Tour confusion
I’ve been checking out the Tauck travel updates today and notice that the Israel and Jordan tours are now listed as a go, even though as I understood it, Israel is closed to tourists again. Most of the tours are now showing available, even though just a few weeks ago, all the Small group tours were sold out.
Has anyone taking this tour been contacted by Tauck? Has anyone cancelled to a later date?
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We are departing on 4/28/22 small group and it is still listed as sold out. We have not been contacted by Tauck about any cancellation nor have we postponed. If Tauck is going, then so are we.
Yes, if Tauck is going, so are we too. We are on the classic tour, not sold out yet, never was, looks as if it is yet another tour we will be on that has less numbers, may have saved ourselves $1000 each. We originally booked a small group in 2020 because the date suited us best.
Latest update from Tourist Israel released 1/3/22.
https://www.touristisrael.com/when-will-travel-to-israel-resume/31963/
USA & UK among others still Red Listed
Although the US is listed as a “Red Country” not permitted entry to Israel, the statement indicates "Visitors from Red countries require advance special permission to enter the country.” Is it possible that Tauck has obtained such permission for its tours? Since, we’re not going until late April, I’m not too worried about it yet.
I read the special permission forms, we don’t fit the criteria, such as to bury a dead relative, get married etc etc etc
Tauck now says that these tours are cancelled through end of Feb. We are on the mid-March small group tour. US State Dept says do not travel to Jordan. Not feeling the love on this; were booked for this tour in 2020 and 2021; probably 3 strikes and your out as far as this goes.
Jay I was on the December Jordan-Egypt tour. Jordan was fabulous and there was not a moment that I dd not feel safe. They have very strict COVID protocols in place and Tauck did everything possible to ensure our safety. Tourism is very important to Jordan. All guides, hospitality workers, etc. are required to be vaccinated and tested regularly.
I suspect the reason the tours are cancelled thru February is related to Israel. I hope your mid-March tour is a go.
Jay, you think you have problems.. our tour is March, we were happy to go. The US State dept has said for a long time not to travel to many countries, nothing has changed.
We are on a tour right now. We paid up for our entire I and J. Tour before we left, had our flights confirmed. Today, while we are in the middle of a rainforest with limited wi if, we received an email from Tauck, our flights have changed completely, now three legs, two of them in the US, Philly to Newark and then to Zurich with a one hour layover. We are having to miss doing our afternoon activity here to call Tauck. Fifteen cents a minute. We are now waiting for a call back and phone service is iffy. My husband is prepared to cancel the tour for this reason, we too booked it first in 2020
You can drive from Philly to Newark faster than flying when you add all the arrive early, baggage, security, etc. admin. stuff! I hope it all works out.
Why such urgency to ruin a tour activity? It can't wait until tomorrow, or next week when you get home?
Alan, that’s what we are going to do, drive to Newark, although it doesn’t save us a penny. We will have to get a limo as our return flight is to Philly. We have also gotten the earlier Newark flight as a one hour layover in Zurich was not acceptable to is. Spent 45 mins on wait with Tauck including a call back from them that did not connect.
BMKD, we don’t get back to the US until January 25th, we wanted it sorted, especially if it meant we canceled. We missed a nature walk this pm, so we tot the pool, had a cocktail and a swim. When our group walked by, they actually looked envious. We are going to tease them tonight that all the howler monkeys were playing in the trees by the pool.
OK, fair enough.
Another way to get to EWR is train. When I lived in Bucks Co., it was pretty easy via NJ Transit from Trenton or Princeton Jct. and there's a Newark Airport stop on the NE Corridor line. I know it's a bit more complicated from the western suburbs, having to transfer from SEPTA, but may be worth consideration if any of the drive time is during rush hour.
Nice thought BKMD, but we tend to use a reliable limo service to the airport these days, we just consider it part of the price of a trip, though of course it’s cheap to Philly airport, but we have used it for Newark and JFK. Coming home, it’s safer anyway after a long flight or even having to dig your car out of snow, if you can even remember where you parked it.
By the way, we’ve just had a lovely dinner, back in our room and hearing two of the women on our tour having a massive row at the top of their voices, next door, some windows are just screens, so hearing everyone, been going on quite a while….now who said small group tours were an advantage….only fifteen in this group. Ah, I think they have stopped!
We were on a Viking Tour Egypt/Jordan November 2021. We have never been on a Viking Tour. What we liked was Viking had a 7 nite Nile River Cruise in addition to the days on tour in Cairo; there were 32 of us. 20 of us went on to Jordan. Egypt was amazing. We always felt very safe. I was impressed with our Tour Guides. Had 2 Motorcoaches. Always felt safe. Police escort, sometimes on the buses (they wear suits), sometimes they were driving in front of us in uniform. If we were at a market, or sometimes a crowded stop, we would see 2-4 more policemen in suits meet us at bus. Jordan, 1 bus for 20. Police on bus all the time. Outside, masks when in crowds. It was not that crowded due to COVID. Petra was unbelievable. We had planned a pre Jerusalem/Bethlehem tour, but was cancelled 2 weeks before. Viking changed our flights from Israel to Cairo. Return to the USA remained the same since we were flying home from Amman Jordan. We booked this pre COVID and decided to go for it. We are scheduled with TAUCK Essence of Japan May 2022. I doubt that will go since Japan is having their COVID problems. Do not see it all coming together and we are scheduled May 5. We were scheduled, 2020 and then 2021 and we know that did not happen. Japan easy trip for us, we live on Maui.