Road Scholar

I have taken several RS trips and have enjoyed them. I had RS make my aircraft reservations for an upcoming overseas trip. RS demanded immediate payment which I did. Some weeks later I learned two of the four flight legs had been canceled. I had a very difficult time reaching anyone at RS to correct the problem. Phones busy, long wait times, no responses to many emails. Finally, after several weeks of effort my travel was rebooked. Now about a month I received information the same two flights had again been canceled. But according to the airline website the flights had not been canceled. I called the airline and learned the reason why my flights had been canceled was RS failed to pay for them in time.
I think this is fraud. I suspect RS is trying to use the money I paid for my flights for other bills; using the float. Make your own air reservations. Don't trust RS.

My cruise from Dublin to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Orkney, and London lacked depth. At Orkney, the route centered on an overlook and swans. In the haste to the overlook, the tour bus passed by Skara Brae, a 5000-year-old commune from the stone age. The stop at Alnwick featured the Harry Potter castle, hardly a priority to real scholars on the trip. Regular meetings and dinners of groups violated privacy and personal choice. This silly arrangement infringed on time and available shipboard spaces, especially the Lido Deck. A huge disappointment.

A recent hiking trip with RS to the Canadian Rockies was a huge disappointment. First, people who could barely get on and off the bus were allowed on this trip. Ridiculous. Only 4 of us could go on daily hikes they called "motivated" or harder than the others -- all of which I considered easy to very moderate. The hiking pace was also crazy slow. The catalog/website descriptions of the trip were way off base. Simply not truthful.

The majority of meals were served in a windowless hotel conference room. Very mediocre food. Breakfasts were the worst. Restaurant meals for dinner were way better, but certainly not terrific restaurants I would go to again. A couple of us younger, energetic folk purposefully left the group on two evenings just to get away and have some time to chat and eat at GOOD restaurants.

RS is clearly not for people, like myself, looking for true rigorous activity with other happy, young at heart people. It was clear to me that RS attracts a much, much older crowd, which is fine, but that's false advertising in their materials. Their original name of ELDERhostel fits their group way better. Nothing wrong with being older, but it sure isn't fun being around grumpy, negative retired folk who have a very "old and tired" mentality. I won't be going on another RS trip. Lesson learned.

Excited to see Alaska... so excited about this trip! Catalog said "Moderate Pace". OK... good... means we are going to move our bodies. Well, what a disappointment to learn this certainly was not going to happen! Unfortunately not all travelers could even do a low paced activity... a real damper for those of us eager for actjvity. Shame on you Road Scholar for misleading us to think this would be such an adventure. Some people had difficulty getting on and off the buses... walking for some was difficult! Pretty unfair tactics. A couple meals were served in hot, windowless hotel conference rooms. Hotel in Anchorage was pretty horrible and not clean. Have diet restriction and on 2 occasions group leaders (2) had not taken this into consideration... and I don't think they really cared! One leader, I felt, could not wait until she returned home! In making my arrangements with Road Scholar I was asked on several occasions to get in touch with someone with my question... representatives for RD just didn't seem to have their information at hand... these were pretty basic questions. A very disappointing trip... too bad for RS... friends who travel were waiting for my critique... they won't be traveling with Road Scholar.

Alaska is a very interesting place and rich with opportunities to explore. RoadScholar leaves the organization to Holland America. It's a good setup for certain travelers, mainly OLD. I'm 71 and found it very frustrating. Flew 3000 miles and spent the first night and morning in a conference room with no windows. The food was very mediocre at the hotels they used but the worst disappointment was that this trip had been described as "active" which for RoadScholar must mean breathing because we have spent the entire week riding buses for hours on end plus an 8 hour train ride. Getting these geriatrics on and off the bus takes forever and Road Scholar seems to attract know-it-alls.
These trips are fine if sitting on your butt and looking out the window of a vehicle is the way you want to experience Alaska. I thought a hike might be nice. Not RoadScholar.
Don't get me started on the cruise.

Road Scholar switched hotels on us after we had booked their tour of Southern Spain. The reservationist assured us that "the hotel change would cause no extra walking" during our trip. NOT TRUE! As we walked by the Hotel Ingleterra, Seville, on at least 6 occasions -- and were still several blocks from our new hotel -- it was clear the reservationist was either ill-informed or lied to us. The hotel switch caused as least and extra 6-7 miles in Seville alone. Complaints to the president of Road Scholar have gone unanswered so I guess the reservationist isn't the real problem with this travel company.

I have always heard wonderful things about road scholar and was excited that I was finally going to have the chance to experience one of their trips. However I have been trying to contact them for over a week and a half with no success. Last week their website just spun and spun when I tried to sign into my account and when I tried to call their message said they had SHUT DOWN their phone to incoming calls in order to catch up on their backlogged calls and referred you to use their website! This week the website it working better but it doesn't allow me to make a change I need to do, so again I've tried to call. On Monday the recording stated the wait time was approximately 2 1/2 hours which I couldnt do, so today I've tried the callback queue option, it's been over 3 hours and still no call. I've also noticed an increased numbers of donation solicitations from them over the last several months. My concern is how easy they make it to give them money but how difficult they are making it once they have your money, thus is a big red flag to me.

I must be a slow learner. After 27 Road Scholar trips, I went on a trip with Caravan for half the price. The food, hotels and activities were superior in every way. I also found the fellow tour members with Caravan were so much nicer than Road Scholar tour members. I have met over 500 people on my travels with Road Scholar and so many are snobbish and angry.

My wife and I were scheduled to take a Road Scholar trip departing on March 14 to Israel. This was the time Covid 19 was breaking out all over the world. Since my wife and I were of an age where medical authorities were warning against travel, we decided to cancel the trip on March 5. We thought by that time Road Scholar would have canceled the trip as there were clear indications that Israel was going to close its borders. When I spoke with RS, I was told because it was so close to the start of the trip I could expect no refund but that I had purchased Trip Insurance and should file a claim. We did this and after 6 weeks were told that their trip insurance did not cover Covid 19 but that RS would provide a credit for future travel and I would receive a letter confirming that within a week. Three weeks later after hearing nothing I called RS. I discovered that they did indeed cancel the trip as of the 9th of March and that all people still registered received a full refund but because I cancelled 4 days prior I could not receive a refund. I was told I would still get a credit for future travel and that would arrive shortly. It is now June 3 and I still have not heard anything from RS. While I realize Covid19 has been very difficult for travel companies, its now 3 months since I cancelled and I have not heard a word from RS. Frankly I am very disappointed given there reputation. If indeed I ever receive a credit (which at this point I not confident I will) I would be hesitant to use it given my experience with this booking. Buyer beware!

My trip to Japan with Road Scholar would have been excellent but for the unusable wifi "provided" (or really, not provided) by the Daiwa Roynet Hotels in which Road Scholar placed us. I was completely unable to work with colleagues in my home office because the wifi was usually so slow as to be unusable. The guides for our trip were superlative, but I couldn't enjoy the trip because I could not fulfill my work commitments, and people had been depending on me. The Daiwa Roynet Hotels claim that they provide wifi, but it has been unusable for me, for my wife, and for many people on our trip. I consider their claim that they provide wifi to be a fraud, under California law, and it ruined my trip.

Our trip to Egypt was cut short by a week because of the Covid-19 situation. I had purchased trip insurance through Road Scholar for that trip. Obviously, it had to be cut short, but Road Scholar assured us that we would be reimbursed for the part of the trip we missed. That did not happen. They have sent me many requests for donations, and nothing about reimbursement. After almost 2 months are requesting some remuneration, they finally offered a small credit toward another trip... but it had to be by June 5th. Um... we are still in the middle of a pandemic, so that's not going to happen. They have not offered one penny of my money back even though I bought my insurance from them. Yes, they're an educational travel group... and boy! Did I get an education.