Road ScholarReviews of roadscholar.org

We enjoyed out trip to Portugal, but air travel was a nightmare! Road Scholar arranged flights. Of the planned flights, one was cancelled and two were downgraded from business class to economy class. I asked Road Scholar for help in getting a refund and have not received any response, despite multiple emails over multiple weeks. I realize Road Scholar is not responsible for airline schedules. But, I do believe they have a responsibility to respond to customer queries.

The key word above is “recent”. I have been on 4 RS trips and enjoyed each one. I would rate then 4.8 to 5 stars! My most recent experience with RS is less than 1 star, however. Reason: Covid vaccine mandate. 🤯

Spent over $1100 on deposit and trip insurance. We had to cancel because the trip was too strenuous for us. We got nothing back. Probably our fault for not doing due diligence but beware.

We just returned from: Hawaii’s National Parks: Exploring Four Islands from Volcanoes to Pearl Harbor I am extremely disappointed that Road Scholar is publishing an itinerary they KNOW cannot happen. This trip has 3+ days on Molokai and almost everything on the agenda doesn't exist: the ferry has been closed for over 6 years, the National Historic Park has been closed to visitors since the pandemic, the Nene sanctuary is closed, the sugar mill isn't restored to operational, etc. Molokai itself is not conducive to tourism. The Sheraton has been closed for a long time, leaving an unappealing half star as the only option. The transportation was laughable - old/dirty passenger vans that BOTH broke down, or a school bus. The food was the worst on the trip and the lunches were terrible cold box lunches - largely left uneaten. The local guide made disparaging remarks about the United States, and there were signs for "no tourism" and "go home". Why road Scholar would continue to publish a fictional itinerary that has been inaccurate for 6 years is beyond me and insulting. Unfortunately, the poor treatment we received on Molokai has tainted my opinion of the entire trip.

In September, 2022 I booked a Machu Picchu/Galpagonos trip for $8499. I paid the $1000 deposit with the remaining $7499 due 2/28/23. I also paid $1089 for the cancel-at-anytime trip protection. Due to the unrest in South America, my friend and I decided to cancel the trip as of 2/16/23. I was told by RS that I would get $750 back because it was prior to 2/28/23. I understand that I wouldn't necessarily get the $250 back. I have filed a claim with Aon for the nonrefundable $250. My complaint is with Aon and/or Road Scholar regarding the $1089 trip protection I paid for. My friend didn't pay for the trip protection right away and had until 2/28/23 to buy it. That is when the remaining $7499 is due. She will get the $750 back and lose $250. If I had waited, I would only be out of pocket the $250 and not the trip protection I paid for in advance. Why was I charged $1089 when I only put down $1000? I should have only been charged insurance for the $1,000 deposit and then the remainder of the insurance on 2/28/23 when final payment is due. It appears that I was duped! I would gladly take a credit for the trip insurance and use it for a future trip. I plan on going on the trip next year when the dates are available but I definitely wouldn't use Aon again and may consider another company for a future trip to South America.

I booked a trip with road scholar and had to put a $500 deposit down. I thought I was told that if I had to cancel, that deposit could be used for another future trip as as I canceled within a certain timeframe .I need knee replacement surgery and I had to cancel the trip .turns out that the $500 was nonrefundable. I’ve never worked with the company that did not allow you to either refund or transfer the deposit as long as you met their cancellation guidelines be careful

I booked a trip for self and partner, and as we are older, I booked the insurance offered. We were not able to take the trip, as my partner found that his neuropathy deteriorated to the point that he could not keep up with the activity level that Road Scholar required. Unfortunately, Road Scholar was only willing to refund half the fees, and the rest was only available as a credit to future trips. Since we cannot take a future trip I asked to be able to transfer the fees to someone else. They refused. The insurance company, AON, for reasons best known to them refused any compensation. Shame on both companies. BYW, they also do not have any links on their site to this trip or the previous one we took, so I cannot leave a review there.

I have gone on several Road Scholar trips. Once you get on the trip they are enjoyable and well organized. They have good tour guides. The tours are good value. However, the challenge is prior to the trip; there is little service to their customer service. A “short“ hold on the phone is 10 minutes, if you are able get a human on the phone. Multiple email queries are ignored. Phone calls unreturned. Payments not properly credited. When two of the four paid for flights were canceled, albeit not RS’s fault, there was little concern on the part of RS to rebook, dispute repeated messages from me. And I determined the flights were canceled myself. No one from RS bothered to correct the problem or contact me. So I called. They were too busy, push one and I would get a call back. So I pushed 1 again, and again, nothing occurred, just a silent line. I hung up. I called again and chose a different number and got another message. This time pushing 1 worked. Eventually I was called back. But first i had to fight my way through the continued poor service. I asked to speak to a supervisor, no I had to first speak to the non-customer service agent, explain everything to him and give him a chance to fix things. Of course he had no idea why my emails had not been returned. Finally I was allowed to speak to No last name Tom. His charming service technique was to repeatedly interrupt me as I attempted to explain my issues. I asked to speak to Tom No last name’s supervisor. I was told there wasn’t one. Does he not have a supervisor I asked. Well, yes Tom explained he had a supervisor but I wasn’t permitted to speak to them or know who they are. Why all this secrecy? I would not want to have my name out there either if I worked for a company with such lousy customer service. But I digress. Tom claimed he didn’t know anything about my flights and for for some reason he couldn’t look it up. He wanted to send my call to some other desk. And Tom No last name assured me he takes my complaints very seriously and he would look into why 6 emails were ignored. Not expecting much to happen I agreed to be palmed off to another desk. There didn’t seem to be a problem, she rebooked me —- on the flights previously canceled! Am I just supposed to go the airport and see what happens?