Joyeux Noël from Tauck. With Christmas Market river cruises largely sold out for this year and much of next, interest has been growing in a new destination for holiday sailing and shopping: The River Seine. Jumping on the trend, Tauck this week announced its first-ever Christmas markets river cruise in France for 2025.

The five eight-day “The Seine: Holiday Magic” itineraries begin in Paris, on Tauck’s ms Sapphire riverboat, for three nights and two full days. On tap is hot mulled wine, along with roasted chestnuts, sausages, cheese and chocolate at the Tuileries Garden and other local Christmas markets.

From there Sapphire will sail to Rouen, Les Andelys and Vernon. Highlights include excursions to Gothic Sainte-Chapelle, home to Louis IX’s personal collection of holy relics; a cocktail party at the beautifully decorated Château de Bizy; a private lunch at Château Vaux-le-Vicomte; and a guided tour of Normandy’s D-Day beaches (all included in the price).

Prices range from $4,490 per person plus airfare, including all shore excursions, gratuities, all onboard beverages, meals, taxes and fees and airport transfers.

Onboard Sapphire, most cabins have French balconies, and all have flat-screen televisions, Molton Brown toiletries, cushy bathrobes and free Wi-Fi.

“The Seine: Holiday Magic” is Tauck’s fifth Christmas-market river cruise. It also offers two holiday cruises on the Danube (including a family-friendly Tauck Bridges journey, plus one on the Rhine and one on the waterways of Belgium and Holland.

US-based Tauck this week grew its presence in Europe, kicking off the 2024 river cruise season with six new itineraries, the most it has ever added in a single year. All the cruises include pre and post trips, including some new cities in Germany and Switzerland.

Tauck CEO Dan Mahar noted that dinners ashore will be at beautiful and unique settings such as the Palais Pallavicini in Vienna, a Dutch castle on its own private island, or an Italian Renaissance-style mansion in a small commune in northern France. Guests will overnight at properties like the Fairmont Montreux Palace, the Riessersee Hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and the InterContinental Geneve in Geneva.

Also on the agendas are wine tastings in Frankfurt, Strasbourg, and Chalon-Sur-Saône, France; a craft beer tour in Dusseldorf; a brewery tour in Antwerp; and a tasting of local brandies and apple ciders in Normandy. All dinners and excursions are included in the tour price.

The new cruises are:

Danube Kingdoms: Bavaria, Austria & Hungary: Munich to Budapest, 12 days from $6,990 per person plus airfare

1. Itinerary: Includes a four-night, land-based exploration of Bavaria with hotel stays in Munich and Partenkirchen, plus a seven-night cruise along the Danube visiting Passau, Linz, Salzkammergut, Cesky Krumlov, Melk, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
2. Highlight dinner: Guests will attend a Tauck Exclusive evening at a private Viennese palace, Palais Pallavicini, featuring a reception, gala dinner, and classical music performances. The palace has hosted luminaries including Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, and it has been the home of the Pallavicini family for more than 180 years.

Three Rivers: Danube, Main & Rhine: Amsterdam to Regensburg (or reverse), 10 days from $5,990 per person plus airfare

1. Itinerary: Ports of call include Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Köln, Bonn, Koblenz, Boppard, Frankfurt, Wertheim, Marktheidenfeld, Würzburg, Bamberg, Bayreuth, Nürnberg, and Regensburg.
2. Highlight dinner: Guests will enjoy an evening at the opulent Schlosshotel Kronberg. The former home of German Empress Victoria Friedrich, Schlosshotel Kronberg took four years to build (1889 – 1893). Today, Schlosshotel Kronberg is operated by the royal House of Hesse as a luxury hotel, and it is set amid parklands featuring an 18-hole golf course designed by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Rhine Connoisseur: Montreux to Brussels: Montreux to Brussels (or reverse), 11 days from $6,790 per person plus airfare

1. Itinerary: Begins with a three-night stay at the Fairmont Montreux Palace and explorations of the Lavaux Vineyards, Montreux and Glacier 3000. A subsequent seven-night cruise visits Strasbourg, Rüdesheim, Koblenz, and Düsseldorf along the Rhine before traveling on to Gorinchem, Antwerp, and Brussels.
2. Highlight dinner: A Tauck-exclusive reception and dinner are featured at Slot Loevestein. Set in a nature reserve on a private island open only to Tauck guests for the evening, the 14th-century castle has served as a prison, residence and toll station at the strategic confluence of the Maas and Waal rivers.

Hidden Waterways of Flanders and Holland: Brussels to Amsterdam (or reverse), 8 days from $4,690 per person plus airfare

1. Itinerary: Ports of call along the scenic Dutch waterways include Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Gorinchem, Leiden, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
2. Highlight dinner: A Tauck-exclusive reception and dinner are featured at Slot Loevestein. Set in a nature reserve on a private island open only to Tauck guests for the evening, the 14th-century castle has served as a prison, residence and toll station at the strategic confluence of the Maas and Waal rivers.

River Seine: Châteaux, Impressionism & Normandy: Begins and ends near Paris at Le Pecq, 8 days from $4,990 per person plus airfare

1. Itinerary: Visits Auvers-sur-Oise, Les Andelys, Tilly, Mont-Saint-Michel, Étretat, Honfleur, the D-Day Beaches of Normandy, Rouen, Giverny (where Tauck guests enjoy exclusive early-entry admission to the home and gardens of Impressionist painter Claude Monet) and Le Pecq.
2. Highlight dinner: Tauck guests will enjoy a private evening with a tour, dinner, and music at Château du Taillis. Set on a parkland estate in Duclair, France and built in 1530, this Italian Renaissance mansion with baroque interiors is a brilliant architectural showcase.

La Belle Vie: The Rhône, Geneva & The Riviera: Cannes to Geneva (or reverse), 14 days from $7,990 plus airfare

1. Itinerary: This 14-day itinerary includes a nine-night river cruise along the Rhône bookended by two, two-night hotel stays with guided Tauck sightseeing in Cannes and Geneva. Along the way, guests have the opportunity to experience Aix-en-Provence, Arles, La Camargue, Avignon, Uzès, St-Rémy, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Tain l’Hermitage, Mâcon, Cluny, Chalon-sur-Saône, Beaune, Tournus, Cormatin and Lyon.
2. Highlight dinner: Tauck guests will enjoy an exclusive evening at Duché d’Uzès featuring a private tour, dinner, and cocktails. The family castle of the Duke of Uzès, the home was once the site of a Roman governor’s residence and the haven of an exiled 9th-century duchess.

I spoke last week to Jennifer Tombaugh, president of Tauck, the global tour and cruise operator. She’d just returned from Morocco, where she was attending the company’s annual tour directors meeting. That’s where Tauck pulls together its directors of tours, river cruises, and small-ship ocean voyages around the world. If you’ve ever experienced the gentle dynamism of a tour director in action, you can well imagine the sparks that were flying through the atmosphere in that exotic setting where Tauck had brought together hundreds of them for a conference.

There’s a new catchphrase going around now: Regenerative Travel. The New York Times baptized the new phrase last August, in a story called: Move Over, Sustainable Travel. Regenerative Travel Has Arrived.

The subhead asks the question: “Can a post-vaccine return to travel be smarter and greener than it was before March 2020?”

A couple came to me a few weeks ago wanting to explore Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam in January 2023. One of them was an experienced cruiser who favored ocean-going vessels; the other especially wanted to see the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat. They were open to any mode of travel, so long as it was extremely comfortable. Both were ardent walkers and foodies; they had 2-3 weeks set aside to travel.

They realized they might have to make some adjustments since Angkor Wat is not close to any sea lanes, and they knew that they didn’t want to take any overnight excursions that would rack up costs and time away from home. After considering the options, I proposed two vacations to consider:

When Tourism Cares was formed in 2005, it was called Tourism Cares for Tomorrow. Now 17 years later, we find ourselves in that tomorrow. The environmental protection issues the organization was founded to address are no longer concerns for some distant future. They are extremely pressing issues that are right on top of us.

The vision Tourism Cares was founded on looks even better in hindsight than it looked at its inception. It was a mobilization based on the realization of people in the travel industry that environmental degradation, if allowed to go too far, would destroy their businesses.

It was the travel industry stepping up and taking responsibility to protect the environmental and cultural resources it depended on to operate its businesses. In the face of decades of inertia and failure in the public sector to take meaningful action to confront the problems of environmental destruction, it was an industry saying, “If not us, who? And if not now, when?”

Tauck is experiencing a post-lockdown boom that is making Steve Spivak, vice president of global sales, very happy. “We’re seeing such a great resurgence in the type of travel we offer,” he told me, “not just luxury, but truly immersive, bucket list-type travel.”

Tauck has already carried more passengers this year than it did in all of last year. Its booking pace has exceeded that of 2019, the last year before the COVID pandemic. As unprecedented as the lockdown was, the bounce back for Tauck is also creating a novel constellation of market forces. The pent-up demand is across the board for cruise and land products, destinations around the world, and various styles of travel packages. Tauck’s customers are ready to travel, to make up for lost time. And there’s a greater sense than ever that time is limited, and so may be their opportunities to fulfill their lifetime travel dreams Read the rest of this entry »

Tauck announced the official restart of its operations in Europe and Africa. The company plans to reopen in stages, beginning with selected departures of its “Iceland” and “Treasures of the Aegean” small ship ocean cruises in June and July. Also scheduled for July are the resumption of the company’s cruises in the Galapagos Islands as well as its Tauck Bridges family adventure in Costa Rica. Tauck’s guided safaris in eastern and southern Africa will resume in August, as will its land tours in Spain, France and Portugal. Read the rest of this entry »