Just returned from I/J Nov.2022
We just returned from the I/J trip with no covid restrictions. Having been in Israel before we were less impressed with this tour than we have been with other Tauck trips. First the service was as excellent as we have been accustomed. The tour director Erich and the local guides were all first rate. The hotels as rooms and locations were fine. The hotel service showed the covid effects of being less than usual. The food was entirely boring, bland and disappointing. This may also be an effect of covid but was definitely not up to Tauck standards. The meals were virtually mirror images of each other and the variety of foods served was non existent. The mezze were the same each meal and the mains were similarly bland. I would surmise that Tauck did not choose the menus for each venue but let the local contractor do it. The meals were mostly 'family style' and this close to covid, that is a bad idea. Having been in Israel before I would have chosen some different venues to visit. You can't satisfy every one with the venue choices but I think some rethinking of which one's are on the tour and how they are done is in order. If the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is an important site for you, visiting it when it is wall to wall people is not satisfying. If the Temple Mount is important to you, rushing through it likewise isn't particularly satisfying. If the biblical history of Jerusalem is important to you, not visiting the City of David is a negative. This tour does do an adequate 'overview' and does it well. If one has something else in mind it may be less satisfying. On our trip only 5 of us chose to go to Jerash. We all enjoyed it greatly. The majority of the tour members however passed on it. This may reflect the five of us knowing what we wanted to see and it may reflect the others not checking out what Jerash was compared to a day at the Dead Sea resort. On the other hand they may have not been interested in the archaeological site. Having the choice was a good idea, offering more venue choices may well be the way to go. On the whole this is a very good trip. It does require continual oversight of content and performance. Parts of our experience with this trip, especially the food offerings could stand review and improvement.
Comments
I think anytime you revisit a place vs seeing something for the first time that you will be less impressed. At least that's the case for me. During a first visit you experience all of the Wow factors, whereas during subsequent visits the Wow may not be there.
That's one of the reasons that I don't repeat tours and try to visit totally new places. That isn't always possible, but I try to minimize the areas of a given tour that I have seen/visited previously. In Europe, you oftentimes will have overlapping areas from previous tours/visits. This is especially true for certain cities like Paris, Vienna, Venice, etc. These cities tend to show up on multiple tours itineraries. I think Tauck is aware of that and tries to add some different stops in each of these cities to help minimize the overlap.
Some people, do just the opposite it seems. They find a tour or type of tour that they really like and so they repeat it every few years. Some people that post on the forum have been on several Christmas Markets tours, others have been on several safaris, others have been on dozens of Windstar tours, etc.
There is no one size fits all. But I do think that it is always a good idea to study the itinerary of any tour in detail so you know in advance how much overlap you might expect from previous experiences. If you're aware of this in advance then you won't be surprised or disappointed in seeing things that you have previously seen.
cleew Hi.
on top of the customer service and the group-bad behavior issues... 
One way to prevent disappointment and to see what really interest you, would be for the traveler to do its homework, know what the country/city has to offer and just do a pre-post day to cover it. - Also, remember tours are an introduction to any country/city- a fast way to see it... if you like it and want to go back- you can always go on your own and get a private guide to take you around.
The food is a different story, I personally would think Tauck would check the food suppliers or at least check with the hotel- what they cater.
Last thing Tauck needs now, it's to have a food crisis
My opinion...
Mil.
I did this tour in 2019. Personally, I found the coverage in Israel too cursory, but as mil said, it's an introduction. I found the food to be excellent, as one would expect when all the ingredients are locally grown and fresh. And the restaurant in Akko, Uri Buri, was one of the best meals I ever had. Now if you're a meat and potatoes guy, you went to the wrong place. I'd recommend central Europe (Czech, Austria) for that.
Smiling Sam...Spot-On. This is something I considered as I will be repeating a major portion of the Portrait of India tour during the Northern India/Nepal tour. Lucky for me, I thoroughly enjoyed Delhi & Agra--parts of India we will be re-visiting, but wasn't relishing visiting Mumbai--my least favorite part of the tour (aside from the aroma in Varanasi)
After reviewing the itinerary, I realized the tour portion has been tweaked a bit for the India/Nepal tour. I was planning to arrange a separate tour of Elephanta Island while the group toured Mumbai. Elephanta Island is now part of the itinerary. It may be one of those instances where Tauck realized some folks will be repeats in order to have access to the Nepal portion of the trip and changed it up a bit.
BKMD...the mention of Akko and Chef Uri Buri makes me smile. Unfortunately, I have yet to prepare any of the meals in the cookbook.
Pure Luxury - Be sure to invite me over when you do.
However, it probably helps having the Mediterranean right outside your front door!
cleew....perhaps the food situation was Covid related. I took this tour in November 2019 and the food was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. It was definitely information overload, but like Mil said, I did a bit of homework and knew what to expect. I dropped off the tour at Masada because I was scheduled to take Jordan-Egypt tour in December 2020--(well, Covid pushed it back a year).
Jerash was amazing. I cannot believe folks decided to skip it in favor of spending time at the resort (although the Dead Sea was an incredible experience as well). I arrived a day early and spent a considerable amount of time at the Dead Sea and enjoying the amenities of the hotel.
There are some very good observations in the responses. For clarification we are very experienced travelers. We research all our trips including the I/J trip. We have experience in the travel, hotel and food industries. We are very aware of what Covid has done to the hotel and restaurant industries. Tauck will doubtless take note of the information. Continual attention to maintain quality is necessary in any business. I’m sure Tauck will note the commentary here given the popularity of this trip. Evolving the trip content is also worth consideration. As suggested travelers are well advised to research the trips they consider booking. With resources like you tube they can often see some of the trip content posted by prior travelers.
cleew, Tauck doesn't really monitor the forum. If you want to get information to them, you need to contact them directly.
BKMD - wasn’t that lunch at URI Buri’s the BEST! And the ice cream for dessert was divine!
Cue Smiling Sam to post his dessert plate pic.
For me lunch was good, but not memorable (no pictures), but dessert, now we're talking!!
So yummy! I have a similar picture. Thanks for posting.😋