Airport pick up
We are arriving a few days prior to our tour and staying at a non Tauck tour hotel. Tauck said they will arrange for us to be picked up at airport. Just curious how reliable is the pick up service as I know some friends have had issues over past few months with pre arranged pick up thru very reliable tour companies? Just wondering if should book my own thru hotel or just hope all works out with whomever Tauck contracts with.
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We've never had an issue (9 tours) and I've only once heard someone have a problem. There has always been a driver holding up a Tauck sign right outside the area of the airport where we picked up our bags.
Do make sure you have the phone numbers for the service Tauck had arranged which will be listed in your final tour documents emailed to you after final payment.
Out of my many trips, I've had minor issues with airport transportation on 2 trips (delays and confusion). That said, if you are just going from one hotel to another, it may be easier and more direct to simply arrange a taxi, assuming it's the same city, rather than getting back to the airport. (edited for typo)
There was no information on the final documents yet regarding who will pick us up. They said that will arrive within 24 hours of pick up which is a little stressful and unusual.
That is unusual. In the past the final document didn't name the company that will be picking us up but there's always been numbers ( calling from US and a different number if there) plus the Tauck emergency number. We also have gotten texts from Tauck the day before.
We leave Friday on the Hidden Peru and the Galapagos tour. Yesterday, we received a reminder from the company that will pick us up at the airport with a telephone number to contact them if necessary.
We've done a number of Tauck tours. There was always a Tauck representative meeting us at the airport - never a miss.
Noreen - Here is a picture on the way to the Mira Flores hotel from the Lima airport.
Have a great trip. This is my second favorite Tauck tour, with only K&T being ahead of it.
Here was the view from our room at the Mira Flores Park Hotel.
In my experiences, Tauck have only recently been sending messages 24 hours beforehand to tell you who the car service will be.
We have only once not had the transport arrive and that was in January on our Arabian cruise, a brand new Tauck tour. We had the emergency numbers and called them. eventually someone came, but he was not the driver. He took us to another area and we had to wait again for the driver. There was an elderly couple looking confused who we recognized were with Tauck. If we had not been there, they had no clue what to do or how to call the emergency number. They were really distressed and we had to reassure them we would get help. When our luggage and their’s did not arrive off the plane, they were all set to return home they were so upset. . We had to help them with that too. It turned out they live a mile away from us and we have been out for dinner. I doubt they will travel with Tauck again.
We're leaving Friday for our trip to France. Even though there was pickup information in our pre-trip documents, Tauck sent us both a text to our phones and an email confirming the pickup information (two days before departure, 4 days before the tour start).
As others have reported never had a problem with the pickup in 20 trips, even when our flight was a bit delayed. Occasionally, we've had to wait a bit for others to arrive or had small challenges finding the person with the Tauck sign. I would not be concerned at all relying on Tauck.
It is a real toss-up the worst traffic is in Lima, Naples, Rome, Paris???
You need to keep two phone numbers handy (programmed)- the Tauck emergency number to report arrival delays, etc. and the number for the transfer company. We've only had to use the first number. We also contacted the transfer company directly to give them a head's up our flight had been changed, but it wasn't necessary because Tauck passed that info along. We called at night to I believe was the drivers home number or cell, because a half-awake woman answered (it was late at night) in broken English.
I think there are a lot more cities to be considered in that list.
Yep, Philly for one.
Washington DC is pretty bad mainly because everyone there learned to drive somewhere else - different states, different countries - under different norms. I learned to drive out west where highway entrance ramps are long and you're expected to accelerate coming down them to merge onto the highway. People I knew from back east with short entrance ramps were taught to slow down or stop at the end and wait to enter. Great scenario for a rear-end collision.
Yes, Claudia, they do the stop on the ramp thing in Philly, too (or did when I lived there). Boston is bad, too, although better since the Big Dig was completed. I think the streets in downtown Boston are based on where someone's cows walked in the 17th century.
My prizes for the worse traffic in the world (based largely on bad drivers) are Delhi and Bejing. In Delhi, they say you need three things to drive: good brakes, a good horn and good luck! In China, we were told that getting a license was very difficult and required a strict knowledge of the rules of the road. That knowledge was immediately forgotten once the license is issued.
I grew up in DC where I learned how to navigate the circles. There are not many native Washingtonians and even fewer who know the etiquette of the circles. Needless to say, it can be a ‘wild west’ situation.
I have had a couple of trips where the airport pick-up didn't happen. The first was on an Alps trip in 2011, my first Tauck tour. I have no idea why -- and back then, I wasn't comfortable calling anyone local, even if I had a number.
The next was Portugal in 2022. In the latter case, it could have been:
(1) because my arrival flight and airline was changed by the original airline on the date of travel. I did call the company that was to have picked me up and left a message (from home in the US) about the new flight arrival information but maybe that message did not make it to the person who was supposed to pick me up; or
(2) because my luggage did not arrive, and I had to wait until every bag had been unloaded from the plane and transferred to the carousel, and then had to file a claim , and had to wait for someone to arrive to come to the "claim booth" to handle my claim -- which meant that I was significantly later than the time that I had been scheduled to emerge from immigration. (I did try to call the company that was supposed to pick me up, but, due to my ineptitude with international calling, never made it through.)
In both cases, I took a taxi from the airport to the Tauck hotel, and in both cases, was reimbursed by the tour director for the cab fare plus tip, no receipts and no questions asked. That's why I like to have local currency before I leave home.
So, don't be afraid to take a cab. Stick with Tauck and you'll get reimbursed.
I learned how to drive in hilly SF on a stick shift. I did go through a couple of clutches.
We used to say there were two principles to driving in Naples- "the law of gross tonnage- the bigger vehicle always wins," and he who gets there first wins."
Two other big problems in DC are all the one-way streets and delivery trucks and taxis- double or triple-parked.
Smiling Sam - We are staying at the Country Club LIma hotel and not the Miraflores hotel. We have a pickup arranged for 3:00 am as AA changed our flight and it now leaves Tucson airport at 5:17 a.m. It is going to be a very long day! However, I am very happy to hear this was one of your favorite trips.
Out of my 26 trips I only had trouble with pick up once in 2010, I landed in Munich went 2 days early and there was no one at the airport to pick me up, I called the phone number given by Tauck and whoever answered told me they had no instructions to pick me up. I took a cab to the hotel and the TD reimbursed me for the cab fare.
Alas Nice airport pickup last month didn't show for those of us arriving a day early & I heard the problem wasn't resolved until the following afternoon! Of course Tauck reimbursed for the overpriced taxis. The airport is nearby and Nice's efficient trams offer a 15-min. ride into town for €1.50 lol. While this was my first no-show, I have had unfortunate delays where the greeter is there, but the driver is elsewhere and/or staff are running around trying to locate people, so it's best to build in extra time and not schedule anything shortly after landing.
With regard to pickups arranged by Tauck, over our last fifteen trips with them, we have only had a ten-minute challenge in the Geneva airport and train station combination where the pickup person was not in the right spot. But we talked to him directly by cell phone and the problem was gone. Typically I believe that Tauck employs highly reliable pickup and even drop-off people at the end of the tour....companies to ensure you get where you need to be. They all have Tauck signs and are well aware of the various phone numbers to use...for us and the pick-up people. We have never been told the name of the company or the driver that would pick us up, but we always have multiple phone numbers to notify Tauck of delays or whatever. And given how important these pickups and deliveries to airports at the end of tours, I know that Tauck is quite sensitive to ANY issues. Tauck pays these pickup/drop-off people and companies well, and I trust they are dropped like a hot potato if any problems arise.
So, please take all the phone numbers Tauck gives you and make sure your mobile can make and receive calls in whatever country you are in. You will have a great time.....we always do...that is why we keep coming back!!
This is the text I got yesterday, This type of text info is fairly new for Tauck
Your Tauck Transfer Information:
Dear Mrs. ——- our transfer company is expecting your arrival in Phoenix on Jun-23 at 11:09 AM on flight AA——-
Upon arrival your driver will be waiting at the base of the escalators just prior to baggage claim. He will be uniformed in a black suit and will be holding a Tauck sign. If you cannot find your driver please call The Driver Provider at +1 800-700——
From all of us at Tauck, have a wonderful time
Noreen - You are correct about the Country Club Lima Hotel.
Margaretann: The hotel is in the middle of a wealthy suburb across the street from a golf course. There is not much to do around there. There are a few shops adjacent to the hotel on the right. You can walk to the Huaca Pucllana historic ruins. Long lines, inexpensive and they have a senior discount! You may want to go through the Parque de Olivar instead of the busy streets. A closer ruins site, Museo de Sitio Huallamarca, is smaller with a small museum attached. No lines. You will see mummies and the short tour puts the site in context.
Not sure why Tauck changed it from the Miraflores. At least Miraflores is near the ocean and a lovely lineal park runs along the coast. We had no problems with pick up at the airport.
Great trip. It is like having 2 vacations - Land tour in Peru focused on history and culture then a wonderful small ship in the Galapagos immersed in nature.
We've received something similar via txt msg and email for a few tours now. I like them, even though the info has always been the same as in our e-Green Book. Of course, if we don't get one, I'll be nervous and looking for it to see if there is a change.
One minor problem (slight confusion?) was arriving at CDG for Normandy, Brittany . . . a day early. There must have been at least 3 - 4 or more drivers all in the same area outside baggage claim, holding Tauck signs, but none had names, (more co-travelers or other Tauck tours starting about the same time?) so we had to go from driver to driver. Our driver ended up being the second one we approached. We had to wait for 20 min. for another couple- they never showed up so we had a Tesla to ourselves.
Tip to avoid this: Don't take a tour that starts in Paris! 😂😂
Last August, Tauck's Anchorage hotel was sold out by the time we booked the tour. The transport organizer at the airport said we could not have a ride into Anchorage since we were not at the hotel. We were not asking for a special stop, just transport to TAuck's hotel. A manager came over and fixed everything. She mumbled something. Not sure if she was annoyed with TAuck or the person she was working with. We ended up in a taxi, not the shuttle! Apparently, we were not on her list for the shuttle. I find it hard to believe that TAuck wasn't providing transport for us. Was she just doing us a favor??? Otherwise, never had trouble with transport.
I think you would have to clarify with Tauck what exactly was the problem or not. Did you give Tauck three weeks notice of when you were arriving and explain your wanted transport to the hotel even if you were not staying there? I do agree there was some lack of communication from one of them. When we stayed at that hotel, Trump was staying there and there were Secret Service guys in the lobby.
By the way. How was your tour? We took it last July, it was riddled with Covid people and the ship had a different itinerary than was published, so we missed key sites. In addition, we missed our scenic train ride became the ferry broke down on the way. Whatever, it was our least favorite Tauck tour.
Tauck knew when we would be arriving, probably a few months in advance. I just think it was a clerical mistake. Posted this comment in case there really was a change in policy! As for the tour, about 25% of group eliminated before cruise due to covid. We couldn't stop in Skagway due to rockslide. There were some other minor issues and changes probably similar to your trip. We did get a clear shot of Denali's peak and had beautiful weather! Certainly not our finest Tauck tour, but enjoyable. Our weakest TD.