Last Tour, Next Tour

Does anyone know when the last Tauck tour outside the US actually took place and which one was it?

Any guess when the next Tauck tour outside the US will take place and which one will it be?

Comments

  • No, but I was on a cruise that returned March 15, 2020. After its arrival, all ships were grounded (watered?).
    I'm thinking July for some limited (with restrictions including masks) international trips.

  • Was anyone on an international Tauck tour later than March 15, 2020 referenced by BKMD? If so, which one?

  • My Israel and Jordan tour officially ended March 15, but our TD suggested that if we could get out of Jordan earlier, we do so. Most of us who were still on the tour left by the 14th (myself included -- on the 14th), but two couples were still with the TD in Amman until the 15th.

  • I’m guessing New Zealand for the last tour.
    Next tour outside US....maybe the remaining Xmas river cruises

  • Austin Gal here,
    I know ours was NOT the last one, Antarctica, February 4-18. But I have an amusing story. When we left early February there was talk of a strange virus going around and stories of people in Europe wearing mask. To be funny I bought comical mask to wear while boarding and to take pictures onboard to send back home to everyone. When we got back to USA, boy were we surprised. The earth had tilted, and it was never the same sense then. We literally didn't know how lucky we were to get out of Buenos Aires one of the harder hit, and get back home. It was the strangest thing missing the first month of the pandemic. Who knew those funny mask would be a part of my new wardrobe!!! :#

  • edited February 2021

    I think travel will start up gradually and cautiously, but I think that will be in May. The PGA tour is ‘touring’, and they start with around 170 golfers every week ... plus 170 caddies, and other supporters. They are in a ‘bubble’ of sorts, but they have had very little trouble, and only a few infections. Tauck will need to keep the tours in something of a ‘bubble’, but I think it is doable.

  • edited February 2021

    I read the forums but haven't posted in awhile because we have no trips scheduled now -- and won't until the travel industry gets back to some degree of normalcy. We have been on 10 Tauck tours. Japan -- South America -- Israel -- Russia -- to name a few. I am firmly in the group that believes it will be a long time before travel really starts up again -- especially international travel. Somebody mentioned that there are international flights flying now. My cousin has been to Germany 3 times since September because his mother is very ill. (He had a note from her doctor each time -- which nobody ever asked to see.) Yes -- flights are going -- but on his last trip a few weeks ago -- there were 20 people on the plane from JFK to Frankfurt. He has to take an internal flight from Frankfurt and said each time that the internal flights were packed. I received this in my daily email from CNN Business yesterday and thought you would find it interesting:

    TRAVEL AND TOURISM COMPANIES BRACE FOR ANOTHER ROCKY YEAR

    When the coronavirus pandemic erupted in early 2020, the ensuing border closures and stay-at-home orders brought travel and tourism to its knees. One year on, governments are using the same playbook, inflicting more pain on a sector that accounts for 10% of global GDP and a similar share of jobs.

    What’s happening: While some countries such as Australia and New Zealand never lifted their travel bans, other governments that had relaxed restrictions are moving to tighten controls again in response to new coronavirus variants, dashing hopes for a rebound in global air travel.

    From Monday, people arriving in the United Kingdom from 33 countries will be required to isolate at their own expense in “quarantine hotels” for 10 days. Canada implemented the same measure late last month, and suspended flights to the Caribbean and Mexico through April. It's also clamping down on its land border.

    Meanwhile, the Biden administration might mandate negative Covid-19 tests for domestic US air travel, according to Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

    Heathrow Airport CEO John Holland-Kaye said in a statement last week that Britain’s new measures are "essentially a border closure that will inevitably delay the country’s recovery and hurt the UK’s supply chains."

    Passenger volumes at the airport, once one of the world’s busiest, collapsed 89% in January compared to the same month last year.

    If severe travel restrictions persist, international passenger demand could recover to just 38% of 2019 levels this year, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Demand in 2020 was about a quarter of the previous year's level.

    “The world is more locked down today than at virtually any point in the past 12 months and passengers face a bewildering array of rapidly changing and globally uncoordinated travel restrictions,” IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniacsaid in a statement this month, adding that airlines will need continued financial support from governments to remain viable.

    Why it matters: It's not just airlines at stake. Thousands of companies rely on travel and tourism to earn an income. These firms employed 330 million people globally in 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The industry body estimates more than half of these workers have been laid off or are currently on furlough.

    "We don't see a clear exit strategy," WTTC CEO Gloria Guevara told me. "It's easy to close borders, but not that easy to open them."

    With very little guidance on when restrictions will be lifted — some UK officials are asking people not to book any holidays just yet — companies in this vital industry face an increasingly uncertain future.

    There are signs that people want to travel and are even willing to pay more for their vacations. Tui, the world’s largest tour operator, said last week that bookings for summer 2021 are tracking ahead of last year, with strong demand for more expensive deals. But whether those trips are actually taken is far from certain. The company is accepting small down payments and free changes until 21 days before departure on trips booked before February 9.

  • edited February 2021

    We are trying to just keep as fit as possible so that if this ever comes to a close in our lifetime, that we will remain healthy enough to travel. I’ve just been on a lovely one and a half hour walk. I’m skipping any weights and exercises bands today, I overdid it on Thursday and my triceps were killing me Friday and Saturday, Weights again tomorrow. These past couple of weeks have been harder, I have been way less motivated due to our snowy and cold weather. I’ve caved in and eaten three pieces of home baked bread, pretty much as soon as it had cooled off enough to eat....and chocolate has been disappearing here....thankfully I still weight less than pre Pandemic, mostly because of noTauck tours....so there’s a positive for no traveling.
    More books are being read....reliving my obsession of Peter Frampton at the moment when I saw him when he was in the Herd when he was sixteen and me around thirteen....his biography I got is a signed edition...shame he lost all that hair.
    Being reminded every day of our travels as I look at souvenirs around the house, reading about all the tours happening this year....that won’t happen. It’s good to remember and dream, isn’t it? 🤪

  • I started back swimming three weeks ago, doing a mile + of hard interval training. I made it to the pool 4 times last week and walked 4 miles on one of my off days- I worked hard, watched what I ate and was so proud of myself. . . . . . . until I weighed in this morning. Instead of losing a pound or so, I gained over a pound. Arrrrgghhh!!! :s

  • That’s muscle, it weighs more than fat, keep at it!

  • edited February 2021

    Well, we are taking our dreams to Yosemite next week for a short week at the Evergreen Lodge. There is no indoor dining, but everything else is open including the pool and the hot tub. It is a bit sporty getting to those through the cold and the snow. I bring my ski clothes for that purpose. They are requiring a special day use pass to get into Yosemite, but we already have that.

    I also just read in ‘Travel Weekly’ that they expect a ‘work around’ for the PVSA law that would allow cruise ships to do Alaska without ‘landing’ in a foreign port, or perhaps just going there to get the papers ‘stamped’ without anyone going ashore. They also pointed out that many of the people of the age that go on cruises should be vaccinated by the summer.

    They are accustomed to having 1.3 million visitors per year up there. If they lose a second season it could get pretty grim.

  • AlanS - I got a Fitbit in November 2019. It tracks a variety of things, one being steps - daily, weekly, and lifetime (since the device was purchased). They email status information from time to time. Below are the various things they've sent over time as I've accumulated steps. The last item, just recently received is called the 'Great Barrier Reef' since it represents that I have walked 1600 miles.

  • edited February 2021

    I've been wearing a fitbit for years! I have lost or broken three of them. I have two issues with it- mine isn't waterproof and not designed for swimming so I must manually enter time and distance. Also, starting in 2019 or 2020, it stopped syncing with my Win10 laptop (known problem) so I must use my iPad. Google just purchased Fitbit; the sale closed on January 14, 2021, so maybe the Google folks will fix the problem, they haven't so far!

  • I had a Jawbone fitness and health tracker before there was Fitbit. I originally bought it to monitor my sleep cycle, you probably realize I’m not a good sleeper by the time I often post on the forum, I put it down to years of shift work. For counting steps, I soon realized it’s pretty easy to gauge the number of steps once you have worn it for a few weeks. I got fed up and dispensed with it and anyway the ten thousand steps was an arbitrary number that became popular. Before Covid, I preferred to wear cuff bracelets on my right arm, I’m never without a regular watch. Now I wear no jewelry, certainly not rings, all that alcoholic hand gel is a killer of white gold or fake rings like I wear.
    I’m sure I’m past the Barrier Reef figure too.

  • Sam - I can name that tune in one note. Ski history at Keystone Resort, Colorado:

  • Alaska just ‘reopened’. They no longer require a covid-19 test to enter.

  • But you can’t go by ship

  • It’s a bit early for Alaska, British. Some ships have ‘bailed’ on the Alaska prospects. Others are working on the CDC cruising protocol requirements, and the ‘work around’ for the ‘foreign port’ requirement. Perhaps you missed my post about that above ... it was added as an edit.

    “ I also just read in ‘Travel Weekly’ that they expect a ‘work around’ for the PVSA law that would allow cruise ships to do Alaska without ‘landing’ in a foreign port, or perhaps just going there to get the papers ‘stamped’ without anyone going ashore. They also pointed out that many of the people of the age that go on cruises should be vaccinated by the summer.

    They are accustomed to having 1.3 million visitors per year up there. If they lose a second season it could get pretty grim.”

  • Well I haven’t gotten a vaccine yet, and not thinking anytime soon. Trump didn’t order enough and we think he screwed our county because we voted him out

  • British
    But you can’t go by ship

    Or by car. Canada won't let you transit through unless you're a resident going home.

  • Interesting. Thousands of trucks and train cars cross the border, but people can’t.??? I’m not smart enough for this equation. (;-)

  • cathyandsteve
    10:11PM edited 10:26PM
    . . . .
    Very interesting border information
    https://www.journeysinternational.com/border-report-which-countries-are-open-for-travel-updated-weekly/

    Though it says current as of 9 Feb 2021, some of the country data does not appear current.

Sign In or Register to comment.