Road Scholar Celebrates 50 Years Serving Older Adults

Road Scholar Celebrates 50 Years Serving Older Adults

Celebrations include:

• The announcement of the seven winners of Road Scholar’s Great Global Giveaway, winning 7 trips on 7 continents
• FREE Keynote Virtual Lecture by Doris Kearns Goodwin on April 3!
• Road Scholar’s Educator Legacy Award. The organization invites their community members to nominate recently retired or about-to-retire educators for their Educator Legacy Award. One remarkable educator will be awarded a $5,000 Road Scholar voucher to jumpstart their lifelong learning journey in retirement. Learn more and please share with the teachers you know!

Solo Travel Trends

Road Scholar’s Solos-Only program departures (NEW for 2025) are enrolling extremely well, with a 92% utilization rate for 2025, compared with 68% across all programs.

• These programs were developed in response to the growth of solo travelers over the past 10 years (21.7% in 2014 > 27.8% in 2024).
• In response to this growth, Road Scholar is adding lots of ne solos-only programs and dates, including: Tuscany, India, Nepal, New Orleans, Costa Rica, Buenos Aires, Peru, Havana, Viñales/Havana. Coming soon: Central Europe.
• Costa Rica is the top-selling destination for solos-only programs for 2025.
• 82% of enrollees for solos-only programs are women (compared with just under 70% across all programs).
• More solos hail from metro areas like New York and DC, while more participants from the Midwest and more rural states tend to travel with spouses.

More Travel Trends

• Family Programs (for three generations) are up 23% for this summer over last, and Grandparent Programs (aka “skip-gen”) are up 7%.
• Slower-Paced Programs will account for at least 10% of all new programs for Road Scholar next year, in response to participant feedback surrounding mobility
• Astrotourism is on the rise: Road Scholar is seeing an enrollment increase of 68% and a utilization rate of 95% for astronomy programs in 2025!

[EMAIL ME for data or expert quotes on emerging trends!]

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Cruises on the Rebound

Road Scholar refers to their shipboard programs as “Adventures Afloat.” There was uncertainty coming out of the pandemic whether voyages by boat would return to popularity, but data shows they’ve been doing swimmingly over the past year for Road Scholar. Though they’re not quite back up to pre-pandemic enrollment numbers (12.8k in 2019 vs 8k in 2024), that’s largely due to capacity (21.5k in 2019 vs 11.1k in 2024). Fill rate shows the demand: in 2019, Afloat programs were filled to 80.53% capacity, while 2024 hit 87.14%. With that data in demand in mind, Road Scholar is bringing back some old favorites and adding lots of new adventures by ship to their menu in the coming years. A few highlights:

• The Nile River by dahabeya, a style of ship that once transported Egyptian royalty
• An Ocean voyage in Chile & Argentina with Holland America
• Espionage and Royal History on Queen Mary II
• West Africa on MY Harmony V, a mega yacht for 49 guests
• Back with eco-friendly Hurtigruten to Norway and Victory on the Great Lakes, a fan favorite from years past

Road Scholar offers a unique collection of fully chartered “Floating Campus” programs that create a college at sea experience on board. This year they add to their floating campuses:

• Variety Voyager (Greek Isles & Ephesus; Greek Isles & Istanbul; Italy/Malta/Sicily; and Sicily & Malta)
• Heritage Adventurer (Japan & South Korea)
• Sea Cloud II (Italy & Croatia)

Top Places to Celebrate an Anniversary

Between 2024-2025, more than 1300 couples will have celebrated anniversaries on a Road Scholar program. They have identified the most popular destinations couples chose: Italy, Costa Rica, France, Africa, Greece, UK & Ireland, Australia & New Zealand, Alaska, Portugal & Croatia.

Ahmed & Fumie Hussen, both 75, from Decatur, Ga., knew they wanted to do something special to celebrate their 50th anniversary. “Paris was our first choice of destination because it is known as a City of Love,” said Ahmed. The pair enjoyed dinner by boat on the Seine and visits to iconic monuments and museums with Road Scholar experts. The most romantic moments they shared were an anniversary dinner at a cozy restaurant in Place des Vosges and a walk along the ChampsElysees, arranged with help from their Group Leader. “It was hard not to feel romantic and carefree as we strolled along this famous avenue,” said Ahmed.

[EMAIL ME for data or quotes from participants who traveled to these destinations!]

From the Experts: Road Scholar President, James Moses

How travel benefits us as we age…

“Road Scholar specializes in educational travel for older adults, and our participants find that learning while they travel and engaging in culturally immersive experiences is particularly stimulating for their minds. We help folks understand the context and history of what they’re seeing and we engage with the places we’re visiting on a deeper level. This kind of travel stimulates us intellectually and engages our curiosity. Road Scholar travelers often return home and continue seeking out novel, educational, and engaging experiences that help them remain excited and stimulated about life — keeping their minds healthier for a longer healthspan.

Another aspect of Road Scholar learning adventures is the social community that is created when folks learn together. Our participants enjoy meeting other intellectually curious peers, and the camaraderie flourishes very quickly among them. Social connections are vital, particularly as we age and our social circles contract. So having opportunities to flex our social skills and make new friends is another important element of travel that can benefit your mental health.” – James Moses, Road Scholar President & CEO [EMAIL ME to interview Jim!]

Online Lectures Booming

“Never let a crisis go to waste.” Road Scholar’s Online Lectures, developed during the pandemic, have continued to be impactful and more popular than ever. It’s quite a remarkable story! In 2024, 43.5k participants (350 per lecture, on average) tuned into an online lecture, compared with 22.8k (197/lecture) in 2021 during the pandemic. So far for 2025, we have 28.4k participants who have watched a lecture or are signed up for one in the future, with an average of 508 per lecture– and it’s only March! We have had several lectures in 2025 with 1,500-3,000 attendees, and our FREE keynote lecture with Doris Kearns Goodwin already has over 13,000 participants enrolled.

Tune in to an upcoming free lecture to sample Road Scholar’s educational programming:

• 10 Questions With: Samantha Brown & Joseph Rosendo – March 6
• 10 Questions With: Tomasina Ray, President of RMS Titanic Inc. – March 28
• 2025 Keynote: Doris Kearns Goodwin on Leadership in Turbulent Times – April 3
• [MORE FREE LECTURES]

New Programs

• Essaouira, Morocco: Visits Marrakech but also take travelers further off the beaten path to the historic port city of Essaouira.
• Miami to Havana: A unique opportunity to learn about the U.S.-Cuba relationship from two perspectives.
• Three new programs in Malta: one a“Winter in” program that aims to avoid overtourism and two by ship.
• Winter in Cielto, Italy: very under-the-radar destination. Another example of us trying to add more off-the-beaten-path destinations to avoid overtourism.
• Our first program in West Africa for a long time.
• Ecuador beyond Galapagos: Dive deeper into Ecuadorian culture and natural beauty on the mainland. (Coming soon: Peru outside of Machu Picchu.)
• Women’s-Only Programs in Sedona, New Orleans at a Slower Pace, Costa Rica multisport, Costa Rica birding, classic Costa Rica, Iceland, and Cuba
• Road Scholar’s six-week language and cultural Living & Learning Programs are enormously popular and usually sell out swiftly. This year they add to the menu: Sorrento and Trieste

Profile Subjects: Spectacular Seniors

Road Scholar serves 100,000 travelers over 50 each year (including 430 over the age of 90!) and each of them has a story, like…

Sandy Curtis, 81, from Oak Park, Mich., got the travel bug from her father, who took their family on trips across the country despite the challenges for a Black family traveling in the 1950s. He died when Sandy was a teenager, but she has carried on his legacy through travel to her children and grandchildren. “As an adult, every spare quarter I got, I used to go somewhere, and I did it for my children, too.” Sandy has been on 16 Road Scholar programs, both solo and with her five grandchildren. “I wouldn’t even consider another company,” she says.