Excursion choices Tauck Classic? French Escapade - Saône/Rhône
When selecting from excursion options, what does it mean if the title is followed by "(Tauck Classic)"? I am interested in hearing opinions about options for French Escapade. I am set on 3 of the 5 days' excursion options. First of the two undecided days that I am seeking advice: The guided walking tour of Chalon sur Saône that includes tastings at a bakery, a chocolate shop and a mustard shop OR a Burgundy wine tasting. I do love wine, especially reds, but there will be a wine tasting included later in the tour's itinerary at Chateauneuf du Pape (totally different wine, I know). I don't care for chocolate but pastry and mustard interest me. My second undecided day... A tour of the town of Vienne OR cycle Via Rhona (along the river)? An online search states that Vienne has the 2nd largest market in France on Saturdays... and we are scheduled to be there Saturday October 8th. And I would enjoy seeing its Roman temples and theaters. Wondering how much free time is included in these towns. I have enjoyed cycling on two other Tauck river cruises.
Comments
In the old days, you didn't get a choice of excursions. I believe the Tauck Classics are the ones that Tauck did when your choice was take it or leave it.
Yes, Ken is sort of correct. The Classic is what most people have done in the past. I’d like to add, that since these choices are now on tours, you actually end up doing less because in the old days you would have likely done both things. We particularly noticed this on our Iceland tour. The year before you pretty much did everything mentioned, but for our year it changed so we had a choice most days, did the trip and then we were stuck back on the ship for the rest of the day, Some of us wanted to pay to do the alternative too which was at a different time of the day when we would be back, but on the Ponant tour, Tauck only budgeted for one.
Tauck is for sure adding more and more of this type of choice on river cruises. We had several on our Danube/Rhine one back in 2019. We signed up for them before then tour but when we arrived in Budapest the TDs gave us a form to reconfirm (or change) our choices and added a couple like menu choices for the palace in Vienna dinner. They also held a short info briefing so you could ask questions and get more information.
Bottom line - make your best guesses for now but I believe you'll have a chance to change them when you join the tour. I think Tauck just likes to get an idea of numbers early on but can adjust later if needed.
Patrice - I think my husband and I are going on the same tour/dates as you. I too struggled with the choices as the both looked good on all days. We selected the wine tour, but I did send Tauck an email requesting more details on where etc. I selected the cycling on the other one you mentioned - to balance out all the food we would be eating. Getting alittle concerned though after reading through a lot of posts on COVID and airline travel issues (ugh). Trying to work through my paranoia right now.
Patrice,
We visited Vienne on our own after the Savoring France tour in 2019. It was an easy and short train ride from Lyon where we had added some post-tour days. We love food markets and the one in Vienne did not disappoint. It was certainly not as large as Les Halles in Lyon but far less crowded.
Have a great trip!
Thank you all for the helpful posts. Knowing that I may be able to change after the tour begins, and have an opportunity to get input from the TD, I've chosen the walking/tasting tour in Chalon instead of wine tasting and the walking tour of Vienne instead of cycling. I am hoping there will be free time in Vienne to explore the Saturday market... If there are no changes to the itinerary. There is an opportunity (day 5 afternoon) to cycle along the Saône whlie the ship cruises and catch up with it at a docked location. So I may do that if weather permits.
LindaMarie - I will direct mail you to address your Covid concerns and share my experience from my Douro cruise last month - June 2022
kfnknfzk - maybe we were on the same Savoring cruise - I "Savored" south - Paris to Lyon September 2019 - so we entered the locks high and dropped to exit. Last month on the Douro west to east we entered low and rose to exit. Quite an experience.
I haven’t been to France for a long time. But we visited numerous markets and they all were done by about noon.
Thank you British - that's a critical point. My favorite market was in Arles (not on a tour). We stayed in a VRBO in 2010 and rented a car. Like in the US - the earlier market shoppers get the best selection. The popular stands sell out.
Patrice - Sep/Oct 2019 was when we did the tour. Do you recall if one of the tour directors was Elisabeth?
September 14 to 23, 2019 - Our awesome TD was a British woman - Shireen - who lives in Evanston, IL and the two French assistants were Aurore and Barbara. These women really knew the history and culture of the areas we visited. So eager to share their insights and learn about the guests too. It was my first Tauck tour. My favorite so far out of 3.
You were before us, Patrice. Shireen was our cruise director. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the tour. It was one of our favorites, as was the Douro. Very different experiences but fabulous!
I was most recently in market-rich France (Aix/Marseille/Cassis) in early 2020. Food markets typically open around 6-7 & run til 1-1:30. Other markets, antiques, e.g., stay open all day. Check the town in question online; there are lots of websites. And occasionally there are late-in-the-day markets, even in France.