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Road Scholar Website says, “Road Scholar, the not-for-profit pioneer in educational travel since 1975, offers 5,500 educational tours in all 50 states and 150 countries. Alongside both local and renowned travel experts, you can experience in-depth learning opportunities and behind-the-scenes specialties, from study cruises and cultural tours to biking, walking, and more.”
Though of course Road Scholar is just a tour operator like all the others, it operates with a different concept. In general, the tours are meant to be very instructional, and have top-notch guides. The founders wondered why their counterparts in America didn’t have similar opportunities to remain active after retirement. ( Road Scholar citation ). And, why not give them continuing opportunities to participate in as well?
Click here for recommended Italy Travel Guide Books .
More meals are provided, and keeping the cost really low is not the most important thing. However, since they are non-profit, they tend to do a good job giving you a great value.
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Road Scholar used to go by the name “ElderHostel”. You have to be over 55 to sign up. I surmise they changed the name to get away from the general feeling that it was tours for old folks, though they say it was to convey the idea of learning through travel. I went on a tour to China, and I believe I was the youngest person on the tour, at 55. But most of the people on the Road Scholar trips are in good shape, and have been on other tours before. It is not “for old folks”.
From TripAdvisor:
- “I have been on many Road Scholar programs and some of the hotels are great and some not so great! But, never anything that would stop me from going again. The content of their programs is far superior to any other tour.”
From Early-retirement.org
- “We highly recommend Road Scholar. I hope to go one trip with them each year.”
- “Bottom line — as long as you are not expecting something fancy like the Ritz and are open to hanging around with strangers, you should have a great experience at a very reasonable rate.”
Road Scholar Italy Tours 2020 website: http://www.roadscholar.org .
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My wife and I booked a trip with Road Scholar which included flying to Istanbul and then boarding Aegean Odyssey for a cruise on October 9, 2020. Aegean Odyssey has cancelled all sailings through September 2020 due to the pandemic. RS gave us until June 1, 2020, to decide whether to cancel or wait to see if Aegean Odyssey cancelled. If Aegean Odyssey cancelled then we would get all our money back. If they did not cancel, then we would forfeit 50% of our payment. I am 68 and have one kidney. It would be too dangerous to take this trip with the uncertainty in all the countries due to the pandemic. RS refunded $10,398 of the $12,823 we paid. They listed $2,400 as a cancellation fee. But they offered to hold that money for a future trip if we paid an additional $1,414 for insurance. We decided to wash our hands of this organization. James Moses, President of Road Scholar, has sent a letter asking for charitable contributions to RS to help them during the pandemic. I guess keeping our $2,400 is a way for him to fill their coffers. Good riddance Road Scholar.
I do not want to minimize your feelings or judgment of the situation you found yourself in. However, it is fairly standard for trips such as this. As you approach the departure date, often penalties start kicking, about 120 days before departure. I don’t have the RS rules in front of me, but they probably spell out terms that match your experience. I can think of a couple other examples of similar terms, such as Marriott Timeshares. Basically, you have a schedule that allows you to push things out, as long as you do it early. But then starting at 60 days out, the clamps start tightening up to where at the end your vacation is almost worthless because you can only switch it to Interval International (also owned by Marriott) with very tight limitations on what you can reserve.
With respect to penalties, they frequently go from 20% up to 50% etc as the months go by.
Travel insurance including cancellation is usually in the range of about 10%-15% of the cost of the trip. The best company is Allianz.
So my point is that RS’s policies and cancellations are not out of the ordinary. Your best bet in your situation at 68 with health issues would have been to get cancellation insurance “for any reason”. BTW, I’m 70 and my wife is 73, but we don’t have many health issues.
Hopefully at this point, you will find a way to use up that $2,400 that satisfies you in the future, and give Road Scholar another chance.
We recently made a reservation on American Cruises for a Mississippi trip, and the $1,000 deposit was not refundable. COVID-19 came up and we moved it out a year. You should look at their cancellation policies, because they are similar to the ones you have related, maybe even stricter.
I wish you better experiences and happy traveling in the future! Be patient and keep trying, because often you get a different story from someone else and find a good solution.
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.
I know it’s not the response you would like, but I would be patient, review the terms of your cancellation insurance, and follow up. COVID-19 is unprecedented and I am sure on their end they are overwhelmed. As I have said elsewhere, I am not apologizing for RS. But they are the largest in a lot of categories, so they are probably pretty busy.
I had a timeshare situation where a small company renting a timeshare I have had 700 cancellation requests to handle back in April, every one of them with a contract that says “no refunds”. So they had to negotiate every one of these situations personally. It just brought them to their knees.
Fortunately they got to me before my Westin 120 day window closed, and I was able to move my timeshare rental time to next year.
Cancelation For Any Reason protection program from Road Scholar Tours is not what it means! I had a trip planned for July-August 2020 to go to England, France and Ireland on the Odyssey At Sea. I put down $1200.00 to reserve my place on January 18, 2020. But with the COVID-19 starting and many European countries were closing their entries, I requested cancelation of my trip knowing this virus would go on for a long time. Road Scholar is giving one choice, I can reschedule another tour until 2023. I’m 72 years old and right now not in the best of health. This only choice is a big turn off to Road Scholar program. Yet Road Scholar has not hesitated to request funds from me to help others enjoy their trips. I feel that I should be given my down payment back and let me decide IF I want to go with them on any future tours. This is a sad offer on their part.
Thank you both for your comments! I have personally been on about 5 Road Scholar tours, and a large number of other tours. I am 70. So I am certainly sensitive to your comments. If you are concerned about refunds, your best bet is to go with a third-party company, like Allianz, and to call them, as to opposed to buying on line. It ain’t cheap, in general, to get a cancel policy.
I would have to imagine you would find the same issues with just about any tour company you use, and that Road Scholar would be among the best, given their mission and how long they have been around. You probably cannot get great education, flexibility with refunds and low cost all in one package. So basically you have to choose the balance you want and can afford.
“Cancel for any reason” does not mean “Full refund for any reason” as I found out myself on another tour with a singing chorus. The costs involved with tours are “hard” in that they have to put money out to make the arrangements and this is very expensive.
I am not apologizing for Road Scholar, believe me, Like any business, there are risks for both the traveler and the company.
Road Scholar is not responsive to Corona Virus concerns. Supervisors do not call back as they promise on what to us could be a life and death issue. My parents have taken about 5 RS trips with good feedback. As a family get-together, 4 family couples booked a trip in Nov/Dec to the Mediterranean on the Aegean Odyssey. RS has chartered the entire ship. With the Corona virus expanding we voiced concerns about my brother who is immuno-compromised from recent chemo, and my parents who are in mid and late 80s. We called to determine precautions being taken, and when not impressed with that (my wife is a physician) to ask to allow us to reschedule to later dates due to the virus spreading now to France, Italy, Iran… Responses have included that they are following CDC guidance, giving passengers a question pamphlet to fill out and taking their temperature on boarding (see below). Given the Diamond Princess fiasco and recent virus expansion we don’t think this is enough for the high risk members of our family. RS is clearly being reactive and not proactive. And It shows an extreme lack of respect for their customer’s concerns when supervisors do not call back as promised.
Below is the meat (middle part) of a generic email RS sent out 21 Feb 2020 that does not impress us, the last part about virus being largely contained to China and low risk where we are going is simply not true;
“…• Every crew member undergoes a thorough medical examination prior to joining the voyage.
• All passengers are required to complete a health questionnaire prior to embarkation to identify and isolate anyone who may be carrying a communicable disease.
• There is rigorous cleaning and sanitization of all public areas on the ship.
• Hand sanitizer stations are located everywhere throughout the ship, along with frequent reminders to passengers regarding the importance of practicing good hygiene, such as frequent hand washing.
• The ship’s medical staff and crew are always on alert to identity any suspected symptoms of illness.
To protect against any contagion being spread, additional precautions are also being taken, including:
• Additional requests for information on the health questionnaire, to determine if any passenger has visited anywhere considered at risk within the last two months, and whether anyone is exhibiting symptoms such as high fever or respiratory problems.
• Checking temperatures of crew and passenger with a non-contact thermometer at initial boarding, with further screening done at every port stop.
• Detailed protocols for isolating and removing any passenger or crew member with suspected symptoms of respiratory infection.
The coronavirus has been largely contained within China and there is very low risk associated with travel in the part of the world to which you will be traveling. Still, we and the ship are taking all the steps outlined above to protect the health and safety of all Road Scholar participants.”
Yes, right now there are so many cancellations and reschedulings, it is tough to respond. I have had my own issues in this regard. The Covid issues are unprecedented.