Best Of

As mentioned, I’m currently on a tour and our fantastic, eloquent, charming and articulate tour director made a simple point of emphasizing that a tour director’s job is not an easy job at all but we already all know that. There is so much of behind the scenes communicating with the Tauck main office that we, as Tauck guests, are unaware of. They are away from relationships from where they live, they don’t have their weekends with their family or friends because they are touring and orchestrating everything for us.

" What kind of 3 years old trust the Tauck Air Department? They have done so many nasty things to me on the A Week In Portugal trip in order to put me on the $3000 business class airfare as part of the deal. Should have never taken it. They literally told me I cannot take this one particular flight no matter what or you will forefeit the benefit."

What kind of "nasty things" could they possibly have done? Told you No. Forced you on a plane at gunpoint.

Given that the Take Off With Tauck airfare deal is only offered for that years tours, the airline schedules are available to research within the 10 day window that Tauck allows you to cancel without penalty. If you didn't like the flights and/or prices available thru them you could have (1) booked your own airfare or (2) canceled the trip.

We tried using the Take Off with Tauck airfare deal last year and the air dept could not come up with a combination of flights to/from our home airport that qualified for the deal. Because it was within 10 days of booking the tour I was able to cancel and get all money back.

If you're not happy with what happened henrypoon, some of it's on you. If you want to travel with a different company - Tauck and the rest of us with limp along without you.

Tauck never even mentions flights. If you book your own flights or even arrive days before, they pick you up from the airport. If you can afford A and K Henry, go with them. Who wants to travel with you anyway.

We are going on the French Escapade cruise in July. I have a flapper dress and shawl and I bought some accessories on Amazon. I am rearranging what I am taking as I only take carryon. My husband is trying to decide what he should wear. I am excited about this event!

Ok. I am going to try to make this my final entry on the subject. My searches indicate Tauck TDs basic salary is 57K to a max of 93K. The estiimated tip amount is around 32K. So the highest paid TDs are probably making around 125K, which is considerably more than the average for people working in Milton, CT.

To address terrilyns post: we took the Rick Steves tour Best of Greece a number of years ago bringing along our then 20 year old daughter. Any tour’s success is the sum of many parts: the destination, the group, the guide, the food, the weather etc. I say that only to point out that this tour was our favorite of the many we have taken-it hit all cylinders. It starts and ends in Athens . It is not a Greek island tour, but does overnight in Hydra. Hydra is the closest island to Athens, a short hydrofoil ride away, and can be swamped with day tripper. At night, we owned it, and it was a delight. We also visited Delphi, Napflion, Olympia, Kalamata and several small seaside and inland villages. A special time was in the mountains where one afternoon we dined on trout which had just been swimming in the waters below our feet (the restaurant was on stilts). Athens was amazing- we were there the week the Acropolis Museum opened and toured it on our own. We also visited several smaller museums as well as the Acropolis and other ruins. This September we are taking the Tauck Aegean: Athens to Istanbul. The new Greece Tauck tour (this original post) is intriguing as it covers the north, especially Meteora which is a bucket list destination. I would bet at some point the sequence will be changed to end in Athens but I could be wrong. So, how best to see Greece? Well, here is the worst, IMHO: a large cruise ship. Now we love to cruise but spend most time aboard. I see pictures of Santorini when several ships are in port and shudder (hope we avoid that, but who knows). And you’ll miss most of the flavor of Greece by not doing a land tour. I failed to mention the people-they are delightful. English is widely spoken (after all, who else speaks Greek) and we were warmly welcomed everywhere. I can’t tell you how many times someone would say this or similar: “You’re from America!! I have a cousin in America! He lives in Chicago his name is Dimitri, do you know him!!?” Good luck deciding!