Q: What was it about travelling with Tauck that first appealed to you?
A: We both own our own businesses, but we’ve always enjoyed travelling. We used to do it independently and mainly local trips like Singapore, Hong Kong and Tahiti, that sort of thing.
It was September 2001 and we had booked to go on a Tauck tour called ‘The Leaf Peepers’. It was a coach tour out of New York through the north-east area just looking at autumn leaves.
We realized that the accommodation they provided was fantastic and we didn’t have to pick up a bag or lift a thing. They also took us to all these interesting little extra places that you normally wouldn’t have seen.
We also have an affinity with Americans, mostly because we’d travelled to the west coast, places like California and Disneyland, with the kids. So that’s why we picked Tauck and that’s how it all started.
Q: Where else have you been with Tauck?
A: South Africa, Egypt and Jordan, Canada and Quebec, Savannah and Charleston, China Yangtze and Hong Kong. We also did a fantastic river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, and Italy and Switzerland were both brilliant.
Q: I believe you’ve become great friends with people from your tours?
A: In 2008 we did the ‘Essence of Japan’ trip and two of the American couples that we met on that trip are still great mates. They’ve come to Australia and we’ve gone and visited them in in the States.
One couple from Lexington in Kentucky have visited us twice and we’ve gone back and stayed with them and we’re in contact monthly. Another couple that lives in Orange County have been over here and visited us and we have visited them.
You do get to meet some really great people on Tauck tours and we’ve holidayed with a couple of them. We’ve got a lovely group of friends that are all relatively like-minded, usually foodies or are interested in flowers, plants, travel, etc.
Q: Tauck are very proud of their tour guides. How do you find them?
A: The guides they provide are absolutely terrific, because not only do they use their own people, but they have local guides as well. We had one in Egypt called Nancy Davis and she was brilliant.
On the China Yangtze Hong Kong tour we went on, there was quite a bit of internal flying – and that’s all organised brilliantly – but every place we went had its own local guide, which meant you got all the local information and gossip, which was wonderful.
Q: What do you like about travelling?
A: Not having to cook, of course. If I haven’t got to cook, I love it and the quality of the meals that you have with Tauck are brilliant. You can come down and have dinner when you want – within reason – at your own little table and it makes you feel a little more special.
Q: What would be the best tour you’ve done?
A: South Africa. I adore animals. It was called “South Africa. An elegant adventure” and the accommodation was brilliant and we saw lions, elephants, giraffes, you name it.
I remember one time we were at Sabi Sabi, which is one of the resorts they took us to, and the accommodation was just brilliant. We were in individual bungalows built up high with a wooden boardwalk that led to your room.
Our bungalow consisted of this gorgeous, huge room and then you went out onto a veranda and there was a small dipping pool which looked over the Sabi Sabi River.
I was in there, dunking myself, and lo and behold across the other side of the river all these elephants came down to drink and the babies would slide down the mud into the into the river. It was just something I’ve never forgotten.
Another memory was in Egypt. We got into the Mena House Hotel at nighttime and we had to go through all this security, which was very heavy. I went to bed and in the morning when I woke up and pulled the curtains back, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
There were the three pyramids right in front of me. It looked like they had been painted on. It was unbelievable.
Q: So, to sum up, what is it about the company that keeps you coming back?
A: You stay in high quality hotels, enjoy great experiences and you are very well looked after. It’s the quality of the inclusions, the accommodation, the food and the fact that you haven’t got to do a thing.
