Best Of
Re: Capetown Restaurants
Baia is a great spot and only a 5 minute walk away. There are many other restaurants in the V&A Waterfront that you can scope out when you walk that area. In addition, the High Tea at Cape Grace is a "dinner" alternative.
Re: Unfortunate mess up of Danube cruise
How very unfortunate. We had a similar river experience with low water being the problem. All you can really do is make the best of unfortunate circumstances and enjoy whatever location your at.
Unfortunate mess up of Danube cruise
When Tauck says “ Expect the Unexpected” I doubt they were referring to this weeks tour “Musical Magic on the Danube”. My hubby and I went to Paris for two nights prior to joining the tour in Budapest. Delta/ Air France lost our checked bag on our way to Paris and we spent our one free day running back and forth to the airport to be sure we got our bag prior to flying to Budapest. We joined the boat last Friday 5/31 and docked for two nights. The rains came then and next in Bratislava, and as you may have seen, the Danube flooded, and we rushed to Vienna, and could go no further on the cruise. Not the fault of Tauck, but we spent five nights docked with countless other boats. We saw a beautiful opera and got our fill of Vienna, but it is unfortunate we have not cruised elsewhere. We were taken by bus to Melk ( only those who wanted to go) then yesterday about a dozen people decided to go to Salzburg for a couple hours, riding about four hours each way from Vienna. The tour directors have been trying to do their best with a difficult situation, however this has become more disappointing as about 30 of our group is now lost on our way to Czesky Krumlov. The rest of the group chose to go directly to Prague. We have now been in the bus going on 4.5 hours and still not there.
On top of all this craziness my husband got a bad cold 3 days ago. He is feeling better but had to see a doctor yesterday in Vienna and get an X-ray and ultrasound to rule out some rib pain he was having after coughing so much!!! The tour staff has been wonderful , but what a trip this has been so far. I’m disappointed that we did really did not cruise, but that is just our bad luck and timing on this entire trip. I was determined not to do a land tour but that is what it has turned out to be.
I’m not telling anyone on this board to not cruise the Danube, but be prepared as anything can happen. Some trips are just better than others!
We still have two days in Prague and I’m praying they are frustration free.
Marla526
Re: Nice clothes for dinner on a Bridges tour?
So I have to convince my teenage daughters to not bring their entire closet?!😆 my philosophy is basically- you pack it, you carry it!
Re: England, & The West Country
Wow. St Michaels Mt, Tintagel (castle ruins) and Port Isaac would be some serious walking. The rest doesn't seem that ambitious. The 4 for pace is hard to see from the itinerary without knowing morning start times, etc. Looks interesting though.
Essence of Japan Tour Improvements
We just returned from a May departure. Here are some of the improvements we noted based on earlier guest comments on this forum.
- Previous travelers did not like the Hotel Nikko in Kanazawa. This hotel has been replaced by the Hyatt Centric which was very nice.
- The lunch menu at Nobu appears to have been changed as we had a very good bento box lunch there
- The dreaded bento box lunch on the train has been replaced by an allowance to buy whatever you like at the train station to bring on board with you.
MM Walsh
Re: Activity and Pace Levels
Don't forget to mention the boat ride on Lake Ashi ( need to climb stairs fast in a crowded setting), Hakone Open Air Museum(all uphill and downhill), Matsumoto Castle ( emoved this year due to having to climb swinging rope ladder and narrow wood steps using only your hands as support).
Re: Grand European River Cruise
Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions. I went to my bank and got a little monies for each country. My mind will be spinning at airport arrival. One less thing I have to think about.! This is my 6th trip with Tauck.... I wouldn't consider anyone else.
Geer
Re: Dinners seating?
I thoroughly enjoyed Essence of Japan. Yes, Tauck takes care of everything for you, but isn't that why people go on tours to begin with? It all depends on your comfort level being alone in a foreign country, where you don't speak the language, and they use 3 different alphabets that are all alien to us. Since the 2020 Olympics, more signs are in English but you can't count of finding English everywhere.
There were times when we went ahead of the group to see more of a site at a faster pace, and met back at the bus at the designated time. We also left the group to see sights that were not on the itinerary and returned to the hotel on our own. In our free time we always went off on our own. We saw a baseball game, went to a kabuki play, dined in train stations, and explored the cities. If you feel comfortable going it on your own, no one is going to stop you. It is easy to get around the cities by taxi. Just carry the hotel's card with you so you can show it to the driver, as most taxi drivers do not speak English. The train system is very good if you are comfortable navigating it yourself. There are information offices in every station and you can usually find someone to point you in the right direction.
The hotels were top rate and the food was great. My only caution is that travelers need to have the physical ability to keep up with the pace. This is not a leisure trip. You will be on the go every day.
MM Walsh
Activity and Pace Levels
As Sue M. noted in another discussion, Tauck has upgraded the activity and pace for Essence of Japan from level 2 to level 3. These are described as:
Activity: Active components such as hiking, bicycling and walking longer distances may be included and hills or uneven terrain may be encountered on several days. Guests should be able to walk 2-3 miles and stand for long periods of time with no difficulty.
Pace: Often robust - may include long days, active sightseeing, early starts, evening activities, significant travel times.
The only thing listed above that this tour doesn't include is bicycling. This is a physically active itinerary. You not only need to be able to walk 2-3 miles, but you need to be able to walk 2-3 miles every single day for two weeks straight. According to my pedometer, the shortest total distance we walked in one day was 2 1/2 miles and the longest was 7 miles. We averaged 5 miles of walking per day over the entire tour.
You also need to be able to manage uneven terrain, lots of escalators, stairs and paths where handrails are not always available, and get on and off the bus several times a day. You need to be able to keep up with the group while walking through very crowded train stations, sometimes while carrying your own carry on luggage and be able to get on and off the trains in just a few minutes per stop. This is definitely not a leisurely paced tour. You will be on the move all day, every day, for two weeks. You will see and do a lot on this tour, and it will be well worth the effort.
MM Walsh