Best Of

Our travels; Barge trips can be a little bit like , “Murder on the Orient Express”. I had friends who did a barge trip with one other couple who were good friends before the trip. After the trip they never spoke to each other again. In my view you want to do a trip that is large enough to allow you to escape from people who annoy the stuff out of you. I have only had a problem on one Tauck trip, but it was a couple we could not get away from … from Malibu. I think the proper size for a tour is one that is just large enough to allow you to avoid people that are having a negative impact on your experience.

I try to not pick small groups for Tauck tours, yes, a variety of people to hang out with is so much better.

Thank you all for your thoughts, especially during this busy time of year, and also to British for pointing me to an alternative which is definitely worth considering. Never hurts to plan ahead especially seeing that these river cruises are so popular. We have 2 small ship cruises planned this year, and I am thinking we might end up liking the "unpack once" aspect of the trip.

I loved my cruise on the Rhine, the Main and the Danube, but I went with another company. We added and extra three days in Prague at the end, and it was a great experience. In my view, Budapest illuminated at night is prettier than Paris.
This photo of the Chain Bridge was taken from inside a cab in a rainy night. Unfortunately, the Gellert Baths in Budapest are closed for renovation now.

Wan, I’d like to encourage you to take the land Warsaw Vienna, Budapest Prague tour which we took some time ago. I don’t remember it being particularly taxing and even our tour director mentioned you see more than on the river cruise. Unless there is a reason you are leaning towards river cruises, I highly recommend that.
Poland was a big surprise , I’d always wanted to visit since I have been friends with a girl of Polish heritage for fifty years and she loved it, was always talking about it’s beauty such as the Tatra mountains. We would go to see her do Polish dancing and eat all Polish foods. We admired how her children were bilingual and yet they always just knew to speak English when we were around out of politeness. We loved Warsaw and Krakow, we took a great cookery class and Vodka tasting in Warsaw before the tour began. It was so funny, that night at the Welcome dinner was a Vodka tasting. We went straight for the one we knew was the best…the waiter said we chose the best, yes we know, we had some earlier today! We dared not have any more, we did not want to be drunk when meeting our tour group for the first time 😂
Budapest and Prague you mention were wonderful. Our tour director Mark, was one of the most experienced Tauck people who also told us a lot about Jewish history even though it was not the special Jewish Tauck journey and he was the one who put the idea into our heads to visit Israel which we did just before the war started.
If you take the river cruise, then I suggest going on to Prague yourselves and staying several days.
Having said all this, we are taking a Danube cruise in March which has opera type entertainment each night. It’s a short cruise and funnily enough almost identical to the short river cruises that Tauck are just introducing slightly off season. We visit Budapest but also Salzburg which we haven’t been to. A Sound of Music tour if i remember correctly. We would love to visit Prague again, but maybe another time as we can’t be away too long at that time of year.
Probably not all that helpful to you, but might make you think about alternatives.

Okay, based on the comments I will offer further comments.

The only reason to book through Chase Travel is for the points. The points can be taken in cash and equate to 8% cash back. However, with some airlines, you can get double the value when booking through Chase Travel (equivalent to 16% cash back!). I only use my redemptions for the double point airlines. It works out that if you use them for single value redemptions, you are better off taking the cash and spending it on the airfare, since you only get new points on cash spent and not points spent.

No other card I know of gives high multiple points for tours. Most of the other elite travel cards (Amex and Cap One) only give extra points for hotels and flights.

Let's say you book one tour per year. Assume the tour costs $15,000 for two people (conservative for Tauck these days). There are commonly available cash back cards that get you 2%. So, booking with Chase Travel on the Sapphire Reserve card gets you a minimum 6% more or 14% more if you are able to use the points for double value airfare. That's minimum of $900 in extra rewards and $2100 if you use the points for double value airfare. If this is all you the card for, you're $505 ahead of charging the trip on a 2% cash back card ($900 rewards less $795 annual fee plus $300 annual travel credit).

Other benefits I find useful:

$300 credit each year for travel purchases (doesn't have to be through Chase Travel).

Free subscription to Apple+ streaming.

Lounge access - Priority Pass and Chase Sapphire Lounges (one just opened here in Vegas).

$150 dining credit every six months - limited selection only in large metro areas, but there's a restaurant we like near us.

Travel insurance ($10,000 per traveler per year). Not enough to completely cover some Tauck trips, but enough that Ill risk the difference.

Rental car insurance that is primary. Saves you having to ding your personal auto insurance if you have a mishap.

There's also a $250 credit every six months towards hotels in their select (expensive) list (minimum 2 night stay). I don't expect to use this regularly, but it might get me into a nicer hotel for less money sometime.

I understand that some people value the convenience and personal relationships of booking directly through Tauck or a trusted travel agent. That's fine. For me, I'll take the extra cash back.