thing than general sightseeing. I don’t think you can find a better way to get that deeper feeling for a place than how UnTours organizes a trip. First of all, on the Rhine, you’ve picked the perfect location (it’s halfway along this stretch of the Rhine) which makes daytrips super-convenient. And then you have your staff, Tracy and Rita who get you all set up and informed and able to operate on your own. Many days we pretty much walked out our back door onto a train, or a boat (with the passes included on the Untour) and went to whichever spot was calling us. It couldn’t have been easier. And though we’ve taken UnTours where a car was included, we think that the stress of driving detracts from our trip. We loved the train and boat pass; it made travel worry-free. Lastly, both the village, the merchants, and our wonderful hosts, Walter and his wife, could not have been friendlier to us.
If you could describe an Untour in just 3 words, what would they be?
Michael: “at your own pace” (five words but who’s counting)
Hilda: “learn how others live” (four!)