TauckReviews of tauck.com

I was injured on a trip to Patagonia in December 2023. I asked the tour guide to get me a doctor. Instead she sent me to the front desk who would not help me other than tell me to go by myself to a local clinic. I could not walk easily and was in pain and could not go alone to a clinic. When the tour guide got back, I again requested that she help me get a doctor, and advised her what the hotel front desk had said. She never got me a doctor and never offered to help get a doctor. When I got back home, I finally saw my own doctor , and arrived in a wheelchair. I was told by Tauck Tours insurance that they could not cover me any of my bills because I did not see a doctor in South America. If they had been notified, they would have even sent a doctor from another city, if necessary. Tauck would do nothing to help with medical bills when I returned home. They were very nasty on the phone and threatening. Do not expect any help if you become ill.

I was told at the time of reservation that the max no of people was 25, but ended up with nearly 40 without notification of the change. Others on the cruise said the same. Tour dir said Tauck changed the max. Asked specifically about attire, and was told it was casual. Only when we were on the trip did we learn that a sport jacket was recommended. My husband wore a sweater and was the only male without a jacket. Our dep time from Dublin was provided, corrected, confirmed, but still wrong with tour dir. She had us leaving for the airport at midnight for a 11:25 flight. Bus issues: While driving between overnight locations (all bags, passports, money on the bus), we stopped at a roadside rest stop/restaurant. The tour director assured us we could safely leave our things on the bus, that it would be secured. The bus driver left the bus unlocked and the door wide open the entire time. People claiming to have motion sickness sat in the front of the bus the entire week. Why would you book a bus trip if you have motion sickness? The tour director said they would rotate everyone from front to back each day, but we were in the back the entire trip. Hotel views were very bad, garbage bins and roof tops. Generally nice facilities, but the worst rooms. Tour director was disorganized, blamed company for issues, stayed with single women for meals. She was subpar - not engaging at all, read notes so flatly during bus trips that she put most to sleep. She misdirected people at our stops. When the same people repeatedly arrived late for departures she did not address it. Tour director did not seek out feedback from us for anything. A few times she said, “wasnt that/he great”.

We have taken one TAUCK 8 day tour (Savannah/Hilton Head/Charleston) and based on that experience would not recommend them for the following reasons: 1. They are expensive. We paid $5,589 PP. If you booked this yourself, it’s only ~$3,165. This means you are paying almost twice as much for the same experience. 2. The experiences were “nothing special”. We could have booked any of them on the internet. 3. The food was mostly “OK” with one meal being superb and one meal being inedible. 4. We got the impression that our tour director was “phoning it in”. She really didn't seem like she wanted to be on the tour. 5. They also overcharge – we booked an extra day at the hotel and were charged $298.50 (the single person rate) times 2 (since there were two of us) for a total of $597. The published rate for our room was $383. I’d also consider another aspect of the tour: You are being “programmed” and in order to get the most out of the tour, you need to be up in the morning and stick with the group. If you’ve never watched the movie, “If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium”, please do so prior to booking. Sure it’s satire, but there’s a lot of truth there. There's not fault to Tauck for this, that's what they do, we just decided it's not our "style". If you do decide you’re a “tour person”, check out Roads Scholar tours. A similar tour from them would have been $3,099 PP and the tour leader, Ruth Miller, would have been fantastic (we had her for our Tauck bus tour in Charleston, she was fantastic, one of the highlights of the trip. ) Net-net, do your homework and make sure this type of travel is really “for you” and whatever you do, don't book extra days through Tauck.

After 16 trips with Tauck, this was my last. The overall trip was BORING, on and off the bus, packing/unpacking after 1 or 2 days in each hotel, dull sites. Their choice of hotels has deteriorated considerably. One of the "hotels" was less than 1 star. But the worst part is their customer service. Apparently they could care less about keeping customers. Maybe ignorant first-timers will keep them going for a while. Doubt it.

More than a year ago we signed up for the Switzerland: Europe's Crown Jewel tour for September 2023. One of the featured items on the website and in brochure was a trip on the Glacier Express glass-domed train through the Alps. About a week before departure, Tauck sent an email saying that they couldn't get tickets so they substituted for a regular train, a very long bus ride, and a tour of a cheese factory. Getting train tickets is their core business. They knew the dates. We booked more than a year in advance. We questioned them and were told that they would not be providing any compensation because they provided an alternate excursion. The basement of a very small, stinky cheese factory was not a suitable alternative to the world-renowned Glacier Express. During the trip, we learned that some couples got cash back - when we protested to Tauck, they offered a voucher if we booked a future trip. I feel that this was a bait and switch. This was our third Tauck trip and I question whether I will ever use their voucher. Otherwise, this trip had way too much bus time. The meals were good. The hotels were average. Pace was geared to people 70 plus years old....we are 60 and were the youngest people on tour.

Sad to see a once good tour company stumble and fall into mediocrity. That’s Tauck post-Covid. My May 2023 tour of Normandy, Brittany and the Loire Valley was done on the cheap by Tauck, yet cost me thousands of dollars extra as a solo traveler on a special small-group tour. 5-star hotels switched to 3 and 4 (without any compensation or explanation)… many more meals “on your own”… lots of “self-guided” tours of museums and chateaux and castles we knew nothing about… airline quality “rubber chicken” dinners, not in hotel restaurants, but in sad and isolated business convention spaces… poorly-trained newer Tour Directors (like the one on this tour) with limited experience traveling outside her tiny Canadian village or dealing with people from diverse backgrounds. She even confessed that this was a second gig job that took her away from her own business back home! You get what Tauck pays for, but unfortunately, not what YOU pay for. Speaking to a “Guest Relations” agent was comically pointless. She tried to make everything my fault, which I now understand is par for the course with the “new” post-Covid Tauck. Please reconsider spending huge amounts of your hard-earned money on a tour company that has lost its way and no longer delivers.

Douro River cruise, excellent. Booked a summer cruise out of Nice 2023. Had to cancel seven months prior to the departure date. Had made a $3000 deposit that Tauck refused to return or apply as a future credit. Never will travel on them again

4th Tauck Tour and will never use them again. Booking my own trip was a nightmare. Inconsistent answers, long wait times on phone, and insisted they pick me up at Charles de Gaule...never showed up. Said there was a laptop for use by passengers...not true and my cell phone broke so I was out of touch with everyone. 2 Covid passengers and the worst was the raw sewage that came up from my shower the last day of the trip...no wonder my room stank the whole time. I never wanted to go anywhere this year because of Covid and disastrous airline performances all summer, but Tauch said I would lose my deposit from a cancelled trip last year and I had to book a European River Cruise. So, between Delta Airlines (Tauck booked me) and this cruise I came home tired, angry, upset.