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[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

For anyone following along, I've posted the next instalment.

 

[jenbadeaux]

For anyone following along, I've posted the next instalment.

Can you pm me the link to your trip report, cinderella's slipper? TIA

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

For those of you following along, I've posted the next instalment of my blog. Our first full day in Vienna.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

For those following along, the final 2 instalments of my blog are posted.

 

[Chirple]

For those following along, the final 2 instalments of my blog are posted.

Hi Cinderella's Slipper 2015, would you share the link to your blog with me? Thanks!

 

[McPackers]

For anyone following along, I've posted the next instalment.

Would you invite me please?

 

[RebelHawk]

Cinderella's Slipper, can you please provide me with the link to the blog about your trip?

Thank you,

Tom

 

[EllinK]

A&K
Just received the A&K Family catalogue for 2017 and the Iceland trip looks amazing! Has anyone traveled with them? Would love to hear about a personal experience.

 

[EllinK]

Hmm. Yelp reviews for A&K are not great. Bummer.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

Hmm. Yelp reviews for A&K are not great. Bummer.

Don't trust everything you read on Yelp.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Don't trust everything you read on Yelp.

ITA. Abercrombie and Kent are a VERY high end tour operator with a stellar reputation. If you see a trip that intrigues you and it's within your budget, then I would book them without hesitation. I've come very close a few times but haven't for various reasons. I am VERY seriously considering them for an Antarctic family cruise next December. I just can't commit this far in advance.

 

[EllinK]

Thanks for the feedback on A&K.

 

[kmc33]

A couple questions for the Tauck travelers... have you booked directly with Tauck or with an agent? I am not sure which is better. If anyone has an agent they have used for Tauck that they really like, could you give me their name? If not permissible here, then please message me.
Also, we are finally planning to book the Italia Bella trip through Tauck. I know I received some really good on here, but I want to double check. We would be two adults and a older teenager (getting ready to enter his senior year in high school). Would we be out of place? I have had two agents warn me that this trip is for kids.
Thanks for the help!!

 

[tink1970]

Kim,
My DH and I went on the Tauck Italia Bella trip Christmas 2015 (without my DD).

It was "last minute" (ie 3 months prior) and we booked directly with Tauck. I've always had quite good interactions with their operators and I'm unaware of a ta in my town that works a lot with them so I just did it myself and had no problems whatsoever.

I don't know if it was because we were on the Christmas trip or not, but the majority of the "kids" were college/high school aged. There was only one 10 year old who was very well behaved. I'm sure summer trips will have more variety, but the teens and young adults were all well traveled and with one or two exceptions, well behaved (to be fair- this is probably more of a difference in parenting styles) and a pleasure to be around. The group seemed to click very quickly and enjoyed themselves a lot.

I really wanted to return and take my DD on this trip this summer, alas, she is going with a school group to Europe without me. Guess that's my way of saying I wouldn't hesitate.

 

[carpenta]

WE did the Tauck Italia Bella trip 3 years ago. We booked directly with Tauck and it went very smooth. On our trip the kids were mostly 13 yrs. to 20 years and a sprinkling in between. Our daughter was 14 at the time and fit in well with the others. We have done 4 Tauck trips so far and booked Costa Rica next year with them and find the kids skew a little older. In general and we booked Tauck because our daughter in 17 now and find the "kids" more in her range. Loved the Italy trip and our guide was one of the BEST we ever have encounted.

 

[Bobo912]

A couple questions for the Tauck travelers... have you booked directly with Tauck or with an agent? I am not sure which is better. If anyone has an agent they have used for Tauck that they really like, could you give me their name? If not permissible here, then please message me.
Also, we are finally planning to book the Italia Bella trip through Tauck. I know I received some really good on here, but I want to double check. We would be two adults and a older teenager (getting ready to enter his senior year in high school). Would we be out of place? I have had two agents warn me that this trip is for kids.
Thanks for the help!!

I haven't taken the Italia Bella trip, but I've done two other Tauck Bridges trips, both in July, and on both there was a good mix ages among the kids, including teenagers. I don't think your teenager would feel out of place. I wouldn't call them trips for kids. Like ABD, there are great activities that people of all ages can enjoy. And occasionally throughout the trip, the guides will do something special with the kids.

I booked both trips directly with Tauck and always had a good experience dealing with them. If you're a AAA member, I believe they also offer Tauck trips. I didn't know that when I booked our trips or I might have used them if there was some advantage. I'm not sure if they offer any type of incentives.

 

[kaseyC]

We've done two Tauck Bridges tours - Ireland Forever in 2015 and Majestic California in 2016. My DDs are teens 14&12 on the Ireland trip and 15&13 on the California trip. I would say that the majority of kids were teens on both trips. We had one or two 20yr olds and the rest were in 12-18 range.

I booked both of my trips through a travel agency. I found them from reading a few travel blogs from Tauck travelers. They are a big seller of Truck has well as other guided tour companies and types of travel. They also gave a $150.00 gift card pp to the store of your choice. So for the 3 of us that was like $450 bonus. Very easy to work with and quite knowledgeable.

edited to remove link. Message me and I will send you a link.

 

[kmc33]

Thank your for the responses! I thought I read the age range for the "kids" can be older. We have done 2 ABDs previously and there were guests with us that didn't have kids with them or were traveling with adult children. So I didn't think too much of requesting a quote for three "adults" for TB. I think the agents were just being thorough.

I got a quote from the agency you used kaseyC. Thank you for the feedback. I think that is who we might go with.

As much as I enjoyed our ABD trips, the TB Italy looks like a better fit for us. And right now they have a special on airfare to Europe for $890. We can't come anywhere close to that rate out of our airport.

Thanks again for the help! You guys are the best!!

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

For anyone that is interested, I'm getting ready to head off to South East Asia with National Geographic Adventures in a week's time (we leave next Wednesday, February 1). Our trip officially starts on February 4th but we are arriving a day and half early so have booked a private full day excursion to Cai Be as well as a half-day cooking class. I plan on writing about it all in my blog when I return. I can't do it while we're on the trip as we will have very limited access to the internet. I will let you know when we're back and how the trip went, as this is our first non-ABD trip but I already really like dealing with Nat Geo and I will let you know when the blog starts going up again.

We are contemplating where our 2018 plans will take us. We are not sure if we will stay with Nat Geo as there are a number of great trips we want to do with them but there is also an amazing train trip through Europe that we are seriously considering with G Adventures (they run a number of the Nat Geo Journeys trips).

 

[carpenta]

Hope you have a wonderful trip Cinderella's Slipper. Waiting here to read all about it. Cheers!