Options
Review of recent trip
This was not among my favorite Tauck trips, though that does not mean that I did not enjoy it. We had 27 guests on our tour, including a family of 5 that had twin daughters who just graduated from college (and on their way to medical school) and a son who just graduated from high school. Our Tour Director, Telma Marques, was very good and enthusiastic. She provided treats during our coach rides…ice wine, ketchup potato chips, apples, sweets, small jars of maple butter. She even booked restaurant reservations for us for meals that were not included as part of the tour. I’ve never had a TD offer to do that. The Fairmont Hotels, while lovely, need to develop a better system for checking people into restaurants. There were always long lines at the restaurant reception areas, while it appeared that the hostess typed in the guests’ names on a tablet and constantly looked from the tablet to a computer monitor. I have no idea why it was so slow, but it was definitely annoying. Except for the Chateau Frontenac, none of the hotels offered a buffet breakfast — everything was a la carte, which also slowed down the breakfast service. One of my fellow travelers told me that Fairmont was trying to cut down on food waste from the buffets. I arrived in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon for the tour that began the following Monday evening. During my free time, I wandered around Union Station, took a walking tour of the city (booked through Viator) and went to two Blue Jays-Yankees baseball games, one with the roof of Rogers Center open, the other, with it closed because of rain. Toronto was hosting the World Cup, although no matches were played there during our stay in that city. However, one of the teams that was scheduled to play the day after we left was Ghana, and the President of Ghana was staying at our hotel. One evening, a whole group of Ghanaians in their colorful native dress gathered in the lobby prior to departing for an event. I found it exciting to see them and enjoyed their enthusiasm. After a morning trip to Niagara Falls, including a boat ride (not just Tauck passengers) to Horseshoe Falls, we had a stop for lunch on our own in Niagara on the Lake. Telma gave us $30 CAD per person to spend toward lunch— which I understand is just returning to us some of the money that we had paid to Tauck for the tour. Niagara on the Lake is a cute town. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to walk around it after lunch. On our way to Ottawa, we had a lovely cruise of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. I enjoyed that cruise very much. We experienced a malfunction with the coach’s audio system the morning that we were supposed to have a tour of Ottawa. (The audio system emitted an ear-piercing shriek that none of the local guides, Telma or the coach driver could turn off, even with a video conference to the coach supplier’s headquarters.) However, in true Tauck fashion, Telma arranged for us to spend about 1.5 hours at the Canadian War Museum, instead of the tour. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! That museum was wonderful! I wish that we could have spent much longer there, but we had to move on to our scheduled time at the Canadian History Museum. (By that time, the audio system had been fixed, but we had to forego the tour of Ottawa itself.). I could have spent longer at that museum, also. The in-house guide that my half of the group had was not very good. She kept us standing in one area of the museum that showcased totem poles instead of moving through the museum while she talked. Both museums gave us hand stamps that enabled us to return to them later in the day, but after lunch on our own, I was too tired to do so. I rested for a while, then took a nice walk in the park behind our hotel. In Ottawa, I learned that Queen Victoria decided that that city should serve as the capital of Canada in 1857, largely because it was farther from the U.S. border than Montreal or Toronto, making it safer from an attack by its neighbor to the south. It also was on the border between English speaking and French speaking Canada, and was conveniently located on the Rideau Canal, which was right behind our hotel. I know that we had a walking tour of the old city of Montreal, but nothing strikes me as particularly memorable. We did make an unexpected visit to the Basilica of Notre Dame, and were there when a large choir happened to perform for about 10 minutes. Their singing was lovely. It was in Montreal that I had the best meal of the trip, at an included dinner at Bonaparte restaurant. Quebec City was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. On our way there, we had lunch at a restaurant near the top of Montmorency Falls, where we were entertained by a woman in 18th century dress who told the history of the area and the legend of the Woman in White who haunts the falls. Her talk was supposed to be outdoors, but because of rain, we had it in the restaurant. The rain stopped by the time that we finished lunch, so we were able to view the falls, which are higher than Niagara Falls. Our local guide for our first day in Quebec City was wonderful. He was a former high school history and geography teacher. We had a combination walking tour and coach tour that included the old town, the Citadel and the Plains of Abraham. I learned that both the French and British generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, were mortally wounded at the 1759 battle on the Plains of Abraham, a turning point in the Seven Years’ War (a/k/a The French and Indian War) and both are honored there. The city tour was followed by a visit to the Isle d’Orleans, that I did not find memorable. We were on our own for the rest of the time in Quebec City, although most, if not all, of us took the guided tour of Chateau Frontenac that was offered by Tauck. I found that tour to be quite interesting. I learned that Churchill and Roosevelt signed the plans to develop Operation Overlord at the Quebec Conference of 1943 in the Rose Salon, the room in which we had our farewell dinner. A few of us did a self-guided tour of Parliament, and had lunch in the beautiful restaurant in Parliament, where reservations are necessary. (Telma made the reservations for us.) We had to bring a government-issued ID to enter Parliament, where we each were issued a badge with our name on it. I added an extra day in Quebec City, during which two other solo travelers on the tour and I visited the Museum of Civilization. That was a wonderful museum. I had learned on line that the museum offered English language tours, and we took two of them: one was a tour of the exhibit of the history of Quebec and the other was a tour of the First Nations and Inuit exhibit. I highly recommend both. As I am looking at my photos and reliving this trip while writing this, I think that my impression of the tour may have been colored by the fact that the weather was not great. We had occasional rain or threat of rain most days. I was able to try some local food, such as poutine, beaver tails, and ketchup potato chips. I knew that I would like the beaver tail, and was pleasantly surprised by the poutine and ketchup potato chips. As always, I met many very nice fellow travelers. Although it’s not one of my favorites, I’m happy that I took this trip.
0
Comments
I had Telma as a TD on one of her first trips for Tauck in the Rockies. She supplied us with treats and was quite enthusiastic. In Toronto, I enjoyed the Bata Shoe Museum. I agree with you. It wasn't my favorite Tauck tour, but I'm glad I visited that part of the world.
Please ignore my earlier post. It was chopped up. I can't delete it, even using the wheel icon. I'm going to try to post it in parts.
I am sorry you are having difficulties. Maybe try converting your original format to a pdf then upload it?
Here it is in a different format;
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This was not among my favorite Tauck trips, though that does not mean that I did not enjoy it. We had 27 guests on our tour, including a family of 5 that had twin daughters who just graduated from college (and on their way to medical school) and a son who just graduated from high school. Our Tour Director, Telma Marques, was very good and enthusiastic. She provided treats during our coach rides…ice wine, ketchup potato chips, apples, sweets, small jars of maple butter. She even booked restaurant reservations for us for meals that were not included as part of the tour. I’ve never had a TD offer to do that.
The Fairmont Hotels, while lovely, need to develop a better system for checking people into restaurants. There were always long lines at the restaurant reception areas, while it appeared that the hostess typed in the guests’ names on a tablet and constantly looked from the tablet to a computer monitor. I have no idea why it was so slow, but it was definitely annoying. Except for the Chateau Frontenac, none of the hotels offered a buffet breakfast — everything was a la carte, which also slowed down the breakfast service. One of my fellow travelers told me that Fairmont was trying to cut down on food waste from the buffets.
I arrived in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon for the tour that began the following Monday evening. During my free time, I wandered around Union Station, took a walking tour of the city (booked through Viator) and went to two Blue Jays-Yankees baseball games, one with the roof of Rogers Center open, the other, with it closed because of rain. Toronto was hosting the World Cup, although no matches were played there during our stay in that city. However, one of the teams that was scheduled to play the day after we left was Ghana, and the President of Ghana was staying at our hotel. One evening, a whole group of Ghanaians in their colorful native dress gathered in the lobby prior to departing for an event. I found it exciting to see them and enjoyed their enthusiasm.
After a morning trip to Niagara Falls, including a boat ride (not just Tauck passengers) to Horseshoe Falls, we had a stop for lunch on our own in Niagara on the Lake. Telma gave us $30 CAD per person to spend toward lunch— which I understand is just returning to us some of the money that we had paid to Tauck for the tour. Niagara on the Lake is a cute town. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to walk around it after lunch.
On our way to Ottawa, we had a lovely cruise of the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River. I enjoyed that cruise very much.
We experienced a malfunction with the coach’s audio system the morning that we were supposed to have a tour of Ottawa. (The audio system emitted an ear-piercing shriek that none of the local guides, Telma or the coach driver could turn off, even with a video conference to the coach supplier’s headquarters.) However, in true Tauck fashion, Telma arranged for us to spend about 1.5 hours at the Canadian War Museum, instead of the tour. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade! That museum was wonderful! I wish that we could have spent much longer there, but we had to move on to our scheduled time at the Canadian History Museum. (By that time, the audio system had been fixed, but we had to forego the tour of Ottawa itself.). I could have spent longer at that museum, also. The in-house guide that my half of the group had was not very good. She kept us standing in one area of the museum that showcased totem poles instead of moving through the museum while she talked. Both museums gave us hand stamps that enabled us to return to them later in the day, but after lunch on our own, I was too tired to do so. I rested for a while, then took a nice walk in the park behind our hotel.
In Ottawa, I learned that Queen Victoria decided that that city should serve as the capital of Canada in 1857, largely because it was farther from the U.S. border than Montreal or Toronto, making it safer from an attack by its neighbor to the south. It also was on the border between English speaking and French speaking Canada, and was conveniently located on the Rideau Canal, which was right behind our hotel.
I know that we had a walking tour of the old city of Montreal, but nothing strikes me as particularly memorable. We did make an unexpected visit to the Basilica of Notre Dame, and were there when a large choir happened to perform for about 10 minutes. Their singing was lovely. It was in Montreal that I had the best meal of the trip, at an included dinner at Bonaparte restaurant.
Quebec City was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. On our way there, we had lunch at a restaurant near the top of Montmorency Falls, where we were entertained by a woman in 18th century dress who told the history of the area and the legend of the Woman in White who haunts the falls. Her talk was supposed to be outdoors, but because of rain, we had it in the restaurant. The rain stopped by the time that we finished lunch, so we were able to view the falls, which are higher than Niagara Falls.
Our local guide for our first day in Quebec City was wonderful. He was a former high school history and geography teacher. We had a combination walking tour and coach tour that included the old town, the Citadel and the Plains of Abraham. I learned that both the French and British generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, were mortally wounded at the 1759 battle on the Plains of Abraham, a turning point in the Seven Years’ War (a/k/a The French and Indian War) and both are honored there. The city tour was followed by a visit to the Isle d’Orleans, that I did not find memorable.
We were on our own for the rest of the time in Quebec City, although most, if not all, of us took the guided tour of Chateau Frontenac that was offered by Tauck. I found that tour to be quite interesting. I learned that Churchill and Roosevelt signed the plans to develop Operation Overlord at the Quebec Conference of 1943 in the Rose Salon, the room in which we had our farewell dinner. A few of us did a self-guided tour of Parliament, and had lunch in the beautiful restaurant in Parliament, where reservations are necessary. (Telma made the reservations for us.) We had to bring a government-issued ID to enter Parliament, where we each were issued a badge with our name on it.
I added an extra day in Quebec City, during which two other solo travelers on the tour and I visited the Museum of Civilization. That was a wonderful museum. I had learned on line that the museum offered English language tours, and we took two of them: one was a tour of the exhibit of the history of Quebec and the other was a tour of the First Nations and Inuit exhibit. I highly recommend both.
As I am looking at my photos and reliving this trip while writing this, I think that my impression of the tour may have been colored by the fact that the weather was not great. We had occasional rain or threat of rain most days. I was able to try some local food, such as poutine, beaver tails, and ketchup potato chips. I knew that I would like the beaver tail, and was pleasantly surprised by the poutine and ketchup potato chips. As always, I met many very nice fellow travelers. Although it’s not one of my favorites, I’m happy that I took this trip.
Nice job Mike on making everything readable.
Great Mike!
Thank you so much, Mike! I lost sleep over this last night. What did you do to fix it?
I highlighted your text, then copied it. I then pasted it into Word which put it into a nice format. Then copied that and pasted it into my message.
Just for my curosity, how did you put the text into your message? I noticed that it has a background color, which is unusual.
Yet another lovely narrative of your experiences, MCD. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the tour as much as we did.
May I ask how you enjoyed the welcome festivities at the Royal Ontario Museum? We thought the setting—for a welcome reception and dinner—was one of the finest we ever experienced on a Tauck tour.
Thanks, again, for sharing your experiences.
Mike -- I just copied and pasted a Pages document. I won't try that again! And kfnknfzk -- I liked that welcome dinner and brief tour of the museum very much. I confess that I had completely forgotten about it when I wrote the review!