How far out do you book your Tauck Tours & when will 2024 dates be released?
Just curious how far out everyone books their trips?
We are 'planners' & we are both still working (in our early 50s). We also have to save and plan for trips pretty far out so we can pay for them and our airfare. We do travel a lot independently (not with a tour) as it's a lot cheaper, but we LOVE Tauck & do try and do a tour every other year. This year, because of COVID, we have TWO tours coming up - The Ultimate Alps & Dolomites with the Passion Play in September and the Danube Xmas Market River Cruise in Nov/Dec - but we can only afford 2 because they both COVID canceled from 2020 & 2021. We also have the Rhine Xmas Markets booked with friends for Dec. 2023 (which is already selling out).
The Xmas Market River trips are really the best 'bang for our buck' - they are the most affordable Tauck trips available.
Thanks to Alan S - we also booked our airfare at our 330 day mark and was able to get Delta Premium Select for less than we usually get for Coach for BOTH our upcoming trips in Sept and Nov.
Now I am eyeing the Tuscany & Umbria trip (with some friends who have never been to Italy) for 2024.
Just wondering how far out you all begin looking for a trip and how far out you all actually book a trip?
I read your posts about all these amazing and sometimes very frequent Tauck trips (many times a year for some of you) and hope, one day, my husband & I will be able to afford one Tauck Trip a year. I'm a nurse and he's a police officer, so we do have to budget -- plus, as a nurse, we have to put in our Vacation for the entire year in October - so for me to get 1-2 weeks off, I have to put in for it well over a year in advance.
Any idea when Tauck will release the 2024 dates? Think it will be later this year, or not till 2023?
Comments
My husband and I are like you, Terilynn. Still working and very much have to budget and plan to pay for our Tauck trips. As such, we have planned the few we have scheduled years in advance and booked them as soon as they are available. One of them we had pre-requested with Tauck for when the dates officially came out and they contacted us to see if we were still interested and wanted to proceed.
I'm trying to get on the list for two 2024 tours right now. One of them opened up as a "wait list" but the other not yet.
In general, we plan our trips a couple of years in advance. These days, you have to because the tours and cruises fill up so fast.
It depends on the tour but probably average is a year out. Land tours don't seem to fill up as early as river cruises. Plus Tauck frequently adds dates for land tours later.
We booked our Douro cruise this year back in Dec 2020 before prices were released and a group of us women booked Christmas 2023 cruise last Feb. As you said they fill early.
Right now my husband and I are trying to figure out what we're going to do together next year. It will likely be a land tour.
We book our tours as far out as possible and are also on a wait list for a 2024 tour. We were on a wait list for two previous tours, one was published on line before we got a call, we had to call them. The other, we never got a call, our friends who were added to our reservations did and they bagged the best cabin. They eventually cancelled many months later and our places got cancelled too by mistake, we were furious at the time. Having booked it over 18 months in advance. We called and were reinstated just in time before they sold our cabin to someone else.
So right now, I hope this doesn’t happen again and we get the call before our preferred date gets filled. Also, Tauck will not tell you how long the list is or where you are on it.
normaly new tours & prices get release around March/May of the prior year- so for 2024 it will around March/May 2023. But they do have waiting list out to 2 years in advance.
Since we have several preferences...touring time of year, tour group size if a land tour and cabin size if riverboat or small ship, we book as soon as the dates are published and/or when we are notified. I am anxiously awaiting the 2024 dates to be released since we are planning a small family/friend group excursion. As to when those dates will be released, I think this fall; however, that is pure conjecture on my part. With COVID, I believe Tauck's securement/renewal of contracts with vendors has been delayed.
Tauck told me some tours for 2024 are already published
I just went on the website and could not find any 2024 tours listed. There's a selection for date, and 2024 is one option, but no matter how I tried, I could not find any tours listed for 2024 (yet).
We have asked to be put on a list for a 2024 small ship tour because there are only 6 cabins in the category we are interested in. Tauck does not have it listed yet but we indicated the month we wanted. Ponant does not have the tour listed yet either. We have done this in the past for small ship tours and Tauck will notify us when it is open. Our request is not listed n our account and when I spoke to an agent recently on another trip she seemed clueless about our request and I gave her our info all over again. Fingers crossed.
When we were working, we had to budget for one Tauck trip a year. Now the mortgage is paid off and we are retired, we are doing 2 trips. Generally we book one year out, except for small ships. Small ship itineraries seem to fill up and close faster than the land tours. Small group tours also fill up earlier. We keep our eye on them.
British - Please advise which 2024 tours are published. Like bucketlist, my search indicated no tours. Thank you in advance.
Bucketlist - I believe I know the cabin you are referring to. Depending on the cruise (no need to divulge), we might have some friendly competition to secure that cabin! Good luck!
When you go to the Tauck home page and select 2024 in the Departure Date of the Search Window and search, no tours are found. This would suggest Tauck hasn’t listed any tours for 2024.
I haven’t looked for any tours but the one I’m interested in. The agent told me dates would be available next month.
In the not too distant, but pre-COVID, past, the XMAS Mkts, cruises were some of the first to be posted and open for booking- over two years in advance! We booked the 2020 XMAS Mkts on the Rhine river cruise on 21 Oct 2018!!
Of course, we all know how that turned out as well as the 2021 re-booking!
I'm sure there were a few other tours with lead times approaching 2 years.
We usually decide where we want to go and reserve about 18-20 months in advance. Currently, we have 3 booked for 2023 with the last being a river cruise in October 2023. We’ve not yet made decisions about 2024, although we have several on our bucket list. When we worked, we’d do one big tour about every 15-18 months; being retired and having lost 2 years due to Covid, we are doing 2-3 each year.
I recently reserved Russia and the Baltics for Summer 2037. By the the war should be over and Putin hopefully dead.
We booked Douro w/Lisbon & Madrid in Jan of this year for Oct 2023. Didn’t get prices until early April.
Terrilynn, we are waitlisted for a Seine cruise in 2024. Easy to get on the list even tho it’s not open yet.
BTW, we may be on the same Danube Christmas Markets trip this year…we’re doing Vienna to Nuremberg beginning November 29. We’re going to Vienna two day early.
I just tried the search again on the Tauck home page looking for available 2024 tours.
I found out this oddity. On the home page the Departure Date box allows you to select 2022, 2023, or 2024. I selected 2024 and searched. It returned No Results Found and said I should check my search parameters. On the search box presented on this page only 2022 and 2023 were options in the Departure Date box.
So Tauck lets you think you can search for 2024 dates based on the home page, but then tells you that in reality you can only search for 2022 and 2023 dates after you've tried a 2024 search.
At some point I expect 2024 searches to return some results, but who knows when that will be. I'll just keep trying.
Whem we asked to be put on a wait list for 2024, Tauck wouldn’t let us a few months ago, they said to phone back, when we did at the recommendation time, it appeared the lists had been going for a while.
I was just looking at Singapore and it now shows 2024 dates! So they are adding some trip dates. My guess is that more are on the way!
I just booked Morocco for Oct 2023. Currently have 3 Tauck tours on the calendar.
We have booked four trips with Tauck for 2023. My TA suggested that as soon as Tauck releases dates for 2024 that we start booking early especially if you are interested in a river cruise as they tend to fill up quickly.. We are also going to Morocco but leaving on Nov 9, 2023.
You will love the Morocco tour. It was one of those tours that exceeded my expectations.
We just booked our July 2024 tour at 8am this morning. Noticed it was up at 6am. We were on the waiting list but did not get a call before this. We have taken up 9 spaces on that date.
We try to plan as far out as possible for Tauck. These are our 'cornerstone' trips that we plan everything else around...filling in the gaps for the rest of the year. Currently waiting on Egypt/Petra to open up for early 2024.
Traveling solo as I do I have no choice but to book very early as the solo spaces are limited.
Thanks, Nancy, for your note regarding some 2024 tours being released. I'll be checking daily now for the ones I wish to book.
Yes, ditto Nancy! I’ve been looking frequently but took another look after you posted and there was our trip. I still don’t understand why Tauck releases the dates before the calling people on the waiting list. We actually changed our original wish date because we realized other choice was going to hit the July 4 th holiday madness.
I usually see the released tours before Tauck calls, as well. I think it is just a function of them having to methodically go through their call lists. Perhaps in time they might have a more robust system. I don't mind since I have been very fortunate in securing the tours I want. The one exception is the small ship tour (our first one) we are taking this fall. I didn't get the cabin I wanted and had to settle for something smaller. I'm sure it will all work out okay.
Please, tell me how to get on the Wait List for a River Cruise, in 2024 when the dates aren’t released yet.