Rustic Pathways Reviews

I traveled with Rustic Pathways in India during my GAP year. I had been traveling with Rustic since I was 15 years old, so I was experienced and in for a wild ride in India.
I was up in Mcloed Ganj, the current home of the Dalia Lama. It was a breathtaking city filled with people from all corners of the globe. I was set up with a local family that was kind and warm.
The country managers of Rustic Pathways in India are saints. They are knowledgeable, incredibly kind, and will instantly make you feel welcomed.
India is a place unlike any other and Rustic Pathways knows how to give you the best of this cultural hub.

I traveled with Rustic Pathways starting when I was only 15 years old. It was nerve wracking and exciting to be off on my own in a new place experiencing such new things. I fell in love with Rustic on this trip and have been with them for four years, including a GAP year.
This was the perfect place for new travelers to start. The staff were incredibly friendly, Costa Rica is beautiful and rich with culture, and the activities were energizing and enriching. I bungie jumped, white water rafted, befriended locals and painted a local school.
Now that I look back, it feels like it was only yesterday that I was doing a scavenger hunt around the town while looking up at Arenal Volcano.
I highly suggest any and all Costa Rica programs to someone who is seaking adventure, culture, good friends, and a laid back country.

Going to the Dominican Republic last summer truly, as cliché as it sounds, changed my life. Before I was so self conscious of what I did not have (for various reasons), but now I feel ashamed that I used to feel that way. Not until I stepped inside of Batey Margarita, did I know how many people in our world are suffering. I am lucky enough to be blessed with an abundant amount of resources that I overlooked and abused and I wish I would have realized earlier that I could do something more productive with all of the opportunities and people around me. In the Bateyes I visited, the struggle for survival is real. Starvation, malnutrition, and diseases are daily realities for these people. My experience truly changed my life, and my way of thinking.
I cannot describe a typical day because each day was so unique and astounding. My time in the Dominican Republic was extraordinary, but I do have one story about a young boy who I will never forget. My third day in the Dominican Republic, our group went to a small community center in Batey Cachena, where I met this young boy, named Ricardo (spelling is probably wrong).
What caught my attention was that he sat alone in a small corner of the small building while all of the other children were playing, dancing, and coloring. So I walked up to him with my stickers, crayons, and coloring books in hand. I introduced myself and as soon as I did, he just smiled, gapped tooth and all. I lifted up the sticker sheet and asked him if he wanted a sticker. He stared at me with a confused look, so I pulled one off and stuck it to his forehead. Immediately he began giggling and showing it off to all the other boys. Later in the afternoon, I found out that he did not know how to count. So we sat down together for the rest of the day, and I stuck stickers all over his arms, face, hands, and legs, making him count almost to twenty, which was a vast improvement. Initially he could not count to four!

Many of my peers think that community service is just something school officials force us to do as a graduation requirement. However, for me, community service is a way of giving back and I do it because I want to. I knew that my time in the Dominican Republic would not always be easy, because it was very demanding. The physical labor was draining, and the mental fatigue I experienced when I saw how poor Batey inhabitants’ living-conditions was crushing! However, the most demanding challenge was to develop the ability to connect with people who were completely foreign to me, but I conquered that and now have strong relationships with many of the locals that I met.

My experience in the Dominican Republic has led me to believe that community service is essential to a more empathic individual. Community service is not a choice: community service is a moral necessity! My short adventure has made me want to do more for those communities that I visited. I know I can make a difference in the Bateyes, and I yearn for an opportunity to do so.

Because of my time in the Dominican Republic, I was given a chance to explore myself as an individual, but without my support system, I would have never been given the opportunity to participate in this program. I want the people living in Bateyes to feel the same way as I do, to feel like they have a support system, and realize that there are people out there to help them. Like how I know there are people out there to help me.

I recommend this program to every single person I meet!!

I went on a Rustic Pathways trip to Ghana in the summer of 2012 with students and staff from my school, the British School of Brussels.

We did community service in the northern region, in the city of Bolgatanga. The staff where constantly supportive and encouraged us to question the situation around us, allowing me to have a reflective and knowledgeable experience.

We also traveled for a week around Ghana, seeing many of it's beautiful sites. I always felt safe, as the staff were very thorough in check ups, and were always aware of our surroundings, yet still gave us the freedom to freely explore certain parts of the country.

The staff were enthusiastic, knowledgeable, compassionate and overall, really made the experience worthwhile!

I believe that RP has changed my life forever and those two years that I was able to experience the beauty of Thailand were the best summers by far. I'm proud to have gone on these trips and will cherish them forever. I would also like to add that our groups leaders, and our local staff were incredibly amazing. I was with Go Tha for both summers and he is one of the most funny and helpful people I have ever met. Also Kevin Connelly has been such an inspiration!!!!! Because of him, I've dedicated my time to taking pictures, mainly portraits, of people from all over the world. I would like to some day work at National Geographic and he is someone who will definitely have helped me get there. Thank you Rustic Pathways!-Eva Olaya

It's a difficult thing to feel like you've made an impact in a completely foreign community, but Rustic makes it work. I felt immersed in the Rustic Fiji community from the beginning--everyone was friendly, welcoming, and engaging.

I've volunteered in Tanzania twice with Rustic Pathways, and both times were incredible experiences. Rustic Pathways provides the perfect mix of hard work and a fun time. Half the day is spent working on service projects that are clearly sustainable and beneficial to the community we worked with, such as building and renovating classrooms at the local school. The other half is spent going into Arusha, participating in cultural exchanges with the villagers, or exploring the village (there's a beautiful waterfall at the heart of Njoro Village and sometimes you can even see monkeys!). Additionally, Rustic Pathways staff members and program leaders are some of the friendliest and most professional I've come across. I highly recommend Rustic Pathways for a fun and memorable experience that also allows you to make a difference in the global community.

I couldn't have asked for a better trip. Being able to interact with the community members and working with them to improve the conditions there was by far my favorite part. I love the staff, the program, and the people of the Dominican Republic.

I absolutely loved my Rustic Pathways experience! I met many amazing friends (with whom I still keep in touch with) and gained hands-on leadership experience that could not be found anywhere else. My leaders: Emily, CJ, Alejo and Liz were outstanding! I am currently writing an essay on my wonderful experience in Australia.

Traveling in Burma changed my life in unimaginable ways. I had barely ever heard of the country and now I am speaking the language, studying current issues and affairs, and find the word Burma slipping off my tongue multiple times a day.
Stepping of the plan in Yangon was a whirlwind for me. On these programs I explored everything from the big cities to the small villages, from the U Bien Bridge, to the temples of Bagan, and watching the sunset on the Irrawaddy to practicing Burmese with the locals.
Learning about the current affairs in Burma can be both heart wrenching and eye opening. It doesn't seem that somewhere so beautiful filled with the kindest of people, could be facing such turmoil. Traveling with David and the staff on these programs, you can learn so much. Asking questions and listening will be your best friend and you will go home with a new binder full of knowledge and experience to put on your life shelf.
This country and this program fosters a fun and light hearted way to experience a deep and complex world, that is Burma.