Road Scholar
reviews and complaints

As someone who has been on multiple trips with Road Scholar, I have had both positive and negative experiences. While the educational adventures and guides have been great, issues with flight bookings, cancellation policies, and customer service have been disappointing. The lack of clarity on health requirements and cancellation fees, along with challenges in getting refunds or transferring deposits, have left a sour taste. Despite the ups and downs, the potential for enriching experiences is there, but caution and thorough research are advised before booking.

I appreciate having all the necessary information in one place and being able to just click on a new tab (or go back to one I looked at before. It would be a plus if the reservation steps included the Program dates, particularly if making your own travel reservations.

It was so easy for me to enroll in this trip. I had registered for a trip to New Orleans that was cancelled so I left my payment with Road Scholar as a tuition credit for future trips and that credit was accessed easily and efficiently to pay for my future trip. Thank you!

I love your website. I go to it everyday to see what new trips have been added and to check my account for updates to trips I've already booked. I think you need to add a chatbot! I work for Ometrics LLC and I write chatbots. We can help you make your awesome website even better.

The site did what we needed to do without any hitches. Everything was clear and understandable and all user errors and oversights were handled smoothly. This is notable in that a lot of high-profile web sites do not have as good a user interface as this. I know this because most of my career involved user interfaces for computer users.

My husband and I discovered a trip that would complement a necessary road trip to Texas. Most other dates were already full, so I telephoned, but the office was of course closed on a Sunday evening.

When I tried the online enrollment, it was fast and easy! So we are assured our place. The necessary road trip is now something we will really enjoy!

Recently we were asked to change the dates of an upcoming trip to Croatia/Slovenia due to low enrollment. The Travel Change Team and Travel Arrangements Team quickly made the needed changes and kept us fully communicated via emails during this process. I was particularly impressed with the flight schedule which was customized to our requests. Thank you Road Scholar!

I've been on 3 RS trips and have no complaints. I also see that some people are upset as the Covid crisis caused difficulties for them. I booked and paid for Beyond Band of Brothers and the went bankrupt and I doubt I will see a refund. I have accepted that and moved on. It wasn't their fault that this Covid thing affected their business as all tour programs are struggling. Again, once has to accept and move onward and upward. I look forward to a RS trip in 2022.

I have been on three trips with Road Scholar; Scotland, Greek Isles on their small ship, and Switzerland. Every trip was wonderfully planned and executed and the guides were the best. The site is easy to navigate through and sign up is easy. All of the accommodations were nice and the food great. Free time is offered and options provided through the guide were great. I cannot say enough about them. I am a solo traveler and have made good friends while on the trip and always feel safe. Go for it! Now planning a trip to Ireland.

My recent RS trip to Australia and New Zealand was great. Holland America provided comfortable amenities and our RS sponsored shore outings were filled with exciting adventures. Our team leader, Ngaire Douglas, shared her vast expertise with us and gave us wonderful insights into the history and culture of both countries. Ngaire offered options for our various levels of physical fitness so everyone could benefit from all the shore outings. This was my 14th RS trip and certainly near the top if not the top of my RS trips.

Ruthanne DeWolfe.
Evanston, Illinois

My past four Europe trips with RS were booked on the phone, Involving wait lists and some back and forth over days. This booking, my first using your web order process, was easy to understand, quick and, best of all, it slid past the "limited availability" warning and was confirmed instantly. What's not to like!
One suggestion: show the cost of the cancel-anytime insurance earlier in the process, and before the trip purchase occurs. There's a no-turning-back-now feeling to have bought the non-cancellable trip and then being surprised by the insurance cost. In my case, I was expecting it to be about $325, in line with other RS trips pre-Covid. I was slightly surprised at it being $497, which I then realized it included new extra protections.

We paid $2,000 to book a trip to the Galapagos Islands with Road Scholar. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. Unfortunately, I had to have an unexpected and sudden major surgery around the date we were supposed to pay in full. They called and left a message that I needed to pay, but I was on heavy doses of pain medication and was completely out of reality for a few weeks. When I was able to hear the message, I immediately responded back by calling customer service and asking if I could get my $2,000 reinstated and rebook the same trip. In addition, my husband called to try to help as well. This seems like this request would be a very easy thing to do, but yet I was met with a complete lack of cooperation on Road Scholar's side. After much back and forth, I simply gave up. A few days later, I received a call from someone named "Deborah," She was making a notation on my account and that if I called their customer service line, I could work it out with their supervisor, rebook my trip and get my deposit transferred over (transcript of voice mail below). I spent the better part of 10/3/23, calling their customer service number but getting disconnected after waiting on hold. I also requested a call back when instructed to do so, but no one called back. Today (10/4) I phoned in, got ahold of customer service, and explained the message Deborah had left. The representative immediately went on the negative and said it was very unlikely I could get my deposit reinstated but she would speak with the supervisor anyway and ask on my behalf. After 15 minutes, she returned and said my trip was now sold out but I could go the next day on a boat that wasn't as nice. I told her this was fine as long as my deposit transferred, but she said the only thing her supervisor told her she could do was put in a request to have my deposit reinstated. I would have to pay for the entire trip with another deposit today. In one week, they would let me know if I could receive a refund for my deposit. This sounded really shady to me; they just wanted more money and to give me a bit of hope that I would get a deposit back in order to tell me in one week I could not. I explained to the representative, I would not pay the entire balance until I received confirmation that I was getting my deposit reinstated. Immediately she became negative again and told me it wasn't likely I would get my deposit because they paid another company for us to go on the trip and they couldn't get the money back (?). If their policy is that you cannot get your deposit back if you do not pay a balance by a certain deadline, why leave a promising voice mail message that you can? This whole experience with Road Scholar makes me sad as my husband and I finally have time in our lives to take one nice trip a year after working high stress jobs in the medial field for 25 years, and finally after much sacrifice, having 11 days of time for a trip once a year. I had anticipated taking many trips with Road Scholar in the future and now I will be unable to trust this business to book any other trips with them :(