RSD Travel Arvostelua 

The ‘Balkans’ tour was interesting and very good value for money. You spend a lot of time on a coach but the scenery was often lovely. Decent hotels and food.

RSD are a low cost travel company used by people of a certain age who usually have a number of grey hairs. They are also very interesting, have lived great lives and know how to enjoy life.
The tours are well thought through, the coaches are usually excellent, the hotels are interesting
with good rooms but the menus seem to be very much the same.
Their guides are usually well informed and helpful.
You will find it very difficult to be anything other than amused, curious, enjoying yourself, and happy!

Having just returned from the Balkans tour I can comment that the hotels were of mixed quality, the ‘gourmet dinners’ were questionable (but as the hotels were often in the middle of nowhere there was little alternative), the included visits to a jewellery supplier, a leather jacket shop and a rug store where our generally senior aged (and sometimes vulnerable) travellers were subjected to hard sales techniques to buy overpriced merchandise). The days were unnecessarily long where we left early and arrived after dark, too late to enjoy hotel facilities or explore the local area properly. The optional excursions were over priced and the Balkan night could have been so, so much better! We were unlucky with the charter airline they used who decided to upgrade the aircraft software just before our flight, delaying take off by over3 hours and then an additional stop at Manchester where passengers to Gatwick needed to disembark to go through customs), which was ‘fractuous’ especially with less able bodied people on the plane - one of whom got lost and was left behind at Manchester Airport when the plane took off for Gatwick! RSD is convenient when visiting an unknown area with knowledgeable guides. However, to me RSD will unfortunately be best remembered as Ripping off Senior citizens Daily. Hence my rating.

I visited places of great cultural interest that I would not have seen on my own. They were "off the beaten track" but definitely worth seeing.
The countryside of the four visited countries - three were part in former Yugoslavia and the fourth was Albania - was stunning with high mountains, deep lakes and beautiful coastline.

An amazing educational holiday with RSD to Cyprus from the 1 to 8th October. The hotels was great value for money with friendly, polite staff and very clean rooms. A variety of excellent breakfast and dinners . Fantastic excursions to Biblical and other places of interest, with an exceptional tour guide, who was full of knowledge, made the excursions relaxing, funny, provided water for everyone on every trip and made sure, everyone was safe at all .times.

We have been on 5 RSD trips and all have been excellent, well organised tours and great value. The last trip, a tour of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana was the best yet - 5 stars!

RSD holidays are well thought out.
They are a caring company and look after their customers.
We thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our trip to Cyprus and would highly recommend it

This was my first trip with RSD Travel. I went with an open mind as it was so reasonably priced.
It didn’t get off to a great start, we had the fiasco of border control not allowing a foreign registered aircraft to fly passengers between Manchester and Gatwick. We had a three hour delay going out!! No information as to why this happened and absolute chaos.
The hotel on the first night was very poor. Plugs hanging off the walls and broken mirrors. The 2nd Hotel was more basic than an Ibis. The hotels improved as the days went on. Until the last night. The coach couldn’t park outside the hotel entrance; we had to drag our luggage across the busy street in the dark. Upon arrival the hotel had one lift taking two passengers at a time. We were crammed in the reception area like sardines. Absolute chaos. Not all the travellers are able to do this or should be expected to.
We paid for a gourmet buffet, it was very basic.
The days are very long 7.30am starts, there are long days on the coach. Very little time to relax when you are arriving at the next hotel after 5 pm.
The trips to the Jewellery warehouse and leather warehouse were ludicrous, very hard sell and nothing at all cultural. We were also taken to a carpet warehouse, again nothing to show that these were being made locally. All of these detours need to be taken out of the itinerary. The Balkan dance evening £35 was outrageous. Some youngsters dancing and singing (very poorly) and one of them looking at his watch !!
The trip to Kotor on a boat was very pleasant as were the beautiful monasteries and orthodox churches.
Montenegro is the star of the trip, the guide was good but had minimal local knowledge. The local guides were excellent.
I met some wonderful people on the trip. Would I use RSD again? Probably not.

Rsd trips are always a great way to see different countries with interesting and knowledgeable tour guides.
Pros:
- value for money
- safe and well organised
- see the different cultures of the countries
- wonderful tour guides

Cons:
- early starts on buses (not made at this as it allows for full days of sight seeing)
- not knowing hotels in advance
- food can be repetitive and you do really have to buy the package as not much around hotels

Always really enjoy rsd trips. A good way to get a taster of the areas you are visiting. Did the enchanting balkans tour and what an amazing experience. Perfect pace and timings for things. Our guide baska was incredible, funny and so knowledgeable

Hi,
At the end of September I went on a trip to Cappadocia with RDS Travel. I would recommend you go on this trip. We visited many interesting places and the hotels were good (enough). The guide, Ozlem, was an exceptionally good character, caring, and humorous with good interpersonal skills. She really enhanced the trip. She gave clear and precise instructions and was great at organising the group and itinary making sensible adjustments as necessary. She made the journeys very interesting giving lots of history, and information about geography and agriculture. She could talk for Turkey haha. I did not realise Cappadocia was so strong on Ballooning; many people did this and all enjoyed it but it is very expensive.
Kevin Hayes

8 day 5 Star cultural tour of Cyprus.
The itinerary set out by RSD needs close attention. It is not a relaxing experience, particularly if you are older. It is exhausting. Many hours on the coach each day with, in our coach, some seats broken. A considerable amount of walking is required. Hours were spent in a carpet factory and at jewellery & leather presentations (the latter at extra cost) where we were pressured to buy products. There are 2 days of tours which are extra to the original holiday cost @130 euro each and we were pressured to buy these tours. Many on our tour did not go through exhaustion. (Guess the average age late 70s!) Little time to relax. The food in the hotels left much to be desired, the hot dishes usually cool or cold. Some couldn't be identified, even by the staff. No mention of allergies! The Sun hotel(the name of which was not disclosed, despite repeated requests, until last minute), is unsuitable for older people due to the distances between many of the bedrooms & dining rooms, lack of handrails on some paths, which were uneven & broken. Unable to book seats for the flights beforehand so had to queue for over 2 hours each time to board. A 2am start from the hotel for the return flight home was unwelcome.
The guide was very knowledgeable but spent a deal of time describing his own, albeit unfortunate, experience and that of his family during the Cypriot wars of the 70s which was both depressing and inappropriate. Whilst the tour cost was reasonable, (of which we were constantly reminded by the guide,) it wasn't great VFM, particularly when taking into account the food quality and very expensive extras like drinks, coffees etc. in the two hotels.
Because of the pace and length of the various trips, the effort needed, the extensive travel in coaches, little time to relax, pressure to buy products and food quality, would not recommend.

Refreshing to experience a holiday in countries never previously considered. Great itenary lots of lovely locations good accommodation & well informed by our tour guide. All in all we had a lovely time.

Destinations are quite unique and offer nice alternative to generic travel locations. Company is professional, staff competent, helpful and polite. Transport and accomodation are comfortable and safe.
Food packages are good and excursions interesting. Overall pacage is good quality and value for money.

Leaving on behalf of my mum Sandra Martin and companion Gillian Burt.

Unfortunately, our Cyprus holiday fell far below expectations due to a series of serious
issues with both the tour guide and the overall quality of the experience.

1. Tour Guide Conduct
Our guide, Umit, was consistently unprofessional and, at times, outright rude. From the
outset, he provided his phone number but stated he would not answer it. Throughout the trip, he prioritised sales visits over sightseeing, pressuring guests—many of whom were elderly—into visiting jewellery, leather, and carpet shops for extended periods, often in extreme heat.
On several occasions, he spoke to guests disrespectfully, including shouting at me and
others on the coach. When a fellow traveller’s mother became unwell and required
hospitalisation, his reaction was wholly inappropriate, even publicly calling her a liar during dinner.

2. Poor Organisation and Misinformation
The advertised itinerary was not followed. I had planned to meet my grandson for lunch in Nicosia based on the leaflet stating it was our first stop, yet we arrived over three hours later than scheduled, leaving me only minutes with him before needing to return.

Additionally, wake-up calls were extremely early, and on departure day we did not receive the promised call, resulting in unnecessary stress for passengers.

3. Unsafe and Substandard Coach
The coach was not fit for purpose:
- Several seats lacked seatbelts
- Emergency hammers were missing or tied up with string
- Carpeting was torn, creating trip hazards
- A flat tyre occurred mid-journey, and the mechanic deemed another tyre dangerous
Although the driver handled the situation well, these safety concerns were unacceptable.

4. Hotel Issues
Hotel Sapphire:
- Food served lukewarm, limited drink options (wine unavailable until meal almost finished)
- No in-room tea/coffee facilities
Hotel Riverside:
- Located over 25 km from the advertised area
- Steep, uneven pathways without handrails or lighting—unsuitable for elderly guests
- No information provided about the courtesy bus to the beach
- Water supply issues (toilets and taps not working)
- Complex layout with no lifts, making access difficult

5. Overall Experience
The trip felt more like a sales tour than a cultural holiday. Sightseeing was rushed and
conducted in the heat of the day, while long waits occurred at commercial stops. The
average age of the group was over 70, yet the pace and structure were not adapted to suit this. The only enjoyable day was the optional paid excursion (£80), where Umit’s behaviour improved due to a trainee being present.

Outstanding organisation, guide (Suat Akay) and coach driver. Highly enlightening and educational tour. Exceptional value for money.

Interesting experience in N Cyprus, excellent archaeology, great driver, enthusiastic guide and good food but bus in very poor condition, few working seatbelts, cracked windscreen. Hotels variable quality. Had to endure three sales sessions - for extremely expensive jewellery, leather jackets and carpets. Very long travel as needed to go via Turkey due to political status of N Turkey ( left hotel at 1am English time and got to Gatwick at 2pm).
Overall we enjoyed it but many in the party did not.
Extremely cheap so I guess you get what you pay for.

Lots of very interesting trips. Some free time to look around and make a few purchases. The guide Volcan was very knowledgeable and gave us excellent information.

I was so convinced that I had already submitted a review, and now many months have passed. The Balkans tour in May was an experience that my travelling companion enjoyed and I had mixed feelings about.

I felt that we were constantly having to pay small amounts of money and that slightly dampened my enjoyment of the adventure. It was impressive seeing something of 4 distinctive countries, and our guide was very knowledgeable and willing to engage.

The accommodation and food were best described as "could do better" if there is a genuine commitment to increase tourism. A week goes by very quickly, and I was happy with the reasonably seamless border crossings, the pace and comfort of the well driven coach, and as always - the company of a diverse group of people.

I appreciated learning more about these 4 countries with a good mix of culture and history. It was a feat to visit so much in such a short time, and I had no major complaints, just a sense of mild disappointment that we had to rush some of the featured site visits, and linger too long in others.

The trip was a reasonable price, but I think the Vietnam and Jordan RSD tours I had done previously spoiled me and led to unrealistic expectations!

Wir haben vom 21.08.25 bis 03.09.2025 eine
Rundreise Indien mit RSD gemacht, wir hatten
einen tollen Reiseleiter, Herr Alok Tripathi war
sehr informativ, pflichtbewusst und sehr hilfsbereit, wir sind schon viel gereist, Herr
Alok Tripathi war bisher der beste Reiseleiter,
auch RSD hat alles supergut organisiert, wir
sind uns nicht ein einziges mal verloren vorgekommen, Indien ist auf jeden Fall eine Reise wert, wir haben sehr viel schönes und beeindruckendes erlebt, es war unsere 4. Reise mit RSD