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New to Tauck
My husband, brother-in-law and I have booked the May-June, 2025 tour. We were wondering who else has been on this tour and what to expect. Time alloted on tours, etc. My husband and I have been to many of the places on this tour, but our brother-in-law has not.
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Moreen, while I haven't taken the Jewish Heritage tour, I did take the Warsaw, Budapest, Vienna & Prague tour in 2012 and again in 2018. I have traveled with Tauck many times but this tour will forever remain my favorite. My grandparents immigrated from Poland so I always arrive a few days early in Warsaw to do things on my own. On my last trip, I went to the Warsaw Zoo and visited the villa where the Zabinska's lived. Their lives were depicted in the movie "The Zookeeper's Wife" with Jessica Chastain.
We also took the regular tour some years ago and enjoyed it. Didn’t that zoo close?
I did the "regular" tour in 2017. One of my favorites, partly due to outstanding TD (Stephen Fischer) who was nicknamed The Professor for his wealth of knowledge. I considered doing the Jewish Heritage tour, but thought it would be too depressing, so chose the standard tour which included many Jewish sites. In Warsaw, I spent a half day of free time at the POLIN museum, which was included in the JH tour, but not the standard tour. Highly recommend it.
Thank you for the replies. I was wondering on the dress code for the private concert in the Viennese palace. Do my husband and brother-in-law need a sport coat? I'm sure I can get by with black pants and a nice top unless women have to dress up too.
When we took the tour, it was casual, but every group is different . There are only the Tauck people there that you have already met. In fact, one couple wore safari clothing…..no, that was not us.
Our concert was fabulous. It was a hot day and we were told the palace wasn't air conditioned. I wore shorts.
If the concert is the same, it was only our group, so no dress code. They did have a few fans set up.
Thanks again for the responses. Who else is on this tour. I notice it is fully booked.
Leaving the last week of April. I’d love to connect with others going on the tour or have already been. Thanks!
We are on the May 3 (regular) small group tour, departing Chicago on May 1.
I have been on this forum for ten years and never connected with anyone doing the same tour. We did meet British on one tour, but I don’t think we connected in advance. They were actually on a diffferent tour that happened to start on the same day in the same place. We have done eight tours with people we met on Cruise Critic talking about the Galapagos. .The chances of meeting a tour partner on this forum are very small.
I connected with one person before our Bridges Africa tour last year. By the time we met, we already knew about all our families and as we were the only people on the tour, it worked really well. We have rarely even met any people from our state, Pennsylvania, on our tours, except for one couple who live a mile away and we have dinner now and again. Funnily enough, we’ve met two singles twice when we have traveled with another company on the same tour as us.
We’ve had the same tour directors on Tauck tours quite a few times now, the record being a director on three different tours. I can’t imagine being able to coordinate being able to coordinate going on a future tour with anyone we meet on tours since we generally book tours so much in advance.
It still seems that most people on tours come from Florida, New York and California. We don’t get Austalians any more sine the agent there was so unpopular according to what was said on the forum.
Just my two cents: Beware of cyber strangers
OK. I have a post script. Everyone who reads the forum does not post on the forum. I have been on several tours where people have figured out who I am. “You are Sealord, aren’t you?” They never made any comments prior to the trips. I have also had several or the same TD’s on several different trips. One of them that we liked quite a lot was later fired for unspecified reasons. We are careful not to criticize employees to the company. If there is a problem it is better to talk to the people involved, not the company. Unless you are trying to get someone fired, be careful about your evaluations of their performance. TD’s have a difficult job.
I understand what you are saying SeaLord. We have only had one unsatisfactory TD, so we had to tell Tauck, we were not the only ones who were unhappy. New Tauck customers said they would never travel with Tauck again because of him. A few tours later, we were talking with another couple about past tours. we mentioned the unsatisfactory one, they had had him five years before us and were really shocked he was still with the company as they had the same experience with him as we had.
It’s normal that not every person is going to gel with other customers or tour directors, so I’m sure little notice is paid to a one off ‘complaint’ but in our case, I was disappointed with Tauck when I heard this.
We went on this trip last July, and absolutely loved it. Highlights were:
when many of our tour went to see Auschwitz, we went on our own to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, 20 minutes from Krakow (hired a car/driver from the hotel). Magnificent, not to be missed, if possible. UNESCO site.
St. Mary's Basilica in Krakow's old town square.
Interior/exterior of Budapest parliament building. Only regret was not getting out on my own to get pic of it at night. The opera house was just as magnificent, and included an informal performance just for us!
the art museum in Vienna was incredible. We were also casual at the concert, btw.
Prague old town was great, but the city had been built up my mind over the last 20 years, so it didn't meet expectations, but still lovely, no doubt. Going on a "Romantic Capitals: Prague to Paris" river cruise this summer, so will be able to get the pic of the Jan Hus monument I missed last trip, haha. The old town clock is not to be missed. Ended with a concert of classical music/singing at a lovely dinner theatre, just great.
Enjoy!
Mark_H - On the Berlin, Danube, Krakow tour both Auschwitz and the Salt Mines were included in the tour. The farewell dinner was held in the Salt Mines. They are spectacular.
Polin Museum - Warsaw
Hi everyone. We are going on the Central Europe tour in a few weeks, starting in Warsaw, ending in Prague. I’m very interested in Jewish history and will go to the Polin Museum (it’s not on the tour). We can do a private tour for approx $100, or just get an audio tour. Any thoughts ? Should we schedule a private, or just do it on our own ? Are the explanations and information listed in English ?
Thanks for your opinions.
I visited POLIN when I did this trip 10 years ago (went by taxi and they accepted credit card payment). Yes, it's in English. I did it on my own. IMO, a private guide isn't necessary, but everyone's different.
Warsaw has many Jewish sites and memorials. Here are some I found especially poignant while visiting independently:
The Umschlagplatz Monument is built like open train cars and commemorates the ~ 250,000 Jews deported by trains to Treblinka.
The Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street has mass graves of murdered Jews as well as a heart-wrenching monument dedicated to the ~ one million Jewish children exterminated by the Nazis.
The “King of Children…” by Betty Jean Lifton (1988) is a biography of Janusz Korczak, a Warsaw pediatrician who ran orphanages and was a champion of childrens’ rights. He was “allowed” to march with his Jewish orphans to the gas chambers in Treblinka.
Some historical data. Prior the WWII about 10% of the population of Poland was Jewish, about 3.3 million people. By the end of the war, the Jewish population of Poland was 0.2%, maybe 50,000 people.
It wasn’t just the Jews. When Germany invaded Poland (September 1939), the Nazis had a list of the politicians and “intellectuals”. They moved quickly to arrest and execute the people on that list, about 100,000 people (see Intelligenzaktion in Wikipedia). The goal of the Nazis was to use the Poles as slave labor while they moved ethnic Germans into the western area of Poland.
Shortly after the Nazis invaded from the west, the Soviet Union invaded from the east. The Soviets captured Polish officers and executed them, burying the bodies in the Katyn Forest in 1940. About 22,000 officers were killed there (See Katyn Massacre).
There’s so much more about the devastation of Poland in WWII. Towards the end of the war, in 1944, the Poles rose up against the Nazis in Warsaw, known as the Warsaw Uprising. Although the Soviet Union was ready to “liberate” Poland, they held back and allowed the Nazis to exterminate most of the Polish freedom fighters (so the Soviet army wouldn't have to deal with the freedom fighters). Approximately 20,000 freedom fighters died in the battle, but as many as 200,000 civilians perished as collateral damage.
When the war was over, some of the Polish Jews who survived the death camps attempted to return to their homes and businesses, which had been taken over by non-Jewish Poles. The Jews were not welcomed back and generally were not able to reclaim their property. There were also attacks on the returning Jews, the most serious of which was the Kielce Pogrom in 1946.
A good movie that takes place in WWII Warsaw - Irena's Vow. It's on Netflix.