This is off subject, but the best pool experience I ever had was in Montreal in the middle of winter - many, many years ago. The pool was heated and you entered the pool inside but could swim under a barrier and you were in the pool outside. And it was snowing. I was swimming on my back trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue.
I don't remember what hotel it was. I was there on business.
Every time I’m on a Tauck tour (17 tours), I learn something new. While I’m currently at the end of being away for a month, I’ve realized that the 5 star or beyond hotels or resorts are certainly beautiful in every possible way imaginable, they are not worth it for us. One reason is that they are far away from walking just about anywhere such as from a city center, from interesting sights, from restaurants or shops, etc. I just had this epiphany on this trip. While my husband may not want to join me during “free time”, I don’t always want to walk on my own but yet want to take it all in. I don’t care for just lounging at a beach or a pool for hours on end when I can do that at home.
I’m with you Ourtravels. We’ve stayed at quite a few Four Seasons hotels and equivalent hotels with Tauck and they are almost always away from the action. Even the Four Seasons in our own city is in an area where you have to walk a long way to see the sites. We took the Tauck tour that included a stay at a Ritz Carlton at the end of a tour in Palm Springs and it was a $50 Uber ride to Downtown. Also in the US, a Tauck tour that ended near T Jackson Hole, the Four Seasons was thirty minutes away from town. We stayed on a couple of days and it was so annoying to havetov get a taxi, it’s not as if there was a sidewalk we could take to town.
I too can swim every day from mid April to October and can laze around if I want. When I go on a tour that costs thousands, I want to be entertained with lots of site seeing and culture. When we first started travel with Tauck , that is what we got but it’s changed, I guess partly became some people want free time. We still love Tauck and have three trips booked, but we are now travel with another company that keeps us busy too. We first started touring because we wanted someone else to do all the work for us but now it’s a bit like traveling independently again which we don’t always want at our age. It must be tricky for some singles too. We still love Tauck and think it can’t be beat for service, but wish it hadn’t changed this way.
As has been mentioned frequently on this forum most guests didn’t get very dressed up in the evening , think going out to a nice restaurant at home. My husband wore a jacket some evenings but he likes doing that, most men did not. I didn’t bring anything dressy, wore black pants and nice top for most dinners.
All of the hotels had ac, we had very cool weather the second week of the tour so I can’t speak to how the ac handled in warmer weather.
BTW, all,hotels had robes, hair dryers and bottled waters in the rooms.
As far as free time, all of the hotels, except for Les Glycine, were in walkable distance to restaurants so it was easy to find dinner options on nights on your own.
We had a great dinner on our own one night at the restaurant in the Lyon hotel.
Comments
This is off subject, but the best pool experience I ever had was in Montreal in the middle of winter - many, many years ago. The pool was heated and you entered the pool inside but could swim under a barrier and you were in the pool outside. And it was snowing. I was swimming on my back trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue.
I don't remember what hotel it was. I was there on business.
Every time I’m on a Tauck tour (17 tours), I learn something new. While I’m currently at the end of being away for a month, I’ve realized that the 5 star or beyond hotels or resorts are certainly beautiful in every possible way imaginable, they are not worth it for us. One reason is that they are far away from walking just about anywhere such as from a city center, from interesting sights, from restaurants or shops, etc. I just had this epiphany on this trip. While my husband may not want to join me during “free time”, I don’t always want to walk on my own but yet want to take it all in. I don’t care for just lounging at a beach or a pool for hours on end when I can do that at home.
I’m with you Ourtravels. We’ve stayed at quite a few Four Seasons hotels and equivalent hotels with Tauck and they are almost always away from the action. Even the Four Seasons in our own city is in an area where you have to walk a long way to see the sites. We took the Tauck tour that included a stay at a Ritz Carlton at the end of a tour in Palm Springs and it was a $50 Uber ride to Downtown. Also in the US, a Tauck tour that ended near T Jackson Hole, the Four Seasons was thirty minutes away from town. We stayed on a couple of days and it was so annoying to havetov get a taxi, it’s not as if there was a sidewalk we could take to town.
I too can swim every day from mid April to October and can laze around if I want. When I go on a tour that costs thousands, I want to be entertained with lots of site seeing and culture. When we first started travel with Tauck , that is what we got but it’s changed, I guess partly became some people want free time. We still love Tauck and have three trips booked, but we are now travel with another company that keeps us busy too. We first started touring because we wanted someone else to do all the work for us but now it’s a bit like traveling independently again which we don’t always want at our age. It must be tricky for some singles too. We still love Tauck and think it can’t be beat for service, but wish it hadn’t changed this way.
To answer -beautifultrip1
As has been mentioned frequently on this forum most guests didn’t get very dressed up in the evening , think going out to a nice restaurant at home. My husband wore a jacket some evenings but he likes doing that, most men did not. I didn’t bring anything dressy, wore black pants and nice top for most dinners.
All of the hotels had ac, we had very cool weather the second week of the tour so I can’t speak to how the ac handled in warmer weather.
BTW, all,hotels had robes, hair dryers and bottled waters in the rooms.
As far as free time, all of the hotels, except for Les Glycine, were in walkable distance to restaurants so it was easy to find dinner options on nights on your own.
We had a great dinner on our own one night at the restaurant in the Lyon hotel.
Several of the nights we had dinner on our own were after big group lunches so we tried to find casual light dinners.