Best Of
Re: Tauck Veterans- Rate Your Trips 😃
I just saw this:
If something good happens, travel to celebrate.
If something bad happens, travel to forget.
If nothing happens, travel to make something happen.
Budapest to the Black Sea (the Food)
One of the top questions we are asked whenever we travel is “How was the food”. I thought I would give a brief overview of our food experience on this trip. This is not a blow by blow description of our dining but just a few examples.
I have done a review of the tour and the accommodations in seperate posts. Here are links if you are interested.
Budapest to the Black Sea review
Budapest to the Black Sea (the Accommodations )
If you have been on any Tauck trip it is very hard to go hungry. This was no exception. Sometimes toward the end of the tour eating becomes a somewhat painful experience. (not really).
We got into Budapest a day early and wanted some Hungarian food. The restaurant was called the Strudel HouseIt was one of the recommendations from the concierge and was also on the Tauck recommendation list. We would highly recommend this restaurant in Budapest.
Onboard the ship there were two dining options. The main dining room is called Compass Rose and a more casual option is Arthurs. Here are some sample menus from each.
Compass Rose Lunch Menu
Arthurs Menu
Our final dinner on the ship was a one seating for everyone on the ship. The menu was a bit more extensive than the normal dinners.
There were some off the ship dining events on this tour. Our welcome reception and dinner was at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Some traditional Hungarian dancers provided entertainment.
In Belgrade an off ship dinner was at the Royal Palace of Dedinje. This was originally supposed to be inside the palace but due to a storm several days earlier, some of the electricity was out. The dinner was moved to an outside patio area which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since the temperature was quite balmy.
Our farewell dinner was held at Bragadiru Palace (a.k.a the Palace of Culture). Food wise, this was at or near the bottom. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of the starter. The main dish was a beef tenderloin which I was trying to cut and chew with little success. Unless one put in a dietary request at the beginning of the tour, this was the choice. Based on the number of plates sent back partially eaten, I think this was not a popular meal. The starter course was visually appealing, but the taste was just so-so.
One highlight of the farewell dinner was entertainment by a violinist playing an actual Stradivarius violin. He was accompanied by someone playing the traditional electronic keyboard. 
JohnS
Re: Tauck Veterans- Rate Your Trips 😃
Perhaps Mike’s post proves a point. There is something for everyone but not everything for everyone. I’ve been to all of the places on his list but there are several on his favorites list that I would never pay my own money to visit … and a couple I have paid my own money to visit that I would have changed. You need to do your own research to find the places that are of interest to you. What someone else liked does not mean you will like it also.
Sealord
Re: Our Tour Director is Steve Sara
Just back yesterday from our Mountain Gorilla Safari: Kenya, Tanzania & Rwanda. UNBELIEVABLE!! Best Tauck trip we have ever been on. Created memories that will last forever. Our tour director, Steve Sara, was fantastic. Made this trip very special. I celebrated my 80th birthday on this trip, and was worried that I would have to pass up on the walk with gorillas segment, because I might not be able to do the walking. Well, Steve arranged for my wife and I both to be carried in sedan chairs by porters to a point near the gorillas where we could then walk the remaining distance to see the gorillas. This involved a basket with cushions and pillows that was carried by 4 porters. You laid down in the basket. It was expensive ($320 each for 8 porters and the litter) but well worth it. We pushed through the brush and were 5 feet away from a big silverback! We spent an hour with his group of gorillas, that included a number of infants. Wow!
jonmacks
Re: Tauck Survey—Short Trips
I agree with the moores about how nice it is to spend more days in one city, as well as staying in one hotel during that city’s stay. I suggested that Tauck follow up with some examples and allow us to vote on their choices.
Seeing some of the major attractions is nice, but some of us prefer a more in-depth, immersive experience. Overall, I thought the survey was well done and I am glad Tauck solicited input.
- I did this all by myself without copy-paste-copy paste and I even acknowledged a fellow traveler *
kfnknfzk
Re: Tauck Survey—Short Trips
Why is it necessary to copy and paste someone else’s post before adding your own comments? It is so impersonal. Can’t you say, “Jack, I have a different perspective…(or something like that).
There are a number of reasons:
- It indicates exactly what and who you're replying to, especially if the post you're replying to is several posts back. If you don't copy, it requires the reader to go back and find what Jack said in order to make sense of what you're saying. When the other person's post contains multiple comments, you can quote only the part you're replying to.
- People can change their original post (even delete it), especially after you make your post and the reader may wonder why you said what you did. They can't change what you copied into your post.
- Some people just like to do it that way.
I wish more people would copy when they are responding to something specific that another person posted. It would make reading the post clearer. In other forums that I participate in people almost always copy a previous post if they are responding to what that person said. It's much clearer.
Of course, you can abuse copying, by selecting only certain words, phrases, or sentences, as Smiling Sam does in the next post, to ignore the full meaning of the original post.
Re: Switzerland Crown Jewel Trip Sept 12 - 22, 2025
We just got off this tour a week ago - it was among the most memorable of our travels. Our TD, Birgit, has become our favorite Tauck TD (to-date). She was exceptionally well-organized, thorough, and possessed a comprehensive knowledge of both the places we visited and the history (et al.) of the nation. Our bus driver Erich was phenomenal. We were very fortunate to have a very good group of folks on this tour, also (i.e., not even one Late Linda or Lance holding up everyone's day or Crabby Kendra or Ken too-frequently looking at everything "half-full").
There is nothing negative to say about this tour from our experience - even the local guides were outstanding. I will say this only as a means of "managing expectations" . . . Switzerland may be famous for its chocolate & mountain cheese, but don't expect "wow" cuisine - nothing at all bad about the food, just to say that food isn't the highlight of a tour in Switzerland.
If you come in early to Lausanne, consider going to the Olympic Museum - Lausanne is the Olympic HQ of the World. To share a little anecdote from our trip, we transferred from a hotel in Puidoux (Lavaux wine region abt 20 min from Lausanne) to Lausanne Palace the night prior to a free day which would conclude with our tour's Welcome Dinner. At breakfast on that free day, we ate near a lovely couple with two small children roughly the ages of two of our grands, so we struck up a conversation. When we mentioned we're from Austin, the wife mentioned that she'd trained at University of Texas, and the more we discussed other locales we'd visited or lived, we learned they've lived or visited there also on business. When asked what their business was, they said Athletics . . . being in the Olympic Capital of the World, that reply registered but we didn't press. My wife asked the wife of the couple (who trained at UT and made the rounds of several US universities) what she did - she replied "I was a swimmer." Later, at the Olympic museum, following a time line of the modern Olympics on which were pictures of each historic President of the International Olympic Committee, we came to the latest individual, recently inaugurated June 2025. It was Kirsty Coventry . . . the woman we'd met at breakfast! She is originally from Zimbabwe making her the first African, as well as the first woman and the first Olympic competitor to serve as IOC President. Ya never know who you'll meet on a Tauck tour!!
Re: Tips for Namibia
Part 2
Game drives are dusty and cool in the morning but it gets hot! You can drive for miles In Etosha and not seen a thing, partly because there are vast areas of dense vegetation, bushes and trees, but when you do find the animals, there is a good variety. My favorite here is the Oryx, a majestic animal. You will see black rhinos, yellow mongoose, springbok, steenbok, lechwe, less common in other countries, as well as ‘the usual’.
Safari vehicles. Most of the lodges we visited favored tall open vehicles which are tricky to climb into. You climb up steps and over the high door lip to get in. Be aware I am talking about our experience, I don’t know what Tauck will find at their resorts.
We visited Himba people, Zemba and Herero people, joined in a bit of dancing and ‘chatted’ with sign language type actions. We supported them by buying their crafts and taking sacks of maize meal, oil and Demerara sugar.
We took about a two hour walk with San bushmen, seeing their survival skills, making jewelry and bows, shooting bow and arrow and the sign language motions to understand and laugh with each other. We visited a kindergarten school sponsored by a charity and observed a lesson and singing. We visited a couple of villages, saw the homes, were shown how homes were constructed. We saw the farming areas, drove through numerous cattle farm gates. We saw charcoal prep areas. We had bathroom stops in service stations and went into the convenience stores, all super interesting. We had the school charity guy tell is about how international projects can fail if they don’t understand the cultural differences or consult the people. We saw successes and failures.
We learned how the increased population puts pressure on the landscape. Trees are cut down for homes, fencing and fire and clearing for crops. Large areas are now open and it does the soil no good. Water is a scarcity. Many people have no electricity or water. Water has to be taken from the river or standpipes in large 20 liter containers. Many wash themselves in the rivers if they are near one.
This trip, we just about went to every area of the country.
Our entire 17 days, we never came across another American, British, Canadian or Australian anywhere, whether it be resorts, shops of tourist spots. Most tourists we saw were German, French or South African.
British