Other Options...

[EllinK]

Calvin -- PM'd you my email address.

 

[Calfan]

Calvin -- PM'd you my email address.

Hmmm. EllinK, didn't receive a message. I'll PM you.

 

[sayhello]

Hmmm. EllinK, didn't receive a message. I'll PM you.

Someone named Calvin is wondering why they got a request for an email...

Sayhello

 

[Calfan]

We just booked our first family itinerary with NatGeo. We booked the Peru Family Expedition with optional Amazon Extension for June/July 2018. Hoping the family trips are as good as the hiking trips. I'm excited to find out!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

We just booked our first family itinerary with NatGeo. We booked the Peru Family Expedition with optional Amazon Extension for June/July 2018. Hoping the family trips are as good as the hiking trips. I'm excited to find out!

I have a friend who did a trip with Nat Geo family last year to Japan. He loved it. This year he is taking his family to both Tanzania and Iceland with them.

He had previously done 7 trips with ABD but had a bad experience with them last summer which turned him away from them (I can't share the entire story but he had very good reason to be upset - he didn't fight them on their {very poor IMO} business decision -- he simply took his money and business elsewhere). He has now almost fully converted to Nat Geo family and RAVES about them. I honestly don't think he will go back to ABD at this point and if I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't either.

I am sure you will LOVE them as much as he does. Last summer he met the daughter of the owners of Nat Geo family - she was on their Japan trip as an "auditor". He said she was just amazing.

 

[carpenta]

I have a friend who did a trip with Nat Geo family last year to Japan. He loved it. This year he is taking his family to both Tanzania and Iceland with them.

He had previously done 7 trips with ABD but had a bad experience with them last summer which turned him away from them (I can't share the entire story but he had very good reason to be upset - he didn't fight them on their {very poor IMO} business decision -- he simply took his money and business elsewhere). He has now almost fully converted to Nat Geo family and RAVES about them. I honestly don't think he will go back to ABD at this point and if I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't either.

I am sure you will LOVE them as much as he does. Last summer he met the daughter of the owners of Nat Geo family - she was on their Japan trip as an "auditor". He said she was just amazing.

......your "friend's" story sounds a lot like my own. We are going to Iceland with NatGeo next month after traveling with NatGeo to Yellowstone. Trips are a large investment and I can relate to taking " his money and business elsewhere.

 

[Calfan]

I have a friend who did a trip with Nat Geo family last year to Japan. He loved it. This year he is taking his family to both Tanzania and Iceland with them.

He had previously done 7 trips with ABD but had a bad experience with them last summer which turned him away from them (I can't share the entire story but he had very good reason to be upset - he didn't fight them on their {very poor IMO} business decision -- he simply took his money and business elsewhere). He has now almost fully converted to Nat Geo family and RAVES about them. I honestly don't think he will go back to ABD at this point and if I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't either.

I am sure you will LOVE them as much as he does. Last summer he met the daughter of the owners of Nat Geo family - she was on their Japan trip as an "auditor". He said she was just amazing.

Thanks for sharing. That's great to hear. My two hiking trips with NatGeo have been fantastic, and I'm doing a third later this year, so I'm pretty confident we will have a great experience on the family trip. Would love to hear how your friend likes the Tanzania trip. We almost decided on that one for next summer but opted for Peru. But Tanzania is the plan for 2019.

 

[ngl]

Big year for us next year - DH's 50th and our 20th anniversary occur in July and Aug so trying to plan for summer 2018. We would love to do a ABD trip or possibly Tauck Bridges. Narrowed it down to Alaska or Canadian Rockies. As of right now, the dates for Alaska work better with our work schedules but could do Canada if needed.

Not sure if anyone has experience with these trips but would appreciate any feedback. From what I read most say ABD does a better job "catering" to kids than Tauck. However, Tauck's itineraries look great as well.

For a bit of background, DVC members, live 1 hr from WDW so go there every other month or so and have stayed at all DVC properties besides Hilton Head. We really love the Disney experience. However, open to Tauck based on other feedback.

Thanks so much for any and all input!

 

[AquamarineSteph]

I have not done anything in the US with Tauck, so I don't know how well their trips here go. I have no experience with their Bridges program.

Having said that, I have traveled with Tauck. If given the choice between a tour run by them and a tour run by ABD, I would pick ABD in a heartbeat.

The Alaska trip's itinerary has changed a bit since we took that trip, but the state is a must see destination in my mind. That's not meant to reflect poorly on the Canadian Rockies. These are both gorgeous places. I just think everyone should visit Alaska at least once. It is so very different than living in the lower 48 states.

 

[Bobo912]

I disagree with the statement that ABD does a better job with kids. I've done both Tauck Bridges (2) and ABD (5). The Bridges trips are designed for families, just like ABD, and Tauck handles the kids just as well as ABD. The main difference I see is that the Tauck tour directors have more flexibility in how they handle the little special things that aren't part of the itinerary. I've done one TB trip in the US and one in Europe, and all of the activities geared toward kids were great and our tour directors did a fantastic job with the kids and came up with some wonderful surprises as well. I did the Alaska ABD the first year it was offered, so it's changed somewhat, but it was a great trip. My DS had his 9th birthday on the last day of the trip. They seem to have dropped the Resurrection Bay cruise in 2018 and that was the best part of the itinerary IMO. That would be a deal breaker for me. My advice would be pick the itinerary that most appeals to you.

 

[tink1970]

That would be a deal breaker for me. My advice would be pick the itinerary that most appeals to you.

Agree completely! We actually did TB in Italy for Christmas and one reason is that TB stays IN Florence. I believe TB did a good job with the children but ABD has 2 Adventure Guides so that's an advantage. So if it's all equal, don't think you can go wrong either way. We always look at dates (#1 b/c of work, ugh), itinerary, pricing then, if it's a tie- the je ne sais quoi factor

 

[AquamarineSteph]

My advice would be pick the itinerary that most appeals to you.

That is always the bottom line with it comes to me picking out a trip. I'm just saying that having done a Tauck trip once I would not do another. I would go with ABD or another company, but given the two options above, ABD would be my choice.

 

[BluesTraveler]

We did Alaska with ABD last year with our 2 boys (ages 11 and 8 at the time), and loved it. Next year's itinerary looks even better to me. I would definitely recommend it.

We have not done Tauck Bridges, however, we have friends that have and they absolutely loved it. They would do it again in a heartbeat, and in terms of family-focus and activities, it sounded very similar to ABD. I would recommend you go with whichever itinerary works best for you.

 

[carpenta]

WE have traveled with both companies and found one thing that stood out to us. The "kids" on ABD seem to skew younger ( 6yrs to 16yrs.) than Tauck which skews older (13 to 18yrs.). But I agree with think 1970 just see which itinerary appeals to your family.

 

[Bobo912]

WE have traveled with both companies and found one thing that stood out to us. The "kids" on ABD seem to skew younger ( 6yrs to 16yrs.) than Tauck which skews older (13 to 18yrs.). But I agree with think 1970 just see which itinerary appeals to your family.

I think that varies. Our TB trips were pretty evenly distributed between younger kids and teenagers. On the other hand, we've had a couple of ABDs that were mostly adults. even though they were in the middle of the summer when you would expect a lot of children.

 

[Cinderella's Slipper 2015]

I have a friend who did a trip with Nat Geo family last year to Japan. He loved it. This year he is taking his family to both Tanzania and Iceland with them.

He had previously done 7 trips with ABD but had a bad experience with them last summer which turned him away from them (I can't share the entire story but he had very good reason to be upset - he didn't fight them on their {very poor IMO} business decision -- he simply took his money and business elsewhere). He has now almost fully converted to Nat Geo family and RAVES about them. I honestly don't think he will go back to ABD at this point and if I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't either.

I am sure you will LOVE them as much as he does. Last summer he met the daughter of the owners of Nat Geo family - she was on their Japan trip as an "auditor". He said she was just amazing.

We had a similar experience where ABD was simply horrid, nearly putting me in the hospital in Europe and ABD's response was "too bad, so sad, suck it up and deal with it cause we don't care". Instead of addressing the issue, they told us to buy noise cancelling headphones instead. We'd already decided to try Nat Geo when this incident happened, thanks to Calfan posting about her trips on here and we were booked to go to South East Asia with them and now that we've done one Nat Geo trip we will never travel with ABD again. If their family trips are as good as their Active Adventures trips, then they are worth every penny and will be just as good, if not better than anything ABD can offer

 

[ngl]

Thank you all for your input!! I love gathering as much first hand information as I can. We probably are leaning towards Tauck mainly due to the date offerings. Seems like Tauck starts a lot of their trips on Saturdays which is helpful bc we can fly out Fri night to the West Coast without using an extra PTO day (ah, to not have to worry about those things. Someday!) wheres ABD does a lot of Wed departures (at least for the trips we were considering).

 

[CrazyZeus1]

We've done 10 ABDS and have 10 more booked through 2018. We have had amazing trips (including the guides that led Cinderella Slipper) and adore the guides we've had. So many have become good personal friends now. We are looking into Tauk for some location options that ABD doesn't service, and I can only hope that they give the same amazing service as ABD has for us in the past! For those who have traveled with ABD and other outfitters that have just 1 guide, have you found that to be any issue? We've had a few smaller ABD trips with 1 guide, but it looks like larger groups with Tauk also have just 1 guide. Curious of anyone has input on that?

 

[CrazyZeus1]

Also since we are talking OTHER OUTFITTERS: Has anyone looked into companies that do Antarctica? After 2019, that will be our last continent to set foot on so of course, I'm making my people brave the Drake Passage! I want my then-17-year-old to say he's been to every continent <3 I'm excited to see Tauk has trips there because they're trusted, has anyone else looked into any others?

 

[CaliKris]

I know Lindblad Expeditions which is a division of National Geographic goes to Antartica. So does Abercrombie & Kent. I have heard good things about both companies, but I don't know anyone who has taken the Antartica trip with them. I believe Abercrombie & Kent skew to an older crowd.