pipsil

Does anyone have experience or suggestion for the best Cruise Company whose itinerary includes Budapest to Bucharest ? A the moment I am leaning toward Tauck. Their prices are high, and although they have a great reputation, use quite old vessels .Would appreciate any input.

desertduds

In Sept. we went on a Tauck Amsterdam-Budapest rivercruise and plan to sign up for the Budapest-Black Sea cruise for Sept...you will love it!!!! The boat was spotless, food wonderful, entertainment fun, guides terrific. The price is the price, no extras or tips. If we hadn't bought wine, we wouldn't have spent another cent. We were off the boat every day for half or full day, many of the days the boat left after we disembarked and they went down the river six or eight hours and picked us up after a day of touring. This is NOT a tour for sissies, you will be busy, the sights are wonderful, both from the boat and inland. I would definitely suggest you sign up for a room (on any boat tour you choose) on the left side of the boat, so you will always have the rivr as your view....we had room 100, which had two steps inside the room, we will pick 98 this time. We saw loads of cruise companies and commercial traffic.....Vantage, Viking, KD Cruises, etc......

pipsil

Thank you desertduds, for your positive reply re Tauck. I booked it for June but don't know if the cabin is on the left side. It's No. 110 Does that mean anything to you? Whatever it is, I am so relieved that I have first hand information. What a load of my mind! I would have replied sooner but was not able to access Fodor Talk . Kept crashing

desertduds

I will go thru my stuff and look for the cabin map....I actually think there might be one on the Tauck website...or in your brochure, for sure there is one! It is a shame that Tauck has changed their area where you can discuss various trips, they now have "Ask and Share" which is totally worthless and has had many complaints, I'm sure....there were so many great discussions about rivercruises, but you will enjoy it, cabin placement is pretty important to me and I want to be on the left side of the boat....some nights when we were docked, the other side of the boat's rooms were smack against another boat or cement dock, no views and had to keep your curtain closed.

pipsil

Tauck uses Scylla river boats and yes, one can view the cabin locations on their web. Ours is actually No. 210 and doesn't look to me like it's on the left. Yet they assured me it was. After all, I don't know how cabins are numbered so I'll take their word for it.

desertduds

Sorry I'm late getting back to you, we've been on a Tauck AU/NZ trip...I do believe 210 will be on the left side of the boat.

Rhardy5554

WE've been on several Tauck tours and have been quite happy, though none on river boats. We did an A&K tour on the Danube and it was superb - though expensive. Have heard very good things on Viking cruises, too, though have not gone with them

countzero

Read the correspondence with interest on this topic as we are also planning a similar cruise with Tauck. Could anybody suggest the best time to go? Early June or early October would be possible for us? Also any comments on differences between the 3 Tauck boats.

Thanks

desertduds

We were on Switzerland 11 for the Amsterdam-Budapest, but will be on the newest boat, the name escapes me. This is Tauck's own boat,unlike Switzerland 11 and another one that are rented for the season...both those boats are identical, very nicely appointed throughout, wonderful staff. Their brochure describes any of the boats they use. We will be on the Sept. 19th, Bucharest-Budapest tour this year. We chose this time because it is somewhat less touristy, cooler...the beginning of our Sept. 19th trip last year, starting in Amsterdam, was pretty warm for at least a week, then cooled off and we used umbrellas couple of times. You would think we'd go during summer to get away from Arizona heat, but we always stay home throughout the summer and leave in spring or fall, we're nuts!!

kingpinlv

Its probably too late, but go to Grand Circle Tours (gct.com).
My wife and I did this trip in October, 2005 and it was fantastic. And MUCH cheaper than Tauck. Its the best tour company we've ever used, and we have traveled most of the world. The ship was great and everything went smooth. Great program, and it included 2 home-hosted meals, where we got to know local families.

desertduds

I totally agree that Grand Circle is an excellent company and most of our friends travel with them, exclusively. However, one thing, if you'll notice the first and last day of GCT and many other tour groups, are really travel days, so a 13 day tour is really 11 days....just something to watch....my friends always do the pre and post days tours which jacks up the price and certainly is well worth it...We still travel with Tauck and doubt we'll change.

carolisle

We have been on 3 river cruises with Grand Circle Travel. They were all great. Great Rivers of Europe, Eastern Europe to the Black Sea and Egypt and the Nile. Getting ready to book Cruising Burgundy and Provence to the Cote D Azur for 2007. We are also booked this summer for Overseas Adventure Travel to the Greek Isles. ( OAT is affiliated with GCT.) THE MORE YOU BOOK - THE MORE YOU SAVE. We are very happy with this company. Carolisle