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.
Sam - very much appreciate your response. We just returned from the Tuscany, Umbria tour and I did fine. Just skipped one church tour up a huge flight of stairs. It is the standing around that really kills my back, but lots of uphills and downhills, and long flights of steps can be a problem too. We were supposed to be on the Naples, Amalfi Coast tour in September but had to cancel that. Our Tuscany tour director said it was just as well, that tour would have been difficult for me. I'm hoping the cruise would be a bit easier as I would really like to see the Coast and Sicily
Sam, appreciate your details. I only see one post.
Overall, what was your take on this cruise/ tour? Compared to others you’ve taken with Tauck. We’ve done many land tours, but not a cruise. our first Tauck cruise will be may 2026 on Windstar doing Greece and turkey. Thinking about the Sicily, Rome, and Malta tour but haven’t yet done our first cruise. So really looking for insight from someone that recently did this tour. Can you provide some more info. Likes, dislikes, itinerary, etc. thank you if you read this and can respond.
@PaulaG - Which specific cruise are referring to when you say "Greece and Turkey"? We did "Treasures of the Aegean". If that's the one you're referring to, I can give you our take on that cruise.
PaulaG - We've done two riverboat tours in Europe and one on the Nile, one tour on a WindStar masted ship (Greece and Turkey - our first tour with Tauck), and two tours on a Ponant ship (Venice and the Dalmatian Coast tour, and the last one being the Rome, Amalfi, Sicily, Malta Tour). We are signed up for another Ponant ship tour in 2027, going to Japan/Korea.
Each type of cruise - riverboat, masted ship, and small ship liner, has its own personality. A lot of that is due to the layout of the ships, which to some degree dictate your activities during your time on the ship.
Of the two European riverboat tours we did, the first being the Berlin, Danube, and Krakow tour and the second being Budapest to the Black Sea, I enjoyed the first tour more due to the sights that you see. There were many more interesting things to see on the Berlin, Danube, and Krakow tour. On the Budapest to Black Sea tour, Budapest was outstanding but the quantity and quality of interesting sights after that wasn't has great as on the other riverboat tour.
Both riverboat tours had an issue or two. We missed one night on the riverboat in the Berlin, Danube, Krakow tour due to low water levels. On the Budapest to the Black Sea tour one days outing was modified due to planned sites were closed due to it being a holiday.
Both tour's teams - TDs and ship's crew were very good, but the edge goes to the Budapest to the Black Sea crew. They were the friendliest of our ship we've been on.
Both Ponant small ship tours were comparable. The Venice and the Dalmatian Coast tour might have a slight edge due to having more diversity in what we saw. This is largely due to there not being any issues on that tour, whereas on the Rome, Amalfi, Malta tour we had weather related issues that altered two days activities.
The weather issues happened to be the days where the 'diversity' I mentioned would have been part of the tour. Weather basically cancelled the excursion to the top of Mt Etna (we were only able to get to the base of the mountain), and wind/wave conditions cancelled the stop in Malta where we would have gone swimming in the Blue Lagoon.
The food in Malta was some of the best of any tour. We had lunch at two different Michelin 3-star restaurants.
The WindStar tour to Greece/Turkey, our first Tauck tour, was great, but the shipboard activities were less due to the size and layout of the ship. That said, the weather on this tour was perfect and there were lots of sights to see from the ship. As such, just sitting topside, having refreshments, talking, and enjoying the sights was very enjoyable.
For me, I think the sights that you want to see most is likely the best way to decide on which tour to take. With one exception, I would rule out the Budapest to the Black Sea because after Budapest I felt that the rest of the sights, through Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, weren't as interesting as on the other tours.
For us, we avoid revisiting places as much as possible. The only repeat places we visited during all of these tours were - Vienna, Rome, and Venice.
Hopefully this addresses your question.
Edited based on input from BKMD. The restaurants were 3-star (the top rating). They just said they had top Michelin rating and I assumed that meant 5-star. Shows what I know and how often I frequent any number of star Michelin restaurant.