Rustic Pathways Reviews

This program was absolutely amazing. All of the staff are so helpful and nice. I left a boyfriend's tee shirt on the plane after getting back to LA, and the plane guide person with Rustic was so sweet and helped me get it back and consoled me while I was crying my eyeballs out. Then when I got sick from dehydration they were so sweet and got me crackers, water, electrolyte packets, anything I needed. Then the trip itself was the perfect mix of fun and service. Plus the service was fun. 10/10 recommend !!!!

This past July, I went on the Namaste India trip through Rustic Pathways. This trip was absolutely phenomenal. Charles and Sunita, our two trip leaders, are such supportive and wonderful people. The itinerary was very well put together, and Sunita and Charles made it all even more exciting by choosing to surprise us with certain activities, and leave us guessing until we arrived to the location. Because of these many surprises on the trip, I don't want to get into too much detail, but I can promise that my only complaint is how I wish I could have stayed even longer!
Although, on my trip, there were very few students. And oftentimes on trips like these, there tends to be a specific student who doesn't quite fit the dynamic of the rest of the group. On my trip, there was one such student; but because there were so few of us, it was challenging to escape or ignore this student's behavior. I can be completely honest and say that this one student did make many parts of the trip highly unpleasant. However, the staff and administration at Rustic Pathways, including our trip leaders, the country leaders, and RP administration handled the situation exceptionally well. Despite the fact that those two weeks were a bit shaky, thanks to the RP staff, I knew that I would still love to travel with Rustic again.

There were times on my trip when we spent hours on the road going from one place to the other. One moment in particular is when we left one location (which I forget now) and we spent a good 4 hours or so just driving. During this drive, it was around 1 in the morning and most of us were asleep but for those who were up, saw that the sun was setting and wanted to take photos so when we stopped, everyone got up and took pictures for a good 30 minutes as we couldn't believe what we were seeing this late at night. After this moment, I couldn't have wanted to end my Rustic trip on a better experience than this.

When I signed up for the Marine Biology trip to Fiji, I was so excited. I love engaging in new experiences and making friends from all over the world. However, my expectations were quickly depleted. To start off, the social environment of the trip was awful. Everyone was super cliquey, and it reminded me of middle school. There were 2 distinct friend groups on the trip, and if possible, they had little interaction as possible. It wasn't a fun environment to be stuck in for 16 days. Because of this, I was incredibly homesick for most of the trip.

Next, my initial trip leaders were rude and distant towards me. They made us do push-ups if we were even 5 minutes late to an activity. I understand if timeliness is important, but then in turn, they themselves would be 30 minutes late to an activity. The hypocrisy drove me insane. The two trip leaders made no effort to befriend me, and only learned my name 4 days into the trip, even though there are only 15 children and we spent all day together. When I informed my trip leaders of an intense skin reaction I was having that looked like chicken pox, they told me to "get used to it" and that I would probably have it for the next 3 weeks, giving me no medicine or actual diagnosis. Needless to say, that wasn't comforting at all. Then, I continuously had stomach problems because my body had a hard time adjusting to Fijian food, and when I told my trip leaders, they either didn't believe me or acted irritated. In addition, they advised against using medicine I had brought on the trip for that specific sickness. Overall, they did very little to help me adjust and made me grow less likely to reach out to them for help.

Lastly, the simple day-to-day living environment was a bit tricky as well. I was surprised to find myself without warm water or electricity for more than half the trip. I was essentially camping, which wasn't what I had initially signed up for. Herds of rats came into my tent 3 nights in a row, preventing me from getting very much sleep. As for the food, a lot of it was inedible because they didn't remove the bones, so I found myself incredibly hungry and ended up eating unhealthy foods to make up for my loss of food intake. The daily activities were fun, but sometimes a bit too intense. A mandatory 3 hour hike in the hottest part of the day made one of my friends vomit and made us an hour and a half late to lunch, when we were all hungry before we even left. Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this trip to my friends.

The Heart of the Jungle trip in Costa Rica was the first trip I had ever been on alone. I definitely think I chose the perfect trip! It was perfect for first time travelers because the sleeping conditions were never overly "rustic" and the meals were never too adventurous in any way. The counsellors made sure that I felt safe at every given moment of the trip and I felt that I could ask them anything. If you are an experienced traveller I still would recommend this trip because there were so many fun and adrenaline filled activities with an abundance of nature involved that I never was bored.

This past year was really difficult for me and I ended up "losing myself." I took the summer to rediscover and reinvent myself. My Rustic trip genuinely helped me become a person I am very happy and proud to be. I found peace with myself and the world around me. My life feels completely enriched. What affected me the most was probably our group (including the leaders). The students in my program and the students in the camp made me learn to have patience, be grateful, and never judge someone without knowing their story. The leaders helped put my future into perspective and made me excited to dream big. I loved every minute of my experience on the trip.

What drew me specifically to the Sacred Valley Service was the amount of community service we were able to complete for the local population through the portable water project. The community service on this program was fantastic; it gave us the ability to interact with the culture of the Sacred Valley town of Suqma while also allowing us to see the implications the completion of this water project would bring to the community. The overall trip was amazing; when we got to Cuzco we went on a tour of the city center and were specifically told the history and influence the Incans and Spanish brought to the region and the city specifically. After Cuzco, we left for the first camp site on an amazing hike through the Sacred Valley. Every morning we got to wake up to a beautiful view and we had that same view even while we were working. The work consisted of pick-axing and shoveling on the side of a mountain; it was rigorous but it made you feel extremely good as you went back to your campsite at the end of the day. After four days of service, the program took a break with White Water Rafting on the Urumbamba River and mountain biking. It was a great divider between the times of service because it allowed us to take part in awesome activities and see a new experience of the country. After leaving Ollantaytambo the next day, we went to the second campsite where we carried piping to the project and covered the pipes with dirt. Also, we were able to hike to an Incan temple of Pachamama and a nearby waterfall. We then left for Aguas Calientes, the base town of Macchu Picchu. The experience of seeing Macchu Picchu was one of the coolest and amazing wonders you will ever see. The trip itself was life changing as it allowed yourself to be able to adapt to a new culture and see a different part of the world that is completely different from the one in which we live. The landscape is very different from the United States and the lush green forests and alpine mountains within miles of each other are something that is astounding. The community service work we did taught us to appreciate every little thing we have such as clean and running water that these people have to take for granted. The trip also allowed you to go out of your comfort zone; for example we did bungee jumping from 400 feet in the air, an activity that nearly every single person on my trip had never done. The amount of independence of the trip was perfect because it allowed us to experience certain activities such as hiking through the Sacred Valley and going to marketplaces which allowed us to experience the culture. I even saw an underwater phosphorus cave in the valley on a hike with only 3 other students. The leaders on the trip were extremely relatable and enthusiastic about showing the country of Peru to the students on our trip. A reason of what made the trip so great is how much they loved doing their job which allowed the students to have the most maximized experience possible.

Hello. I'm only reviewing Rustic Pathway's High School Language-Learning program in China because this is the only trip I have been on but I would assume that other programs have similar qualities. I want to start off by saying that this program was so amazing, I didn't have high expectations going into this trip and so the trip was so much more than anything I could have expected. This program is great for first-time travelers, it is very structured and the guides make sure that you have everything that you need. That said, you do need to know how to be flexible and independent.
Usually, each day went like this:
8:30-11:30: Chinese Class
11:30 - 12:15: Free Time
12:15 - 9:00: Scheduled and Guide-Lead Activity (including lunch & dinner)

And after the first couple of days, you need to be able to get yourself to and from the classes and and be able to handle yourselves in the morning and past 9:00pm.

Now for the actual review of the program.
There are three things I loved about this program:
- improving my Chinese
- supportive guides
- making friends
There is honestly very little that I would want to change about this particular program. The Chinese classes in the morning were very small, effective and fast-paced. People don't use Chinese outside of class as much as I would have liked, but you still need to talk to waiters, hotel staff, cashier ect in Chinese. Throughout this trip I got significantly better in actually speaking Chinese and communicating as opposed to just translating sentences on a piece of paper.

The guides were also amazing on my program, they truly seemed as if they cared about the kids on the program and really worked hard so that we could have a fun time. Also, since it is a rather small group there is a lot of individualized attention (kinda). For example, I got bitten by a bug that caused my feet to start blistering (I was the only one who this happened to, no need to worry about it) and they immediately helped me; allowing me to sit out of certain activities, giving us more free-time and they took me to the doctors while the other kids were in Chinese class. This type of support definitely made the trip more enjoyable and made me more relaxed because I felt that I was safe.

Now, I know that people won't believe me when I say this (I never believed other people when they do) but you really do make good friends on this trip. I am usually the loner in a group of people and that's what I expected when I went on this trip. But I ended up making two very close friends who I got along great with. A majority of the people on this trip were open-minded and friendly and wanted to make new friends as well. You get really close with the others on the trip and is a great way to make friends from all over the USA. Don't worry about if you aren't going with a friend, most people aren't either, as long as you are nice and willing to make friends, you are sure to find friends on this trip.

I went on a trip to Dominican Republic with Rustic Pathways. It was my first trip with any travel program and my 2nd time to the DR. Since it was a service trip, there were 3 days of service, and 9 days total. The actual service work was pretty hard, but many of my group members were hardly working. Therefore, if you are worried about community service, yes it will be physically demanding, but you work (kind of) at your own pace, so if you are a lazy butt, you probably won't get sore. Conversely, if you are vey motivated, then you will get sore, and you might get blisters (I did!) I am a 15 year old girl, 5'6? who's max push-up count is 10ish. I was able to cope with the work load and get a fair amount of work done. Basically, you just need proper motivation and strength is optional.

During the program, we worked on 2 projects; building an aqueduct and a black water treatment system. We swung pickaxes and used shovels to dig out a trench for the aqueduct. Then, after the pipes were glued down, we filled the trench back in. For the black water treatment system, since the trips before us had pretty much dug out, built, and filled in the treatment system, my trip/group just had to fill in the outside and rebury it, since it was underground. We used buckets and shovels to refill the surrounding area. Now, during any other program, the service projects might be different, but this was just my experience.

Because of traveling from the US to the DR, one must subtract 2 days for air travel. Basically, you are left with 7 actual days of stuff. The itinerary went something like this: JFK to the DR, Travel to home base (day of intro), Service day, Service day, Beach day, White-water rafting, Service day, Last day (travel back to capital and spend the night at an airport hotel), Fly back home. Every day had a sufficient amount of stuff per day, and there were plenty of 20min breaks throughout the whole day. I'd say there was a good balance between fun and work, but if you don't want to work, then choose an exploratory trip instead of a service based one.

The lodging was not 5 star hotel quality, but it was pretty good for a tourist ranch in the middle of a rural mountain community. We were able to have running water, a toilet, 2 sinks, and a shower for 5 girls. Not too jam packed. It was also good lodging at the airport hotel and the beach-side hotel. The food was good, but it's important to prepare the brain and the stomach for a change of food style and taste. We traveled on open sides trucks to our community service projects, which were pretty dirty. They were safe though. By the end of the day, if you worked hard, you were as dirty as the truck. The truck rides averaged out at 20-30min. When taking multiple hour trips, we would ride the local buses, which were very comfy and AIR-CONDITIONED!!!

Yes, there were bugs, and yes, they were big. I had 20+ Mosquito bites by the end of the trip, even with copious amounts of application throughout the day. Even with the Zika scare going on, I have not gotten sick, nor did I take any meds throughout the trip, or get any shots before hand. If your trip doesn't require them, then you probably don't need immunizations. However, it's your money, so spend it as you like. Rustic Pathways always provides "safe" water, and will never let you or force you to drink dirty water. There were numerous opportunities to get burnt and bitten, so we were told to and willingly applied sunscreen and bug spray at every available option.

Our program leaders were awesome. I'm not being cliche. They were seriously awesome. They were kind, good, fun people. They encouraged participation, but also didn't force anyone to do anything they didn't want to do. Peer pressure did that for them. I had 3 native Spanish speakers program leaders and 2 native USA citizen program leaders on my trip. If you are traveling to a foreign country, yes, the language WILL be a barrier. However, my program leaders were a great help, and translated at need. However, in the rural parts of the DR, almost no English is known. Be prepared to learn new words, and if you can speak some Spanish, be prepared to use it. I just finished Spanish 2, and even though the class is boring and I learn nothing, my minimal spanish was really useful.

A few tips:
-overpack. Overpack. OVERPACK. You will get dirty, and no, you don't need dresses and rompers. Also, bring work clothes and non-short shorts. They aren't kidding when they say the locals will think you're scandalous if you wear short shorts. There are few to no chances to wash your clothes, unless you hand wash them. If your packing list says 6-8 shirts, bring 12. Again, OVERPACK.
-bring lots of everything. Extra contacts, extra shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap, you name it. Cuz you really don't want to be needing it and borrowing it from your mates.
-don't relying a debit card. There are virtually no options to pull money out of an ATM, so bring at least $100USD in cash. More, if you want to buy lots of gifts and snacks. The rustic people will exchange your USD into pesos when you get there, but BRING EXTRA. Always better to be safe than sorry. And besides, if you have extra pesos, you can always change them back. 45 pesos = 1 USD.
-you will get dirty. You will work hard. That's what you signed up for. Mentally prep yourself so you don't become a sissy. No one likes sissys.
-prepare your mind for travel. You will be going to a different place, with different customs, values, and cultures, languages, and food. Embrace the popping of your bubble, and get used to being outside of your comfort zone. You will enjoy yourself more if you go for it. YOLO, and all that crap. Don't leave with any regrets. And lastly, it is always easier to ask for forgiveness from your program leaders than permission.

And yup, I think I touched on everything.

This was a Great program. Very intense. Wasn't sure what to expect... Cool fellow students and nice experienced staff. Glad to have participated. I came from NYC and wasn't used to roughing it so it definitely was an unforgettable 2 weeks! I learned a lot about the landscape of Alaska and survival in general. I will definitely return to Alaska in the future on my own.
Thank you Rustic Pathways for fantastic memories!