Anyone ever used Abercrombie & Kent, Tauck or another high end travel firm?

audreyh1 said:
A lot more people in Western Europe speak English now as it’s the official EU language.
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Well, yes and no. Most people you meet in a tourist situation in Europe will be able to help you in English, and this has certainly noticeable in, for example, France. You can't have a serious career in a French company without good English these days, whereas when I moved to France in 1990 some people were almost proud of not speaking English, as if this somehow meant they were sticking it to the (American cultural hegemonist) man.

But it's not really due to the EU, which actually has 24 official languages, all of which formally have the same status. Every Directive and Regulation is produced in all 24, although not every working document appears in Irish or Maltese. English is the second official language of one or two EU countries (the Netherlands, for example), but its universality is due more to US cultural exports and the power of the dollar than any local lawmakers.
 
Well I’ve ruled out A&K and Tauck. Mostly good reviews but some awful, not willing to risk that at super premium prices. Now I’m looking at Nat Geo, Road Scholar, Rick Steves - they all seem to get good reviews, but I haven’t figured out why Nat Geo (Signature Land) prices are much higher? We’re happy to pay more as long as we get more.

And it looks like we need to spend more time fewer places. Considering a week in Paris or Venice-Florence-Tuscany-Rome - or both. But it will come down to what DW chooses - to my complete surprise so far she’s lukewarm to a big European trip? Hasn’t mentioned it since I broached the idea a week ago…
 
Midpack said:
Well I’ve ruled out A&K and Tauck. Mostly good reviews but some awful, not willing to risk that at super premium prices. Now I’m looking at Nat Geo, Road Scholar, Rick Steves - they all seem to get good reviews, but I haven’t figured out why Nat Geo (Signature Land) prices are much higher? We’re happy to pay more as long as we get more.

And it looks like we need to spend more time fewer places. Considering a week in Paris or Venice-Florence-Tuscany-Rome - or both. But it will come down to what DW chooses - to my complete surprise so far she’s lukewarm to a big European trip? Hasn’t mentioned it since I broached the idea a week ago…
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Nat Geo Signature Land prices are high because you do get way more. Very nice hotels, great comfortable transportation, airport transfers, very well organized group meals sometimes even catered. It’s the smoothest most streamlined operation I’ve ever traveled with. Also you have an history/archeology or whatever matches the trip expert traveling with you, a local country expert traveling with the group in addition to a logistics guy running the show all separate from the Nat Geo guide leader. So it’s generally a crew of 4 traveling with the group plus the bus driver. And at some sites a local private guide or expert is giving the tour. In some cases it was a head researcher.

You might want to try some of the less expensive options first. We already know what we are paying for.

You know there is nothing wrong with just visiting one city or area in Europe. Venice-Florence and Tuscany-Rome could easily take 2-3 weeks.
 
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audreyh1 said:
You might want to try some of the less expensive options first. We already know what we are paying for.
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Thanks for your advice. I would rather pay more/get more, just want to know there is added value. We have friends that did a Rick Steves Italy last summer and liked it, but there's a Nat Geo Italy trip that looks great to me. Italy: Renaissance Cities and Tuscan Life

I'd much rather have better accommodations and meals, but I don't need or want to pay for 5-star hotels/food like A&K/Tauck.

All comes down to DW...
 
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Midpack said:
Thanks for your advice. I would rather pay more/get more, just want to know there is added value. We have friends that did a Rick Steves Italy last summer and liked it, but there's a Nat Geo Italy trip that looks great to me. Italy: Renaissance Cities and Tuscan Life

I'd much rather have better accommodations and meals, but I don't need 5-star hotels/food like A&K/Tauck.

All comes down to DW...
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Yeah that does look great. My memory was very nice hotels but not necessarily 5 star, and some rural accommodations that were terrific but not hotels or 5 star.
 
audreyh1 said:
Nat Geo Signature Land prices are high because you do get way more. ...
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Yes, that's part of it. No argument that they do a good job but we did not see them as providing good value. You are also paying for someone to license the NatGeo brand, to pay for US office staff and overhead, and for an in-country travel company's staff and overhead. Hard to guess how much this amounts to but as a former business owner I would not be surprised if someone told me it was 30%.

When we travel and have an agent help with arrangements, I look for a small company that is well-established in the destination country. By going this route, I skip all the US overhead $ and, now with the internet, candidate companies are easy to identify and references are easy to check. For references I generally request contact information from at least two recent English-speaking clients. Here is an example of someone we traveled Eastern Europe with: Tour Bulgaria with Patrick - the private guide. Patrick handled routing, accommodations to our taste, restaurant selection, every aspect of the trip and was our driver/guide. He picked us up in Bratislava drove us around for a week or two, and we departed from Sofia. We also used Peter and Jane Blazicek at bestslovakiatours.com in the Tatras. (I am not pitching those destinations, just offering a sample of the type of companies we look for.)
 
OldShooter said:
Here is an example of someone we traveled Eastern Europe with: Tour Bulgaria with Patrick - the private guide. Patrick handled routing, accommodations to our taste, restaurant selection, every aspect of the trip and was our driver/guide. He picked us up in Bratislava drove us around for a week or two, and we departed from Sofia.
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That does look wonderful. Since DW has never been, and my last trip to Europe was 2002 after living in Germany early 70's - we need this trip to be organized from start to finish for us, as we don't know what we don't know.
 
Midpack said:
Thanks for your advice. I would rather pay more/get more, just want to know there is added value. We have friends that did a Rick Steves Italy last summer and liked it, but there's a Nat Geo Italy trip that looks great to me. Italy: Renaissance Cities and Tuscan Life

I'd much rather have better accommodations and meals, but I don't need or want to pay for 5-star hotels/food like A&K/Tauck.

All comes down to DW...
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For the number of towns you'd be visiting, it looks like too much to see, in not enough time. The entire trip is only 8 full days and you'd be sleeping.in 4 different places. After your jet-lagged first day, you'd have just 1 full day in Venice, just 1 1/2 days in Florence, and just 2 full days in Rome.
 
anethum said:
For the number of towns you'd be visiting, it looks like too much to see, in not enough time. The entire trip is only 8 full days and you'd be sleeping.in 4 different places. After your jet-lagged first day, you'd have just 1 full day in Venice, just 1 1/2 days in Florence, and just 2 full days in Rome.
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Florence, Venice and Rome each deserve at least a full week of your time. You're traveling a long way to get there. Make it worthwhile.
 
We have done about 20 cruises. Almost no cruise tours. We tend to arrange for a private guide (depending on the location) or join a local tour or a tour organized by others on the cruise.

We took our first organized cruise last spring. We spent four weeks in Morocco. At the last minute we signed up for a small group 8 day tour to areas that our research led us to believe that it would be difficult and time consuming to do another way.

It went well. Overall we were pleased with the tour. Not certain that we would want to do a longer one. But, very open minded about it and never say never.

We tend to be independent, slow travelers who often pick up local tours as and when.
 
Midpack said:
That does look wonderful. Since DW has never been, and my last trip to Europe was 2002 after living in Germany early 70's - we need this trip to be organized from start to finish for us, as we don't know what we don't know.
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Private guides we've traveled with are used to this, from arrival pickup to departure dropoff. They usually have several basic itineraries that they will suggest. They will also have hotel suggestions based on what you tell them you like. Again, the internet is your friend as even the small hotels have web sites you can check. We have found that we go back and forth via email two or three times to get a "final" plan emphasizing our interests. I put "final" in quotes because it is very common to make changes on the fly as the guide relationship develops.

We have done this enough times that we have prepared a sort of "clients' resume" that describes our interests (history, politics, absolutely no shopping, ...) and requirements (small hotels, always ensuite bathrooms, ...). Travel providers seem to like it. If you'd like a copy, PM me with an email address.

Also, if you're getting interested in this private travel thing, here is a lady that we used in Italy. Your Own Tour – Custom Trips. We did this tour first: https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/19672/Cooking-in-Tuscany, then Cecilia picked us up in Lucca and moved us to our Bologna base for a few days with her, then she put us on the train to Venice to connect with another guide friend of hers there who picked us up at the station.
 
CO-guy said:
I understand the hesitation regarding safety and language, but I think you're better off making your own arrangements for travel and accommodations between those three cities. Then, hire a private guide in each of the cities you visit for a day or more. AirBnB Experiences is one resource for finding well reviewed local guides for things like touring art museums in Paris with a professor of art history or visiting archaeological sites in Rome with an archaeologist.

You can travel by train between those three cities and stay in 5-star hotels where a concierge can help with local logistics. Google translate on your phone is far more of a game-changer than not having paper maps. That and Uber.
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I agree totally with this.

Europe is easy, especially if you lived there for 4 years. I lived in Europe for a year or so 40+ years ago and have been back many time since about 1997, always making my own plans. It was harder in the 90s but super easy now.

I am as comfortable in Europe as in the US, maybe more so. You will be able to book everything as easily as here. If you lived there you probably want to visit your old neighborhood and that is not likely in a group tour.

I really suggest you venture out of your comfort zone and do this trip on your own!
 
Over the years we have travelled throughout Europe, Central/South America, Mexico, etc.

Never once had an unsurmountable language challenge.

Only once in 40 plus year of international travel did we feel unsafe. In Rio years ago we were followed from a jewelry store after changing money. We simply walked back to our hotel. Waited 20 minutes, and went back out again.

We have actually felt less safe in certain US cities than we have in the above.
 
OldShooter said:
Yes, that's part of it. No argument that they do a good job but we did not see them as providing good value. You are also paying for someone to license the NatGeo brand, to pay for US office staff and overhead, and for an in-country travel company's staff and overhead. Hard to guess how much this amounts to but as a former business owner I would not be surprised if someone told me it was 30%.

When we travel and have an agent help with arrangements, I look for a small company that is well-established in the destination country. By going this route, I skip all the US overhead $ and, now with the internet, candidate companies are easy to identify and references are easy to check. For references I generally request contact information from at least two recent English-speaking clients. Here is an example of someone we traveled Eastern Europe with: Tour Bulgaria with Patrick - the private guide. Patrick handled routing, accommodations to our taste, restaurant selection, every aspect of the trip and was our driver/guide. He picked us up in Bratislava drove us around for a week or two, and we departed from Sofia. We also used Peter and Jane Blazicek at bestslovakiatours.com in the Tatras. (I am not pitching those destinations, just offering a sample of the type of companies we look for.)
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How do you find these companies - is there a site that lists them? a forum? or do you just google for each country? Tx.
 
OldConch said:
We like to mix tours and independent travel. Just booked our 21st trip with Intrepid Travel and while certainly not high-end they do offer premium trips in addition to their original style tours. Our last Europe trip was their Premium Turkey in Depth tour in September. Flew in early and stayed 3 nights at a nice hotel in Istanbul and followed up with 4 nights each in Prague and Budapest on our own. The nice thing about Intrepid's premium trips is that they have a max of 12 people. In Turkey we had 9 - 4 Aussies, 4 Americans, and one from the UK. Just returned from a combo Egypt and Jordan premium trip and there were 6 in the group in Egypt and just DW and I in Jordan. We did a Rick Steves tour in Spain last year and had 26 people in their "small group." FWIW we won't do another RS tour - nothing wrong, it just wasn't our thing. Huge difference between 12 people and 20 something in a tour group.

Intrepid tours #17 and 18 are premium trips to Sri Lanka and Borneo this spring and we'll get our lux fix at nice hotels with 3 nights each in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore between and after.

We've considered Tauck and A&K but at twice the price we can travel twice as often with Intrepid. BTW, the new A&K website is awful IMO.

#19 is Premium Greece in May, #20 is Premium Iceland in July and #21 is the Western Balkans Uncovered in October.
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Thanks for the recommendation for Intrepid Travel. I just looked it up and it sounds like it might be a good option for us.
 
We have been on 4 trips with Tauck and one NatGeo trip to Antarctica. Both companies were excellent. We really enjoy the Tauck trips and have two more scheduled. Nice hotels, excellent meals as well as some downtime for exploring on your own.
 
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walkinwood said:
How do you find these companies - is there a site that lists them? a forum? or do you just google for each country? Tx.
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Its more complicated to describe than to do.

First I assemble a list of candidates by searches like "private guide Kenya," "Private travel Myanmar," etc. I also search back issues of International Travel News (International Travel News). ITN articles are written by subscribers and definitely name names I am looking for maybe 10 candidates.

Second I email all the candidates describing briefly what we are looking for. Most respond and the majority of those are just pitching their standard tour routes and show no interest in our needs. Toss those. At this point there are two or three candidates, ideally small, flexible companies.

Third I communicate with the candidates and send a copy of our "travelers' resume." I tell them that we are talking to several companies but will downselect to just two to work with going forward. If at this step I haven't found anyone we like, it's back to step one.

Fourth is detailed work on an itinerary, review suggested hotels, interview a couple of recent customers, etc. I make it as clear as I can that we will not steal their itinerary, which is apparently somewhat common. Sometimes they ask for a deposit, which is fair, as they are putting in a lot of work at this point.

Finally I make a deal with someone and wire a deposit. I suggest that I can bring the balance in cash in exchange for a small discount and that normally works for both of us.

For phones, we have Google Fi so as soon as we arrive (in most countries), we can contact whomever is picking us up at the airport. No fooling with SIM cards, which is handy when stuck in the Arrivals area tracking a lost bag and your host is on the other side of the one-way doors.

The hardest thing is finding someone who operates like Patrick (Tour Bulgaria with Patrick - the private guide.) who will make the trip with us as guide/driver. Most private guides stick to their local area. Sometimes is it necessary to piece together guides at each stop, which is more work and eliminates the potential for a real friendship.

HTH
 
Thank you OldShooter for your detailed response.

So far, we've done all our travel by ourselves and feel comfortable doing that in western Europe & the US. We're planning on venturing further afield like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico and feel like we'll benefit from having a guide at least to get us started. Thanks again.
 
walkinwood said:
Thank you OldShooter for your detailed response.

So far, we've done all our travel by ourselves and feel comfortable doing that in western Europe & the US. We're planning on venturing further afield like Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico and feel like we'll benefit from having a guide at least to get us started. Thanks again.
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We did Vietnam and Myanmar about five years ago with Myriam Grest/info@myanmartravel.net. There are a number of positive mentions of her at Int'l Travel News though looking at her web site makes me wonder if she is still doing tourist stuff. Worth a check, anyway. We never actually me her, but she arranged the trip including visas, hotels, guides, excursions, etc.

A highlight was this river cruise: Halong Bay and Red River - UPSTREAM. Very small boat, 32 pax capacity. Every day included one or more shore stops at villages with specialties like wood carving, bonsai, knives and edged tools, etc. I have a hand-forged knife bought from a guy who makes them in his front yard.

Agreed, we definitely use guides in countries that do not use the Roman alphabet. That said, we discovered Google Translate on a trip to Japan last spring and it is absolutely amazing!
 
That Road Scholar trip that you took, OldShooter, sounded so good. It received top reviews also.

We have only done one Road Scholar trip, but we did enjoy it. We signed up on a wait list with them on a trip to Ireland last year, but we did not get to go, since no one cancelled. We received our money back timely.
 
Dreamer said:
That Road Scholar trip that you took, OldShooter, sounded so good. It received top reviews also.

We have only done one Road Scholar trip, but we did enjoy it. We signed up on a wait list with them on a trip to Ireland last year, but we did not get to go, since no one cancelled. We received our money back timely.
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Actually we had the opposite on that Italy trip. 2 days before departure RS called and said they had two last minute cancellations out of five reservations and did we still want to go with only three people total on the trip? In a New York minute! It was great, like traveling with a private guide. Guest #3 was a single guy, very nice, very compatible. All really lucky for us.
 
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