England, Scotland & Wales
Loved, loved loved Rachel. Best tour director we ever had. Tour began September 2nd with a heat wave. Everyone dressed for much cooler weather but we really enjoyed all the blue skies and lack of rain during our trip. My husband had to buy short sleeve t-shirts and others purchased shorts. Was a great trip with a great group of folks and I really can’t complain about much of anything, although we could have used air conditioning at one of our hotels in Wales. Tauck is always the best at putting us in the middle of towns so we can explore on our own after hours. The Savoy was wonderful our last three days and loved the Beef Wellington the night we went to see “Tina” in London. The food was actually much better than I expected on this trip. We really covered a lot of ground seeing the usual UK highlights but Rachel had some really nice hidden gems for us as well. Loved the time we spent in Oxford at the inside the walls tour and dinner at Balliol College. We really loved the architecture of Bath and what a fun little town to explore. I definitely recommend this trip but you must have an appreciation of history and art. Lots of castles and palaces. Rachel was able to articulate the regional history in a concise and humorous way that never bored us.
Comments
Great to know. We’re planning this trip in 2025 with the Week in Scotland just before.
Going fall of 2024. Question - did you go a day before/after? Thinking Tower of London after. Any other suggestions?
We received a Tauck brochure this week which featured a new tour of the West country in England for 2025, while it only mentioned places visited and no other details, it is a beautiful area of the country and less visited by foreign tourists. Keep an eye out for details.
British -- What's the name of that tour? I just went to the Tauck website and searched for "England" in 2025 and the new tour didn't show up. I've been to Salisbury and Bath, but nowhere else in the west of England, and would love to see more of the country. (And it would give me an excuse to spend some more time in London on my own...not that I need an excuse!)
I looked for it online but it is not there yet. I just took a photo
Thanks, British. I've been to the Cotswolds, too (though I don't consider them "west") so maybe this isn't the tour for me. I'll definitely take a look at it when I get the brochure, though.
I wonder if the new tour gets all the way down to Port Wen (Port Isaac) in Cornwall? Too bad he "retired" or you might have been able to drop into the 'surgery' for a check-up and blood draw by 'Doc Martin.'
The description, "Explore romantic English landscapes that reveal timeless stories; they are settings for some of the world's famous novels, locations for film and television, and locales for some of history's most memorable events," "Cornwall- rugged coastlines, sandy beaches, coves, forests, and picturesque fishing villages . . ." sounds like Port Wen, to me, or maybe the area where they filmed Poldark. Between Stonehenge and Ascot/London could there be a stop at 'Downton Abbey'? Well, maybe it could happen????
Is this (a younger?) Rachel on the left? This was taken during the farewell dinner in the Tower of London. Our Rachel was doing a cross-training for the E,S,W tour and we were on our very first Tauck tour in June 2013. That is Ron Wesner our TD on the right!
I’m sure it’s the same Rachel. We have taken two AFRICA tours with her, way back starting in 2007 when Ashe lived there.
Cornwall and Devon have fishing villages all over. A very charming area of England, popular for vacations. Roads are narrow with high hedges unless it has changed as I haven’t been there for a long time. I might even be tempted to take the tour someday down the road.