Road ScholarReviews of roadscholar.org

I went to France for 6 weeks with Road Scholar and everything about this trip was perfect! Lovely, caring tour leaders, incredible support, and so many amazing educational adventures! Of course, this was PARIS, so beauty was everywhere, but be aware that Paris is a big city, with all the problems and quirks of urban life. Nevertheless, the HISTORY and ART of Paris are mind-bending-ly wonderful. I plan to travel again in 3 months with Road Scholar. My only warning is that if you are over 70 and have mobility issues, some trips are not for you. Road Scholar rates every trip for mobility so PAY ATTENTION if you can't walk far, or need a walker!!

Great trips, terrible interface. Once they have your money they hand you off to the actual trip provider and are unwilling to help you through the maze that provider may have.

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?

My mother in law purchased a trip with insurance. She cancelled the trip 8 months before because of medical issues and has since passed away. We called road scholars to see if we could go on her trip , get a credit or receive the money back from the scheduled trip that she had insurance on. Road Scholars was totally useless. The trip could not be transferred and we received no money back! Do not get insurance on a trip that you are using vouchers for… total waste of money! We weren’t even able to use her several thousand dollars that she had in credits. Shame on them for lack of customer service.

When they sell you the extra aon no cancel fee insurance, be aware it will take a month to get a answer from aon insurance about any claim, and that road scholar will then tell you they have nothing to do with the policy they said you should get.

Stay away from this company. We had booked a trip with Road Scholar but after reviewing the trip with my Doctor, the Doctor said it would be much too strenuous with our physical limitations. We informed the company more than 3 months prior to the start of the trip but they refused to return our refund.

We were scheduled for a hiking trip in August which was cancelled less than two months before the start of the trip citing they did not have the staff. Now I am out flights, shuttle fees and extra nights I booked for hotels. BEWARE

I have been on 3 RS trips. They were all great experiences. They are expensive but you know. I went to Ireland for two weeks which during my time was my birthday. They gave me a bodhran (an Irish drum) and card and wished me many more. In New York, they made me a cake and sang. I did have a vacation cancelled due to the virus but had no problem getting insurance or small deposit back. I will be going to Cape Anne this summer and can't wait. PS: I rescheduled my European vacation but not sure I will go.