Best Of
Re: Tauck guests on small ship tours
Schmoozing at “Candles”, the steak house on the Wind Surf with our traveling companions and our favorite waiter.
Sealord
Tauck Cuba: A Cultural Odyessy - Feb 2025
https://youtu.be/43Pw7HB7Luc
This 20 minute video describes in some detail the 16-22 February 2025 Tauck Cuba: A Cultural Odyessy Tour. The tour covered legal sightseeing and cultural locations in Havana and in Vinales Cuba. The question I ask all viewers who watch this video: "Is Cuba in Feb 2025 a Heaven or a Hell for the Cuban people living there?" Certainly for tourists such as myself, Cuba is a wonderful Heaven with many interesting places to visit and wonderful colors everywhere. Being a "People-to-People tour, you do get to interact with many Cubans directly. As for the constant Blackouts. Fear not, we were not impacted at all. Great Food, Very Good Hotel, and Intesting places to visit. I highly recommend all take this very unique Tauck tour.
Re: Tauck guests on small ship tours
Different strokes … There are bus people and there are boat people, and the two may never meet.
Put a different way. 😀
There are people that like to see the sights and people that like to sit around the bar schmoozing with the other guests, and the two may never meet.
Don't get me wrong, I like the schmoozing around a bar, but that's not what I paid thousands of dollars to do.
Re: Considering Pavlus to book our next trip...any thoughts?
I have had the same travel agent for well over 20 years. She is worth her weight in gold, platinum and silver. I have been in quite a few situations while traveling that I called her or that I needed her expertise because of flight changes or flight cancellations. I don’t want do this while traveling. During the pandemic, she was able to get me all my cash back from the flights I had booked; not airline credits that I didn’t know if I was going to use. There are ways TA’s can do such things and more. I have made changes to my future trips even when my TA has taken over my reservation. I have paid Tauck directly through the online paying system for my trip also without the assistance of my travel agent. I do not know what commission Tauck gives a travel agent. She is worth it to me.
Re: Morocco during Ramadan
We were in Morocco with Tauck during the start of Ramadan just a few days ago. It did not affect our enjoyment of the tour at all. In fact, we got the benefit of learning more about Muslim culture and experienced watching local people making/buying /selling special holy day foods and the excitement of preparations.
AJSinNC
Re: Morocco tour
Just returned from Magic of Morocco Feb 23-March 4. A really wonderful trip!! Mark van Houten was a stellar TD.
We got $100 worth of dirham ( also referred to as “MAD”) out of an ATM the first day and barely touched it. VISA is taken almost everywhere and we did not encounter any minimums ( although cash is always preferred in those situations no matter where you go.)
One exception: Local currency is needed in form of pocket change to tip all restroom attendants. This is not really optional.
However, in true Tauck, ‘we think of everything for our guests,’ fashion, Tour Director Mark provided a stack of such coins for each traveler on our very first time out which 100% solved that 
AJSinNC
Re: Excursion Choices
Unless it's one of the cycling excursions (where there might be a limited number of bicycles) I can't imagine there would be a limit. I've never had an agent at Tauck say that or seen anyone on a Tauck river cruise not get there excursion choices (6 cruises to date). Not that many guests are particularly prompt about reading all the emails from Tauck and jumping on something like this so if you're reasonably diligent you should be fine.
Re: Considering Pavlus to book our next trip...any thoughts?
I have booked directly with Tauck, and I have also booked through a travel agent. I prefer the latter. Five years ago when the world shut down I was on the Elegant South Africa trip. Two couples left the trip in Joberg. We continued on to Vic Falls and finished the tour. My travel agent worked her magic and got us home on March 17 after United cancelled our flight. We were one of the last flights out of Joberg. If I had used a travel agent on my last trip to Namibia I would not have had such a difficult time when United cancelled not one, but two, planes out of Newark Everyone needs to do what is right for themselves and their circumstances. Happy Trails!
Re: Ideas for before tour starts
This was a very enlightening discussion. Well said everyone. Iblesrned a lot. I am also taking a train from Nice to Marseille where our Tauck tour will start. I’ve noted on my account of my train arrival. Let’s see what happens and if there will be a transfer. I haven’t heard otherwise.
I have already put all the pertinent phone numbers in my iPhone. That is, the Tauck emergency number, the transfer company, the hotels. I put everything under the letter “A” in my contacts so I can see everything together, one right after the other. That has helped me in the past.