Tauck Reviews 76

We just returned from our first Tauck trip, A Week in Spain. We had a wonderful experience. We stayed in 5 star hotels, our tour director was first class, we made some new friends, and the amount of tours versus free time was just right. We will be booking future Tauck tours.

We went on a 8 day Ireland trip for 2. It was amazing! Tauck did a great job. We had 5 star hotels in great location. We also had 5 star meals. Our tour guide and bus driver were also great. Tauck delivered on what they told us. If I had any suggestions I would allow extra time at Blarney Castle or get there a little earlier. Also, another 30 minutes at the Cliffs of Moher. Other than that everything seemed very well organized.

Just got back...great guides and driver. But accommodations were not great...needs hotels with better bedding and AC. Fixed meals need improvement also.
Alps and Dolomites 20k tour Sept 2025

Europe trip concerns about travel

I have done three trips with Tauck. (China, Galapagos/Peru, and Western Canada. All have been outstanding. The hotels all beautiful. Rooms in the hotels all up graded. When a problem developed with a room the tour guide intervened. Restaurants all excellent. Top eateries, few if any restrictions on what you could order. When you mention you are with Tauck they treat you like royalty. Large beautiful busses. Great system for seating on the busses. Ample free time. Tour guides make an extra effort to make the trips" fun". I have traveled with several tour companies. Tauck is the most expensive, that I have done, and also the best.

Stay away from this cruise line. They are expensive and have very very poor customer service. This has been one of the worst experiences I have ever encountered. In fact, they charge your credit card without your authorization. This is an awful company pretending to be top-notch.

The Canadian Capitols was great…the guide was perfect..the hotels and food top notch.

Returned from Portugal and Italy. One hotel Tauck put me in had a moldy dirty bathroom. Tauck refused to accommodate me on the cost. I do not accept being placed into a dirty small moldy bathroom at high cost to my family. One or t better. Tai k is thin skinned and unable to accept criticism. Their ratings on reviews speak.

We were invited by long term Tauck cruisers to join them on the Paris to Prague cruise. We contacted Tauck and inquired about their ability to meet my wife's dietary needs, they assured us they could. My travel agent contacted them, again they assured her they could. Well, the first three meals offered by Tauck she could not eat. Then, on the Savor, she was offered a dry rice cake as a gluten free bread, she ended up with steak every night as it was what she could eat. The Cruise Director was aware of our issues, and NEVER once cared to check in on us. A tour director was so rude so rude that I felt compelled to call corporate from Germany. Again, zero follow-up with us. They frankly give lip service, and JUST DON'T care. They use vendors for everything, so it is always someone else's fault.

We had to cancel our second Tauck tour due to a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. (Plenty of medical documentation) We had paid in full and bought the cancellation insurance. When we asked for help getting airline tickets, we were given a third party company (AON) who makes it impossible to file claim. So disappointed in Tauck!

If you want a company that will ignore your calls, emails, questions about your upcoming trip after they take your money, you have found your company for a River trip. I have sent 3 polite emails over the past month asking for trip information to be sent to me, not just my significant other who booked the trip and have received silence as their response. My significant other just called asking why United Airlines has not been paid in full by Tauck and they wouldn't talk to him without the precise information and reservation numbers, etc. Customer service says they will not talk to anyone who does not have the complete reservation and trip information in front of them. This is after waiting 20 minutes for them to pick up the phone. My oh my - I'm soooo disappointed I booked with them.

Tauck is known for excellence and yet our recent “River” Trip, the “French Escapade”, on the ms Emerald, has left us speechless. Simply put, they “Overstated and Underdelivered”.

Imagine going on an expensive, first-time “river” trip with Tauck, where you are placed in a small Paris hotel room for 3 days pre-cruise and experience on-ship challenges with: 1) no hot water for 4 days; 2) poorly trained wait staff; 3) poor food preparation and quality; 4) a staff employee suggesting that we utilize a competitor for future “river” cruises; 5) a broken in-room coffee machine and 6) a single day of no hot water for those on our floor.

My wife and I have traveled with Tauck on multiple “non-river” trips and assumed we would have a similar experience. We were mistaken as we made a categorical error in judgement; we endured multiple issues that soured our interest in future “river” cruises with them. “A vacation is not like ordering food, you can’t send it back” and upon arriving home we cancelled the Tauck’s Yuletide Trip later this year. Having multiple undesirable issues compounds the already expensive trip when calculating the cost of the trip, air expenses, meals, time away from home, etc.

Our challenges:

1. Tauck provided a tiny room for the 3 pre-cruise days in Paris. Hotel staff removed furniture to accommodate our luggage. Tauck informed us that most rooms in Paris are small. Really? This was by far the first time we encountered such a small room as compared to numerous other stays!
2. The first 4 mornings, while on the ship, we were met with cold showers .
3. On the 4th day it is our understanding the entire floor of state rooms had no hot water.
4. Either the Captain or the Tauck Director was untruthful when discussing the hot water lack of hot water.
5. There was time and inconvenience moving to another room due to the hot water issue.
6. We had a broken in-room coffee machine for several days.
7. Waiters were inadequately trained. We experienced poor service, incorrect orders or items not received. Waiters often interrupted table conversations.
8. We had poor food preparation and the food quality was questionable. At times the meat was chewy or tough. Several mornings the hashbrowns were warm on the outside but cold on the inside; other times they were extremely greasy.
9. The breakfasts and lunches were fairly repetitive. The food quality was not what you would expect from Tauck. A staff member informed us “your next trip should not be with Tauck but with (another company)”.
10. We anticipated a French Chef. That wasn’t the case.
11. We received an email the 5th morning on the ship stating: “keep your frustrations with this situation between you, your Tauck Director and me…….”. We found this email lacked Tauck’s understanding and empathy for our many challenges.

After the trip, we sent a certified letter to Tauck’s CEO explaining the many challenges. Unfortunately, this letter was not taken seriously and handled by a Guest Relations Specialist. In summarizing a phone call, Tauck left us with the impression that this trip, our previous 9 trips and upcoming 5 have little or no significance. Tauck offered a meager compensation for all of the issues which amounted to about the cost of the shuttle expense from home to the airport.

My wife and I recently returned from Tauck’s tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. While it was a great tour, offering five star hotels, great restaurants and meaningful excursions there is one thing that could cause you a great deal of trouble and expense if you are not very careful.
I made an error on my visa application to enter Vietnam and though it was accepted and I received a valid visa the error of a wrong entry date caused it to be refused by a gate agent in Tokyo, Japan. What followed was a nightmare of inconvenience and added expense as I attempted to get a new visa. Vietnam refused to correct the original. I had to get a new one. Having finally received a new visa, and costing somewhere around $400 and a one day delay in entry I arrived in Vietnam only to be refused entry because they claimed that I had used the same photo on my passport and on my visa. I had not and attempted to point out the differences in the two photos, which they rejected. Eventually, I bribed an official with $25 and was allowed to enter the country. Please be forewarned, the Vietnamese immigration officials are extremely strict. Go over your visa request form in great detail and ensure that there a no errors.

The general goal of Tauk is ok but it depends entirely on your tour guide. Ours was bad. He was repeatedly unable to communicate ongoing details to the group about abundant changes along the way. Stay alert or you miss out on side trips or daily meeting places or dinner. That is not acceptable at this price.

My wife and I went on our 1st Tauck 14 day river cruise from Amsterdam to budapest in sept. Of 24.
We had a great experience!!
Tauck employees all went out of their way to give us everything we wanted.
If we asked for it they came through. The room was great!! [ but it was the largest one available].
Room service was a nice luxury, acomidating anything we wanted, even though it wasn't on the menu.
When the weather was nice we just asked and they took bikes off the boat and parked them on the dock and put them away when we returned. We had very exclusive experiences as promised, a nice variety of things to do and places to see.above all we were very impressed with the handling of any unforseen difficulties.
Which there were, not the fault of Tauck but weather not in their control.
Record breaking high water on the rivers caused trip interruption, the boat couldn't go further , 4 days left until budapest, they shifted the tour the best that could be expected.
Where we missed out on somthing they went over and beyond to make a better experience.I know this last 4 days cost them alot of money but they made our happiness their highest priority.
Even after we returned home we recieved in the mail a sizable refund check as an adjustment for any inconvenience.
Also gave us a sizable credit voucher for our next trip.
The staff really cared and we could also see that that the company they represented had the same compassion.
We trusted Tauck with our 40th anniversary trip , and I feel that they didn't take it lightly that we paid a substantial price and trusted them, and they took very good care of us.
Any company can easily be praised for doing a good job when things go smooth,
It takes an exceptional company to come through when the unexpected arises. We will be traveling with Tauck again for sure!!!

Having been on multiple Tauck tours, I was a bit shocked with the rating. We have always had the best experiences.

This was our 6th and last Tauck tour. The hotels were fine, but no itineraries any value. Food was meh, charged for a glass of wine at dinner.Tour guide was sweet but did not add any knowledge. A guest was obviously ill the first night, and by day 3 many were coughing, and I tested positive for Covid.Had to return home early, only to find out if you are still in the hotel you are paying for it. Aon was an absolute nightmare. Almost 200, I kid you not, pages to get reimbursed for travel. Will be checking on Trustpilot for a new travel company.

Same thing I'm hearing here. A travel agent at AAA explicitly assured me that my $750 deposit was refundable since the trip scheduled was a year and a half out. We decided to cancel when we realized a one week bus tour of the SW was as much as a two week African safari. The agent admitted she gave me bad information and Tauck took off with my $750. We travel extensively and have never had a company say you only have ten days from booking to cancel. Not once! I put it in dispute on my CC and will pursue it further against AAA for duping me.

We have taken 9 Tauck tours and all have been exceptional. This year we were going on a river cruise from Madrid to Lisbon. My wife was hospitalized one week prior to going. Tauck immediately credited 50% of the total to our credit card and within 10 days we received the balance from Aon insurance with no hassles. I will continue to use Tauck happily.

I was injured on a trip to Patagonia in December 2023. I asked the tour guide to get me a doctor. Instead she sent me to the front desk who would not help me other than tell me to go by myself to a local clinic. I could not walk easily and was in pain and could not go alone to a clinic. When the tour guide got back, I again requested that she help me get a doctor, and advised her what the hotel front desk had said.
She never got me a doctor and never offered to help get a doctor.
When I got back home, I finally saw my own doctor , and arrived in a wheelchair. I was told by Tauck Tours insurance that they could not cover me any of my bills because I did not see a doctor in South America. If they had been notified, they would have even sent a doctor from another city, if necessary.
Tauck would do nothing to help with medical bills when I returned home. They were very nasty on the phone and threatening.

Do not expect any help if you become ill.