Road ScholarReviews of roadscholar.org

Group travel with Road Scholar has been close to perfect in all ways. I have been on five programs and was more than satisfied with the hotels, food and length of times are our stops.Road Scholar is the only group travel company that I know of that will take you to places of interest and pay for admission. The majority of companies just let you go on your own.

I went on a RS tour to Costa Rica and although I enjoyed the experience overall, our guide was often moody, keeping to himself, and a bit mean at times. My review (left nearly a year ago) has not posted so it appears they don't post critical reviews! Trust Pilot reports that 20% reviewers leave a 4-5 star review, with 80% giving 1-2 stars. The Road Scholar website, however, has reviewers for all programs averaging 4.5-5 stars, and claim they post all reviews. Hmm.

I have taken 12 safaris in many African countries over the years. I wanted to do Roads Scholars Botswana trip but the single cost without airfare is over $12,000. This pretty much does single for profit not matter what they say. Last year's safari to 4 countries included international and in country air fare and everything else. I'll go with another company.

Road Scholar offers great trips and guides -- if you don't get sick or have another problem. Our previous RS trip in 2019 was fabulous. Not so our recent experience. Both my partner and I contracted Covid (5 days apart) on our recent trip to the Galapagos and Machu Picchu. My partner was feverish/ill and was told there was no way to see a doctor or get medication as we were on a catamaran in the Pacific. However, we needed to have confirmation by a physician to validate our claim with the insurance company. He was given a handout about RS Covid policy, but neither of us were directly told a couple facts to be sure our claim wouldn't be denied (which it was). Could we have been more diligent in reviewing the document? Perhaps, but when you are ill, have no access to medical care and are trying to navigate a new situation, additional support would have made all the difference (rather than saying"did you get the handout?"). We both flew home within a day of each other, at an additional cost to our existing tickets. My partner missed all but a few days of a 17 day trip and I missed over a week. After a month of dealing with both Road Scholar and the insurance company (Aon), we received a small credit from Road Scholar towards a future trip. We had an upcoming trip scheduled with them this fall, which my partner has already canceled. We are exploring our options for a more equitable reimbursement through our state's Consumer Affairs Department, among others. While I appreciate empathy from Road Scholar staff, I don't need their emotional support. This was a costly trip and their offer of a small credit in no way comes close to compensating us for what was lost in money, time and emotional distress. No responsibility was taken for their Covid policy, which forced us to isolate and drop out of the trip. Because I had to isolate while traveling to the next destination (before returning home), I was required to take cabs at my own expense to and from the airport, which I would have had to do at least twice more as we traveled to other locations on the itinerary (while following their quarantine policy). The lack of guidance and clarity provided at the time we tested positive was undoubtedly "company policy," but was the antithesis of customer service. I will probably take one more Road Scholar trip, as I don't want to forego the credit. Unfortunately, I will be doing it without my partner...

When you call the number, you get ads for services. Have you tried calling your own number? There are certainly up sell ads. Especially one for an alert alarm. Frustrating to get through. No people. And no refunds if you have to cancel. You would be better off staying home, looking at You Tube and visiting your local restaurants. Maybe non profit, but someone is making money.

I booked a tour to Italy for May 2024. I cancelled in Oct. for a lot of reasons. Before I enrolled, I asked if Road Scholar would book the flights so that on the last day, I could fly to London, stay 10 days, then fly home to the States. I was told it was no problem. But when I got the "Flight Information" notice, there was a flight from London home, but none from Rome to London. I was to be left stranded in Rome. It took 3 phone calls to get the flight Scheduled, but I was charged extra for it. I called British Airways to make sure the flight was cancelled and I could get an eCredit, since Road Scholar had charged the flight on my credit card. They told me the flight had not been cancelled and they could not discuss it with me because they had no information about me in the computer except my name. I was told to contact Road Scholar and have them cancel the flight, then to call British Air's special support number for travel agents and give them my contact information, so they can verify my identity if I phone them. I spent two hours on the phone yesterday, November 10, with a very nice woman at Road Scholar, who first called a supervisor, who then called the Travel arrangements department. I explained this chronology to her. At first she was told there are no refunds for airfare. That's fine, but I do want the credit allowed. Then she was told Road Scholar would have to "investigate" the situation. Because no one works at Road Scholar on weekends and the Travel Service dept can only be contacted 3 days a week in a 15 hour window, I despair of them doing anything about this. I feel I have been lied to and Road Scholar is not making any effort to get this problem solved. If they would only contact British Airways and give them my contact information, then I can get a credit. It seems the Travel section is too busy or just not interested in finding a solution to this problem. Road Scholar only has to give my contact information to the airlines and just won’t do it. Update - the Travel Services Manager talked to me and sent an email on how to get my credit. It was worthless. British Air says Road Scholar has STILL not cancelled the flight in question. BA said only Road Scholar can cancel the flight and request a refund be given in the original method of payment. The saga continues! December 2, 2023 - Success, finally. With the help of Travel Services Manager, Brandy Riel, and steady persistence, Road Scholar finally issued me a refund for the airfare that was handled so badly. I am grateful Ms Riel took the time to "make it right."

Please know that Road Scholar will always keep a nonrefundable $100 deposit. I cannot find that buried in all the paper and fine print but they state it is there??? I paid for trip cancellation 170, it was under 10 days, and they agreed it was a valid health reason. I was verbally told all would be refunded. I guess that person made a mistake. That is not true. Cannot trust this company...if for UN coveted reason they will put that money on a future trip. But if you don't pay for another trip, they will always keep at least 100.. they will keep more rhe closer to your date. That is very clearly spelled out. Do not try to get them to answer phone. They will not Do not believe "they will hold your place and call you back" They will not Do not believe they will promptly answer emails. They will not I can imagine what adisaster it woukd be if I needed to contact while traveling

I love Road Scholar and have been on 14 trips. The accommodations are nice, the tours are interesting, and the guides are knowledgeable. I have always looked forward to booking a trip with them. However, I am not happy this time. I was supposed to leave USA on two international back-to-back trips on Friday, Sept 8. Road Scholar made the flight arrangements. The flight on Sept 8 was postponed by the airline until Sept 9. Road Scholar helpfully rescheduled the connecting flight. After our being at the airport all day on Sept 9, the airline cancelled the flight and cancelled my tickets. I called Road Scholar the next day that they were open, Monday, Sept 11. In spite of best efforts by the travel dept, Road Scholar could not schedule new travel on those tickets and said I had to fix it with the airline. The airline says they could not do anything because the ticket was purchased on a bulk ticket and its customer service dept cannot tell how much I paid for the tickets. They insist Road Scholar has to fix it. They are going around in circles, each saying the other has to fix it. As for the actual programs I missed - since the airline tickets were not reissued, I missed the trip to Spain and I missed the trip to Portugal. This situation does not even fall under the Trip Protection plan which seems to cover cancellations by the participant. I did not cancel. I hope Road Scholar will make this right and refund the airfare and allow me to schedule these trips at a later date. Here are the reference numbers: #01464482 and #01464583 Here is additional information after receiving response from Road Scholar: Road Scholar states that it strongly encourages participants to purchase the trip protection plan. Sadly, it would not have helped in this situation. The plan states that the I can cancel for any reason UP UNTIL THE DATE OF THE TRIP. That means I had up until September 8 to cancel. We were still hoping to join the trip on September 9 even though we would have been a day late. I appreciate that the Road Scholar team is actively looking into this and will be reaching out to me.