Group Size on Tours
My husband and I are thinking about going on this tour in 2027. Group size matters to me when we are touring or doing other types of excursions. I am wondering how Tauck handled the various tours and excursions on this particular tour. I know the group can be up to 24 people, but I am talking about when you go out to see a temple with a local guide or other "excursion" type activities. How big were those groups? Thanks.
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It depends. Some excursions involve the whole group (at least the ones that choose to participate), while other excursions where there are different choices offered are smaller groups based on how many sign up for that particular excursion.
As I recall, most of the temple visits were whole group outings. An example of excursions where the group was broken into sub-groups was a choice of a cooking class or a museum visit.
Thanks Smiling Sam. When we did the Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand trip last year, we had a (small group) tour size of 25. But when we visited temples, Angkor Wat, or Ho Chi Mihn's tomb we always broke into two smaller groups with two local guides. Things like shows and group dinners were done in the larger group, but not guided tours. So we were never 25 people trailing after a tour guide. How much of that was there on this tour? We just finished the Tauck Panama Canal cruise where we had several excursions that were a larger group than I cared for, and if Kingdoms and Dragons is going to have alot of that it might not be a good choice for me.
I don't recall there ever being more than one local guide on any of the excursions.
When we visited Komodo National Park the group went via two boats, but reunited once we reached the park. Similar things occurred several other times as well, with respect to the transportation to/from various sites - riding on pedicabs, in VW Things, etc.
The small group trips aren't limited to 24 people. The is the “average” size. My France small group trip had 27 people, which is a lot in my opinion, for a small group. The trip was great though. I would like to try the smaller group but Tauck doesn’t offer that many, and I don’t know that the extra price would be worth to me.
Tauck now does a number of groups with no more than 15 people but you certainly pay the price for that. There are more and more companies out there that offer groups of no more than 16 people.
Recently, I’ve noticed that with the larger groups, they are often split up. That is especially true when there are several options for tours on certain days. We have never minded going in the larger groups.