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land trip or river cruise?
Hello all and thank you in advance for any tips you can offer. I am researching wether to go on this trip or the River cruise on the Seine. We went last fall on the Amsterdam to Budapest river trip and it was beyond wonderful. Our 50h wedding anniversary is next summer and I want to surprise my husband with this trip. He is a WWII fanatic and Normandy is his bucket list trip. I, on the other hand, want to see the "other" sites offered on both of these trips. The land tour looks to me like it will offer a better Normandy experience. As much as I hate packing and unpacking I am thinking this would be the best option for HIM. Any thoughts or advice from those of you who have gone? It would break his heart if we did not get a great tour of the Normandy D-Day sites.
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For both land and river cruises you spend a significant amount of the tour as part of the group which has to adhere to a schedule. Both give you some free time for independent exploration. For us, the bigger difference is the hotel changes and more meals you have to figure out on your own (which also drives down the cost of the land tours). Some people like that flexibility and are undaunted by the possible language challenges (yes I know most Europeans are better English speakers than we Americans know their languages). Even in the US my husband gets stressed at going to new restaurants with unfamiliar menus and price tags. He gets stressed, I get annoyed and we are both unhappy. Everyones “adventure” level is different.
Iturnipseed seems to mainly be concerned about the Dday beaches, but I really don’t see much difference between the itineraries on this so it really comes down to overall itineraries. The land tour has most of the stops the river cruise has, plus a bunch more that sound very interesting.
My opinion, she needs to decide whether the added itinerary items outweigh the convenience of living and dining on board the ship. We’re looking forward to our upcoming Seine cruise – except ironically – the Dday beaches. Would rather see the Bayeux tapestries.
Back to the trip comparison. In my opinion, it is an easy decision to go on the land trip, especially if Normandy is a big part of the trip.
I am looking at both itineraries, 10 days on the river and 13 days on land, not counting any early arrivals or extra days at the end of the trip. The river cruise has practically all meals and all wine and liquors included, but it is more expensive, especially if you stay in higher category cabin.
The important stops along the Seine, like Rouen and Giverny are included in both trips. Both trips have just 2 days in Paris, which is not nearly enough. Add some time before and/or after.
The land tour offers visits to the cathedrals in Chartres, Bayeux, and Rouen. The Loire Valley is beautiful. Every little town along the way has a pretty Gothic church and countrysides dotted with chateaux. We stayed in a chateau and dined with a Baron at his estate. The Chateau Villandry is particularly lovely with a grand house and beautiful gardens. The days spent along the Atlantic coast were charming, including a visit to the Memorial de Caen. Mont-Saint-Michel is a treat in itself as well as the Bayeux and Apocalypse tapestries. You would miss all this on the river cruise.
All of the towns and villages on the land tour were very safe and uncrowded, unlike Paris.
And now NORMANDY. On our trip we spent all day at the beaches, the American Cemetery, Arromanches, and a VERY special museum. The museum is privately owned by a collector of WWII memorabilia and is not open to the general public. Just one of Tauck's little perks.
It is a big building full of tanks, motorcycles, jeeps, and all sorts of trucks. There are uniforms to try on and guns to "shoot." You can climb in the tanks and pretend to drive the vehicles. All the guys loved it as they turned into little boys again and got to play with the Army toys. The girls had a great time also. As best as I can tell, this museum is not included on the river cruise. Do your husband a favor and take him to see this.
This is a lot of information, but I really think that for this trip, the land version is a better choice, even if you have to change locations frequently. (I never unpack. I just roll my clothes and move them around in the suitcase.)
Then if you have not done a river cruise, do the Tauck Blue Danube. It is marvelous.
Whatever you choose, have a wonderful time.
Nancy
I'm trying to ease my spouse into land tours with the England Scotland Wales tour after the Seine cruise. We'll see how he does.
Nancy
As nice as the land tour looks, I hate packing and unpacking when tracking from hotel to hotel.
Thanks again for the tips.
The day before, Tauck had a special speaker come on board who gave a very interesting hour long talk about D-day and the lead up to it. This was great prep for what we'd be seeing the following day.
The day itself had an early start - 7:45 for an 1 1/2 bus ride to the first stop - we picked up our guide for the day en route who used the time on board the bus between stops to talk about what we'd be seeing. He was very interesting.
At Point du Hoc, we had a guided walking tour of the site and description of the American efforts to take out the casements.
Then on to Omaha beach and a short visit to view the memorial and take photos.
Next was a visit to the American Cemetary at Colle-sur-Mer - 30 minute guided tour, then 30 minutes on our own to place flowers on the grave of our choice and just wander around - beautiful site.
Lunch was at the Omaha Beach club - golf course - not great food
The last stop was Arromanches where we had 1 1/2 hours to spend as we chose - wander the town, look at the beach and what remains of the man made harbor and tour the museum. The museum has a very good old film talking about this. (As a bit of coincidence, we took the Tauck Scotland Wales England land tour immediately following this cruise and one of the stops in Conwy Wales where the 1st Mulberry Harbour was constructed).
Another longish bus ride to drop off the guide and meet the ship which was supposed to be in Caudebec. Turned out they got held up in a lock and we were waiting for them. Not back on board til about 7. A long but interesting day.
Believe it or not, I have only been to Paris once, it is my least favorite part of France, but I enjoyed it. We went independantly for several days after a visit to relatives in England, I think it was February! Everywhere was quiet, the museums, Versailles etc. the flights are much cheaper. So for some cities, I recommend seeing them on an expensive Tauck tour, then when you feel confident about the city, and have seen it sparkling in the summer months, try a way less expensive independent trip for a week in the winter when you can concentrate on museums when it doesn't matter about the weather. We stayed in a small very French centrally located hotel that was cheap. We have recommended it to several friends and family and they all loved it's charm and location. Both Paris and Rome are the two places where I have experienced first hand with people trying to steal from us on the street, three times on that short Paris trip and in Rome it included almost being knocked off my feet when a gang selling fake handbags had to grab their wares and run from the police down a narrow street we happened to be walking along. Like I say, Paris is my least favorite part of France and I much preferred almost any other cities in Italy too. As far as museums, the original question, there are some people out there that do not enjoy them, or take more or less time to 'Do' them. Tauck has to balance out what people want as a whole and balance that with the total time allotted for a city. Tauck did experiment with tours to just one city for a week in the past, but I don't think they are that popular, on a tour, people want to get several locations under their belt. I am not one of those people who has a bucket list of places I want to visit and then cross them off my list, I want to go back and see some places again, once in a lifetime is not enough.