Rollaboard carryon
I use a rollaboard for my airplane carryon because i don't want to carry the weight on my back. With other tour operators, I put two suitcases in the bottom of the bus: my checked suitcase and my rollaboard. Tauck is telling me that this is not allowed: I can only put one suitcase in the bottom of the bus. Is that really true?
0
Comments
Your carryon can be stored in the luggage compartment of the bus, but you are responsible for handing it to the driver. They also advise to not ask for it when the bus stops. Once at the hotel, you are also responsible for carrying your carryon to your room.
The suitcases are taken care of by Tauck, the day before departure to a new site the TD will let you know at what time to have the luggage ready either in your room or outside the door, it's picked up by the hotel's staff and placed in the bus or another vehicle. You are responsible to your carry on to bring downstairs and the coach driver will put it underneath for you if it doesn't fit above your seat in the coach.
It would help to know which tour you are asking about as some of the luggage handling can be different. Ex: tours in Africa, tours with on tour flights, etc. Also the tour group size matters. Is this a Small group (24 or less) or Classic sized which can be up to 44 guests.
On European land tours I've found that the coach has one small area underneath that you can hand carry a piece down and pick it up to carry into the new hotel. You can also hand carry aboard the coaches small backpacks, totes, etc to put in the small overhead storage. They are smaller than most airplane overhead and there is no space under the seat in front of you.
On small group tours there is plenty of room under the coach and even in the empty back seats of the coach. On a classic sized tour it can get very crowded in most bring a full sized carryon rollaboard and there is no extra space on board for anything but small bags.
I understand the issue with problems carrying a large bag. I typically bring a smaller underseat carryon bag and a small purse/tote.
Those are sufficient for any essentials that can't be checked as well as some extra clothing in case my bag gets delayed.
The one checked bag limit is because there is a lot of work involved by the hotel staff, TD, and coach driver to round up all the bags in time, keep accurate records, carry them out to the coach and load them. All repeated in reverse at the next hotel. These people are paid based on one bag per guest. In addition, the daily schedule is set assuming a certain amount of time needed for this process. If it looks like it will take longer the TD will move up the time for everyone to get their bags ready for pick up.