I’ve been on numerous Tauck tours. The rules are the same, one checked bag.
I’ve never had difficulty having everything I needed in one medium sized checked bag and one medium backpack I use as carry on. Tauck suggests having clothing you can mix and match wear clothing several times over. I’m always amazed that the most well traveled people I meet on tour groups have the smallest bags. I’m not there yet but getting better.
I also suggest calling Tauck.
I asked the question not as judgement but because "what happens" to an extent depends on the actual luggage pieces and what type of tour - land tour, river or small ship cruise. With the cruises there is much less luggage handling by crew than on land tours and there is a bit more latitude with extra bags. If a cruise starts at a hotel, the TDs will gladly give you extra tags so that you can leave everything you don't need during the day in the hotel room where it's all picked up and taken to the ship while your out sight seeing and it magically meets you again on-board. On land tours you're moving hotels every 1-3 days. The bags have to be gathered up by hotel staff, inventoried by the TD to make sure nobodies bag gets left behind, taken to the coach and loaded by the coach driver. They do reserve a separate compartment on the motor coach for bags you handle yourself. Many people I've seen on European land tours have their large checked bag handled as above and a smaller carryon (backpack, small roller bag, etc) that they bring down to the coach. The reverse happens once you arrive at the next hotel. You can also bring small items on board the bus - things you want access to during the day.
Is one large checked bag is sufficient? For my husband and I yes. We've done back-to-back tours totally 4 weeks away with only one large bag each and one visit to a laundromat. But I've also heard of people combining a tour with some other plans like attending a special event or traveling to some region with completely different weather requiring additional wardrobe items.
You are very kind Claudia. But Tauck does say one medium, size suitcase. It can be done and most of us abide, well I think! To me it’s all about fairness, if I am paying the same as everyone else, I expect everyone to just have one bag and as you say, maybe carry down an extra bag themselves. Some Tour Directors do say they will accept more bags, but have you noticed more and more that bag pull which used to almost always be an hour before departure has gone up to 90 minutes or even two hours For early departures, that makes a tour extra firing for me.
If you have 3 checked bags, you are bringing too much. If you were traveling independently, you'd never be able to manage that on your own. Do you travel often? Where are you going?
We go to Europe at least once a year for River Cruises, Land Tours, or just on our own -- for 3-4 weeks each time. We each take a 26 in suitcase that we check and a personal item bag like a backpack. We do carry an empty tote bag with us (the Rick Steves HideAway tote) in case we buy things that we bring back sometimes full and it goes back home with us as our carry on in the overhead bin.
Get packing cubes - they help you stay organized. Everyone re-wears clothes, so don't bring too many. For 2 weeks, I'd take 3 pair of pants and wear one. 5-6 shirts and wear one. No one will remember or care what you have on. Less is really more when it comes to travel. We love that saying . . . "When preparing to travel, lay out all the clothes you want to take and all the money you want to take - then take half the clothes and twice the money"
OK. I will use an extreme case. Antarctica. You are in Buenos Aires in the summer …hot …then you go to Antarctica … cold. One checked bag was just fine. Packing is sometimes a learning experience. Sorry … three checked bags is ridiculous unless you are moving to India.
Sealord- we had that exact situation years ago. The four of us took five checked bags to Antarctica. Just couldn't figure out how to do it with less. After returning to Buenos Aires, we flew to Iguazu Falls, where it was hot and steamy (and New Year's Eve).
In hindsight, we clearly took too many sweaters and ski type clothes. The ship (Hurtigruten) had overheated interiors, and except for the zodiac rides, we were warm on the landings, too. Climbing up hills chasing penguins is hard work!
I have become a COO traveler ( Carry On Only ), and I love the feeling of freedom when I step off that plane. What other people think of me is none of my business. So what if I wear something more than once as long as it is clean?
Sandy has the right idea. On my first tour I had myself convinced I had to bring all the right clothes and not wear things twice. Wrong. You need 1-2 nicer outfits for special dinners and the rest is clothing that is suitable to the weather and activities on tour. It's not a fashion show. It's a tour.
We typically check one bag which we share, and we each have a carry-on that contains everything we really need. We did a trip to Russia when BA had lost our checked luggage. We did fine.
It finally occurred to me that the original question might have been referring to checked bags with Tauck, not checked bags with the airline. I have always ‘understood’ that Tauck’s ‘one checked bag’ request referred to a large suitcase. We always have three bags that are ‘checked’ with Tauck. Two carry-ons and one large suitcase. You just get another Tauck tag from the TD. That has never been a problem. On our Africa trips we use two carry-ons and check one carry-on size bag with the liquids. That is normally two duffels and a roll-aboard that we use as a ‘cart’. We check one of the duffels. We always have a total of three bags with Tauck tags on them.
Sealord - Your interpretation of checked could be correct, but I wouldn't think so.
To me a checked bag is one that gets put in the hold of the airplane at the airport.
Carry-on the plane bags that you get extra tags from Tauck for are just for the hotel porters, not the airlines.
Having three Tauck tagged bags (one to be airline checked and the other two to be airline carry-ons) between two people, in my opinion is not an issue. That assumes that the carry-ons meet all, if any, intra-tour flight carry-on bag requirements.
Since Delta was so kind to delay my checked bag 5 days, I now have a checked bag, carry-on bag (packed as a back-up), and a backpack. I didn’t have a carry-on the first time, I won’t make that mistake again. I travel solo, and I want to be comfortable. Do my items count as 3? I only checked 1.
Been there, done that, irdvo116. On my Egypt trip, I didn't get my checked bag back until 6 weeks after I returned home! I never saw it during the trip. Now I have a carry-on with 2 days of clothes in it.
On an amusing note, on my recent VCT trip, there was a shopaholic in the group who was on my first leg of the flight home. She bought so much stuff, she bought 2 additional suitcases to get it all home (at the final city, Bangkok, so Tauck didn't have to deal with it during the tour). We were esrted by one of the local gudes to check-in at BKK. She went nuts when they told her she'd have to pay an additional $400 in excess baggage fees.
Comments
I think every tour may have this general statement attached to it. Some tours have even more restrictive statements.
I’ve been on numerous Tauck tours. The rules are the same, one checked bag.
I’ve never had difficulty having everything I needed in one medium sized checked bag and one medium backpack I use as carry on. Tauck suggests having clothing you can mix and match wear clothing several times over. I’m always amazed that the most well traveled people I meet on tour groups have the smallest bags. I’m not there yet but getting better.
I also suggest calling Tauck.
Do you mean 3 bags per person large enough that the airline would make you check them?
Keep in mind that the porters on tour, coach driver and tour director handle all such bags and are paid/tipped by Tauck for one per guest.
If you need three checked bags you should be traveling First Class on the Titanic.
I asked the question not as judgement but because "what happens" to an extent depends on the actual luggage pieces and what type of tour - land tour, river or small ship cruise. With the cruises there is much less luggage handling by crew than on land tours and there is a bit more latitude with extra bags. If a cruise starts at a hotel, the TDs will gladly give you extra tags so that you can leave everything you don't need during the day in the hotel room where it's all picked up and taken to the ship while your out sight seeing and it magically meets you again on-board. On land tours you're moving hotels every 1-3 days. The bags have to be gathered up by hotel staff, inventoried by the TD to make sure nobodies bag gets left behind, taken to the coach and loaded by the coach driver. They do reserve a separate compartment on the motor coach for bags you handle yourself. Many people I've seen on European land tours have their large checked bag handled as above and a smaller carryon (backpack, small roller bag, etc) that they bring down to the coach. The reverse happens once you arrive at the next hotel. You can also bring small items on board the bus - things you want access to during the day.
Is one large checked bag is sufficient? For my husband and I yes. We've done back-to-back tours totally 4 weeks away with only one large bag each and one visit to a laundromat. But I've also heard of people combining a tour with some other plans like attending a special event or traveling to some region with completely different weather requiring additional wardrobe items.
You are very kind Claudia. But Tauck does say one medium, size suitcase. It can be done and most of us abide, well I think! To me it’s all about fairness, if I am paying the same as everyone else, I expect everyone to just have one bag and as you say, maybe carry down an extra bag themselves. Some Tour Directors do say they will accept more bags, but have you noticed more and more that bag pull which used to almost always be an hour before departure has gone up to 90 minutes or even two hours For early departures, that makes a tour extra firing for me.
All fair points British. For me it's also the fact that for the amount that time I have to handle my bags myself I can only manage 1 large bag.
If you have 3 checked bags, you are bringing too much. If you were traveling independently, you'd never be able to manage that on your own. Do you travel often? Where are you going?
We go to Europe at least once a year for River Cruises, Land Tours, or just on our own -- for 3-4 weeks each time. We each take a 26 in suitcase that we check and a personal item bag like a backpack. We do carry an empty tote bag with us (the Rick Steves HideAway tote) in case we buy things that we bring back sometimes full and it goes back home with us as our carry on in the overhead bin.
Get packing cubes - they help you stay organized. Everyone re-wears clothes, so don't bring too many. For 2 weeks, I'd take 3 pair of pants and wear one. 5-6 shirts and wear one. No one will remember or care what you have on. Less is really more when it comes to travel. We love that saying . . . "When preparing to travel, lay out all the clothes you want to take and all the money you want to take - then take half the clothes and twice the money"
OK. I will use an extreme case. Antarctica. You are in Buenos Aires in the summer …hot …then you go to Antarctica … cold. One checked bag was just fine. Packing is sometimes a learning experience. Sorry … three checked bags is ridiculous unless you are moving to India.
Sealord- we had that exact situation years ago. The four of us took five checked bags to Antarctica. Just couldn't figure out how to do it with less. After returning to Buenos Aires, we flew to Iguazu Falls, where it was hot and steamy (and New Year's Eve).
In hindsight, we clearly took too many sweaters and ski type clothes. The ship (Hurtigruten) had overheated interiors, and except for the zodiac rides, we were warm on the landings, too. Climbing up hills chasing penguins is hard work!
I have become a COO traveler ( Carry On Only ), and I love the feeling of freedom when I step off that plane. What other people think of me is none of my business. So what if I wear something more than once as long as it is clean?
Sandy has the right idea. On my first tour I had myself convinced I had to bring all the right clothes and not wear things twice. Wrong. You need 1-2 nicer outfits for special dinners and the rest is clothing that is suitable to the weather and activities on tour. It's not a fashion show. It's a tour.
We typically check one bag which we share, and we each have a carry-on that contains everything we really need. We did a trip to Russia when BA had lost our checked luggage. We did fine.
It finally occurred to me that the original question might have been referring to checked bags with Tauck, not checked bags with the airline. I have always ‘understood’ that Tauck’s ‘one checked bag’ request referred to a large suitcase. We always have three bags that are ‘checked’ with Tauck. Two carry-ons and one large suitcase. You just get another Tauck tag from the TD. That has never been a problem. On our Africa trips we use two carry-ons and check one carry-on size bag with the liquids. That is normally two duffels and a roll-aboard that we use as a ‘cart’. We check one of the duffels. We always have a total of three bags with Tauck tags on them.
Sealord - Your interpretation of checked could be correct, but I wouldn't think so.
To me a checked bag is one that gets put in the hold of the airplane at the airport.
Carry-on the plane bags that you get extra tags from Tauck for are just for the hotel porters, not the airlines.
Having three Tauck tagged bags (one to be airline checked and the other two to be airline carry-ons) between two people, in my opinion is not an issue. That assumes that the carry-ons meet all, if any, intra-tour flight carry-on bag requirements.
Which is why I asked the question of what he meant. I have a feeling we may never learn the answer. Oh well.
Since Delta was so kind to delay my checked bag 5 days, I now have a checked bag, carry-on bag (packed as a back-up), and a backpack. I didn’t have a carry-on the first time, I won’t make that mistake again. I travel solo, and I want to be comfortable. Do my items count as 3? I only checked 1.
Been there, done that, irdvo116. On my Egypt trip, I didn't get my checked bag back until 6 weeks after I returned home! I never saw it during the trip. Now I have a carry-on with 2 days of clothes in it.
On an amusing note, on my recent VCT trip, there was a shopaholic in the group who was on my first leg of the flight home. She bought so much stuff, she bought 2 additional suitcases to get it all home (at the final city, Bangkok, so Tauck didn't have to deal with it during the tour). We were esrted by one of the local gudes to check-in at BKK. She went nuts when they told her she'd have to pay an additional $400 in excess baggage fees.