Activity and Pace Levels
As Sue M. noted in another discussion, Tauck has upgraded the activity and pace for Essence of Japan from level 2 to level 3. These are described as:
Activity: Active components such as hiking, bicycling and walking longer distances may be included and hills or uneven terrain may be encountered on several days. Guests should be able to walk 2-3 miles and stand for long periods of time with no difficulty.
Pace: Often robust - may include long days, active sightseeing, early starts, evening activities, significant travel times.
The only thing listed above that this tour doesn't include is bicycling. This is a physically active itinerary. You not only need to be able to walk 2-3 miles, but you need to be able to walk 2-3 miles every single day for two weeks straight. According to my pedometer, the shortest total distance we walked in one day was 2 1/2 miles and the longest was 7 miles. We averaged 5 miles of walking per day over the entire tour.
You also need to be able to manage uneven terrain, lots of escalators, stairs and paths where handrails are not always available, and get on and off the bus several times a day. You need to be able to keep up with the group while walking through very crowded train stations, sometimes while carrying your own carry on luggage and be able to get on and off the trains in just a few minutes per stop. This is definitely not a leisurely paced tour. You will be on the move all day, every day, for two weeks. You will see and do a lot on this tour, and it will be well worth the effort.
Comments
Hello MM Walsh, I was just speaking to a Tauck agent this morning and suggested that they need to be much more specific and descriptive about their activity levels. I am recently back from a trip, a level 3, where half the group opted for the elevator where available for one long flight of stairs.
I suggest you offer Tauck your writing services! Excellent description, thanks.
Which one was that?
Remember one forum regular recommended people taking the train which would require them to drag their oversized luggage on the long platform in a crowded setting and also going down long flight of stairs. Can you estiamte the distance from the ticketing booth to the train door?
Don't forget to mention the boat ride on Lake Ashi ( need to climb stairs fast in a crowded setting), Hakone Open Air Museum(all uphill and downhill), Matsumoto Castle ( emoved this year due to having to climb swinging rope ladder and narrow wood steps using only your hands as support).
OMG regarding Matsumoto Castle! Sounds like a level 10!
We sign up for these tours a year in advance. At my age, a lot can happen in a year. I get that. I don't blame some of our group members for having come anyway. They did not slow us down. But a lot of people were surprised by the amount of walking. That should not happen. The activity expectations should be more clearly stated both when you book your trip and also on the website.
We went to Matsumoto castle. With the company we traveled with, you have to tell them all the meds you take and if you are over 80 you have to have a letter from your doctor. With the five tours we have taken with them, it went wrong once with a group of four, three of the, had walking sticks and had to rest every 100 yards. They claimed that when they signed up in 2020 they were fit but of course the tour was delayed until 2023. Two of them arrived Sick, they had Covid, then the other two tested positive so we got rid of them.
On our first Namibia tour, we went with OAT, When we called to book, the agent questioned us about our capabilities, yet when we arrived on the tour, there was a woman on the tour of 90 plus, in a wheelchair, she could barely shuffle on her feet. At the start of the tour, the local agent said she would be sent home, she was not, the entire tour was impacted, it meant one of the local guides had to stay behind with her in the safari vehicle, so we were short of a guide, she was always late to the bus on the first few days until the TD said he would leave without her if she wasn’t there on time. The final straw was when she arrived with the remains of diarrhea down her legs, the smell on the bus was terrible, no one else would travel in the mini bus with her, we all piled into the other mini bus. The tour itself was great, but for that reason and others, we will never travel with that company again.
It would be so simple when someone calls Tauck to book any tour, that if the agent would reiterate what the tour is like physically and then maybe less unsuitable people will not sign up. I’ve mentioned this experience before here, my husband was furious about the whole episode. I’m sorry, I don’t want my tour impacted by unfit people, it’s easy enough to visit anywhere these days and hire private guides to suit your capabilities.
Henrypoon 66: The distances inside the train stations can be quite far depending on the station and the track you leave from or arrive at. I would estimate 5-10 minutes of walking through crowds and using escalators and stairs. Some stations had elevators but I cannot comment on those as we did not use them.
We did not visit Matsumoto Castle on this tour. It must have been replaced by a different stop. Also, we did not go inside Inuyama Castle as it is considered too dangerous. We visited the grounds only.
For those of you quoting activity levels in numbers, where is that information available
On the tour page,. It has always been there on every tour. No wonder people book unsuitable tours for themselves if they don’t notice it. Tauck should mention it at booking.
Found it , thank you
Passed right over it several times
Wow! I did this tour in April 2023. I thought it was extremely fast paced, with several one and two night stops. But that is clearly mentioned in the description .Luckily, I was able to walk all the distances and do not have trouble with that, but it was a rigorous two weeks, for sure! I personally did not climb Matsumoto castle, and those who did said they almost slipped and fell down. Not surprised that it has been removed from the tour. After taking this tour I have been very careful looking at level 3 tours. I am 72 and in fairly good health, and can keep up with the group, but must admit this tour felt somewhat difficult for me.
Mary Ellen, which day did you clock 7 miles?
Hi Sue: It was the day in Kyoto, when we had the option to go shopping or take the bus back to the hotel after the walking tour. We left the group to explore more of Gion on our own and walked back to the hotel. Most days we averaged about 5 miles.
Tauck 2024 Essence of Japan lists the activity level at 2 while the 2025 itenerary lists it as a 3. The 2025 rating is more realistic. Tauck does not mention walking on cobelstones uphill and dowhill, it notes walking of 2 miles per day- that is only to get from bus to train stations and does not include sites. The weather in September 2024 was very hot and would recommend for all the tour buses to start their engines and the AC before the guests arrive to the bus rather than when they arrive. Overall a great trip but would recommed more Japanese restaurants/cuisine rather than french. Going to fish market before we went to Nobu, why not utilize the perfect environment for the guests to enjoy a meal at the fish markets. Also would recomend more time visiting the sites, ex. Glass Botanical Museum then spending more than an hour sitting down for lunch
I don't know if Japan is one of them, but some countries prohobit idling of buses and trucks to minimize spewing pollution into the air.
One solution for avoiding the heat is don't travel during summer
Yes, Japan is much more strict about this kind of thing. There is even a law about when A/C can be turned on in public places.
We went to Japan in September 2023 and the only place that could be described as a bit hot was Tokyo, my least family part
The Japanese love French cuisines and take their guests to French restaurants to impress people, I remember being a bit surprised about that when we were first guests in Japan abut thirty years ago
I’m convinced Tauck don’t do many authentic local meals in some countries became there seem to be so many picky eaters on their tours.
When I’m on a Tauck tour and I see it’s a buffet. I just dread it. People just stand and stare at the food instead of getting on and just getting the food. It means an even longer lunch break than the tours already seem to have these days. Oh… And smaller groups are no better.
British - Let’s see you’re saying 40 people from a large group tour can get through a buffet just as fast as 25 people from a small group tour.
Makes sense to me. 😂😂
If you get ones that dither, yes!
Not been on many Tauck tours with anywhere near 40 people these past few years except the Bridges Red Rocks one last year. 46 when the max was supposed to be 45.
What happens if you're in a large group tour and they Double dither? 😂😂
😂
For the Kyoto free afternoon, options are: 1. walk back from Gion which will take approximately 30 to 45 minutes unless you are fit and athletic. Significant cobblestone, uphill and downhill, opportunity of getting lost, crowded sidewalk and crossing busy streets.; 2. National Musuem, admission is separate, 5 minutes walk from the hotel; 3. drop off at downtown for shopping, need to take a taxi back.
The menu on this tour is quite sanitized, involving sphagetti at the farewell dinner.
Not as bad as A Week in Portugal involving multiple inedible meals and no seafood(paella) in Portugal. It tells who you will be traveling with.
Paella is a Spanish dish not Portuguese.
Henry, Henry, Henry- why to you torture yourself so and bother to travel?
I winced at reading of your experience, Henrypoon. We never once saw spaghetti on our trip. Instead, Tauck provided us with a nice variety of Japanese foods and French food - all of it good, none of it felt sanitized. While there is a lot of walking on this tour we added many more steps during our free time - Fushimi Inari one morning and our TD helped us with a side trip to Nara. Tauck did have one more day in Kyoto than what is currently being offered. Getting lost? Sometimes you can make wonderful discoveries. There is so much more to Kyoto than shopping.
Perhaps his spaghetti was soba noodles.