Other Options...

[Calfan]

We've done 10 ABDS and have 10 more booked through 2018. We have had amazing trips (including the guides that led Cinderella Slipper) and adore the guides we've had. So many have become good personal friends now. We are looking into Tauk for some location options that ABD doesn't service, and I can only hope that they give the same amazing service as ABD has for us in the past! For those who have traveled with ABD and other outfitters that have just 1 guide, have you found that to be any issue? We've had a few smaller ABD trips with 1 guide, but it looks like larger groups with Tauk also have just 1 guide. Curious of anyone has input on that?

I can't speak to Tauck because we have not taken one of their trips, but if guide ratio is important for you, have you looked in to either Thomson Family Adventures or NatGeo for locations ABD doesn't cover? For our trip with Thomson to China, we had 2 full-time guides and practically a third full-time guide in each separate city for 10 guests. For England Coast to Coast hiking with NatGeo, we had 2 guides plus a third logistics coordinator and some-time guide for 14 guests. For Hiking the Emerald Isle with NatGeo, we had 2 guides for 10 guests. And the guides were all top-notch. I'm not sure what the NatGeo guide ratio is for the family trips that max out at 25 guests, because we haven't taken our first one yet, but I'd be surprised if it was anything less than 2 guides based on my experiences on the NatGeo hiking trips.

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Thank you for your input!! Will definitely look into them. We had never looked outside of ABD, but friends that we travel on ABDs with want to try some other destinations and looked at Tauk. I'll share the other info with Hubby!

 

[disneyphx]

We are actually waiting for Tauck Bridges to release their 2018 itineraries so we can decide whether to do Tauck or ABD. They have dates only.....

We have done 2 Tauck trips and 5 ABD (plus 2 coming up). For us, it is primarily about itinerary and secondarily about dates. The dates/departure day have us leaning towards Tauck for Alaska.....
The youngest kids we have ever travelled with have been on our Tauck trips. Costa Rica there were 6 kids under 8, and 8 kids 10-14 . In Central Europe, there was a big age range with most kids 8-14. On our ABD Norway triop, there were 3 kids under 12, and about 8 over 14, including 4 who had just graduated from High School. So I think it is part luck and part itinerary.
Our Tauck guides have been good, and I think if we had not been with ABD we would think they were awesome. We have not had Tauck guides do the 'magic' that some others have experienced - I guess that is the downside of the guides having a lot of autonomy.

Just wish Tauck would release an itinerary!

 

[CrazyZeus1]

We are actually waiting for Tauck Bridges to release their 2018 itineraries so we can decide whether to do Tauck or ABD. They have dates only.....

We have done 2 Tauck trips and 5 ABD (plus 2 coming up). For us, it is primarily about itinerary and secondarily about dates. The dates/departure day have us leaning towards Tauck for Alaska.....
The youngest kids we have ever travelled with have been on our Tauck trips. Costa Rica there were 7 kids under 7, 8 kids 9-14 and a couple older. In Central Europe, there was a big age range with most kids 8-14.
Our Tauck guides have been good, and I think if we had not been with ABD we would think they were awesome. We have not had Tauck guides do the 'magic' that some others have experienced - I guess that is the downside of the guides having a lot of autonomy.

Just wish Tauck would release an itinerary!

We are waiting on 2018 prices too! Our friends want to do Sicily, so we are leaning towards that! Morocco, Japan, Antarctica, and the Northern Spain destinations are high on our list too!

 

[AquamarineSteph]

For those who have traveled with ABD and other outfitters that have just 1 guide, have you found that to be any issue? We've had a few smaller ABD trips with 1 guide, but it looks like larger groups with Tauk also have just 1 guide. Curious of anyone has input on that?

The fact that Tauck only has one guide should not be an immediate deterrent. I didn't think that we received less of an experience because of the one guide we had with them. We've also done G Adventures co-branded with National Geographic which also had only one guide. Our guide with that tour was equally as good as ANYONE I had with ABD, and we have travelled with Dusty. Just saying...

But as far as tours go, I would not recommend Tauck over ABD UNLESS - like us - you wanted a specific itinerary that was not available elsewhere. Now G Adventures with National Geographic? Woah. That one was up there as one of my best tours ever, but that's b/c we had a good guide. The guide two tours after ours had his dates mixed up and missed the first night meeting with his group....

 

[WishUponAStarryNight]

The fact that Tauck only has one guide should not be an immediate deterrent. I didn't think that we received less of an experience because of the one guide we had with them. We've also done G Adventures co-branded with National Geographic which also had only one guide. Our guide with that tour was equally as good as ANYONE I had with ABD, and we have travelled with Dusty. Just saying...

But as far as tours go, I would not recommend Tauck over ABD UNLESS - like us - you wanted a specific itinerary that was not available elsewhere. Now G Adventures with National Geographic? Woah. That one was up there as one of my best tours ever, but that's b/c we had a good guide. The guide two tours after ours had his dates mixed up and missed the first night meeting with his group....

Can you share what it is about your Tauck trip you didn't like? I'm curious as to whether it's an overall Tauck issue or something that may be different on a Tauck Bridges tour.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

Can you share what it is about your Tauck trip you didn't like? I'm curious as to whether it's an overall Tauck issue or something that may be different on a Tauck Bridges tour.

I am not ignoring your question, but I have to think how to explain it concisely. Off the top of my head, I'm going to assume that the Bridges tours are structured differently from the tour we took, which would make my comment not relevant to your tour. And Tauck has many devoted fans of its tours, so clearly they are doing something right for many people. It just wasn't the right fit for us.

I'll see if I can think of a way to explain it better without going on and on for pages. ;-)

 

[ngl]

We are leaning towards Alaska w Tauck for 2018 as well. ABD Alaska looks similar but again, the dates do not work as well for us. VERY happy to hear of your experiences with Tauck. We will have a 9 & 7 yr old at the time we go so hoping there will be others in that age range as well!

We are actually waiting for Tauck Bridges to release their 2018 itineraries so we can decide whether to do Tauck or ABD. They have dates only.....

We have done 2 Tauck trips and 5 ABD (plus 2 coming up). For us, it is primarily about itinerary and secondarily about dates. The dates/departure day have us leaning towards Tauck for Alaska.....
The youngest kids we have ever travelled with have been on our Tauck trips. Costa Rica there were 6 kids under 8, and 8 kids 10-14 . In Central Europe, there was a big age range with most kids 8-14. On our ABD Norway triop, there were 3 kids under 12, and about 8 over 14, including 4 who had just graduated from High School. So I think it is part luck and part itinerary.
Our Tauck guides have been good, and I think if we had not been with ABD we would think they were awesome. We have not had Tauck guides do the 'magic' that some others have experienced - I guess that is the downside of the guides having a lot of autonomy.

Just wish Tauck would release an itinerary!

 

[nordkin]

I am not ignoring your question, but I have to think how to explain it concisely. Off the top of my head, I'm going to assume that the Bridges tours are structured differently from the tour we took, which would make my comment not relevant to your tour. And Tauck has many devoted fans of its tours, so clearly they are doing something right for many people. It just wasn't the right fit for us.

I'll see if I can think of a way to explain it better without going on and on for pages. ;-)

I am with you on this. We did Yellowstone in winter with Tauck this past February with another couple we had met on an ABD tour many years ago. All of us kept saying it was okay, but ABD was better. I know one of the things for us was the activity level was too low for u and we are in our 60's.

 

[Bobo912]

I am with you on this. We did Yellowstone in winter with Tauck this past February with another couple we had met on an ABD tour many years ago. All of us kept saying it was okay, but ABD was better. I know one of the things for us was the activity level was too low for u and we are in our 60's.

That was a regular Tauck trip, right? The target audience is totally different, so that's comparing apples with oranges. It would be much more accurate to compare a Bridges trip with ABD. And they are basically the same and both excellent, except Tauck tends to include more activities and meals vs. the ever increasing on-your-own time with ABD. And the two guides of course.

 

[nordkin]

That was a regular Tauck trip, right? The target audience is totally different, so that's comparing apples with oranges. It would be much more accurate to compare a Bridges trip with ABD. And they are basically the same and both excellent, except Tauck tends to include more activities and meals vs. the ever increasing on-your-own time with ABD. And the two guides of course.

We only take adults only ABD trips and it was much more than activity level. That said, I can't compare Tauck Bridges. I understand there is a difference between Tauck and Tauck Bridges, but dealing with the parent company is not different. There were many things we did not care for and as a result, we will not do another Tauck trip. I know it is all personal preference and we are off on another ABD trip in September.

 

[kmc33]

We are will be on the Tauck Bridges Rome, Florence, Venice, Italy trip in a month. After doing two ABD trips, I was reluctant to switch to TB, but we liked the idea of staying in Florence, in the main part of Venice, and there was a significant price difference. I got a lot of positive feedback on these boards before making the final decision. After we return, I can post some observations between our ABD and TB experiences.

 

[tink1970]

We are will be on the Tauck Bridges Rome, Florence, Venice, Italy trip in a month. After doing two ABD trips, I was reluctant to switch to TB, but we liked the idea of staying in Florence, in the main part of Venice, and there was a significant price difference. I got a lot of positive feedback on these boards before making the final decision. After we return, I can post some observations between our ABD and TB experiences.

I hope you do--the more information the better! I really enjoyed staying so close to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence and Piazza San Marco in Venice...hope you enjoy your trip

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Officially our Nat Geo trip to SE Asia only had 1 guide, Jessica, that stayed with us through the whole trip and there were 16 of us and that was a full trip. We had 3 local guides, one for each country that we picked up in each country but they met us and left us at the airports, once there, it was Jessica who got us through the airports.

 

[BluesTraveler]

I've never found a board similar to this for Tauck or other travel companies. However, there is a "Tauck Bridges Family Travel" group on Facebook that I discovered. It doesn't appear to be very active, but for those of you who have questions about specific trips, that may be a good resource.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Also since we are talking OTHER OUTFITTERS: Has anyone looked into companies that do Antarctica? After 2019, that will be our last continent to set foot on so of course, I'm making my people brave the Drake Passage! I want my then-17-year-old to say he's been to every continent <3 I'm excited to see Tauk has trips there because they're trusted, has anyone else looked into any others?

I am going with Abercrombie & Kent to Antarctica in December, 2017. We chose them for a few reasons: i) their timing worked with my daughter's school schedule, ii) their customer service is beyond amazing iii) there are around quite a few teenagers around the same age as my daughter on the trip iv) this is a "bucket list" trip for me and I am very excited to explore our seventh continent! v) this is silly, but they already sent the NICEST bound booklet with all the details we need for the trip (i.e. visa requirements, passport info {valid for 6 months after return}, shots, etc) with some gorgeous pictures.

I'm VERY impressed with A&K so far. I can certainly see using them again -- actually I was wishing we had booked Iceland with them, but I digress.

I will post a detailed review on the trip when we return in January, 2018.

A quick note -- we booked the trip in Feb. or March for December, 2017. I had a cabin on hold for 2 weeks (yeah, they let me hold it for waaaay more than the 3 days they were supposed to) - when I called to put down my deposit the trip was sold out.

 

[Calfan]

I am going with Abercrombie & Kent to Antarctica in December, 2017. We chose them for a few reasons: i) their timing worked with my daughter's school schedule, ii) their customer service is beyond amazing iii) there are around quite a few teenagers around the same age as my daughter on the trip iv) this is a "bucket list" trip for me and I am very excited to explore our seventh continent! v) this is silly, but they already sent the NICEST bound booklet with all the details we need for the trip (i.e. visa requirements, passport info {valid for 6 months after return}, shots, etc) with some gorgeous pictures.

I'm VERY impressed with A&K so far. I can certainly see using them again -- actually I was wishing we had booked Iceland with them, but I digress.

I will post a detailed review on the trip when we return in January, 2018.

A quick note -- we booked the trip in Feb. or March for December, 2017. I had a cabin on hold for 2 weeks (yeah, they let me hold it for waaaay more than the 3 days they were supposed to) - when I called to put down my deposit the trip was sold out.

I'll be very interested to read your A&K review. We are planning on Tanzania for 2019, and will likely be deciding between Thomson and NatGeo, but A&K also has some great-sounding Africa trips. Would be curious on your evaluation of whether the A&K premium is "worth it." Love what you've seen so far regarding their customer service and pre-trip communications.

 

[tink1970]

I will post a detailed review on the trip when we return in January, 2018.

Looking forward to it! I really like some of their itineraries AND appreciate that they will drop the price for people who have paid already.

 

[EllinK]

I'm VERY impressed with A&K so far. I can certainly see using them again -- actually I was wishing we had booked Iceland with them, but I digress.

I loved the A&K itinerary -- I looked at it before ABD came out with their trip so not sure how they compare -- but we decided to DIY Iceland. Wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on group travel. We did for next year, though, with the Grand Cyn ABD.

 

[kmc33]

I loved the A&K itinerary -- I looked at it before ABD came out with their trip so not sure how they compare -- but we decided to DIY Iceland. Wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on group travel. We did for next year, though, with the Grand Cyn ABD.

I think Iceland is a great DIY trip! We did a stopover for a few days in Iceland flying back from Copenhagen after a Norway cruise. We enjoyed Iceland so much and the people were so friendly and welcoming that we plan to return and do it on our own.