Terrain

Tfortune

Hello. My wife and I are taking our first Tauck tour in early July, and we are quite excited about it. I have heard that some locations on this tour, however, particularly Edinburgh, can be a bit challenging due to the hilly terrain. I don't want to burn my knees out on the first day! Does anyone have an impression about this? The "activity level" is 2 but I'm not sure what this means in reality. Thanks for any insights.

crackers54

Only you can know your limitations. Europe is hard on people that are challenged with walking. I try to get in shape before any trip by walking at least3 miles a day for at least 3 months.

Claudia Sails

Where it says on the web page for a tour/cruise PACE Activity Level, Pace Level, if you click on the words "What's This" it gives you definitions for each.

Kathy18

Tfortune wrote:

Hello. My wife and I are taking our first Tauck tour in early July, and we are quite excited about it. I have heard that some locations on this tour, however, particularly Edinburgh, can be a bit challenging due to the hilly terrain. I don't want to burn my knees out on the first day! Does anyone have an impression about this? The "activity level" is 2 but I'm not sure what this means in reality. Thanks for any insights.

I did this tour a couple of years ago. Parts of Edinburgh are quite hilly, but I do not remember there being cobblestones as in other parts of Europe. I have had a couple of knee surgeries and my friend has difficulty breathing at times. Both of us just took the hills slowly and we did not have any problems. The worst part in Edinburgh was walking to the castle but it is not to be missed. There was another town which I cannot remember where we started up into the shopping area but then turned around and just walked along the water. That hill was steeper than in Edinburgh! This was a fascinating tour. You should enjoy it. Just take the hills slowly.

AlanS

Kathy18 is correct there is a bit of a steep walk and stairs from where the bus drops you off to Edinburgh Castle.
After that you are free to roam shops along the Royal Mile and find your own way walking back to the hotel, or after touring the castle, take the bus to the hotel (at least that is how it was done on our tour in 2013).

Also, the walk from the bus stop to the entrance to Stirling Castle was a bit steep and some castles have steep stone stairways, but, in general, however, there aren't any challenging walks and most can be done at your own pace.

To fully enjoy and get the most out of this, and many Tauck trips you will need to do a fair amount of walking, some of it on cobblestones. There is just no way around it.

If you have bum knees like I do, get Cortisone shots in them before you leave home and pack some Ibuprofen.

British

My favorite tip here is from Crackers. It's a great idea to get yourself into walking shape for any Tauck tour, maybe apart from the safaris when you are just craving exercise by the end of the tour.
Any time you see that you will be visiting a castle there is the potential for it to be on a hill, since most of the ancient ones were built as a defensive building and would need to be high up so the occupants could see the enemy. If the tour bus can get near enough, walking may not be too bad, otherwise expect a little difficulty if you have mobility issues.
Cobblestones, if you have never been to The British Isles before, please don't imagine that there are cobblestones everywhere, I lived in England until my forties and hardly ever saw any, but that is maybe because I did not live near any castles!

Richardb

I agree with British. I have lived in the UK for all my 75 years, and believe me, cobbles are very rare. In most cases they have just been tarred over for ease of maintenance and to prevent health and safety claims from people who do not look where they are stepping.
Just enjoy the tour. If you have difficulties of any sort once you join your tour your first stop MUST be your Tour Director who will advise best course of action. These people are extremely resourceful when it comes to alternative advice. Having done 7 tours I can confirm that the Directors are quite exceptional.

Jeff Green

As crackers said, you can only know your own limitations, you maybe worn out in the first day if you pushed to hard, but then you can still complete the tour without being worn out, take it slow and relax at some points, just remember to have a good time.

TravelingNow

We completed this trip the end of this June. I didn't find it difficult at all. As mentioned above you do go up a slight incline at a couple of places but there was no issue for any of us. It is a great trip.