Road ScholarReviews of roadscholar.org

South Africa trip, end of 2025 included 4 nights in a train. FABULOUS. Super guide the entire way, many expert sessions along the way, small group, excellent hotels, lots of really neat surprises. Highly recommend.

I was astonished to see a low rating for Road Scholar. I've been on three trips abroad with them, and each was fabulous. BUT their trips are geared toward people who are interested in learning a lot and being busy virtually all day. There was little down time, which was fine with me, because if I've travelled X thousands of miles, I want to see as much as I can! Guides were consistently wonderful. My latest trip was 23 days to China and my only complaint was that one person in our group of 18 couldn't handle the physical challenges of the trip and was frequently late to meet-up points. Not to typecast, but in general, most Road Scholars I've met are in the "granola/socks and sandals/liberal politics/not complainers" type of crowd.

we have taken 3 trips with Road Scholar. Our first was a trip to Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands. Absolutely wonderful. Alistair, our historian, Roz, our tour logistics director and Stevie the bus driver were all terrific. Going above and beyond. Entertaining and fun. The sights themselves breathtaking. Next was a November visit to Athens then Crete. We only had one guide there but she was great. There were a few communication snafus but nothing terrible. Again, a great itinerary and fun group. Our last one was a train trip throughout Switzerland. Fantastic trip. Nina and Sergio were so organized and helpful. we had free time on a couple of days and they volunteered to take us to a glacier nearby on their own time. All but two in the group chose to go. They offered to guide us on a lake and castle trip on another of the free days too! They were not obligated to do this. such dedicated and sweet people made the trip even more enjoyable. Super with communication too. If you are over 55 and like educational type trips with incredible itineraries travel with Road Scholar is very rewarding. We do book our own flights however because we tend to visit something nearby before or after the tour.

My Husband and I recently went with Road Scholar to Jekyll Island. It was a beginner to intermediate watercolor class. MY husband had never painted with watercolor before, and I have several years of experience, but we both had the most fun and I learned several new technics to help me in my future paintings. JoAnn was our most gracious hostess and we learned a lot about the history of the Island. The Historic hotel and its grounds were all five star. I would like to return to Jekyll for a more advanced painting class!

These reviews are wild! Why are people leaving such stupid 1 star reviews for things that don’t really seem to be relevant? The reviews for the actual experience seem really good, yet the overall score is low because people aren’t very bright. Complaining about adverts and profits.

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.

We are very experienced travelers, and this was our first time with Road Scholar. We recently completed a trip to Israel, Jordan and Egypt in March 2023 and it was wonderful. The hotels were first class and much better than I anticipated. The guides were excellent in each country. The group was 23 people. The buses they used were all exceptionally clean, very spacious comfortable and safe. A couple of days prior to the end of the trip many of us learned that our flights home had been cancelled by the airlines, due to a labor strike in Germany on Lufthansa. Road Scholar immediately rebooked everyone who had arranged their flights through RS. We are looking forward to our next trip on RS.

We have traveled with Elderhostel/RoadScholar 5 times, and the experience has always been excellent. We have never had to cancel a trip (with them), but with most tour companies, how much of a refund you get depends on how far in advance of your travel date you cancel. (With another company, they would have given us a small refund -- 25%, I think -- if we had been able to cancel 7 days before the departure date; unfortunately, I was hospitalized just 5 days before departure and so got no refund from the tour company.) As for the tour company's "Cancel For Any Reason" insurance policy, I do not know about RS's policy, but many (most?) "Cancel for Any Reason" policies will cover only about 70% of the total trip price.