Overseas Adventure TravelReviews of oattravel.com

I choose a small yacht cruise to Dalmatian coast with airfare from NYC Called back after I confirmed that the dates were acceptable. Cabin class was now lowered and airfare that was initially quoted at $999 was increased to $1600 . After insisting on speaking to a supervisor we were told that four cabins at the quoted price were still available, I suggested we pay the quoted price and book the lower level cabin, but should one of the better cabins be available at departure we would be upgraded at no additional charge, This offer of compromise was immediately refused. Oats seems to be more interested in having an empty cabin than offering a no out of pocket expense to compensate for their error.

I have traveled with OAT 5 times very successfully. I booked a trip to Easter Island and Patagonia. I spoke with a consultant since my walking is somewhat compromised and concluded I could do the trip except for mountain hikes. Four days before the trip, I received a mail from the trip leader which said, among other things, there would be places where we would have to manage pour own luggage. I use a cane and this would be impossible for me. I called OAT asking if they could find a way to accomodate me. They refused. I did go (though I would not have if I knew about the luggage problem earlier) after receiving an optimistic note from the tour leader. Once there the tour leader did nothing to help me and, in fact, was cruel. Of course, my legs got strained and it was necessary to leave the tour. The day I left, OAT had a porter meet me to make sure I got on the plane. All they ever had to do was make the same arrangement at those stops where luggage assisstance would have been available to me.

After final payment was due and paid overseas Adventure Travel cancelled a pre tour and promised refund in three days. A week plus later refund hadn’t been made and a telephone call to it requesting a supervisor was refused. The agent stating that supervisors will not take a customers call. Unacceptable and questionable business practices!

I will add to what some others may have already experienced. This would have been my very FIRST trip with OAT, but I NEVER got the opportunity. However, I have no desire to use/trust them. It all went wrong when I took advantage of their Black Friday deal for a 14-day trip to Japan for March 2026. When I spoke to the booking rep by phone, she advised me, luckily there was only one single space available for a mid-March time trip that I was looking for (the rest of the mid-March trips were sold out), but I would be sharing a room with a same gendered individual. Since that was about the time I wanted to be in Japan (Cherry Blossoms), I agreed to put down a $500 deposit. The deposit was fully refundable in 10 days if I decided not to go, but if I paid my entire trip by check by a certain date, I would get an additional 10% discount. During this time, I was looking into customizing some pre-post dates (which OAT does not help with, unless you take their overpriced pre and post tour extensions). It was only after reading some of the reviews posted here that I decided to ask some additional questions, specifically about the age range of the group I would be joining as well as the same gendered individual I would be spending 15 days in Japan with. This was 5 days after giving them a $500 deposit. When I posed these questions to a rep, I was put on hold and when she returned to the line, she nonchalantly informs me that the initial booking agent, booked me in a room not with a same gendered individual but with an OPPOSITE gendered individual. Since that is NOT an acceptable scenario under their guidelines (OR MINE), they would have to CANCEL my trip, as they could not offer me another spot for that trip, nor was any other alternative offered to accommodate me, despite they're error! I was speechless, thinking I didn't hear her correctly. Nope, she repeated it again. My first question: If I hadn't by chance called today, WHEN would you have told me this? Oh .. we would have noticed the error eventually .. WHEN??? When it was already too late for me to book a trip with another company for the timeframe I wanted to travel? I pointed out this was my very first experience with OAT and it was NOT a positive representation. Then came the refund discussion, the rep says since this was not my fault (REALLY?), they'll give me a full refund of my $500 deposit which will take about a month. Wait, WHAT?? Why? YOU made the error! Now I need to find another company that hopefully has the dates I want to travel, pay more (because no BLACK FRIDAY discount) and give them a deposit as well. Why do you get to keep my money for a month, while I'm paying interest??? UNACCEPTABLE! I tell all this to the rep and ask to speak to a supervisor. At the hour I called, they already left, but I can expect a call back within 24-48 hours (Great). In the meantime, the rep says she'll try speaking to someone to expedite the refund and was placed on hold again. She returns and says the best they can probably do is two weeks .. UMM NOPE! With today's technology, I get refunds all the time (from larger companies than theirs), sometimes the refunds are instantaneous. Why do they get to hold my money hostage? Especially when it was their error?? I don't believe any of it. Like I mentioned earlier, I read some comments about the way refunds are handled by them and by that point, I had already had enough. I decided to call my credit card company and file a dispute. But wait! There's more ... I get a call from a cheery supervisor the next day and go through the whole spiel all over again. The response I get when asked when they would have notified me about this mis-matched error had I not coincidentally called to ask a question, she says, we would have caught when we run reports. And when is that exactly? A month from now? 2 months? a week before the trip? When it would have been too late for me to go anywhere -- is that when you would tell me my trip is cancelled? And you would have had all my money by then? She had no answer. The refund discussion comes up, and she doesn't give me any better news. I can try to push ... TRY?? At one point during the conversation, she actually had the gumption to say, obviously this is not the way your first experience with us as a first-time traveler should go (YA THINK?), and we hope you'll give us another chance and travel with us in the future. Why would I ever do that? All you did was leave me with a bitter taste by offering me zero alternatives or make any attempts to rectify your error to try to keep my business, plus poor refund practice. It's shady and unfair. The result is not only lost business from me but now I'm sharing and adding to growing pile. Reputation goes a long way.

90 days and waiting for a refund. Do not use this group! Under pressure I booked a trip being told through out the conversation that I could cancel and get a full refund. I’ve waited 90 days, no refund! I sent through LinkedIn a message to the CEO. No answer! Poor strategy to make money and a reflection on their Brand. Do not work with this organization. Wish I would have read these reviews.

My wife and I took four excellent trips with O.A.T., from 2015 until 2024. That experience changed abruptly in 2025. Their web site showed openings for a Costa Rica trip, so we called and booked with them. They called us the next day saying that 13 of the 15 available slots were booked with a group, and that our booking was being cancelled. We told them that we had no problem taking the final two slots, but they then said that those slots were also already filled. The manner in which they did this sounded to us like an obvious lie. We had always, in the past, booked these trips using a credit card. In this case, though, they offered a discount to pay directly from a bank account, so we had used that method for the down payment. Then, although THEY had cancelled US, rather than immediately refunding our down payment, O.A.T. held onto our money for over a month, repeatedly lying to us about when we could expect a refund. We feel lucky that it was finally refunded. I have since read in Travel International Magazine and elsewhere of O.A.T.'s financial difficulties. We feel strongly that the company held our money for an exorbitant period of time to use as "float" to boost their finances. There are other travel companies--such as Smithsonian or Road Scholar--which have done a good job for us. We will never book another trip with O.A.T., and urge real caution for anyone thinking of doing so.

Before my trip to Tuscany, I spoke to a “customer service” attendant to ask if there was a bathroom on the tour bus because of stomach issues when I travel. She assured me there was!! So I got to the tour and discovered there is in fact no bathroom on the bus. Because of this, I missed half the daily excursions. My complaints to the company were ignored, then another agent told me my case was closed, they were sorry. I asked for a partial refund which was denied, with no notification. I am disappointed with this treatment and will never travel with them again!! Terrible customer service. Terrible treatment !

Great trip to the Baltic Capitals, but there was an issue with a lost passport on our last day causing our trip home to be delayed by one day. OAT cancelled our flights (versus rebooking them) and we had to pay an additional $2,484.02 in airfares to get home. We've been fighting it for a couple of months, but no luck - OAT's customer service is terrible.