Trip Review
For those who might be interested, here is my review of my recent "Black Sea to Budapest" trip.
I felt that this was a good, but not great, trip. Wednesday, May 1, was the Labor Day holiday so we could not have dinner at a palace in Belgrade, which didn’t bother me. We knew that in advance, and our tour cost was reduced to take that omission into account. The following Sunday was Orthodox Easter — a big deal in many of the countries on the tour — and several places decided to just stay closed for the rest of the week. The various closures might have contributed to my lack of enthusiasm for the trip.
There were 112 Tauck travelers, 3 tour directors and a cruise director. I felt that one of the tour directors talked to us as if we were a group of kindergarten children, but the others were great. When we took excursions on land, we had 3 coaches. Sometimes, we further divided into smaller groups for walking tours. The day that we visited individual homes during our stop in Vukovar, we split up so that we had only 10-12 people in each of the homes. I would say that some of the local guides were not up to usual Tauck standards, perhaps because this part of Europe is still developing its tourism industry.
The walking tour of Bucharest that focused on its history under Communism that I had booked through Get Your Guide was quite informative. Bucharest is a combination of huge buildings from the Communist era (thanks to Ceausescu), a lively old town full of cafes and restaurants, and dilapidated buildings in disrepair because no one has clear title to them, so no one wants to invest money in them. Our hotel was not in the tourist area, but was close enough for me to walk back to the hotel from the old town.
The MS Savor was excellent. I was in a Category 5 cabin, one of the ones with an angled wall. I had been in a similar cabin before, and like the location — the first cabins close to the reception area, the lounge, and the Compass Rose restaurant. I have not heard any noise from the public areas, and it’s a quick run back to the cabin if I forget something. A highlight of the time on the boat was that one of the servers, Boryana, recognized me from my trip on the Savor two years ago.
I met many nice fellow-travelers who made me feel welcome, but it was harder to get to know my fellow travelers because there was a group of over 30 people traveling together. They had traveled all over the world together over many years. With a few exceptions, they kept mostly to themselves.
There was more time spent on the riverboat on this trip than on my other river cruises. The cities were farther apart. Also, there wasn’t much to do in many of the stops that we made along the river. The Eastern Danube just isn’t the tourist mecca that the Western Danube or
the Rhine are.
We had lectures (of about an hour each) on the boat on 3 mornings. Vlad Petrov, one of the tour directors, gave an interesting talk about the history of the EU. My big take-away from it was that the concept behind the EU was modeled on the Roman Empire, which spanned vast distances, but the people had a common identity as citizens of Rome as well as of their local area, and were further united by one currency. Another morning, we had a lecture by Srdjan Ristic, a Serb, about the history of Yugoslavia (who promoted his newly published book on the topic). The next day, we had a lecture from a Croat about the Balkan War.
I was pleasantly surprised by our trip to Pecs, Hungary. I had never heard of it. It is a charming town — actually, the 5th largest city in Hungary. The local guide said that many people spend their honeymoons there. It was not on the Danube, but well worth the drive from where we docked in Mohacs.
Our boat docked in Vukovar, Croatia, which was devastated in the Balkan War. After a walking tour of the small downtown, which was practically deserted on a Thursday afternoon, we drove to the town of Laslovo, where we split into small groups of 10-12. Each group was hosted by a person or family who explained how their lives were affected by the war. My group was fortunate to visit the home of the Vaci family, where Valerija spoke to us in perfect English about the trauma of having been sent, at age 7, to live with her grandmother in Hungary while her father served as a soldier and her mother worked in a bank to earn money to send to Hungary for her support. At that age, she could not understand why her mother would send her away, and for years, she harbored resentment, even after she returned home as a teenager. This visit was the highlight of the trip for me.
We disembarked in Budapest, where I had been before. Because we went immediately from the boat to a walking tour, that included a visit to the interior of the Parliament building, I stayed with the group until our group lunch at our hotel, following which I was able to check into my room, and then set out on my own for the next day and a half. After a quiet week on the Danube, I welcomed the hustle and bustle of the lively city.
Comments
Thank you so much for your review MCD, really informative!
We do this tour Eastbound, one year from today. We haven't been to Budapest before so we wanted to start the tour and spend the extra time there vs in Bucharest. We haven't visited any of the area that this tour visits is why we chose it.
This will be our second river cruise (we've also done a day cruise on the Rhine). The other one was part of the Berlin, Danube, and Krakow tour. The river portion went from southern Germany to Vienna. I had similar impressions that MCD had on her tour about that portion of the Danube between southern Germany until you got to Vienna.
In general, I prefer land tours, then small ships, then river cruises mainly because of the small river town stops along the river made on river cruises. They all are very similar - small old town, cathedral/church, perhaps a castle.
But more important to me, for my available travel life, I wish to see places I haven't seen before, with as little overlap of previously visited places as possible. This tour meets this objective perfectly.
All of the 16 tours that we've done have been good, but the great ones, for me, have been the ones that provide great 'Wow'. This is achieved usually by visiting more exotic locations. For me this usually means visiting places whose culture is much different than what we experience in the US.
Within Europe, for me, the 'Wow' is driven more by the places of great historical significance which still have things to see that reflect that history. Examples would be Greek or Roman ruins, places like Vatican City, WWII historical sites, the large/old typically government related buildings in numerous large cities.
Outside of Europe, the 'Wow' for me seems to be much easier to find because the places are so different than the US.
MCD: Thank you for your review. I took this tour with Tauck in 2016 and enjoyed it very much. I was reading some of the comments I noted in my "Green Book" and just wanted to add some additional insights. I really enjoyed the tour to the "Buda" side of Budapest, to visit the "Hospital in the Rock. It was an amazing tour and very interesting. For free time on the "Pest" side of Budapest, it is worth a walk to view the "Shoes on the Danube Promenade Memorial" along the river near the Parliament Building. Very emotional.
I also greatly enjoyed the home visit in Vukovar, unfortunately the family I visited did not speak much English so our TD had to translate. Never the less, it was fascinating to hear their stories and tour their house and small farm and enjoy a wonderful home cooked meal and home made after dinner aperitif. I would suggest taking the short orientation tour of Navi Sad after dinner with your TD. It was wonderful. Many locals were out and about, Musicians played on street corners and our TD treated our small group to Gelato.I found the Tour of Ruse a bit on the boring side, however, there appears to also be a hiking option on the new tour. I also enjoyed our time at the resort on the Black Sea, very relaxing and you had time to go swimming or just walk along the boardwalk. Having dinner at the Peoples Palace in Bucharest was very enjoyable and a short tour of the building was also included. So much history. I also chose the excursion to Targoviste. The visit to the military barracks and museum where former Romanian Leader Ceausescu's trial and execution were held was very interesting. All in all, a fascinating tour.
I have to say, MCD, that your trip reviews are always so insightful and beautifully written. You have such an excellent command of the English language. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Were you able to enjoy some regional cuisine, either on the ship or on your own time? Also, I'm glad you mentioned the category five (5) cabin. Some traveling companions will be staying in that cabin next year (different tour) while their daughter and I stay on the same level. I have some questions but since I do not wish to detract from your thread, I'll send you a private message later today. I hope you won't mind.
Thanks again and welcome home.
Interesting review MCD. We haven't done that section of the Danube and knew geographically it was different than the rest. You get a dose of the post-communist life in Budabest but not nearly as much as you seemed to get from sections of this tour. I remember a guide in Budapest referring to some of the architecture there as Stalin Baroque.
I'll send you a private message on fb about the one tour guide to see if it's the same one I'm thinking of.
MCD - thank you for your review. We are doing the West bound tour in a few weeks. I will do a trip review as well, which may be useful since it won’t be over a religious holiday. We did the Budapest to Amsterdam river boat cruise with Tauck (northern continuation of this cruise) and loved it. Hoping to visit some places that are off the beaten path.
It looks like a few of the Fourm regulars are planning to take this trip. We are on the eastbound trip leaving in 4 weeks on the MS Treasures. We have been to Budapest once before when we took the Imperial Europe Tauck trip in 2015. My wife wants to stock up on paprika for the pantry. I would like to try some Chimney Cake (Kürtőskalács) and Lángos.
I am particularly interested in the travel through Romania as I can trace ancestry back to this area. My grandparents emigrated from what was then Austria-Hungry and now Romania in the early 1920’s. They were a group called the Danube Swabians, a group of Germans from the modern states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria who settled in the area probably in the 17th century. My grandparents were from a village not far from Timișoara. I don’t think the tour goes into this particular area, but it will be nice to see the general area where I can trace roots.
MCD, did you or anyone you spoke with go on the excursion from Bucharest called “Transylvania, Brasov & Bran Castle”? We signed up for this excursion. It is listed as a 10-14 hour duration which probably means a long bus ride. I am curious about any reviews of this excursion.
We will post a review with our thoughts of this tour upon our return sometime in July.
I thought this tour was wonderful , especially navigating through the locks of the Iron Gate. I needed a special eyedrop while we were in Romania. I was lucky enough to find a pharmacy and here in the U.S. it would have been 50.00. It was 3.00 so I stocked up. It had cortisone in it. Stock up on any of your pharmacy items if you can in Romania.
Travel Maven -- We did not visit Novy Sad, but I did see that it is on the itinerary for next year. I was surprised that this tour did not visit "The Shoes on the Danube," but I had seen them before. "The Hospital in the Rock" was included on this tour, but I went there on my own so I could use the time that the group was going there to do a walking tour of the Jewish district instead.
JohnS -- I chose the "Peles Castle" excursion for the day out of Bucharest. One of the other two was not available that day (another thing that Tauck had notified us about before the tour began), but I think that it was the Targoviste excursion, because I'm pretty sure that I heard people talking about having to go to Transylvania if they went to Romania. I don't know how they enjoyed it. Both excursions were long bus rides. I think I would have preferred Targoviste, had it been available.
Claudia Sails - One of the guides in Bucharest referred to much of the architecture as "Commie Condos."
MCD - of the three excursions you described - Peles Castle, Bran Castle, and Targoviste looking at Google Maps it appears the Bran Castle has the longest drive. Peles Castle is a bit shorter and Targoviste is much shorter.
So if length of bus ride is a consideration that’s something to consider when selecting excursions.
Thanks, Sam. So it was the Targoviste excursion that was not available on our tour.
I really enjoyed Peles Castle. It is still a castle that people live in.
MCD - Great report, thank you. I took this river cruise in 2017 and was able to go to Targoviste, Peles and Bran castles the later I did on a private tour (5 of us, didnt' know any of them) that also took us to Brasov a lovely town. I would have to dig out my notes to find out how I did all 3.