2014 Dates for England, Scotland and Wales Tours?

With the release of the new dates for River Cruising in 2014 half our planning for our 40th Wedding Anniversary holiday is available. All we await are the 2014 dates for the England, Scotland and Wales tour. I appreciate that it is probably a bit early to ask with the Commonwealth Games on in Edinburgh in July/August 2014 and the dates for the 2014 Military Tattoo not yet available but I remain the ultimate optimist.

Can you give me any idea when those dates will be available as I have a bag full of money I want to give to Tauck for our holiday ..... :)

Rod

Comments

  • Hi Rod,

    Glad you are so keen to pass on that bag of money! So wisely, too, for a wonderful anniversary trip. Good move, that.;) You might need to explain what the Commonwealth is, though, let alone the Games. And we're not talking 13 colonies here, either. Just sayin'.......

    And early congratulations on a target well met!

    Cheers,

    Jan
  • Hi Rod,

    I have not forgotten about your anniversary trip. Currently dates are not available yet, when they are available, I will let you know.

    Best,
    Emily
  • Thanks Emily. I realise that I sound impatient but really it's just an old buggar champing at the bit to start the planning stage which as we all know is almost as much fun as the holiday.

    Jan, I can't think of the right words to try and explain the Commonwealth Games except to say they are like the Olympics but smaller as participation is restricted to the member countries of the British Commonwealth.
  • British Commonwealth? Oh boy, now you've set the cat among the pigeon's, Rod. I just get blank stares when I try to explain our Commonwealth club to people from over the pond. And to think that's one of the few places we can .... well, in the past we have! ... win lotsa gold medals!

    We'll just have to tap the side of our noses and nod knowingly. And continue with our tea, and coffee, making rituals. ;)) Soon, it will be so desirable that everyone will want to join. Gosh, I'm getting excited now! I hear strains of Alice's Restaurant. Soon, we'll have an organisation. Maybe even a movement! All together now!

    Cheers,

    Jan
  • Well the dates for 2014 have been released and we've taken up the option for the tour starting on the 10th August 2014. We really appreciate we have two weeks after the tour details and price come into effect in which we can cancel without penalty. Let me just say that dealing with Tauck direct sure beats the heck out of try to deal with their Australian agent. Now the wait begins before we can ascertain if there'll still be a Cat4 cabin available on the Portraits of France cruise on the 25th August 2014 when the land tour is officially announced. It's just a bit hard to do B2B tours if one of them is not available.

    Rod
  • edited April 2013
    Hi Rod,

    I do agree with your quandary with making reservations so far out. I guess, because we travel so far to our chosen destinations we do try to get the best value from our air fares. No going to Europe or the US from Australia for a 6 day trip! Gosh, some of us did that in our working lives and certainly wouldn't choose to do it for pleasure! So yes, we do try to do back to back trips. It really is hard to get that to work, although I will say that Tauck now have their European and rest of the world dates out ... at least a skeleton calendar, which is better than nothing. But it is still hard, because you know those skeleton dates will, in time, be probably augmented with dates that may well suit you better. Sigh. It's even harder with North American trips. They are generally not released till November. If you are planning to travel in the first half of the year or so, you are often left with a chicken and egg situation as regards your international air fare. And good luck with using your airline points! You typically have to book your flights one year minus one day ahead to get those, particularly if you are travelling with A.J.'s crew.

    I use my Mac's calendar programme to workshop various tour & departure dates to find back to backs that will work for me. You need an atlas and a good grasp of airline routes & hubs, too! It can be frustrating, but I haven't found a better way to project manage a possible trip, 18 months in advance, yet!

    Glad to hear that you're having a better reservation experience by going direct to Tauck. I'm not surprised, because the Tauck reservation people are wonderful. It won't take them long to get your general profile down pat! And don't forget to ask if any advantages of back to back reservations might apply to your plans. The agent certainly wouldn't give you that information!

    Cheers,

    Jan

    PS: I just noticed that there is a Be The First to Know sign up link on the home page for 2014 tours to Europe & North America. Looks like some dates at least will be released much earlier this year. Yippee!
This discussion has been closed.