We traveled with Tauck once before, to Galapagos, and it was wonderful. I was particularly impressed with the way the scheduling was carefully planned so that we never felt rushed and had plenty of time before and after excursions. It was a small ship cruise, with only around 40 people.

This river cruise, "Holland & Belgium in Spring," was the opposite in terms of pacing. We have been to Europe many times but never to Holland & Belgium, so we were looking forward to exploring these wonderful countries. After our first night aboard we had to board a huge tour bus at 8:30 a.m. (still feeling pretty jet-lagged, even though we arrived a day early). Each day we felt rushed through our excursions with not enough free time to explore a town on our own. We had one day to see Amsterdam, including a canal tour and a tour of the Rijksmuseum (unfortunately, not including admission to the Vermeer exhibition, which we had to scramble to score on our own). We had one day to see both Bruges and Ghent, and one day in Brussels, definitely not enough time for any of the above. We cruised at night, and none of the ports were at all picturesque, so there was no scenic cruising on this trip. As other reviewers have said, we spent too much time on the giant busses, going to and from our ship.

Some positives: Our cabin was in one of the higher-tier categories and was great - the bed was extremely comfortable, bathroom was gorgeous, closet space was excellent. The food was very good and way more than we would ever eat. The staff was excellent and very friendly and helpful. The other passengers were also very friendly, interesting people but many were much older that we are, and rather frail. We are active, healthy retirees who are used to walking a lot and moving around quickly, and "doing our own thing." Several of our fellow passengers were much older, had a hard time with stairs, got tired, and skipped many of the daily excursions. Read more