Just returned from the August 21, 2016 trip.
A few thoughts:
We had a great time, the Tauck Tour Guide, Kori, was fantastic - energetic, informative, extremely helpful, always upbeat, and able to solve any problem.
If you want an in-depth all day at each place experience; this isn't for you this is as Kori described a "buffet", a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Gives you a taste of all the sites, you will be happy with the time spent at many places and may be left wanting at other places, but all in all for the amount of ground covered I thought they did a great job.
We went on this tour to be able to see the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh - we weren't disappointed - got lucky with good weather and had great seats.
Loved touring the many castles with local guides who not only had a wealth of information, but also entertaining stories. Of all the Castles and Palaces our favorites were Windsor and Blenheim House which were spectacular and had the "Bling" factor. We also had tours on our own of Buckingham Palace and Hampton Court. Tauck got tickets for anybody that wanted to tour Buckingham Palace (State Rooms); we actually purchased our tickets on line before the Tauck tour and purchased Parliament tours; both of these we did on free afternoon so if you booked 1:30 tours each day, you'd be fine.
Only issue we had was we packed for cool weather and had warm weather, didn't use all the sweaters and golf jackets we brought; wish I had thrown in a couple of pairs of shorts.
As I said we really enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to anyone. We found the pace to be active because we took advantage of all the tours and did a lot on our free afternoons. We walked about 6 to 10 miles a day; weren't exhausted, but found little trouble in sleeping well.
Hotels are great, most had A/C or good ventilation. Fellow travelers had a "warm room" at Langsdale Country Club in Lake District, but Hotel brought them a fan to help, otherwise the rooms were great.
Some ask about dress - I brought a sports coat and wore it about 4 times, always without tie; didn't feel underdressed. Would recommend wearing it for Welcome Dinner, Dinner with Former PM in London, to Theater (although most other local Play attendees don't dress up) and possibly to Farewell dinner.
Comments
A few thoughts:
We had a great time, the Tauck Tour Guide, Kori, was fantastic - energetic, informative, extremely helpful, always upbeat, and able to solve any problem.
If you want an in-depth all day at each place experience; this isn't for you this is as Kori described a "buffet", a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Gives you a taste of all the sites, you will be happy with the time spent at many places and may be left wanting at other places, but all in all for the amount of ground covered I thought they did a great job.
We went on this tour to be able to see the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh - we weren't disappointed - got lucky with good weather and had great seats.
Loved touring the many castles with local guides who not only had a wealth of information, but also entertaining stories. Of all the Castles and Palaces our favorites were Windsor and Blenheim House which were spectacular and had the "Bling" factor. We also had tours on our own of Buckingham Palace and Hampton Court. Tauck got tickets for anybody that wanted to tour Buckingham Palace (State Rooms); we actually purchased our tickets on line before the Tauck tour and purchased Parliament tours; both of these we did on free afternoon so if you booked 1:30 tours each day, you'd be fine.
Only issue we had was we packed for cool weather and had warm weather, didn't use all the sweaters and golf jackets we brought; wish I had thrown in a couple of pairs of shorts.
As I said we really enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to anyone. We found the pace to be active because we took advantage of all the tours and did a lot on our free afternoons. We walked about 6 to 10 miles a day; weren't exhausted, but found little trouble in sleeping well.
Hotels are great, most had A/C or good ventilation. Fellow travelers had a "warm room" at Langsdale Country Club in Lake District, but Hotel brought them a fan to help, otherwise the rooms were great.
Some ask about dress - I brought a sports coat and wore it about 4 times, always without tie; didn't feel underdressed. Would recommend wearing it for Welcome Dinner, Dinner with Former PM in London, to Theater (although most other local Play attendees don't dress up) and possibly to Farewell dinner.
How early were the morning start times? What did you think of the food? Were regional items featured?