Other Options...

[kristilew]

Can I ask why you do not recommend Tauck? We are looking at their South Africa trip because we like the itinerary better than ABD's.

We took a Tauck Bridges river cruise this summer and loved it. If you have done ABDs, there is a bit of let down effect, as the service is not nearly so fawning. The guides were more there as helpers than as complete vacation magic-makers. And the little things like snacks on the bus or surprises in your room do not happen. However, once we got over ourselves and stopped comparing it to ABD, we found that we were enjoying ourselves immensely. It was definitely a better trip for a family with a teen, as there were a lot of kids in that age group, and we were able to book a single cabin for DD18 with no single supplement - not possible on an ABD river cruise, we would have paid way, way more for her to be on a pull out sleeper chair in our cabin.

Haven't done a Tauck land tour, but there were a few families on the cruise who had done both Tauck and ABD and they indicated that the land tours are more similar to Disney level than the river cruise. Certainly the families who had never done an ABD thought the Tauck cruise was the best trip ever. There were some families who were as loyal to Tauck as many of us have been to ABD, with years and years of trips behind them.

If service and attention to detail are higher priorities than cost, ABD wins every time. But if an itinerary or price with Tauck makes them attractive, I wouldn't hesitate to book again.

 

[disneyphx]

Hi

We have done ABD South Africa and I took a look at the Go Touch Down website. I don't think the trips are very comparable - primarily because Go Touch Down has trips that are 7 days in Cape Town or 7 days on safari, while ABD goes to 3 locations in the time. So your experience of South Africa would be very different on the 2 trips.
Like with many of the discussions here, I think it is most important to consider what you are looking for in your trip to South Africa. For us, the combo of Cape Town and safari was important - and just a 'taste' of safari to see what we thought. Seeing the townships was also important to me, and we did that tour on our own.
Also, we have one child, so having the group experience we get with ABD or other family tour operators makes it more fun for her. If we were to look at small group like GO Touch Down does, there is a whole other set of tour operators to compare to.
A practical note - once you are at the game reserve on the ABD trip, you are in open jeeps. Our group was split into 4 jeeps (so 1 or 2 families in each).
I also think Go Touch Down is 'counting' their and ABD events differently.
Have fun deciding! We loved our time in South Africa - we plan to go to Kenya and Tanzania soon.

Michele

 

[sayhello]

Here is the link to their web site:

http://gotouchdown.com/

They have 2 main packages - including the safari package and the Capetown package. On the web site, you can get details of the itinerary and also of the lodgings for the 2 travel packages.

In terms of responses to your comments, they stated the following:

a) smaller means it is a more personalized tour - but usually (at least in the safari) it is an open jeep. ABD would have buses - advantage is climate control (whether summer or winter); disadvantage is that you feel you are farther from nature if you are sitting in an enclosed larger vehicle. If you only have 6 passengers to a jeep, then the staff/customer ratio may be higher in GTTT jeep compared to the ABD bus?

You do not do the safaris on the bus! The bus is only for transportation from locale to locale. You are broken up into much smaller groups for the actual safaris, and go in multiple open-air jeeps.

b) the agent say that although they are putting prices down in the table, you strictly can not compare them. It is like comparing apples and oranges. For Go Touchdown Travel and tours - ALL meals are covered (that is not true for ABG?). They state that in the one week, there are 28 different events (obviously, some of them may be the meals) that are being covered, rather than the 9 or 10 that are being covered by ABG.

It's true that ABD does not include all meals, but in general, they include the majority. If you're including meals as an activity, then I think they are grossly under-estimating how many activities ABD does.

c) although I am not at full liberty to give you details on an open forum, I do get significant discounts from what is mentioned in the table. At least 3 (and possibly 4) discounts - 1 promotional discount associated with a the travel show application I entered, a second one if I register soon, a third one if I pay all the money up front, and a fourth one for being a Canadian resident.

If cost is a big factor for you, then that *is* an advantage for them, as you're not going to see much in the way of these sorts of discounts from ABD.

4. If one does not pay up front, then one can pay some deposit (I have to get the details on this), and then pay a monthly payment at 0% interest for up to 5 years. I can book the tour upto 5 years from now - with the locked current price and the locked current discounts, provided I pay at least a non-refundable deposit (I think it may be $1000 - but do not quote me on that).

ABD does not book that far out, so if that's a big factor in your decision, then go touch down does have the advantage there. I've never booked a tour or cruise more than a year and a half in advance, so I really can't speak to that. Once you pay the deposit for an ABD, that's your price for that trip. If you decide to change to another trip, then you'll pay at the prevailing rate (unless you are a DVC member). ABD's deposit is 10% of the trip cost, so the amount you pay would depend on the cost of the trip. You can pay off the trip as slowly or quickly as you like (ABD does not do any financing, but once you pay the deposit, you can pay monthly - at no charge from ABD - or weekly, or whatever you like, until the designated Paid in Full date). If you're looking to finance your trip, ABD does not do that.

The one thing they say is that they are so small, even though they are so good, that they are not aware of outside neutral reviews on their South Africa packages. Are you aware of such reviews or rankings for the ABG South African safari packages, or other non-safari South African packages?

I'm assuming you mean ABD and not ABG. There aren't a lot of sites that have reviews of ABDs. This is one of the few. Although we are mostly big fans of ABD here, these *are* outside neutral reviews, as none of us are affiliated with ABD or Disney (ABD employees are not allowed to post here by ABD) and none of us were paid or in any way compensated for our reviews/trip reports.

Here are links to 4 South Africa Trip Reports on this Forum:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/links-to-abd-trip-reports.2167714/page-3#post-41080017

http://www.disboards.com/threads/links-to-abd-trip-reports.2167714/page-3#post-45328017

http://www.disboards.com/threads/links-to-abd-trip-reports.2167714/page-2#post-36529505

http://www.disboards.com/threads/links-to-abd-trip-reports.2167714/page-2#post-32754511

Sayhello

 

[CaliKris]

We took a Tauck Bridges river cruise this summer and loved it. If you have done ABDs, there is a bit of let down effect, as the service is not nearly so fawning. The guides were more there as helpers than as complete vacation magic-makers. And the little things like snacks on the bus or surprises in your room do not happen. However, once we got over ourselves and stopped comparing it to ABD, we found that we were enjoying ourselves immensely. It was definitely a better trip for a family with a teen, as there were a lot of kids in that age group, and we were able to book a single cabin for DD18 with no single supplement - not possible on an ABD river cruise, we would have paid way, way more for her to be on a pull out sleeper chair in our cabin.

Haven't done a Tauck land tour, but there were a few families on the cruise who had done both Tauck and ABD and they indicated that the land tours are more similar to Disney level than the river cruise. Certainly the families who had never done an ABD thought the Tauck cruise was the best trip ever. There were some families who were as loyal to Tauck as many of us have been to ABD, with years and years of trips behind them.

If service and attention to detail are higher priorities than cost, ABD wins every time. But if an itinerary or price with Tauck makes them attractive, I wouldn't hesitate to book again.

Thank you @kristilew, that is very helpful. We are familiar with the ABD trips (from all the great trip reports on these boards) but do not have as much information about Tauck. We have booked the China ABD for 2017 and are planning on the Tauck South Africa trip for 2018, but we are worried we will feel disappointed after ABD. We just like the Tauck itinerary better since it includes Victoria Falls and less sanctuaries. We will not be traveling with children.

 

[Bobo912]

We took a Tauck Bridges river cruise this summer and loved it. If you have done ABDs, there is a bit of let down effect, as the service is not nearly so fawning. The guides were more there as helpers than as complete vacation magic-makers. And the little things like snacks on the bus or surprises in your room do not happen. However, once we got over ourselves and stopped comparing it to ABD, we found that we were enjoying ourselves immensely. It was definitely a better trip for a family with a teen, as there were a lot of kids in that age group, and we were able to book a single cabin for DD18 with no single supplement - not possible on an ABD river cruise, we would have paid way, way more for her to be on a pull out sleeper chair in our cabin.

Haven't done a Tauck land tour, but there were a few families on the cruise who had done both Tauck and ABD and they indicated that the land tours are more similar to Disney level than the river cruise. Certainly the families who had never done an ABD thought the Tauck cruise was the best trip ever. There were some families who were as loyal to Tauck as many of us have been to ABD, with years and years of trips behind them.

If service and attention to detail are higher priorities than cost, ABD wins every time. But if an itinerary or price with Tauck makes them attractive, I wouldn't hesitate to book again.

I've done two Tauck trips, one land and one river cruise and my experience with the guides was totally different. But this may be because Tauck guides have more freedom and are not as strictly regulated as ABD, so other's experience may be different. On both trips our guides went out of their way to come up with special treats. On both trips there were always snacks on the bus (or boat), including the bus to Salzburg on the Danube river cruise when one of the guides bought the blue foil, hand-made Mozart chocolate candy (not the mass-produced red foil candy) for us as a special treat. On both trips the guides came up with a lot of fun contests with prizes, and usually everybody got a prize. For instance, when we made marzipan faces in Passau, the guides gave a prize for each face and came up with a personalized funny name for the prize awarded to each guest (and they did that for everybody, not just the kids). They bought kites for the kids to fly on ship's deck and they rode rides with the them all evening at the Prater amusement park in Vienna, which included an epic bumper car battle. They had a dance party on deck that was kids only and the guides served as bar tenders (non-alcoholic, of course) and DJs. The kites, dance party, etc., were not part itinerary, but an extra surprise. On the land trip our guide took photos, just like ABD guides, and gave us a CD at the farewell dinner. And on the river cruise we had a slide show at the farewell, just like ABD. All of these things were done at the discretion of the guides. That's just a few examples, but there were many more surprises. I had done 3 ABDs before the Tauck river cruise and 2 after and I think the river cruise is the 2nd best tour I've ever taken (after the Nat Geo trip to the Galapagos at #1).

Similarly, I've had some fantastic ABD guides - some more so than others. And I've had some absolutely wonderful ABD trips and some that were just okay, but considering the cost, I don't think just okay is good enough. When I did have an issue on an ABD, my post-trip communication with them was not very satisfying and somewhat unpleasant. I guess it is advantageous to have a travel agent advocate for you, but it's too bad ABD can't treat a return guest (or any guest) with the same consideration.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Go Touch Down Travel and Tours is offering me a package and states that in all respects it is superior to Dinsey Adventure Packages to South Africa. Please see the table in the link comparing these 2 companies' South African packages with 2 others? What do you think?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lpqbq86o4...sive Coupon 10-6-2016 - NEW-10-17-16.pdf?dl=0

I'm going to have to agree with @sayhello. South Africa is a country, so it is impossible to compare one tour to another and completely unfair to try to do so.

However, IMHO ABD offers a much better tour than GTD for several reasons, a few of which I will list:

• the accommodations in Cape Town are MUCH nicer and the location far superior (I'll be frank here -- the Burgundy Apartments {i.e. NOT a hotel} that GTD tours uses look awful and are a 20 minute drive from the V&A Waterfront)
  
• Is GTD tours serious when they actually include a HOHO bus tour as part of their itinerary? Surely this must be a joke.
  
• ABD has a tour that makes much more sense logistically
  
• ABD includes the flight from Cape Town to Kapama, so internal airfare *is* included (I read that GTD buses people from the JoBurg airport to the reserve -- no thanks!)
  
• Why does GTD even mention that ABD uses a bus and they use a 6 person Jeep? Not a fair comparison since Kapama uses a Jeep / open air vehicle as well on the safari portion of the trip
• Where is the Songimvelo reserve? It looks very remote to me (bordering Swaziland), vs Kapama which is somewhat close to Kruger NP
• There are no lions in the Songimvelo reserve; frankly I would be very disappointed to go on safari and not see a lion
• If you change your mind about an ABD safari they allow you to move your deposit to another tour, no questions asked, as long as it is before the PIF date
• I can barely make plans for next summer; who the heck makes plans 5 years in advance? Kudos to those who can, but I don't see that as a marketing point
• ABD covers a lot of the highlights of South Africa with their trip. It is not just a safari -- it is a tour of the country and definitely hits on the major sights in a well thought out and cohesive way whereas GTD is a Cape Town tour (7 days - far too long IMHO) and a 7 day safari (I wouldn't want to spend 5 days in the same reserve; for 7 days I'd hit 2 different reserves to experience different ecosystems)

These are just a few of my observations.

Also I personally don't care for a company that tries to establish themselves as superior by making unfair comparisons to another company and are as blatant as naming the other company. I mean that takes a lot of chutzpah.

From what I can see a lot of people "win" promotional discounts with GTD, which sounds like malarkey to me. Once you enter your name on their website for their "free" trip, my guess is that close to everyone gets notification that they "won" an $1,800.00 promotional discount. Same goes for anyone that attends one of their "sessions".

If you were comparing the 2 companies and trying to decide between them I'd pick ABD without hesitation. If you want to add on a trip to Victoria's Falls after an ABD it is very easy to do. I am in the process of adding this on to our S. African safari since I just can't go all that way without seeing the falls

 

[seema]

I'm going to have to agree with @sayhello. South Africa is a country, so it is impossible to compare one tour to another and completely unfair to try to do so.

However, IMHO ABD offers a much better tour than GTD for several reasons, a few of which I will list:

• the accommodations in Cape Town are MUCH nicer and the location far superior (I'll be frank here -- the Burgundy Apartments {i.e. NOT a hotel} that GTD tours uses look awful and are a 20 minute drive from the V&A Waterfront)
  
• Is GTD tours serious when they actually include a HOHO bus tour as part of their itinerary? Surely this must be a joke.
  
• ABD has a tour that makes much more sense logistically
  
• ABD includes the flight from Cape Town to Kapama, so internal airfare *is* included (I read that GTD buses people from the JoBurg airport to the reserve -- no thanks!)
  
• Why does GTD even mention that ABD uses a bus and they use a 6 person Jeep? Not a fair comparison since Kapama uses a Jeep / open air vehicle as well on the safari portion of the trip
• Where is the Songimvelo reserve? It looks very remote to me (bordering Swaziland), vs Kapama which is somewhat close to Kruger NP
• There are no lions in the Songimvelo reserve; frankly I would be very disappointed to go on safari and not see a lion
• If you change your mind about an ABD safari they allow you to move your deposit to another tour, no questions asked, as long as it is before the PIF date
• I can barely make plans for next summer; who the heck makes plans 5 years in advance? Kudos to those who can, but I don't see that as a marketing point
• ABD covers a lot of the highlights of South Africa with their trip. It is not just a safari -- it is a tour of the country and definitely hits on the major sights in a well thought out and cohesive way whereas GTD is a Cape Town tour (7 days - far too long IMHO) and a 7 day safari (I wouldn't want to spend 5 days in the same reserve; for 7 days I'd hit 2 different reserves to experience different ecosystems)

These are just a few of my observations.

Also I personally don't care for a company that tries to establish themselves as superior by making unfair comparisons to another company and are as blatant as naming the other company. I mean that takes a lot of chutzpah.

From what I can see a lot of people "win" promotional discounts with GTD, which sounds like malarkey to me. Once you enter your name on their website for their "free" trip, my guess is that close to everyone gets notification that they "won" an $1,800.00 promotional discount. Same goes for anyone that attends one of their "sessions".

If you were comparing the 2 companies and trying to decide between them I'd pick ABD without hesitation. If you want to add on a trip to Victoria's Falls after an ABD it is very easy to do. I am in the process of adding this on to our S. African safari since I just can't go all that way without seeing the falls

GTD has 2 different tours - one can take the Safari tour or the Cape Town tour or both. Does ABD offer a tour of the whole country - including (but not limited to Cape Town and the safari area). What do you mean that ABD offers s tour that makes sense logistically.

What do you think of the lodgings for both ABD and GTD.

GTD does offer add-ons, including Johannesburg to Cape Town train, Port Elizabeth/coast garden tour, and of course, Victoria Falls.

Let us say for the sake of argument that ABD and GPT are analogous to comparing apples and oranges. They both give a different type of experience. But let us say that they experiences are equivalent (of course you may disagree on that point). What do you say about the undiscounted cost of both tours - ABD does seem to be much more expensive. Does ABD give any type of discounts? With the 4 stacked discounts I could get with GBT, the total fare of the 2 package tours (safari and GBT) would be less than the undiscounted fare as quoted in that table for ABG.

I wonder if one has taken both the ABG South Africa tour and the GTD safari and/or Capetown tour. I would appreciate a comparison from that type of individual.

 

[calypso726]

GTD has 2 different tours - one can take the Safari tour or the Cape Town tour or both. Does ABD offer a tour of the whole country - including (but not limited to Cape Town and the safari area). What do you mean that ABD offers s tour that makes sense logistically.

What do you think of the lodgings for both ABD and GTD.

GTD does offer add-ons, including Johannesburg to Cape Town train, Port Elizabeth/coast garden tour, and of course, Victoria Falls.

Let us say for the sake of argument that ABD and GPT are analogous to comparing apples and oranges. They both give a different type of experience. But let us say that they experiences are equivalent (of course you may disagree on that point). What do you say about the undiscounted cost of both tours - ABD does seem to be much more expensive. Does ABD give any type of discounts? With the 4 stacked discounts I could get with GBT, the total fare of the 2 package tours (safari and GBT) would be less than the undiscounted fare as quoted in that table for ABG.

I wonder if one has taken both the ABG South Africa tour and the GTD safari and/or Capetown tour. I would appreciate a comparison from that type of individual.

I agree with all of the points made by the previous posters. Let's see what TripAdvisor has to say about the accommodations:

GTDT - Dunkeld Country Estate gets 3.5 stars
ABD - Table Bay Hotel gets 4.5 stars
GTDT - Humala River Lodge can't find a review anywhere. Only thing I found were the "reviewers" with one post that came out of the woodwork on TripAdvisor to say positive things about GTDT. It cracks me up how someone is supposed to believe that 2, 3, 4, 5 different people all have the EXACT same writing style. Funny how they came out after someone said they were subjected to a timeshare presentation throughout their vacation to claim that doesn't happen.
ABD - Kapama River Lodge gets 5 stars
GTDT - Burgundy Apartments gets 3.5 stars
ABD - Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa gets 4.5 stars

So ABD wins the accommodations category. The Radisson Blus I have stayed at outside of the US usually get 3.5 stars on TripAdvisor. If I weren't staying for free on points from travel hacking I'd be most upset that I paid money to stay there unless it was really really cheap. I have been on 7 ABD trips and all of the accommodations have been great and a some were beyond amazing.

I doubt you will find a person that has done both an ABD South Africa tour and the GTD safari or Capetown tour. If you do it would likely be one of the "reviewers" with one post from TripAdvisor showing up here and "Earning their Ears" with a "review".

ABD is more expensive than other tour operators. Often times though, you get what you pay for. Two guides make a huge difference. There are other intangibles as well.

I don't see how the experiences can be equivalent. Anyone who is looking forward to an African safari is hoping to see the Big 5. Lions, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino, Cape Buffalo. A game reserve with no lions will not do.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

Can I ask why you do not recommend Tauck? We are looking at their South Africa trip because we like the itinerary better than ABD's.

I'd also like to know this. I've seen a trip with Tauck and I liked the itinerary. Would love to hear your thoughts @AquamarineSteph

Touring is very personal, and what matters to one person may not matter as much to another. So feel free to take this with a grain of salt.

We were on a Tauck land trip with no children. In fact, the youngest person there was somebody's adult grandson. We were the youngest couple, and we're not that young. Almost all of these people were veterans of multiple Tauck trips, which speaks well for their product and company.

Having said that, most of the people on the trip complained incessantly that they had to walk any distance at all, that the driver didn't smile at them, that this wasn't available or that wasn't available, or things were different on their last Tauck trip...etc., etc. After day three, it was very depressing. Now you may find people like that in any group, sure, but I've never run across such a concentration of unhappy people on an ABD trip. (And ironically, in spite of all these complaints, these people were already talking about their next Tauck trip.)

Now that's a group specific observation, so let me move onto the way the tour itself works. The hotels, save one, were fabulous. (The one that was horrible was unfortunately the last hotel which didn't leave a good impression.) The food for group meals was excellent local fare which showcased regional specialities. There were repeat issues for people who had dietary restrictions. The guide was available to the entire group for questions for five to ten minutes each morning before loading the bus to travel. That's being literal. We had a printed daily schedule, and the ask the guide anything time period was very clearly marked. You could ask location questions during the tour, of course, but not personal questions.

The printed daily schedule also took a lot of fun and anticipation out of the trip. There was nothing to look forward to in that sense, because we knew at 4:10 pm we would be going there. And at 5:15 pm, we would be leaving for there. And we could all sit and obsess together if we were running late because of traffic, etc. I don't think all of their tours do that, but I did not enjoy that experience.

And there were a lot of other little things that would take too long to list here. In general, the service was adequate, but not what I would expect from a trip that costs what ours did. The hotels were great, except that one. The food was decent. And we were able to see everything on our itinerary, and that's the key point here. We picked out this tour with Tauck because it had a very specific itinerary which was not duplicated with any other tour company. So in that respect, I am very glad we did this trip with them. I wanted that specific itinerary; however, I do not plan to take another one with them, even though returning guests are given a free pre or post night's stay on the next tour they book.

We didn't do the South Africa tour. Our tour was in Europe. If you have any specific questions that I might be able to answer, please free to message me.

 

[sayhello]

GTD has 2 different tours - one can take the Safari tour or the Cape Town tour or both. Does ABD offer a tour of the whole country - including (but not limited to Cape Town and the safari area). What do you mean that ABD offers s tour that makes sense logistically.

ABD only offers one South Africa itinerary. It includes Cape Town, Knysna and Kapama Game Reserve.

GTD does offer add-ons, including Johannesburg to Cape Town train, Port Elizabeth/coast garden tour, and of course, Victoria Falls.

How much do those add-ons cost? The trip gets more expensive the more add-ons you do.

Let us say for the sake of argument that ABD and GPT are analogous to comparing apples and oranges. They both give a different type of experience. But let us say that they experiences are equivalent (of course you may disagree on that point). What do you say about the undiscounted cost of both tours - ABD does seem to be much more expensive. Does ABD give any type of discounts? With the 4 stacked discounts I could get with GBT, the total fare of the 2 package tours (safari and GBT) would be less than the undiscounted fare as quoted in that table for ABG.

It's rare for ABD to offer discounts. It does happen, but I never count on it. Generally, the only way to get a "discount" on ABD is to book through a travel agent that offers some sort of rebate.

I wonder if one has taken both the ABG South Africa tour and the GTD safari and/or Capetown tour. I would appreciate a comparison from that type of individual.

I agree with calypso. It's highly unlikely that you'll find anyone that has done South Africa with both companies. I would think that for most people, a guided trip to South Africa would be a once-in-a lifetime thing.

Sayhello

 

[CaliKris]

Touring is very personal, and what matters to one person may not matter as much to another. So feel free to take this with a grain of salt.

We were on a Tauck land trip with no children. In fact, the youngest person there was somebody's adult grandson. We were the youngest couple, and we're not that young. Almost all of these people were veterans of multiple Tauck trips, which speaks well for their product and company.

Having said that, most of the people on the trip complained incessantly that they had to walk any distance at all, that the driver didn't smile at them, that this wasn't available or that wasn't available, or things were different on their last Tauck trip...etc., etc. After day three, it was very depressing. Now you may find people like that in any group, sure, but I've never run across such a concentration of unhappy people on an ABD trip. (And ironically, in spite of all these complaints, these people were already talking about their next Tauck trip.)

Now that's a group specific observation, so let me move onto the way the tour itself works. The hotels, save one, were fabulous. (The one that was horrible was unfortunately the last hotel which didn't leave a good impression.) The food for group meals was excellent local fare which showcased regional specialities. There were repeat issues for people who had dietary restrictions. The guide was available to the entire group for questions for five to ten minutes each morning before loading the bus to travel. That's being literal. We had a printed daily schedule, and the ask the guide anything time period was very clearly marked. You could ask location questions during the tour, of course, but not personal questions.

The printed daily schedule also took a lot of fun and anticipation out of the trip. There was nothing to look forward to in that sense, because we knew at 4:10 pm we would be going there. And at 5:15 pm, we would be leaving for there. And we could all sit and obsess together if we were running late because of traffic, etc. I don't think all of their tours do that, but I did not enjoy that experience.

And there were a lot of other little things that would take too long to list here. In general, the service was adequate, but not what I would expect from a trip that costs what ours did. The hotels were great, except that one. The food was decent. And we were able to see everything on our itinerary, and that's the key point here. We picked out this tour with Tauck because it had a very specific itinerary which was not duplicated with any other tour company. So in that respect, I am very glad we did this trip with them. I wanted that specific itinerary; however, I do not plan to take another one with them, even though returning guests are given a free pre or post night's stay on the next tour they book.

We didn't do the South Africa tour. Our tour was in Europe. If you have any specific questions that I might be able to answer, please free to message me.

Thank you @AquamarineSteph. That is very helpful. You have given us a lot to think about. We do really like the Tauck itinerary but don't want to be disappointed after spending so much money. We have only taken one other group tour and that was a small group with 12 people and a guide. We all got to know the guide very well.

 

[mare1203]

Thank you @AquamarineSteph. That is very helpful. You have given us a lot to think about. We do really like the Tauck itinerary but don't want to be disappointed after spending so much money. We have only taken one other group tour and that was a small group with 12 people and a guide. We all got to know the guide very well.

A) ! So glad you made it out of lurkdome!

I agree with the above posters that touring is very personal. I know a couple people who have done Tauck and this board, as you can see, has a number of them as well. I think at first we went with ABD because we were Disney loyalists who wanted to go to Italy and decided to try out ABD. We knew next to nothing about group travel or about other companies out there. After spending quite a bit of time on this board, there are a number of companies to consider depending on where you would like to visit and it's worth it to look beyond ABD. If the location was high on my list, and Tauck (or even another company) offered the "better" itinerary for me, I think I'd go for it. I'm sure there would be things we'd miss about Disney, but there would likely also be other things I liked better. IMO, they wouldn't be around very long if they didn't consistently deliver a good product. Are you looking at a Tauck or Tauck Bridges tour? I do know that ABD has pulled quite a bit from Tauck Bridges and other 'high-end group travel' companies as they entered the market (and ABD is still relatively young), so the companies are comparable in terms of the type of traveler they are hoping to land.

 

[tgeorge]

Thanks @AquamarineSteph . That certainly does help. Especially the adult only aspect because that is what I would be looking at. This is a regular Italy trip that is not with Tauck Bridges. What I like about it, is it essentially combines two of the ABD Italy trips (Amalfi Coast and Rome/Venice). I know another poster on this board has said that she looked into Tauck (also non-Bridges) and the representative actually swayed her away from it due to her age and the normal demographic that they get. Between that and some of your comments, it seems like I may need to wait a bit before I try their product. I'm by no means opposed to interacting with people of all ages, however, I do think that my activity level and what I would be happy doing would make that type of trip one that I wouldn't be happy with. So, while the Tauck trip does hit both of the locations in Italy, I do think that the activities with ABD would be more appealing, so it isn't a true comparison. A B2B may be the way to go in this case.

I know that travel is very subjective and what some people love others people don't, but I do appreciate you giving your opinion based upon your experience. That definitely helps!

 

[Rapunzellover]

I know another poster on this board has said that she looked into Tauck (also non-Bridges) and the representative actually swayed her away from it due to her age and the normal demographic that they get.

This is me, I believe, so I'll chime in. Tauck was on my list for Ireland. I was not impressed with their reps. I went with ABD. Did not regret it at all.

That being said, Portugal is very high on my list (I'm Portuguese) and Tauck has a new itinerary I might try. But I'm waiting a bit to see if ABD comes up with something. Just to see.

I usually make decisions based on itineraries. But if the itineraries are close, I'd probably chose ABD.

 

[tgeorge]

This is me, I believe, so I'll chime in. Tauck was on my list for Ireland. I was not impressed with their reps. I went with ABD. Did not regret it at all.

That being said, Portugal is very high on my list (I'm Portuguese) and Tauck has a new itinerary I might try. But I'm waiting a bit to see if ABD comes up with something. Just to see.

I usually make decisions based on itineraries. But if the itineraries are close, I'd probably chose ABD.

Hi Rapunzellover! Yes, I was remembering a comment you had made about what the rep said to you.

I've also looked into Nat Geo for Italy,but their offerings aren't really what I'm looking for. I appreciate your feedback and if you do their Portugal trip at some point, would love to hear your thoughts since we're close in age and solo travelers. I think it would be a great comparison.

 

[calypso726]

This is me, I believe, so I'll chime in. Tauck was on my list for Ireland. I was not impressed with their reps. I went with ABD. Did not regret it at all.

That being said, Portugal is very high on my list (I'm Portuguese) and Tauck has a new itinerary I might try. But I'm waiting a bit to see if ABD comes up with something. Just to see.

I usually make decisions based on itineraries. But if the itineraries are close, I'd probably chose ABD.

So far we have chosen ABD to for our group travel if they go to the destination we want and the date works. We will go with a small private tour group or on our own if there is no ABD option. Currently, Hawaii, Bora Bora, Maldives and Iceland are trips we will do on our own. Some of our bucket list places just get pushed out while we wait to see if ABD will come up with a new destination. Japan, Antarctic are two that we'd like to visit some day and hope ABD will do those because I don't want to do them on my own. In the meantime, we will cross off other the other bucket list places ABD offers that I know I don't want to plan to do on our own like Africa, China, Germany, Costa Rica and a few others.

 

[tink1970]

I so regretted not doing Tauck for Ireland...we went with Ireland's official company (CIE) and I was less than thrilled with our experience (the only reason I did this was Tauck and Tauck Bridges were sold out and ABD had so many young children my travel agent talked me out of it...). I had very specific dates due to being in the UK to drop off DD so I didn't have many options to work with, and mom wanted to be with a tour group (10 days together, just us, might be a little much!).

While the accommodations and food were fine (sometimes good sometimes meh so averaging out to be fine), the experiences were plentiful (one would say one received one's money's worth...however I sometimes do not need to see the second largest ball of twine), and I enjoyed the company of 6 of the 30 other travelers, I was underwhelmed overall. The bus driver was wonderful (and I think I amused him when I told him one day "I'd rather be where people are not...") and the guide was very knowledgeable. The last night we spent at Dromolond Castle, and to my surprise our guide left us and said his time was done, good luck, passed out surveys, waited for tips and reminded us that there was a bus ride to the airport the next day...and went home. Everyone around us (yes I noticed) marked the best scores possible on the survey whereas my mother and I were all over the place in our impressions.

I learned a couple of valuable lessons: (1) not everyone wants or likes the same thing from a tour company and (2)I'm going with Tauck/Tauck Bridges to Ireland if I return.

 

[CaliKris]

Thanks for the welcome @mare1203. I love your trip reports and will start posting on them now that I am out of the lurking zone. I suppose I never introduced myself properly. We are a couple in our 50's with children in their 20's. We love to travel and love Disney. We travel independently quite a bit as I enjoy planning trips and itineraries. We have traveled (the four of us) to Europe, New Zealand and Japan (had to go to Tokyo Disney) without a guide. For places like China and South Africa, we feel more comfortable with a travel guide and group. Plus, the China trip will get us to our last two Disney parks on our bucket list (Shanghai and Hong Kong). For Africa and China, we are planning on just the two of us as they are pricey trips so we would not be looking at Tauck Bridges.

We don't mind traveling with people of all ages but don't want to be with a group of cranky people as @AquamarineSteph described either. We are used to active, adventure vacations so that is another reason why ABD has so much appeal. I have a feeling we might need to adjust our expectations a bit if we go with Tauck. I am going to keep looking at other companies and itineraries. After our China ABD, we may just decide to stick with ABD for South Africa.

 

[EllinK]

This is my favorite Disboard! I read it obsessively every day. We've been on 6 cruises with DCL but I still haven't made the leap to ABD. I'm hoping to do the southwest trip this year.

Another place that has been on my must-do list is Australia/NZ. I keep hoping that ABD will do a combo trip but no joy so far. This morning's LA Times had a very interesting piece in the "tours and cruises" section -- a 14 day family-friendly trip to Aus/NZ for $5000! It's a great itinerary. I think the way this company (Zicasso) works is that they plan the trip, book the accommodations and arrange for guides but you travel on your own (they arrange the details but don't accompany you). Anyone have any experience traveling with this company?

 

[CaliKris]

This is my favorite Disboard! I read it obsessively every day. We've been on 6 cruises with DCL but I still haven't made the leap to ABD. I'm hoping to do the southwest trip this year.

Another place that has been on my must-do list is Australia/NZ. I keep hoping that ABD will do a combo trip but no joy so far. This morning's LA Times had a very interesting piece in the "tours and cruises" section -- a 14 day family-friendly trip to Aus/NZ for $5000! It's a great itinerary. I think the way this company (Zicasso) works is that they plan the trip, book the accommodations and arrange for guides but you travel on your own (they arrange the details but don't accompany you). Anyone have any experience traveling with this company?

These are my favorite of the Disboards as well! We have been to almost all the Disney parks, just bought a DVC and now are going to be trying our first ABD. The only thing left is DCL. Would you recommend a DCL cruise for four adults? Our kids are no longer little and we just don't know if a DCL would be right for us.