Realizing you posted this a while back and you may no longer be interested, I wanted to let you know that my family just returned from our first Rick Steves tour. To give you some context, we originally were going to book the ABD Rhine River cruise.....then it morphed into a Northern Europe
DCL itinerary due to price.....but as we began looking at the itineraries and prioritizing our bucket list, I began searching for guided tours of Germany and Switzerland and the Rick Steves website was the second listing on my Google search.
We did the Germany, Switzerland and Austria itinerary. And it was PHENOMENAL. Every experience we had was jaw dropping amazing and I'm so very thankful that we booked it.
Our guide was a native of Berlin. His English was perfect. He is very well educated and really brought life into the places we saw. His knowledge of all the places we went, the history of Germany, the volatile microclimates of the Swiss Alps was unmatched. It was almost like the could predict exactly what the weather was going to do and advised us accordingly. He was just awesome. Our bus driver was very professional, warm and funny. He definitely added to our overall experience as well.
You mentioned the smaller hotels and carrying your own luggage. That's all true. Part of the charm of the RS tours is that he puts you in the smaller, family run hotels and it's for great cause. On his tours, you stay in the heart of the city and activity. You're close enough to walk to the sights, shops, restaurants. You don't stay on the outskirts of town and have to take a cab/Uber to get back. Yes, you may have to drag your suitcase a few blocks, up a couple of cobblestone hills and possibly up a few flights of stairs, but if you follow his philosophies for traveling light (and trust me....this was a serious struggle for me, but I was determined and I managed three weeks in Europe with a carry on and a backpack) it is so worth it! Only one time on our trip did I have to carry my luggage up a flight of stairs due to no lift/elevator. Some times I chose to do it just because I was impatient and didn't want to wait for the lift.
Don't be put off by the smaller, family run hotels. They were quite charming and some of them really enhanced our experience (Google "Seehotel Gruener Baum" in Hallstatt, Austria...."Hotel Jungfrau" in Murren, Switzerland...."Hotel Heliopark Bad zum Hirsch" in Baden-Baden, Germany). A few of the places we stayed were quite elegant despite being small. Also, these tours have smaller groups - max size is 28 people. Another awesome detail.
Also, while they specify a couple of their tours as "family" tours, kids are welcome on all tours. That said, when I called their offices to confirm that my 12 year old would be ok on the tour we picked - which is not one of the family tours - the response was "absolutely". She had a fantastic experience as well.
Overall it was an amazing experience and we will definitely book another trip (already researching, will likely be Ireland next May). Obviously, I HIGHLY recommend booking a Rick Steves tour. Good luck!!