hi Christina, im looking forward to meeting you and Janice. you flying out of JFK? looking to see Sri Lanka. This will be my 18th trip with RS. They always do a great job. I ahve visited other Asian countries and expect this to be fantastic also. Can't wait to meet you guys!

RS used to mail the names of participants prior to the trip' But havent done this since the name change. I think too many lawyers involved now. :)

I'm assuming you are going on the 2/15/12 trip.

Hi William....

Hi William.....

Hi William...So good to hear from someone else who will be on the Sri Lanka trip. Since we did not receieve a list of participant we were curious about who and how many other travelers will be on the tour. We are flying from JFK on Friday evening 11/16 and will arrive early Sunday morning 11/18. This will give us the remainder of the day to rest and regroup from the long flightand be refreshed the following morning when the tour begins. Arriving late Sunday evening was not appealing. When are you leaving and what airline are traveling on? We made our own travel arrangements and will fly Emirates Airlines through Dubai.

As you can see I'm not sure how to use this discussion board...so disregard all the other false starts :). Will look forward to meeting you.

Hi Christina.. I think we are going at different times. I'm leaving on the February 15th trip and it appears that you are on the November trip. I'm sorry we won't be on the same trip but I would appreciate your thoughts on the trip once you get back. Hve a great time!!!

Hi! I will be going on the Februrary 15 trip. I will be arriving in Sri Lanka at 6:30 PM on Feb 16. I am flying on Emirates Air. If anyone else is going to be on that flight, or at that airport at that time and would like to share a taxi, reach out so we can meet up.Can wait for the trip!

Hi Joy...I and my travelling companion just returned from the November trip to Sri Lanka. We also went thru Dubai....great airline and great airport. We had a 5 hour layover and very much enjoyed our time in the airport. Then on to Sri Lanka. I hope you have an enjoyable and more rewarding trip than what we had. ...I hope you are prepare for extremely hot weather. The weather was oppressive. The overall the tour was a bit stressful and somewhat dissapointing. NO WATER provided at meals nor on the bus during travel. Group had to chip in and by cases of water for our own use during road trips. Hotels were just okay. Meals were better at first two hotels. Thereafter, quality not as good. Real problem with Hotel Yala Safari change at last minute when it became evident they knew about the beforehand at the first lecture because the name of the changed hotel was listed in the evaluation packet distributed to us. Communication problems...No viable down time, no opportunity to shop, Spice Garden was a BIG SALES pitch; BUS TRAVEL...at least 2-1/2 days of bus travel with minimal stops. Second day 8 hr bus ride after 18 hours international travel to get there. Another all-day (8-9 hours) bus trip at end of tour (Yala-Ngumbo)arrived at 7:00pm in time for dinner and no time to enjoy the beach and surrounding area. Beach hotel was very noisy with loud music late into the night. The Sri Lanka people at the hotels were very nice..however, we never really had any opportunity to meet nor interact with local people. Only opportunity to do so was the meal at a village (best part of trip)...but no interaction with them or us took place. We just ate and left...no opportunity to sit and talk a bit. Overall I felt the trip was more about Buddhism because of all the temples we visited. Be prepared to take off shoes numerous times for both inside and outside temples. You will need to track over very hot stones, pebbles, water and sometimes mud. We had a lovely guide who was very knowledgeable but constrained by the schedule he was suppose to keep...keep us moving. NO FLEXIBILITY in this tour. No hands-on visits to markets (just drive-by). Communication was also a bit of a problem...often unable to understand what was being said by lecturers, presenters and guide. There were other hiccups along the way...too numerous to get into. However, I do hope you have a better experience. Christina Bellamy

Wow...sounds very disappointing! I do hope we have a better trip. Did you like Dubai? Thanks for the review.

How did you get to the hotel from the airport in Colombo? Did you meet up with others from RS?

Just saw that you didn't leave the airport in Dubai.

Joy....I do hope you have a better experience than we had. We arranged with RS travel office for our pickup at the airport and transport to Colombo. Note we paid $54 for this. No we did not leave Dubia airport. It is a wonderful airport and we found much to do during our layover. However, we are going to Dubai and Oman in February. Will spend 3 days in Dubai and 9 days in Oman. Looking forward to this trip as we have heard so much about Dubai. Will expect to experience the culture of the area while in Oman. Wishing you all the best in your Sri Lanka adventure. I noticed they have not renewed this trip in the RS listings after the February tour scheduled.

Thanks for the info. I will be staying in Dubai for 3 days. Leaving on the 4th day in the am. Your Dubai/Oman trip sounds great! Is it through RS? RS didn't offer to make arrangements from the airport. I was told to take a taxi. I am hoping someone responds so we all can go together! Have a great trip to Oman.

How great that you will take time beforehand to see Dubai. Our Dubai/Oman tour is a private tour we planned with Corinthian Travel (UK). Arranging independent travel with RS travel was not easy. Although, in their documentation the mention that you could choose to arrange independent travel thru their travel office...when calling to talk with them about the person indicated that that was not available to us....however, I reminded them that it was clearly to contrary it was outlined (highlighted) in their documentation that this was an option, A lot of back-n-forth before we could get this right. Getting a taxi is not the easiest thing to do. Either way it is a long drive with a lot of traffic (during the day). One other participant also arrived early and stayed over night at an airport hotel and returned to the airport to take the group ride at the RS scheduled pickup time. We did not get to meet any of the other participants because their was no Welcome Breakfast nor an assigned table for our group. We checked around with people we thought might be a part of our tour group. Also, because we came in early and arrange independent travel we never was given the name of our group leader when arriving at hotel. Hopefully, you will arrive at the scheduled pickup time and will avoid all this. Hope you have a great time in Dubai...will love to check back after you and we return from our trips and share our experiences in Dubai. All the best!

Thanks for the info. I will keep in mind all the issues that you mentioned. We are actually arriving 6 hours before RS. I do not want to sit in the airport for that long just to meet up with them. My Dubai trip iis after Sri Lanka. I figured I would pamper myself for 3 days afterwards. Why come home early! We should share our experiences. I would love to hear about Oman! Wish me luck! Have a great time!

Christina, sorry to hear about all the issues you had to deal with on the trip. I'm especially surprised that they did not provide water for you at dinner and on the bus. Road Scholar has always been very good about that. I'm hoping that they have read your reviews of the trip and are making any needed corrections before the February 15th trip. Hi Joy, i will be on your trip although I am arriving on the RS flight from Ny through Delhi. I hope thing will improve by the time we arrive. Looking forward to meeting you on this trip. Christina thank you so much for your review. Although I wish it could have been better, you know what they say - forwarned is forarmed. To be honest though, if it wasn't so late, I might have canceled based on your review. Thanks again. Bill

Hi Bill...I agree with you too. I am a bit nervous about the trip. I hope ours is better! Let's keep our fingers crossed. Maybe they have made some improvements. Looking forward to meeting you as well. Joy

Hi Joy. I see they have renewed the trip for this coming year. Hopefully they will have worked out any kinks in the program by the time we arrive. I do think we will have better weather in February than Christina had in November. Wishing you a safe journey until we meet in Sri Lanka! Bill

William - I see that you left for this program on February 15th. I would like to hear more about your experience, and whether it was similar to Christina's disappointing experience described above. My husband and I are considering this, for next year. Thanks.

Just got back from this tour. Had a FABULOU'S time. Our guide was wonderful. Hotels were very nice. I would recommend this tour. I took Air Emirates and was very pleased. My stop over in Dubai was lots of fun. I am happy that my trip was very different that Christina's

Hi Nancy, I was on the trip with Joy. This is now one of my favorite trips. I had a fantastic time. I second everything that Joy reported. The hotels were great and the food good. Most of the meals were buffet style. Bottled water was provided by the tour operators and at the hotels. Our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly. It is very hot but that is the nature of the country. I enjoyed all of our activities and the Buddist temples were fascinating to visit. If you go to climb Lion's Rock, which is fantastic, I would definitely recommend hiring at least one of the young men licensed as guides. They will help you up the mountain as well as give you a history lesson and are well worth the price. I could not have made it to the top without them. We had a great group of people on this trip, only 15. Also I have to say, that the Sri Lankan people are probably the most friendly people I have met on my travels. Nancy if you have any additional or specific questions about the trip, please let me know. I would be happy to answer them. Can't recommend it enough!