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Tauck's Virtual Tours

Travelcrazy

I'm sure many of you know about these, but I never got the invites until now. I just participated in the virtual bicycle tour of Florence, and while it's not the same as being there, it was really nice to pretend that I was there listening to the tour director on my VOX, even if only for an hour.

This is some place I've never considered going, but after this, I may change my mind. I liked that they had a Q&A session at the end, too. Now I need to check out some of the prior ones that they've posted on the Taucker travel blog.

Comments

MCD

I had another commitment, so I couldn't do the Florence bike tour, but I absolutely loved Florence! I spent a few days there on Tauck's tour that began in Bellagio and ended in Rome, and the following year, I went back for almost a week on my own. Actually, I was there for a wedding, but spent most of the time on my own, and loved every minute of it. It's a lovely city.

British

We were able to watch most of the tour until we had to leave fro an appointment. It was excellent. Florence is my favorite city of all the places I have been in Italy. Last time we were there we had a fabulous dinner that included the tripe that was mentioned, it was a northern England dish when we were kids and I used to make it for years, tripe and onions made in a pressure cooker with a milk based sauce, yummy.

gladysorlando984

I loved the Florence tour, remembering all the places I have visited, Florence is one of my favorite cities.

sfpami

How can I get a link to watch this?

Kathy M

Go to www.tauck.com/blog. You can see a number of presentations that Tauck put together.

Smiling Sam

kfnknfzk - You can go to the Ponant website or search YouTube to find numerous videos that describe the amenities of the various ships. I've done one tour on four different types of ships/vessels used by Tauck: a Ponant ship on the Venice and Dalmatian Coast tour; a Windstar ship on the Greece and Turkey tour; a river boat on the Berlin, Danube, and Krakow tour; and an 'expedition' boat on the Galapagos tour. Each was very appropriate for the tour. I have another Ponant ship tour (Iceland) scheduled for next year.

Smiling Sam

krnknfzk - I found the Ponant/Tauck tour shore experience to be quite enjoyable. On my Venice and Dalmatian Coast Ponant/Tauck tour, the entire boat was not Tauck people. I don't recall the exact number of Tauck people but it seemed like it might have been less than we had on the Tauck river cruise. The shore excursions were all enjoyable. The Ponant ships are small enough that you dock in most cities (but not all) vs moor offshore and use transfer boats to/from shore. On my Venice/Dalmatian Coast tour there were only one or two cities we didn't dock in. One was Dubrovnik, Croatia. The shuttle crafts were very efficient. In terms of the on-board experience I found the riverboat and Ponant ship experiences to be 'fairly' similar in terms of amenities.

The other two types of boats that I've been on - Windstar (Greece/Turkey) and Isabella II (Galapagos) had fewer passengers than the river boat did.

I prefer the small group land tours, but for some desired itineraries the shipped based ones are the only option. I've done nine Tauck tours. All have had some or all land based component, although some were only a day or two land based with the rest of the tour on a ship. Greece and Turkey had a couple of days on each end on land (in Athens and surrounding area and then a couple of days in Istanbul), while the rest was shipped based. The Venice/Dalmatian coast tour had a couple of days in Venice and then the rest was shipped based. The riverboat tour had a couple of days in Berlin prior to the riverboat and a couple of days in Vienna and Krakow after the river portion. The Galapagos was entirely shipped based, but the tour included a week in Peru (land based) before getting to the Galapagos. The land based portions of these tours had the same small group tour feel, with hotels ideally located, with local guides for every 10-15, or so guests.

In summary, I prefer the small group land tours because I prefer the ability to venture farther from port cities, more than I do the convenience of not having to pack/unpack multiple times. I'm not positive, but for our Ponant/Tauck tour it seemed like the per day cost of the tour was a fair bit higher than for the land based tours. Perhaps if we had gotten the lowest class room on the ship that wouldn't have been the case. There are none of those 'class' choices to make on the land tours (with perhaps a few exceptions that offer some upgraded rooms). That said, if the places I want to see require going via ship then I go via ship. For me, it is all about where and what you are seeing.

Travelcrazy

sfpamisfpami
How can I get a link to watch this?

If you want to be notified of future webinars in real time, I believe there is a place to sign up for emails at the bottom of the blog. They also streamed the last two live on Facebook on the Tauck page, but you would need to know when they are happening. If you can't find them, these are the links to the two I attended (Florence & Antarctica):

https://www.tauck.com/blog/cycling-through-florence/

https://www.tauck.com/blog/antarctica/

British

Although I don’t care too much about gold and diamonds, most of my jewelry is fake, I d rather take great vacations, I really enjoyed this presentation. Probably my favorite so far because it was done so well. We took Elegant South Africa quite a long time ago now and remember having the lecture on diamonds. I can’t recall whether it was the same woman, but enjoyed that too. I think the main difference with the tour now is a much better ‘Resort hotel’ In Johannesburg. When we went it was in the middle of a shopping center. Not that it is safe to wander round Johannesburg anyway. When we went, a colleague of my husband’s who was South African said not to go the Joburg without a bullet proof vest!