Looking for a suggestion on our next trip!
Last year we took the Classic Italy trip and absolutely loved it! It was our first trip to Europe! Now we have the bug and want to go on another Tauck tour! We have never done a river cruise but we thoroughly enjoyed the land cruise too! What are some other favorite places you have visited with Tauck?? We were fine with 12-15 day range. Thanks!
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We've taken seven Tauck tours. They've all been great. If you are looking for travel within the states, I would recommend the Spirit of the Desert tour. Looking out of the states, one of our favorites was the Essence of South America. You have a lot of choices. Have fun with whatever you choose.
Taste of France is very similar with more focus on food - a good thing. Or if you want a longer trip there is Belle Epoch or French Escapade.
Kind of comes down to your own bucket list.
Safe travels - where ever you go!
Nancy
Wow! You have opened a Pandora's Box with this question!! There are so many factors associated with choosing trips! Do you want to travel domestically or internationally? Are you up for an active trip, or do you prefer to see the sights from a bus or boat? Do you like to have a more formal experience, or is casual your preference? Are you game to be out of your comfort zone? Scenery? Culture? History? Do you mind unpacking and repacking to travel to various destinations, or do you like to settle in and unpack one time? Do you mind traveling for longer periods in a bus? How about a small plane that holds about twelve people where the pilot taxis down the runway with his arm out the window (an exaggeration, but it was quite casual). Fortunately, Tauck has a trip for everyone's needs and preferences!
Ironically, our first Tauck trip in 2000 was also Classic Italy! We loved it so much we took it again four years later with our sons. Since 2000 we have fourteen Tauck trips under our belts, all international! (The domestic trips look great, but we do those on our own...of course, we ALWAYS check Tauck's itineraries and accommodations and make use of them). In conversation a few days ago, we started ranking our trips, which is so hard to do as each one has such special memories. Also, our number one from nine years ago has bounced down to about five as we have had such incredible experiences since that trip! A word about our preferences...we are not patient cruisers, (although, we loved the Windspirit on The Treasures of the Aegean and our next trip will be on a smaller ship to Japan), we don't mind packing and unpacking (we have that figured out...and my husband is thrilled at not having to schlep bags on the trip), and we really enjoy exploring on our own and don't mind getting lost. Some of our very best memories are from venturing out on our own, feeling so uncomfortable about that, and ending up having a fabulous experience (think ferry to outlying island off coast of Turkey (where no one spoke English) and a phaeton ride around the island, rickshaw ride through Old Delhi, golf cart ride through Florence to San Miniato, opera in Sydney, etc . ) We had a riverboat experience, but it did not end well...got cancelled due to flooding on the Danube right before we got to the area that really interested us (that turned out well as we got to spend more time in Prague on our own). Actually a riverboat trip to Northern France is on our "to-do" list, so we are not against riverboating. We feel that we want to do the more strenuous trips while we are still able to do those, leaving the less active trips to later years.
So, here is our "at this moment" list of our favorites! A Classic Safari: Kenya and Tanzania, Peru and the Galapagos, (here's where it gets foggy), Portrait of India, Grand Australia and New Zealand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, and then there is a blob of European trips...Classic Italy has a soft spot in our hearts but we also loved Romantic Germany, Paradors of Northern Spain, and several central European trips that are no longer offered.
My suggestion would be to try to define your own preferences, read the brochures to find trips that meet your needs, and then spend (maybe hours!) exploring the Forum and reading what others have to say about the trips, hoping that will help you zero in on your next adventure.
Nancy mentions being a "Tauck Convert" and that certainly describes many of those who respond on this forum. We feel so fortunate that we chose Tauck for our first international trip and have been hooked ever since!
Would love to know tips on the living out of your luggage tour style. After a day mine looks like someone set off a bomb in it.
I have also suffered through the pangs of "proper packing"! I think the trip that put me over the edge was a trip to Hawaii (on our own where I had to tend to my own suitcase) where my suitcase weighed 63 lbs for two weeks! I can now get away with 35 lbs. or less, for 3 1/2 weeks. It's all about packing envelopes, cubes (that are packed in the order in which they will be worn and keep me from unpacking my entire suitcase) and an analytical pre-trip "clothing chart" that keeps me from overpacking...
Packing--- Joyce, I am so impressed by your packing tips! Even though I always keep under the weight and size restrictions and know approximately what I might wear and when and have the items near each other in the suitcase, I seem to have a sort of syndrome where when I am on vacation I sort of hoard my clothing, so that I do not always wear what I had planned together. I have a secret fear of running out of clothes, you know I hate having to get Landry done, not necessarily because it can be expensive, but I am particular about who handles my clothing and how it is laundered, not because it is expensive or anything like that, I'm just weird. Then there is the problem of unexpected things happening to the clothing while it is being worn. Here my husband is ace at this, I can't tell you how many times he has managed to spill coffee over himself on the plane, before we even get where we are going! I have been known to drop food over myself more than once, yep the clothing disasters I could tell you about, like my shoes exploding apart on my honeymoon. So in the end, I sort of wear less things than I planned and keep others 'in reserve'. I think the only trip where I can remember I wore everything and actually did get laundry done was Galapagos, so when I go there again at the end of next year, I'll be sure to take plenty with me. And yes, by then, my husband should be retired, which is why we could book it so far out. Caro, that one is near the top of my favorites.
Loved your "confession" about your sort of hoarding your clean, pressed clothes while on a trip. I totally understand that as I have a tendency to do that at home, saving outfits for a special occasion and would do that on tour if it wasn't for my clothing chart! I also completely understand the "unexpected" incidents! I no longer drink red wine on an airplane after spilling an entire glass of wine in my lap as I turned to make a snappy comment to a fellow Taucktorian on an on-tour flight! We travel with baggies of powdered detergent (I am just waiting to get pulled out of line by TSA for having a suspicious white powdery substance in my luggage) to help us through the spills. I should have figured I had a problem when I retired and one of the gifts my department gave me was a handmade "adult bib"! I also do not like to have my laundry done while on tour...don't like my things in a dryer and the ironing seems to stretch out things. With that said, I had an outfit laundered after our visit to Varanasi (I am not sure if the smell was perceived or real, but that didn't matter as it bothered me....that outfit had one or two more wearings, according to my chart!). Surprisingly, the outfit was returned in perfect condition and still fit, so that was a good experience! Love how sometimes Forum threads go completely off track!
Claudia: My secret weapon for wrinkle-free clothes while traveling is dry cleaning bags. I hang three to four garments on slip-free hangers and cover them with the dry cleaning bags. They are folded over once in the suitcase and when I arrive at my destination, I hang them up. No wrinkles. i recently purchased the cubes and will use them on my next trip which is soon. Also there are travel-size wrinkle releasers that I take with me and may have the occasion to use them. I didn't need to on my last trip.
We've done 'A Week in Colorado' (no longer offered), 'A Week in Ireland', 'The Canyonlands', 'A Week in Paris & Provence' ,
'A Week in London & Paris', A Week in Rome, Umbria & Florence', the Culturious 'Yellowstone & Tetons, American Safari', A Week in Venice, Florence & Rome' & "World Cities...Rome' ( no longer offered). If I had to give one an edge over the others I would have to say Paris & Provence because Provence was just so pretty. The river cruise we took was from Paris to Normandy & back.
I would repeat most of them in a flash & we are always planning where we want to go on our next trip but it's getting harder each year. My husband is a teacher so we are limited to July to mid August & many of the trips we are interested in stop running in June & pick up again in September. Come on Tauck, we need an early July departure for 'Spirit of the Desert' & 'A Week in Rome, the Amalfi Coast & Capri'!!