Sharing this here in case it's helpful to others choosing between Bridges tours. We took this trip with our 13 year old daughter and 18 year old nephew. While we had a very nice trip and the staff was excellent, it is still not one I would recommend.
During our time in Paris, we were disappointed in the excursions and that the advertised private Monet Museum tour was substituted with a bus tour. However, the hotel, dinner entertainment, and our ability to make a few of our own choices still made that time great.
The reason I would not recommend the trip is the time on the Rhone. We had very limited time ashore in most locations. Further, the time on the boat was impeded by three things, all fully outside of Tauck's control:
1) There are 12 locks from Lyon to Arles. This meant that in 5 short days, we were going through locks 24 times. Often this was while sleeping and some were not quiet.
2) There are many low bridges, so often we could not be on the top deck while sailing.
3) There is a strong Mistral wind that blows up the river, so even if we could be outside, we often didn't want to be.
To be clear, the staff tried to make the time on the boat as enjoyable as possible and there were some fun parties and activities. It was an itinerary issue. We spoke to other families aboard that had done different Tauck Bridges tours and they suggested that the others they had done, including the Danube, were much better - more engaging and more to see along the riverside. I also suspect if the trip hadn't been so short and we could have stopped longer and sailed less each day it might have been a different experience, even on the Rhone.
