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227 reviews
Rustic PathwaysHonesty, pricing, process and quality scores appear once 5 customers have rated them.
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Rustic Pathways (rusticpathways.com) has 227 customer reviews on Rated Honest, with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5.
227 approved reviews, newest moderated first
Alexandra
Posted
The knowledge and support throughout our rustic pathways journey was phenomenal. My daughter had the experience of a lifetime.
Response from Rustic Pathways· Feb 12, 2024
We're thrilled to hear that your daughter had such an incredible experience with us!
SV
Posted
The program for our school trip is extensive with a variety of activities designed to promote Service Learning and Sustainability practices. The Rustic Pathways team members are very hands-on and professional in dealing with students. I appreciate their commitment to safety and security and how they communicated this to all participants of the trip. The reason for not giving 5 stars is the last day of the trip in which we had an early start, a full day of activities and late flight back to our country. We went through a 20-hour day.
Response from Rustic Pathways· Feb 8, 2024
Thank you for your feedback on your experience with us! We're thrilled to hear that you found the program engaging. We understand about the long last day and will take this into consideration to improve this trip itinerary for future travelers.
Werther
Posted
The supervision adults were fun, nice and exciting!
Response from Rustic Pathways· Feb 8, 2024
We're glad to hear you enjoyed—they sure know how to make things fun!
Kari E.
Posted
Horrible company. I do not recommend. My son was abandoned in less than 24hr. I intend on filing charges. If anyone else has had similar experiences please reach out.
Response from Rustic Pathways· Mar 5, 2024
Hi Kari, I’m sorry your Rustic Pathways experience wasn’t what you hoped. As you know, Rustic Pathways programs are alcohol free. On the day of his arrival in Quito, your son made clear his intention to abandon our program to go off and drink and smoke. You and I spoke on the phone that night. We agreed to give him a chance, and we were hoping that would work. The next morning, he departed the hotel and abandoned the program without telling anyone where he had gone. Rather than continue on to the next destination, we delayed the rest of the group of 10 students for multiple hours looking for your son. We did eventually find him — buying tobacco and alcohol. At that point, we had to excuse him from the group. Our team on the ground booked him a hotel room for two additional nights, at our expense. We offered you the option to have him travel separate from the group or we would book him a nonstop return flight home, again at our expense. We continued to reach out to offer assistance to you and your son until you stopped answering our calls. Again, I’m sorry we couldn’t deliver an amazing time for him. I hope you and your son are doing well.
Saneun McHaley F.
Posted
We did have one great trip to Morocco on our first rustic trip. However, over half of our group was violently ill and required azithromycin, which my husband, a pharmacist, had to spend hours procuring by going from Pharmacy to pharmacy on a motorcycle with our amazing guide. Homes that we ate in as part of the itinerary should have had better training for preventing this. We all got sick in the Atlas mountains while working on a community project. One very healthy athletic student was hospitalized for a few days upon arriving in Europe to meet her own family on vacation from US. The guides were woefully unprepared for our group of Arabic speaking American students. They assumed at every turn that our nerd squad was plotting to sneak out and buy drugs and get drunk. One guide, the Arabic-speaking guide was fabulous, the American guide was to me, a teacher who has organized over 40 groups, rude and clueless. They herded us around like fragile mosquitoes when in fact we come from a very violent and dangerous big city. We found Morocco to be quite tame in comparison. Our second trip ended up getting canceled due to Covid. I refused their vouchers until they forced them on me. I knew the vouchers were a farce. I tried to organize a group last year 2022 and I did not get much help or assistance. They pretty much ignored me. I personally lost around 6 grand as I am both an organizer and a paying parent for my kids. I would never, ever, ever recommend this company. They categorically lied to me for months during the pandemic and did not even give the participants control to get their plan ticket vouchers. I'm guessing the company also was getting millions to help keep them afloat during the pandemic all the while not returning any funds to parents. Gross. I tried to write reviews the year this happened but they were blocked or removed.
Response from Rustic Pathways· Mar 4, 2024
Hi Saneun, Thank you for your feedback! While I’m glad that you overall had a great experience on your first trip with us to Morocco, it sounds like you also felt our team was overly cautious and I’m happy to work with them on improving those experiences going forward. Regarding your follow-up experience, it looks like we did attempt to work with you to create an experience in 2022, but it did not come to fruition and we attempted to work with each family to find a use for their vouchers to their satisfaction. We reached out in 2023, as well, in hopes of finding something that would work for you. I apologize if we left you unsatisfied with your experience and we hope to do better going forward. Thank you!
Sunny
Posted
My kid really enjoy her pleasant trip with Rustic Pathways and her friends.They had a wonderful trip.The activities are rich and fun! They had a lots of delicious foods, and the Rustic team takes good care of each one, my children don't worry about leaving home for the first time without parents.This journey has been rewarding for her.
AV
Posted
My daughter had a great learning experience! Everything was well organized and the community service was impactful! The only thing I would add, is sharing more information about the house/setting the kids stay in before they go. We are thrilled she enjoyed a meaningful experience and would recommend to other families!
Francesca L.
Posted
I have sent all 3 of my children on Rustic trips (Fiji, Thailand/Vietnam/Laos and Hawaii). All the trips were great and my kids enjoyed themselves and grew from the experiences. My eldest went on the "Come with Nothing" trip for her 2nd summer and while challenging, absolutely loved the experience. Only regret is that my 2 younger kids could only do one summer each because the pandemic. Rustic has been able to balance service, fun, education and safety for all their trips.
