Calfan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2009
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?
I can't speak to Tauck because we have not taken one of their trips, but if guide ratio is important for you, have you looked in to either Thomson Family Adventures or NatGeo for locations ABD doesn't cover? For our trip with Thomson to China, we had 2 full-time guides and practically a third full-time guide in each separate city for 10 guests. For England Coast to Coast hiking with NatGeo, we had 2 guides plus a third logistics coordinator and some-time guide for 14 guests. For Hiking the Emerald Isle with NatGeo, we had 2 guides for 10 guests. And the guides were all top-notch. I'm not sure what the NatGeo guide ratio is for the family trips that max out at 25 guests, because we haven't taken our first one yet, but I'd be surprised if it was anything less than 2 guides based on my experiences on the NatGeo hiking trips.