Other Options...

Has anyone here done Tauck for China or have other recommendations with similar service levels/hotel quality? Planning 2020 now!
 
No. The recommended tip for the lead guide is $5-8 per person/per day. The secondary guide is $4-6 per person/per day. All other tips are taken care of. Also of note, tipping is not required in Japan. Whenever we went to tip, it was refused.
 
We recently did a Road Scholar tour and while we were much younger than the average also, I was happy that the mix was not doctors and lawyers. (Full disclosure, I AM a doctor.) It was a great mix of careers from engineers to musicians to a Red Cross volunteer coordinator. Many of the women had their own careers, though mid everyone was retired at that point. What tied them together was an active curiosity of the world. I did in fact make a good friend and she and I are traveling the Canadian Rockies this Fall. That said, they are not luxury tours, though we did have a fabulous guide 24/7.
Would love to hear your experience with Road Scholar trips. We have done Tauck and my guess is based on the price this may be a lower "level" than Tauck offers but was curious if you have any other comments about the trip. This would be a family trip (us in our late 40s and kids 10 & 8) and were thinking of the Badlands & Mount Rushmore one. Thanks!
 


Japan still seems to be very much a cash based society. Many places in the mountain areas were cash only, but many restaurants and souvenier stands in the cities were also cash only. We had about a 2-3 day period where access to ATMs was limited, and one family ran out of cash. Our lead guide loaned cash to them until they could get to an ATM in Kyoto.

This surprises me. I bought a bunch of traveler's checks (I know) because I had heard this and I ended up not needing them because I used my credit card so much. I only did spend a day in Kyoto though.
 
This surprises me. I bought a bunch of traveler's checks (I know) because I had heard this and I ended up not needing them because I used my credit card so much. I only did spend a day in Kyoto though.

Didn't mean to imply credit cards aren't widely used. But we found it not nearly as prevalent in some of the places, even in Tokyo. Certainly the hotels and larger sites accepted credit cards. For example, we went to a couple of local ramen restaurants in Tokyo (mostly locals there) which were cash only. When we got our Pasmo cards for the subway it was cash only (the machines where you load money onto the card did not take credit cards). Each of the 3 of us had a Pasmo card with $20 initially loaded onto it, so that was $60 in cash. Entrance fees to many of the sites were cash only, and obviously some of the shops and stores (especially smaller ones) were cash only. Another example was one of the woman on the tour booked a massage through the ryoken we were at. She thought she could put the cost of it on the room, but couldn't as it was a cash only payment. So, it is things like that to be wary of.
 
From my experience of one, which was not a family trip and was a river cruise so possibly very different from the trip you're looking at, I would recommend them. Definitely not the luxury level of ABD hotels, etc, from what I've seen, but I'm ok with that. Our river cruise boat was small, spotless, with a delightful crew. We were rafted next to a Viking ship and had to walk thru to the sidewalk and my initial thought was "shiny!" Lots of marble, brass, fancy finishes on the Viking ship. Ours was more muted, nice but not "fancy." The hotel in Basel was in a great location, spotlessly clean, but a bit spartan. It had a hostel sort of feel, though the rooms were huge. We were responsible for our own luggage. Our guide was excellent, and tried to think of everything anyone might need. Truly, the best part was the people. So interesting. I even made a friend that I'm traveling with in September on a RS Canadian Rockies by Rail trip.




I'd love to try a RS family trip, honestly. For us, with oldest dds being 19, they don't qualify for most trips with RS.
 


My computer/internet at work is acting up, so instead of editing, I'm just going to add more here.

Tips were included, as were all but a couple of meals on a 12 day trip. Again, river cruise, where meals are included anyways. The tours were definitely less active than I would have liked, but I'm assuming a family trip would be much different.

The age of the kids is what is an issue for us in finding a trip for us. Straight family trips seem to limit ages to small ranges, and none go over 16. The full multigenerational ones seems to cover everyone, but I haven't called to confirm that. There are fewer of those trips.

It does seem that on a per day basis, RS is sig cheaper than many other group travel options. I really liked the emphasis on learning. I enjoyed the small handful of lectures we had, though they were certainly not mandatory. Our guide was also up front in saying that our tours would NOT include programmed shopping stops, as some tours do where they bring the whole group to the diamond/silk/pearl/etc place. We're not big shoppers so that was a bonus, and I'd rather spend my time seeing/learning than getting the hard sell on local products.

We had one RS guide with us the whole time, for 26 of us, with a new local guide in every location. Some where better than others. One guide in Germany had such a heavy accent, and told such off color jokes that he was not one I'd prefer to repeat. Again, not an issue with a family trip I'd assume.
 
Didn't mean to imply credit cards aren't widely used. But we found it not nearly as prevalent in some of the places, even in Tokyo. Certainly the hotels and larger sites accepted credit cards. For example, we went to a couple of local ramen restaurants in Tokyo (mostly locals there) which were cash only. When we got our Pasmo cards for the subway it was cash only (the machines where you load money onto the card did not take credit cards). Each of the 3 of us had a Pasmo card with $20 initially loaded onto it, so that was $60 in cash. Entrance fees to many of the sites were cash only, and obviously some of the shops and stores (especially smaller ones) were cash only. Another example was one of the woman on the tour booked a massage through the ryoken we were at. She thought she could put the cost of it on the room, but couldn't as it was a cash only payment. So, it is things like that to be wary of.

Ah, I see. I had someone else taking care of the subway/shinkansen part so I didn't deal with that. Definitely did hit some stores for souvenirs that were cash only.
 
Thanks for sharing - fun to read! We had been tempted by that trip, but it repeated a lot of what we did independently - even the Kyoto hotel.....
Not looking forward to the heat and humidity - last time it was over Thanksgiving - and we got a view of Mt Fuji from the DL monorail!
 
Would love to hear your experience with Road Scholar trips. This would be a family trip (us in our late 40s and kids 10 & 8) and were thinking of the Badlands & Mount Rushmore one. Thanks!

Does Road Scholar do family trips? I thought they catered to seniors.
 
Does Road Scholar do family trips? I thought they catered to seniors.
They do offer some family trips, and also grandparent/grandchild trips. The age ranges for kids are small though for a lot of them, so if you have multiple kids and/or a large age gap, it can be tricky to find ones that everyone can do. They have some interesting options though.
 
@RSM On your Thomson Japan trip, did the group visit Nara during the Kyoto portion of your trip? I'm trying to determine if we should add an extra day in Kyoto at the end of the trip. Thanks!

P.S. It took me a minute to figure out that your separate Other Options -- Japan thread had been merged into this one. Glad all of your great info didn't disappear!
 
@RSM On your Thomson Japan trip, did the group visit Nara during the Kyoto portion of your trip? I'm trying to determine if we should add an extra day in Kyoto at the end of the trip. Thanks!

P.S. It took me a minute to figure out that your separate Other Options -- Japan thread had been merged into this one. Glad all of your great info didn't disappear!

No. The Thomson tour did not visit Nara. Stayed in Kyoto for the 2 days. There is so much to do in Japan, but so little time. We elected to spend what extra time we had in Tokyo and at Mt. Fuji. The Thomson trip only has about 1.5 days in Tokyo depending on what time you get in. Next time, we'd love to go to Nara, Hiroshima, and spend more time in Kyoto.

I think the moderator must have merged the 2 threads.

Good luck planning.
 
No. The Thomson tour did not visit Nara. Stayed in Kyoto for the 2 days. There is so much to do in Japan, but so little time. We elected to spend what extra time we had in Tokyo and at Mt. Fuji. The Thomson trip only has about 1.5 days in Tokyo depending on what time you get in. Next time, we'd love to go to Nara, Hiroshima, and spend more time in Kyoto.

I think the moderator must have merged the 2 threads.

Good luck planning.

Thanks!
 
Has anyone here ever used Audley Travel to set up a personal itinerary (or know someone who has)?? I am looking at Nat Geo to put together a custom trip for the two of us to Australia, but also ran across Audley and was curious is anyone has had any dealings with them.
 
Just booked the Vietnam Culinary Family Adventure with Thomson Family Adventures with an extension to Cambodia. We really wanted to spend some time on Ha Long Bay, and this itinerary hit most of the spots we wanted to go. Going in June 2019.
 
Just booked the Vietnam Culinary Family Adventure with Thomson Family Adventures with an extension to Cambodia. We really wanted to spend some time on Ha Long Bay, and this itinerary hit most of the spots we wanted to go. Going in June 2019.

Definitely interested in your feedback on this one. Southeast Asia is on my list, but I'm very "meh" on the ABD itinerary and interested in other options. Ha Long Bay is a must for me too. Does the Cambodia extension hit the Angkor temples?
 
Definitely interested in your feedback on this one. Southeast Asia is on my list, but I'm very "meh" on the ABD itinerary and interested in other options. Ha Long Bay is a must for me too. Does the Cambodia extension hit the Angkor temples?

It does. When I spoke with them they said the extension was one of about 4 that they have put together for other customers as a private tour. Basically, they said the extension is a private tour but someone else could join in. They are really flexible on the extension and will pretty much arrange whatever you want or you can pick from one of the previous extensions they had put together. We looked at alot of itineraries and this one seemed to resonate with the 3 of us. The only thing that was on our list that is not on the tour is the War Remnants Museum and Cu Chi Tunnels tour. We will go in a day early to Saigon and do those on our own.
 
Definitely interested in your feedback on this one. Southeast Asia is on my list, but I'm very "meh" on the ABD itinerary and interested in other options. Ha Long Bay is a must for me too. Does the Cambodia extension hit the Angkor temples?
The SE Asia ABD is an outstanding trip! I would love to have included HLB, and I think we are going to go on our own when we repeat the trip!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top