Rustic PathwaysReviews of rusticpathways.com

Despite the pandemic, they refused to offer refunds to our trips and offered travel vouchers instead. However their trips keep being delayed indefinitely (it was moved to 2021, then said 2022), so basically if you want to get your money back you need to ask to cancel on your end where they will deduct your money as cancellation fees, or you can wait indefinitely till the pandemic is over to go on a trip you don't really want to go on anymore because of a bad provider.

Again, still waiting on a response. It is unfortunate that this company has become so untrustworthy. Not sure how anyone would feel safe sending their child on a trip with a company that does not return phone calls, emails and does not call about any type of change.

Do not trust this company. My daughter had a trip scheduled to go to Peru, then Covid hit… We decided to be nice and leave the almost $5000 with the company until we decide what to do. Never did they tell me that once it turned into a voucher it would only be good for other trips. Fast forward almost 2 years because of Covid and they're holding my money hostage. They won't give it back, my daughter doesn't want to go on any of the other trips, we have called numerous times and emailed numerous times and we are just ignored. And I am supposed to trust this company with my daughter. I have five kids all my other kids went on GLA trips. I never had a problem with GLA in all the years my kids traveled with them. You think at least they return our calls… We have now called nine times, and I've emailed three times. It's silence. And they won't give us her money back. Do not, I repeat do not go with this company.

SEE UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF REVIEW Spoke to RP soon after COVID lockdowns last March. At first they were engaged and helpful, even having an advisor call to update on the trip to Cambodia my son was scheduled to take. We purchased the CANCELLATION INSURANCE and alerted them well in advance of the specified deadline to do so. A rep called to confirm, but said due to a backlog, our refund would take approximately six months. I have been waiting patiently but no refund has been issued in over a year. I understand the difficulties COVID created for many businesses, and how cash flow would be a problem at RP, so I am sympathetic to their inability to satisfy all of their clients. HOWEVER, not only am I out the money for the trip, but I am also out the insurance surcharge. They are apparently not honoring the cancellation insurance contract. And they seem not to. Repeated calls to the main number result in a long hold time, followed only by the ability to leave a message. No response has come to messages I've left. Emails I've sent to resolve the issue have also gone unanswered. My two older kids took RP trips and enjoyed them, and before this we would have recommended RP to anyone. I'm not sure what to do. A stock answer from them here might says something about their wholistic approach to the communities they work in, etc. It is an answer that many people seem to receive, sometimes with a reminder that they have a travel voucher they can use for their child. Also in these responses is an email address, the same one that has yet to respond to my emails. Again, I understand things are difficult. But a refund is due. There is no discretion in this case. I paid the EXTRA cancellation insurance fee. Unconscionable. ****UPDATE: Not sure if this review had anything to do with it, but we finally got through to RP customer support and were promised a refund. The refund was processed and credited back to our card. It took way too long, and was too hard to accomplish, but the matter has been resolved to our satisfaction.***

Terrible service and company. We are in the same position as many have stated. They are holding onto money for trip that was promised by the agent. The agent advised us the trip would run. We only found out it was cancelled as we checked. We were not contacted by Rustic Pathways, it is a constant struggle to have anyone contact you. How can it be safe to send your child with these individuals with such a lack of care.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. Rustic Pathways and their private equity owners, Sabot Family Companies refused to refund and then held $5000 of our money hostage for 18 months, even after they had cancelled our child's trip and received a refund from the supporting airline. The overall experience with Rustic Pathways was terrible and led us to believe that they may be in financial distress and basically using current customers' payments to fund their operations, causing them to run short of money for students' trips. They: - Required payment in full a year before the trip - Refused to cancel the trip it when the destination country shut down all international travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic - Refused to refund portion of price attributable to airfare, even after the airline had provided refunds - Were unable to provide evidence of airfares having even been purchased - Committed in writing to a full refund, and then refused to provide it - Offered to refund only 30% with the rest to be refunded in 1-2 years - Ultimately held our money hostage for 18 months before making a full refund We have a lot of sympathy for small businesses during the pandemic, but this is a company whose founder/CEO was found to have sexually coerced staff members, forced to put the company into a trust, and sell it. It was sold in September 2019 to Sabot Family Companies, who are described by Rustic Pathways' own staff online as "arrogant, manipulative, and micromanagers". Buyer beware - if you give your money to Rustic Pathways today, it may be used up before you ever get the trip that was booked.

I am disappointed. So disappointed. If I had written this review a in 2019, it would have been 5 stars. I can't even believe that I am saying this - my daughter traveled in 2019 with Rustic to Morocco. Had an outstanding time. So outstanding she is still talking about it, so Fall of 2019, I hear about a trip for March 2020. I say 'yay!' great company. Stand up company. Alright husband, let's let her travel again. Scrimped and scraped, fundraised for the nearly $3,000 trip. Then COVID hit, let's push it a year they said (voucher and all that) true enough, no one knew what 2021 was going to look like. But here we are, she's a senior, again no travel, so lets discuss what we're going to do with said voucher. The response - no refunds! WHAT? Problem (1) - The programs/trips that you offer are out of her age range (14-18). (2) You say on your website that you are following CDC/WHO guidelines - good for you. But for those who have a compromised family situation? What do they do? Problem (3) She's headed to college - so that is the next part of her life that she has to plan for and she should not be forced to consider Rustic Pathways as part of that plan because you are holding the money hostage. Now, I understand completely, that everybody in one way or another is being impacted by COVID, I type this email with the memory of my aunt died from this illness. My family has a member who (lives in the home with said student) is compromised and has to be VIGILANT and can't be put at risk. It's literally life or death! Rustic, it is cruel and wicked to expect a student who is out of the age range for the programs you offer, to not even get the "consideration" of a refund. I can respect that you may not have any say over the airlines necessarily - I get that. Your fee for the program - you do. This position of 'no refund' directly contradicts what it is you say your company stands for - I see words like "positive impact" and your vision apparently is "shared humanity and all decisions are made with a global perspective." There is nothing humane about holding hostage the monies for a trip that my daughter can no longer benefit from... How do you have impact with that mindset?

This is a terrible company. They used my funds from a cancelled trip for their operations and never refunded me for airfare which they told me was returned to them. The money provided to the them should have been held in trust or escrow. Now, even their phone numbers have been shut down. I emailed the CEO of the company and he never responded.