Sicily, the Amalfi Coast & Rome "Review"
This is a fairly new tour (or at least a returned tour from years past) so I thought I'd post some information about it, having recently completed the tour.
I will do this presenting material distributed by the TDs throughout the tour - daily programs. This should provide a more detailed description of the tour than what you get on the website.
The first couple of days of this tour you stay in one of two hotels in Rome. The middle portion of the tour was aboard Ponant's Le Bougainville small ship - starting in Amalfi, Trapani, Palermo, Taormina, and Siracusa. For the last couple of days you stay at one of two hotels in Valletta, Malta.
There were just over 150 guests on this tour, so the entire Ponant ship was filled with Tauck guests. For the hotels roughly in Rome and Valletta the guests were split roughly 90 in one hotel and 60 in the other hotel. Three TDs were assigned to the hotels with 90 guests and two TDs were assigned to the hotels with 60 guests. In addition, there was a Ponant/Tauck Ship Liaison Director as well.
Here is the tour's map. Note that we boarded the ship in the Port of Rome as opposed to taking a high-speed train from Rome to Naples and boarding the ship there. You can see both of these options on the web depending on how you look at it.
Next I thought I'd post a pictures of our Tauck Tour Directors and Shipboard Liaison. As a whole, the TDs were very good. As is usually the case, different guests had their own favorites.
Now for the daily programs. The first couple of pictures capture the activities in Rome through the boarding of the Le Bougainville which occurred the afternoon of Day 3.
Each day on the ship a program of activities was provided in your cabin's mailbox (on the wall just outside you door). This program consisted of 4 pages.
I will post each days programs in subsequent posts
Comments
That's not a new tour, although it may be a returned tour. We did that tour in 2018.
When we did it, they took us to Herculaneum, which is not as interesting as Pompeii (I had been to Pompeii before). It looks like you don't go to either place.
Also, when we did the tour, our hotel in Malta was the Phoenicia, which is a nicer hotel, and better located, than the hotels they now use.
Did you like the ponant ship? We are seriously considering this for the itinerary. We are booked for the Treasure of Aegean on the Windstar ship for next year. Which cabin category did you select ? And deck?
This was our third Tauck tour on a Ponant ship. Previously we had done Venice and the Dalmatian Coast tour and the Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice tour - both on Ponant ships.
We have liked our experiences on the Ponant ships.
For this tour we had Cabin 414, Deck 4, which was mid-ship on the same deck as the main restaurant. For both of the other tours I mentioned we were in a double room on Deck 6, the reason being there were three of us traveling for both of those tours and there was only two of us for this tour.
You can look on the Deck Plan on the website to see room categories, sizes, etc.
The space in the Deck 4 cabin was adequate, but tight. There was barely over a foot of space between the end of the bed and the credenza/TV wall.
The Deck 6 cabins were much more roomy.
On the ships more space equates to more money/cost. It's a tradeoff that each individual makes.
Our first Tauck tour, in 2011, was the old Greece and Turkey tour. It was on the Windstar. We very much enjoy that tour as well.
On the website it says that an excursion option is usually cruising along the coast. I am concerned about level 3 activity as I have back problems that make steps and standing a problem. Is there an option to skip the walking tours and cruise along the coast instead?
Polly -
Assuming you are referring to the following excursion choice - AMALFI WALKING TOUR & COASTAL CRUISE -, then you certainly could skip the walking portion of the tour.
This excursion would look like the following:
a) board the tender to go from the ship to Amalfi
b) walk from the marina for a tour of Amalfi
c) return to the marina and board a boat for the coast cruise portion of the excursion
d) return to the marina and board the tender to return to the ship
You certainly could arrange with the TD leading this excursion to skip step (b) above and have the group meet you prior to step (c).
NOTE: The Coastal Cruise is an excursion option just for one day. Most days none of the excursions include a coastal cruise and include varying amounts of walking.
You can always choose to skip any/all excursions and remain on the ship or in the hotels.
The excursions for the Rome and Valletta portions of the tour involve a fair amount of walking.
If, due to your health issues, you are unable to do a typical walking tour, then I don't think this tour would be a good fit.