Curious about other tour companies
Recently my husband and I completed our 5th Tauck Tour. We have never traveled with any other tour company and I wonder if I am too spoiled with Tauck, to be happy to travel with another tour company. He says Perillo costs much less and wants to try them if we go back to Italy, Ireland or Hawaii. It seems that Tauck gives more free time, more meals on our own and higher prices since COVID. Have any of you traveled with Perillo or other tour companies, and how does their tour compare to Tauck?
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I travelled with another company to Alaska (pre-Covid) because I liked the itinerary better. It wasn't quite Tauck, but it was fine. I am travelling with another company to Sicily/Malta next year because I like the itinerary better. Time will tell on quality.
I agree with you, after 16 Tauck tours, that Tauck is not what it used to be, with significantly more free time and fewer meals included. I find Tauck somewhat disappointing, post-Covid, in that they no longer include some major attractions in their itineraries (eg., the Coliseum in Rome).
That said, I refrain from discussing specifics of other tour companies on this forum, as this forum is kindly hosted by Tauck.
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It is my belief that because so many Tauck customers are repeat and experienced travelers, they do not include major sights people may have already been to on previous trips.
No, I disagree, they expect people to arrive a few days early and stay on a few days because they rarely do much site seeing at the start and end points.
Personally - we don't like a lot of included meals - especially on land tours at the hotels as we find the menu is pre-set and NOT good. We have found this on our past 3 land tours. We still enjoy river cruises as there is a menu to choose from, but we find the fancy castle/palace dinners that Tauck usually includes on a river cruise to be pre-set menus and NOT good - we've found this on our past several river cruises. While the experience is special, we find the food on the boat MUCH BETTER.
We are going on the Danube Xmas Market cruise again in Dec and it includes an included lunch in Vienna and in Salzburg that we have done in the past a few times and each time, it was NOT good and took up TWO hours of precious market and town time - so we are skipping them this time for more market and town time w/lunch on our own in the market which is always quite good.
All this said, Tauck is still our favorite tour company. We have traveled with Collette, Insight, Intrepid, Globus, Rick Steves, Uniworld, AMA, Avalon, Viking - and we have not found better than Tauck (although Rick Steves is excellent, just not as fancy). AMA & Avalon are excellent, just not as all inclusive. but MUCH better than Viking.
I recently did a tour with one of Tauck’s partners, but independently. Putting all the pieces together was a lot of work, and the price was not significantly less than doing a similar trip with Tauck. We just wanted to be on our favorite boat, the Wind Surf. Our next Windstar trip is primarily a boating experience in the Caribbean, so that is a different deal. If the trip involves considerable touring, I think the Tauck experience is hard to beat. We have done seventeen Tauck trips, twelve of which were riverboats or small ships. There are not many ‘meals on your own’ when you are boating, and the trips are more inclusive.
If we are talking just food, I travel with two other companies where the food is consistently much better. Tauck included lunches are far too long, even with a smaller group. Buffets drive me nuts, people stand in line and just stare at the food choices that seems like forever while the rest of us wait and wait.
Tauck is still my favorite company but not like it used to be. We dislike all the free time these days. Post pandemic, gone are the days when you can just spontaneously arrive at an indoor attraction and be able to go in without timed tickets. It’s hard to assess timing to do this when you are on a tour as the itineraries sometimes get switched around, or an included tour takes longer than you expect
Sealord -- I am sending you a private message = please check it, we have some questions regarding WindSurf. Thanks!!
British, I agree with you, but for a different reason. In my example above, I mentioned the Coliseum in Rome not included. This was the Classic Italy tour. Rome was in the middle of the trip, not at one of the ends (Sorrento and Venice),
When Tauck had a zoom meeting for questions and answers, I asked about longer tours but Tauck are not interested, Jennifer Tombaugh said if people want longer tours they can do back to back ones. If I’m going to a region, I want or see as much as possible. In 2003 we took an Italy tour with Tauck and it included going inside the Colosseum. I’ve been to other ones in different countries which are more complete, example France and Croatia have them and no crowds.
This is an enlightening conversation. We have been on 17 Tauck tours, about 10 A&K, one Natural Habitat Adventure, one Wilderness Travel (company is in Berkeley, Calif) one National Geographic and it really is apples and oranges. More importantly, we compare itineraries to see which companies offer the most versatile experience and the best bang force buck,
I agree with TeriLynn about the pre and post dinners. I still love Tauck, and I don’t understand the long drawn out lunches. Personally, after a huge breakfast, I’m not that hungry for a 2 hour or longer lunch, and I’d rather go exploring on my own and then enjoy my dinner. I understand that people choose not to miss a meal also.
I do the opposite Ourtravels. I always eat hardly anything at the Tauck breakfasts In anticipation of a bigger lunch. I figure there are more calories in the breakfasts than the lunches which I don’t need. I’m always astounded by the huge breakfast people have on the tours before the big lunches. And when people ask about recommendations for restaurants, wow, we need a break so often just get snacks. More time for site seeing too.
I'm not much of a lunch eater and my breakfast is light, oatmeal, fruit, sometimes an omelet but no meats, if I can skip lunch and walk around a town I do it if it's not a place where I can walk around in I eat a very light lunch, then I can enjoy dinner.
Based on the trips we've taken the last couple of years, I haven't seen any decrease in the number of meals on land tours. In our experience it has largely depended on whether the hotel was within walking distance of restaurants or not. Example - Ireland includes multiple stays in golf resorts or castles where you can't walk easily to a restaurant so dinner is provided both nights. Norway was the same with more meals provided. If your in an area with restaurants it's usually been just one dinner per hotel that Tauck provided.
I agree it's annoying to always be given a fixed or limited menu. In Canada I had researched the hotel restaurants and was glad to see some lighter, less expensive offerings. But when we actually dinned there we only got the special Tauck menu. We prefer to have some lighter meals on our own. One of our favorites in Switzerland was picking up a bottle of wine, some cheese and a salad at a local high end department store that we ate on our private balcony overlooking Lake Lugano.
I agree that some tours - especially river cruises - seem to have very limited sight seeing in the starting or ending cities. We normally add days in places we want to see more so it hasn't bothered us. The current Seine plus Paris and London cruise isn't as good as the one we took in 2017. We saw Versailles and multiple sights in Paris and London.
Post-covid travel is definitely straining available sights in Europe with too many visitors. Italy - especially places like Rome, Florence, Venice - has so much demand I think few companies can navigate this well.
I'm not much for the "spend the afternoon and evening on your own to enjoy the resort amenities" tours. I can book myself into a resort and do that. Unless the resort is next to some unique sight seeing I'll go for something else.
British: I totally agree with you about what some people put onto their breakfast plate at the morning buffet. I have a decent amount of self control and yogurt, fresh fruit is satisfying for me with an indulgent croissant of course along with my double espresso. Then, I’m good to go.
I am relatively new to Tauck and really enjoy the river cruises. I have been on a few other tours by other companies that I won't name here. Tauck is my favorite but I have another I like that has a strong educational component that I enjoy, too. It just doesn't pamper like Tauck and the hotels are like Hiltons and not Four Seasons. If on Facebook you might consider joining the Rick Steves Forum as folks freely discuss other tour companies.
Twice we had an Italian travel agent put together custom tours for 4 of us. One was 2 weeks in Sicily and another was 2 weeks in Umbria, Tuscany and the Italian Riviera. We had english speaking drivers and tour guides for all the venues throughout the tours. Some of the local tour guides also did work for Tauck. We gave the TA guidelines of what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go. They made recommendations, filled in the rest and arranged all the details from arrival to departure.
In both cases, including all the meals and tips which were not included in the tours the TA arranged, it came out about the same price per person then if we had taken the nearest equivalent Tauck tour with the added meals that Tauck does not provide. The difference is we got exactly what we wanted to see and what we wanted to eat. Hotel quality was 4 & 5 stars.
We like Tauck very much and they are our go-to choice among a few other tour companies we have experienced. But, if you have a small group going to a country, an indigenous TA may be the way to go.
There are quite a few Tauck TD’s that do live in the countries.
not my experience; disappointing to get an American TD in Germany (and other countries) - it is not the same as having a local sharing info about 'their' country with pride.
Agree with British. For example, my last 5 tours:
Alps/Dolomites - a native German
Adriatic Treasures - native German living in Italy
Classic Italy - an Italian
Portrait of India - an Indian
VCT - a Canadian who has lived in Thailand for many years
Haven't done a Tauck land tour yet - anticipating our first river cruise with the company. I will say that, as a seasoned traveler, I would appreciate more flexibility in the schedule and an opportunity to explore on my own. And finding my own places to eat - that's what makes a trip special and personal to me. I do appreciate more off the beaten (and less crowded!) path experiences also. Tauck serves a wide range of travelers with divergent desires and needs - I guess the best thing to do may be take a really good look at the itineraries, and if the amount of free time and meals, or level of activity is not what you're looking for, pick something that's a better match 😁.
Yiya, you are taking a river cruise with Tauck, then you will be mainly eating on the ship and have the least flexibility for doing things on your own. For your own meals and more exploring on your own, a land tour would be much better suited for you.
For less crowds, go in the off season
I know, but this is a whole family trip for the river cruise - easier to let Tauck handle things for our first intergenerational foray 😅
Ah, you did not mention that.. we have taken two Bridges land tours and another coming in the summer
When I took the Seine plus London and Paris river cruise we also went to Versailles and many sights in London and Paris like Claudia said.
I went 2 days early because I wanted to see Stonehenge and Bath.
We have done 6 tours with Tauck so far.
Next year we are trying Road Scholar for Baltics (Tauck doesn't offer this itinerary) and Silversea for South Pacific Polynesia (also not offered via Tauck).
We have spoken with other guests and some mentioned they've used National Geographic and Viking for river cruising if you are into that type of a tour.
I've been suggesting the Baltics to Tauck since they discontinued their itinerary which included St. Petersburg. I understand dropping St Petersburg, but there should be other options for them to get back to that part of Europe.
I was on the Tauck Baltics tour in 2016,...It was wonderful and I had a great American TD who majored in Russian history. Great insights throughout the tour.