Excursion difficulty levels

[new_cruiser]

I notice that the excursions generally indicate easy, moderate or difficult walking but I haven't found any description of what that means. In my experience, different organizations use those terms very differently.

 

Sometimes "difficult walking" means rough ground, significant elevation gain and/or very long distances. Sometimes it just means more than a mile and some stairs. It really helps to get these in concrete terms like distance measurements. Can anybody calibrate me on what the walking would be for a RSSC excursions with "moderate" and "difficult" walking?

[dougburns]

If you have a disability of any kind you probably don't want to go on tours where difficult walking is indicated. Other than that, you shouldn't have any problems. Keep in mind that the average age of the RSSC pax is probably mid 50s.

[Chat Kat]

We are just back from the Navigator New England itinerary. We took a variety of tours and all of them had explanations as to why they were rated the way that they were in the booklet with the descriptions RSSC provides. Read the descriptions and go with your instinct or post here and see if others have taken the same tours.

 

In Quebec, the cobblestone streets were listed as a challenge. There were hills to walk up and we probably covered 3 miles of walking at a slow pace on our old city tour. It was not hard walking, but nearly two hours of walking without any sitting and quite a bit of standing while history of the area and buildings were explained by the guide. We took a few other tours that were not fast paced, but hilly on dirt in Sydney and some that were moderate yet there was little walking if you chose not to walk.

 

In Alaska 2001 we did a rainforest hike that was supposedly difficult, but, it was all flat terrain and was not much more than an hour. We had a snack break where we sat down halfway. It was very easy to me. You can ask the tourdesk on board. They are very accomodating.