Best Of
Just returned, terrific trip
We thoroughly enjoyed this trip. We have traveled to Italy many times and have spent a considerable amount of time in Venice. Nonetheless, this was an excellent tour for us. I won’t give a blow by blow report as the itinerary has been well described. Here are a few highlights and learnings:
Our TD was Theresa an American who married a Venetian and has lived in Venice for thirty years. She was top notch. During the tour a guest fainted in the bathroom sustaining a head wound. Theresa spent the entire night with her in the hospital returning at 5AM. Nonetheless she was back on duty at 8. She had great suggestions at every turn and her approach to laggards who occasionally held up the group was fair but firm. Local guides were excellent.
Hotels and meals: the hotels were top notch. The breakfast buffets over the top. Meals at the hotels were generally good although we enjoyed our group meals out a bit more. We were given a reservation time and went as small groups. Wine flowed freely at every meal. The Hotel Gritti Palace in Venice was over the top in every way. If you are a Marriott member give them your number and you’ll get points for the incidentals.
The tour: we arrived in Milan 2 days early. We found out just before departure that this was fashion week. Many celebs and influencers none of whom we recognized. Our first meal was at Paper Moon and was one of the best of the tour (thank you @sherry_schare !). We managed to see the Last Supper but this was not easy as tickets are being scooped up by the tour companies. The duomo
climb was fun but our legs ached for days. People watching was the best. The tour visits Lake Como, Stressa, Verona, Bologna and Venice. While in Venice we found the Hotel Flora where we had stayed in 1989 while spending a week cooking with the late Marcella Hazan. We wanted to get a photograph of us in their delightful courtyard-garden where we dined for breakfast back when. Well, I don’t think the employees we encountered were alive in 1989 but they were thrilled with our story! Not only did they take our photo they insisted we stay for complimentary coffee and pastries. We nearly cried. What a happy morning!
Bus: the time on the bus was pleasant and the rest stops were enjoyable for snack shopping.
Dress: I’ve spent too much time on this forum so succumbed to bringing a sport jacket. This meant a checked bag which quickly filled with other things we really did not need. I was the only one on the tour with a sport jacket. Unless required on future tours I’ll not do that again. The weather was mild to cool. We wore jeans every day as did other tour members, nicer slacks at night. If you are a fashionista leave room in your luggage. The clothes in Italy are beautiful!
Tippping: Our TD said this: tip the driver in Euros. Getting dollars is a huge burden. Because of anti money laundering efforts it involves going to a bank where they photograph each bill one by one front and back. Then there is a delay while they run a check of sorts only to charge a terrible fee for the exchange. We visited an ATM for his tip. Her we tipped in USD as she said that’s fine as she returns to the States often.
Italy is wonderful. If you can’t find something to love there, then you can’t find it anywhere. This tour gives you the opportunity to see places less visited (except Venice) but be prepared for crowds anyway. Travel is in full force.
Fell free to PM me for questions! Ciao!
October 7-Israel
There were several posts a year ago from those of us that were in Tel Aviv on the Israel Jordan tour when Israel was attacked. We cannot believe that it has been a year…..We are convinced that Tauck did an incredible job in getting us home safely under a very difficult and stressful situation. We pray for peace in the region quickly. Safe travels fellow Tauck travelers!
taxare
Tips, insights and observations for those taking Essence of Japan tour
We greatly enjoyed our Essence of Japan trip, and I wanted to share a few insights, suggestions and observations-
(1) The people are incredibly friendly and helpful. Whenever my wife and I were on our own and needed help finding a nearby restaurant, store, subway stop or shrine we were looking for, we would ask for assistance from someone and they were invariably helpful, despite the language barrier. Sometimes they even walked with us to take us to our destination, or did a search with their own smartphone or iPad to find out how to get there.
(2) There is no tipping in Japan--none! The only person you need to tip is the Tauck tour guide (not the local guides).
(3) No need for special adaptors or converters for your laptops, phones and other electronic devices-outlets in hotels are same as in US.
(4)The water is perfectly safe to drink everywhere. No need for bottled water at restaurants or elsewhere.
(5) Public toilets are clean and free, and are plentiful in places visited by tourists. Unlike China, the vast majority of public toilets are "western-style" (meaning they have seats). Apropos this subject, the super modern, high-tech toilets at the hotels are quite an experience!!
(6) Taxi drivers in Japan are the most honest taxi drivers we have ever encountered. They will take the quickest, most direct route, and won't rip you off. However, their English is often spotty at best. To avoid problems we would ask the concierge to write down for us in Japanese the name of our intended destination, as well as the name of the hotel, so we could show to the driver(s). This also comes in handy in case you are walking around and can't find your restaurant or your way back to the hotel, and want to enlist the help of a local pedestrian.
(7) Take the subways in Tokyo. They are clean, modern, very safe, and extremely user-friendly to English speaking tourists(the machines at subway stations that sell tickets have an English option, and subway stops are shown and announced in English). Tokyo is a big city, and the easiest, fastest and most fun way to explore many areas of interest when you have free time is to take the subway. Don't confine yourself just to the Ginza District-there is so much more to see! We took the subways to explore the Shibuya area at night (very highly recommended!), the fancy stores on Omotesando street (including the architecturally magnificent Prada store), the Imperial Gardens and even more beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens, the Ameyoko street market and nearby Shinobazu Pond. By the way, we were able to see so many different areas of Tokyo because we added an extra day on our own there. In my view, even though Tauck allocates 3 nights to Tokyo, there is not enough time to see the many great places there because the tour starts in Tokyo late in the afternoon on the first day, and during the two full days in Tokyo with the tour there was only one afternoon on your own.
(8) Crime is virtually non-existent. You can and should walk around and explore the streets at night, especially in Tokyo and Kyoto, which are wonderful at night.
(9) ATM machines are prevalent in 7-11 stores, which are ubiquitous in Japan (really!)
(10) When you have free nights in Tokyo, Kanazawa, and Kyoto, leave the hotels and go out to local restaurants. With the expert guidance of our concierges, we went to several terrific restaurants where we were the only English speaking patrons, and we enjoyed dining with local residents in non-tourist places. The language barrier was not insurmountable, and the authentic experience was so much fun. Try lots of different cuisines-during our lunches and dinners on our own we had sushi, tempura, yakitori, ramen, teppanyaki, and monjayaki, all of which we really enjoyed.
(11) If you want to see a Japanese equivalent to the Harrods Department Store food court in London, go to the basements of any of the big department stores in Tokyo-an extra fringe benefit is lots of delicious free samples! By the way, we did our gift shopping in the beautiful department stores--they have such a broad selection of things to buy for yourself or your family and friends, ranging from custom made kimonos to sake or tea sets, do a great job of wrapping and making purchases safe for travel, and their prices are not tourist-driven. Plus, shopping like a local and with the locals is fun. Also, if you buy more than $100 worth of items, you get a tax rebate on the spot if you have your passport with you. Tip-if you enter the department store when it first opens at 10am or 10:30 am, it is amazing to see the staff all line up at their stations, and bow and greet the incoming customers!
(12) The hotel in Hakone and the ryokan in Gero Onsen have very nice onsens (hot springs) separated by gender. In order to enter the waters of the onsen, you must first shower in a nearby area and then enter the onsen waters naked- no bathing suit, no underwear, nada. It is a quintessentially Japanese experience. On our trip, my guess is that about half of the tour members elected to give it a try (unlike going out to restaurants on our own, where new friends often joined one another for dinner, almost everyone who ventured to the onsen did it on their own, and at times when they presumed that other tour members were unlikely to be there!). I really enjoyed the onsen and found it both relaxing and culturally interesting, but my wife and the two women she befriended on the trip all took a pass.
(13) In Kyoto, during your free time, you must go to the Silver Pavilion, which is part of the Philosopher's Walk, which encompasses various gardens, shrines and temples adjacent to one another. It is just a short cab ride from the hotel. The amazing gardens at the Silver Pavilion were one of the highlights of our trip, and frankly I am perplexed why the Silver Pavilion is not part of the trip itinerary. Also, during your free time you should visit a beautiful shrine and garden (Heian Jingu Shrine), and a giant, colorful torii gate, one of the largest in all of Japan.
I hope this posting is helpful, and that you enjoy your Essence of Japan trip as much as we did!
BurtM
Re: CPAP distilled water
I hear where you are coming from, but can you imagine the logistics involved for Tauck if every traveler requested something special to be available at each hotel throughout the tour. Calling on your own seems to be the best solution, guaranteeing that the result met with your desires.
Re: SINGAPORE /BALI TOUR
I’m at the last stop of this tour. Here are the daily sheets from our tour. Sorry for the sequencing errors.
17-27 Sep 24 Tour Review
We just got back from the tour so I thought I’d write a brief summary/review. This was our first North American tour with Tauck.
If your idea of a perfect tour is 5 star hotels, gourmet restaurants, and majestic museums/castles/cathedrals, this might not be the tour for you. The hotels tended to be more business conference sites except for the last two – Keltic Inn and Liscombe Lodge -which were more unique. But all provided clean rooms, adequate facilities and friendly staffs. The food was good but not gourmet. The best meals were the welcome dinner at the Halifax Citadel, a couple of the hotel dinners and the caviar/sturgeon 7 course event. Of course seafood abounds but there was always other options. The museums were small but interesting. Anne of Green Gables fans would enjoy the tour there. The main "sight" was the scenery like Quaint Lunenburg, Peggy’s Cove, the PEI coast and especially Cape Breton.
We added both pre and post tour nights to the tour. Coming from outwest as we do, there was no itinerary that would get us into Halifax earlier than 10pm. The final tour day doesn’t end until noon and they recommend not booking flights earlier than 2pm. So we, and about 8 others, stayed another night for a very early morning departure. It’s a good idea anyway as the tour itinerary doesn’t include any Halifax sites and the hotel rate was reasonable. The Prince George was very nice and well located. There was a change to day 3 of our tour due to ferry schedules so we did get to visit the Immigration Museum.
This is a very casual tour. At the welcome only one man had a sport coat and it was a very casual one. Mostly you want to be able to adjust to temperatures. Being Sep we had a couple of sunny days in the 80s but the rest were cool and often cloudy when I wore a light jacket or puffer. Only got rain the last day. None of the hotels had robes or slippers, though most had pools/hot tubs so you might want to include flip flops if you plan to visit. Also, only the Prince George had room safes so we typically brought our passports with us daily in waist bags. The Delta hotels in St John and Charlottetown had coin operated laundries if needed.
It's not a physically demanding tour rated as a 2 but could be a 1 if someone wanted to just skip a few short hikes or climbs. All the hotels had elevators except the last 2 that were only 2 story buildings.
Will this tour rank high on our favorites list for all the wonderful sights we saw? Probably not but I’m glad we went. It’s a very interesting area wrt the history and the different people who have lived there like the Acadians, the Scots, and the native Mi'kmaq. It was also a unique tour in that our TD was a local having grown up in New Brunswick and lives in Halifax. He and his family’s history made the tour much more personal. It’s my understanding that all Tauck Canadian tours must have a Canadian TD. In my opinion that is a smart choice.
If I can answer anyone’s questions about the tour, feel free to ask. I’ll try to post some pictures.
Impressions from Grand European River Cruise
I've read and learned so much from this Tauck Forum and the comments and suggestions from Tauckers (Taucksters, Tauckies, Tauckites, Tauckaholics??), that I thought I should now contribute as I experienced my first Tauck Tour and my first river cruise (Grand European Cruise) this past July/August.
While this was my first Tauck Tour, I am not new to group travel nor European and international travel. I've previously traveled several times with Globus, Insight, and several smaller companies who specialize in one country or destination. Throughout my travels, I recall seeing Tauck motor coaches in front of five-star hotels while our tours were at three and four-star properties, and thinking “someday I'll travel with Tauck.”
This past winter I received a mailing from Tauck with an enclosed postcard to check off destinations of interest, so a few weeks later I received my catalogs for Europe and River Cruising. The brochures are so beautifully well done, that I spent quite some time perusing and studying the destinations and itineraries. And what really caught my eye was the opportunity to go on a river cruise with no single supplement for the lowest category cabin. So while I had no plans of traveling this summer and hadn't been to Europe for many years, I rather impulsively called Tauck in February and booked the trip; one of the best decisions of my life.
The ship (MS Esprit) was beautiful, immaculate and glistening. My cabin, while even the lowest category, was very well suited for a solo traveler. It was cleaned twice a day, had a very comfortable bed, plenty of closet space, and I appreciated the coffee maker and small refrigerator with cold drinks. Tauck's partnership with Scylla is seamless, as the entire ship staff was professional and friendly. By the second or third day, I was greeted by name by all the staff.
The food was absolutely delicious! And the service in the dining room was outstanding under the leadership of the wonderful Maitre D'. I am very familiar with fine dining, and every meal and every day, the Compass Rose was just that. Arthur's too was very nice for a snack and a cappuccino.
The shining stars of the entire trip were the three Tauck directors; Sanja, Darinka, and Razvan. All three were superb! They each were highly intelligent, experienced, kind, friendly, patient, and unflappable; I admire them greatly. I was so impressed how we were separated into three smaller groups at each of our destinations, and how one of the three directors accompanied each group along with the local tour guide. This kind of service and individual attention to each passenger is of great value and separates Tauck from the rest.
By the third day on the ship I was so impressed and pleased with everything, I spoke with our Tauck cruise director Yener about booking for NEXT summer, and he was able to connect me with Tauck reservations from the ship. I was excited to book two back to back river cruises that begin in Paris. I think the greatest proof of my satisfaction, praise and commendation for Tauck is that of booking future travel while on my first trip. In fact, I've become something of an unofficial Tauck ambassador. I was praising Tauck to people who were traveling with that “other” large river cruise company who I encountered at our hotel in Bucharest, as well as on the airplanes, and of course since I've returned home.
I'm looking forward to many, many more Tauck Tours in the years ahead. I met a great many fellow passengers who had been on twenty plus Tauck Tours. I have some catching up to do! Funny story, I met a nice woman the first day of our trip and asked if she'd ever been on a Tauck Tour, and she unassumingly affirmed that she had. The first evening on the ship, as we sat together at the Captain's Welcome Toast, our Cruise Director asked for a show of hands of first time Tauck travelers, then those who'd been on ten, then twenty, then thirty Tauck Tours. Then he said that one of our passengers had been on 72 Tauck Tours, this being her 73rd! Indeed, it was my new friend sitting next to me. Wow!
88Grand
Re: First Tauck Tour Great Migration Kenya and Tanzania
We took the Great Migration tour several years ago and loved it. It was our first and only tour of Africa and we wish we were young enough to plan another African Safari.It was totally luxurious and we were perfectly suited to it even though we were 75 and 85. Tent cabins are carpeted, electrified, spacious, have ceiling fans, private bathrooms with shower and come with down comforters. All the comforts of home with animal noises to lull you to sleep! Relative to British's comments I believe that the tents are mobile, which means that the Camp site management is responsible for relocating the venue to accommodate the migration of the animals, but from a travelers viewpoint nothing has the appearance of a temporary structure. Even the dining room looks permanent. Our weather in July/August was perfect...cool to cold in the mornings and evenings and little or no jacket needed in the afternoon.
Re: Activity and Pace Levels
Henry, Henry, Henry- why to you torture yourself so and bother to travel?
AlanS