Day one Spotlight on India

DavidPeltz

I find myself most irritated as to the lack of clarity to what happens on Day one on this tour
On one piece of correspondence Tauck clearly states that there is a 2 o'clock mtg and a group dinner.
I cant find anything else that confirms this information.

As it turns out today is an important birthday for my wife so we went out to celebrate last night so that we could attend the group dinner.

I have higher expectations of this company.
it appears that the first day of a 12 day tour is simply to make a hotel room available
something doesn't make sense

Dpeltz

British

People arrive at different times. Also, most normal people are pretty jet lagged after arriving. I remember we arrived very late at night and slept very late the next morning, but it did not matter for us because we got there two days before the tour began, others arrived the day it began. Most people need time to recover on day one. It is a tiring tour and quite a few people on our tour did not participate in every site seeing activity, especially those who arrived to the tour at the last minute. If you call Tauck they may be able to clarify better than expecting someone to give you correct answers because Tauck tweek the tours and there are differences to when I took the tour. Also, if you are not an experienced traveler I would not plan too much before the tour begins because India is definitely a culture shock.

AlanS

You did not identify the "correspondence" but, typically the information follows a progression from general to specific-

The itinerary on the Tauck website
the itinerary in the "green book"
the itinerary for the following day or days and supplemental information contained in the welcome package you should have received from your tour director upon check-in at the hotel
The first "go sheet" (daily schedule)

Day 1 is typically to allow for guests to arrive and get settled. I believe it is also when the insurance kicks in

Also, realize that any or all of the above are subject to change, depending on the situation. There are any number of factors that can affect your schedule, so it is best to be flexible. If you want to hard schedule a supplemental activity you can often skip a planned tour activity. You should discuss this with the TD to ensure you will not miss a mandatory event or a departure for the next stop on your journey.