I received an email from Tauck asking for a review so I wrote this huge thing and got to their website to paste it in and the review is limited to 350 characters! What kind of a pitiful say-nothing review is that! So I obviously couldn't use 99% of this!
I selected this trip for my husband and me to broaden our horizons. We've never been to the Southeast. We know nothing about horses, bourbon, bluegrass or country music. I expected to learn a lot and I did!
We loved all the hotels. They all had something special about them. What's special about a Marriott Hotel? It had Darlene as our waitress who told me the best dessert at the Marriott was the Kentucky butter cake with warm bourbon sauce. How could I have lived my entire life and missed the best dessert on the planet? We also discovered Bourbon Cream - 100% better than Bailey's Irish Cream - because it's made with real cream! This was the highlight of the Buffalo Trace Distillery tasting.
We wondered how we'd adapt to a bus trip (the last one we took was 1983) because we're lazy vacationers and usually take a cruise (unpack once). I used space saver bags to pack my rolled clothes and separated everything into like groups and that eased the packing/unpacking miseries. There weren't any luggage issues and everything flowed smoothly.
We were given a much more detailed itinerary and a special Tauck map that detailed our route and the stops were all clearly marked. I would have loved to have had this map and the detailed itinerary prior to the start of the trip. I also like getting an evaluation form at the start of a trip and not 2 days before the end. No one does this and I think it'd be a great idea.
This was a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it very much. My favorites were the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village where I could have spent the entire day, the Federal Hill Plantation, the Biltmore House (I could have spent the entire day here too), the Art Deco Tour of downtown Asheville and the Hermitage.
The surprises (meaning I didn't think I'd like them as much as I did!) on this trip for me were:
Churchill Downs and the presentation by the retired jockey and watching the horses run by the windows.
The Kentucky Horse Park where you watch certain horses prance around a ring while learning about them and then you get to pet them and talk to the riders.
The Bluegrass music played by a 4 man band at the mansion next to the Marriott before and after dinner. I love Bluegrass!
The Kentucky Artisan Center - what a fabulous place!
Corbin, KY - home of the original KFC and the most wonderful place for lunch (Seasons). I want it to be a surprise so I won't say more but Corbin, KY is a wonderful town!
The North Carolina Folk Art Center where we saw a man demonstrating dance and music (excellent) before we were let loose into the center where I found absolutely beautiful Shaker boxes (and bought one). They were much better quality here than in the Shaker Village!
Pigeon Forge, TN was a neck-turning extravaganza! Look to the right! Look to the left! There's more to see driving through this town than in Las Vegas! It was so much fun! And we just drove through! If you like miniature golf, you must vacation here!
Our lunch and meeting/presentation with a singer/songwriter in Nashville. Fabulous!
The Ryman Auditorium tour.
Attending the Grand Ole Opry. I don't really like country music and this was a great show! I was very impressed. The place is massive!
The Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I'm not a fan of large hotels and this is a massive place! I learned to love it. They said you can get anywhere as long as you stay on the second floor. Whoops! They forgot about their remodeling where sections of the second floor are blocked off. It took me about 30-40 minutes to get lost finding the gym and then finding my way back to my room (but there are many employees you can ask for directions because I can't read maps!). By the time I'd wandered about at a good rate of speed, I didn't need to go to the gym!
The food. Even when faced with food I was wary of, it was wonderful. My husband gained 8 lbs. and I gained 6 lbs. on this trip (the butter cake, pecan pie and the best gelato in the world at Bravo Gelato in the Opryland Hotel didn't help!). There's no shortage of excellent food on this trip.
The Ken Burns videos were very informative and added a lot!
If you love Victorian houses, go to Louisville early to take a walking tour of Old Louisville. Once I saw all there was to do in Louisville, I was sorry we were only arriving one day early. We're used to taking our own excellent wine to restaurants in CA and we took a bottle of Schrader RBS to the English Grill our first night for our wedding anniversary. We were told KY doesn't allow personal bottles of wine in restaurants. That'll teach us to research that ahead of time. We left there quite pleased anyway.
Our trip coincided with the arrival of weather in the 70s vs. the 90s that other tours had. It rained and we had lightening the day we visited Churchill Downs but the horses were being ridden/trained despite the weather right next to the cafeteria windows where we gathered to listen to the retired jockey. I was impressed with almost every person who spoke to us on this trip. They were all so knowledgeable and personable! Tauck even arranged for the rain to stop every time we ventured outdoors - except at the Buffalo Trace Distillery! I'm not a bourbon drinker but those storage places for the bourbon barrels smelled much better than a winery! They made me think of a bakery!
The least loved parts for me:
The man at the bourbon tasting at the mansion next door to the Marriott. I could have done without his presentation!
The tour of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian was good but one guide seemed inexperienced and long-winded but the tour through the museum itself was very good. The "backstage tour" was the difficult part! And I know we were all tired of standing/walking and hungry and wanted lunch!
The General Jackson Showboat and the cruise down the Cumberland River. My husband loved the show much, much more than I did. I enjoyed the buffet lunch which I thought I wouldn't just looking at it, but it was delicious. This was where I ate my first pecan pie! Well - I ate the center and my husband ate the pecans!
Bottom line - it was a great trip and I can't wait to take another Tauck tour because it was so well done. Even though we knew nothing about the topics for this trip, we had a great time. The tour director, bus driver, our fellow travelers, the hotels, the food and the entire itinerary were great!
There were 25 people on this small group tour. Our tour director gave us small gifts at various stages. We were given the US National Parks Passport at our first meeting and we all became obsessed with getting the stamps in the passports at the various parks we visited. We returned to the bus after the Bourbon Trace Distillery tour to find small boxes of bourbon candy on our seats! We were also given magnetic clips with an engraving of the Biltmore house. I thought that was so sweet to receive gifts at various stages from the tour director!
I almost forgot a very important aspect of this tour! The use of the VOX is wonderful and essential and I had no idea Tauck used these. They are small boxes you wear around your neck with earphones so you can hear the tour director or the local guide easily without having to crowd around him/her. You can wander about and still hear all the information. We're used to these from Viking River Cruises and I don't recall reading anything about them in Tauck's literature. Tauck should discuss these because it makes a huge difference in the enjoyment level when you can easily hear what's being said.
Some of our photos are posted on Google - this is one long address -
Comments
I selected this trip for my husband and me to broaden our horizons. We've never been to the Southeast. We know nothing about horses, bourbon, bluegrass or country music. I expected to learn a lot and I did!
We loved all the hotels. They all had something special about them. What's special about a Marriott Hotel? It had Darlene as our waitress who told me the best dessert at the Marriott was the Kentucky butter cake with warm bourbon sauce. How could I have lived my entire life and missed the best dessert on the planet? We also discovered Bourbon Cream - 100% better than Bailey's Irish Cream - because it's made with real cream! This was the highlight of the Buffalo Trace Distillery tasting.
We wondered how we'd adapt to a bus trip (the last one we took was 1983) because we're lazy vacationers and usually take a cruise (unpack once). I used space saver bags to pack my rolled clothes and separated everything into like groups and that eased the packing/unpacking miseries. There weren't any luggage issues and everything flowed smoothly.
We were given a much more detailed itinerary and a special Tauck map that detailed our route and the stops were all clearly marked. I would have loved to have had this map and the detailed itinerary prior to the start of the trip. I also like getting an evaluation form at the start of a trip and not 2 days before the end. No one does this and I think it'd be a great idea.
This was a wonderful trip and I enjoyed it very much. My favorites were the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village where I could have spent the entire day, the Federal Hill Plantation, the Biltmore House (I could have spent the entire day here too), the Art Deco Tour of downtown Asheville and the Hermitage.
The surprises (meaning I didn't think I'd like them as much as I did!) on this trip for me were:
Churchill Downs and the presentation by the retired jockey and watching the horses run by the windows.
The Kentucky Horse Park where you watch certain horses prance around a ring while learning about them and then you get to pet them and talk to the riders.
The Bluegrass music played by a 4 man band at the mansion next to the Marriott before and after dinner. I love Bluegrass!
The Kentucky Artisan Center - what a fabulous place!
Corbin, KY - home of the original KFC and the most wonderful place for lunch (Seasons). I want it to be a surprise so I won't say more but Corbin, KY is a wonderful town!
The North Carolina Folk Art Center where we saw a man demonstrating dance and music (excellent) before we were let loose into the center where I found absolutely beautiful Shaker boxes (and bought one). They were much better quality here than in the Shaker Village!
Pigeon Forge, TN was a neck-turning extravaganza! Look to the right! Look to the left! There's more to see driving through this town than in Las Vegas! It was so much fun! And we just drove through! If you like miniature golf, you must vacation here!
Our lunch and meeting/presentation with a singer/songwriter in Nashville. Fabulous!
The Ryman Auditorium tour.
Attending the Grand Ole Opry. I don't really like country music and this was a great show! I was very impressed. The place is massive!
The Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I'm not a fan of large hotels and this is a massive place! I learned to love it. They said you can get anywhere as long as you stay on the second floor. Whoops! They forgot about their remodeling where sections of the second floor are blocked off. It took me about 30-40 minutes to get lost finding the gym and then finding my way back to my room (but there are many employees you can ask for directions because I can't read maps!). By the time I'd wandered about at a good rate of speed, I didn't need to go to the gym!
The food. Even when faced with food I was wary of, it was wonderful. My husband gained 8 lbs. and I gained 6 lbs. on this trip (the butter cake, pecan pie and the best gelato in the world at Bravo Gelato in the Opryland Hotel didn't help!). There's no shortage of excellent food on this trip.
The Ken Burns videos were very informative and added a lot!
If you love Victorian houses, go to Louisville early to take a walking tour of Old Louisville. Once I saw all there was to do in Louisville, I was sorry we were only arriving one day early. We're used to taking our own excellent wine to restaurants in CA and we took a bottle of Schrader RBS to the English Grill our first night for our wedding anniversary. We were told KY doesn't allow personal bottles of wine in restaurants. That'll teach us to research that ahead of time. We left there quite pleased anyway.
Our trip coincided with the arrival of weather in the 70s vs. the 90s that other tours had. It rained and we had lightening the day we visited Churchill Downs but the horses were being ridden/trained despite the weather right next to the cafeteria windows where we gathered to listen to the retired jockey. I was impressed with almost every person who spoke to us on this trip. They were all so knowledgeable and personable! Tauck even arranged for the rain to stop every time we ventured outdoors - except at the Buffalo Trace Distillery! I'm not a bourbon drinker but those storage places for the bourbon barrels smelled much better than a winery! They made me think of a bakery!
The least loved parts for me:
The man at the bourbon tasting at the mansion next door to the Marriott. I could have done without his presentation!
The tour of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian was good but one guide seemed inexperienced and long-winded but the tour through the museum itself was very good. The "backstage tour" was the difficult part! And I know we were all tired of standing/walking and hungry and wanted lunch!
The General Jackson Showboat and the cruise down the Cumberland River. My husband loved the show much, much more than I did. I enjoyed the buffet lunch which I thought I wouldn't just looking at it, but it was delicious. This was where I ate my first pecan pie! Well - I ate the center and my husband ate the pecans!
Bottom line - it was a great trip and I can't wait to take another Tauck tour because it was so well done. Even though we knew nothing about the topics for this trip, we had a great time. The tour director, bus driver, our fellow travelers, the hotels, the food and the entire itinerary were great!
There were 25 people on this small group tour. Our tour director gave us small gifts at various stages. We were given the US National Parks Passport at our first meeting and we all became obsessed with getting the stamps in the passports at the various parks we visited. We returned to the bus after the Bourbon Trace Distillery tour to find small boxes of bourbon candy on our seats! We were also given magnetic clips with an engraving of the Biltmore house. I thought that was so sweet to receive gifts at various stages from the tour director!
I almost forgot a very important aspect of this tour! The use of the VOX is wonderful and essential and I had no idea Tauck used these. They are small boxes you wear around your neck with earphones so you can hear the tour director or the local guide easily without having to crowd around him/her. You can wander about and still hear all the information. We're used to these from Viking River Cruises and I don't recall reading anything about them in Tauck's literature. Tauck should discuss these because it makes a huge difference in the enjoyment level when you can easily hear what's being said.
Some of our photos are posted on Google - this is one long address -
https://goo.gl/photos/7n4Tyb798uBagfKJ9
Google deleted any titles on the photos. Any questions? I'd be happy to answer!
Just viewed your photos. Great job. I appreciate the amount of work you put into posting the pictures.
Thank you!