The kids and parents had an interesting time

If you plan on working with World Strides as your tour provider then I must warn you that you will be spending hours doing walking to and from your destinations. They don't believe in tour bus travel unless it is from city to city. In Washington DC the tour guide took a wrong turn and took our group on an extra mile or so hike which took more time for a trip that was on a schedule. Time that could be used to actually see something that is taken up by cross town walks.

It is being proven more and more as I talk to people about World Strides is the fact that they are a cheap skate company that charges for more than they are putting out for. One point is the fact that our group stayed in an unmarked "hotel". Now you tell me where World Strides found a hotel that doesn't have any marks of a name on it. I wonder if a hotel like that even has a business license.

Of course my rants about World Strides could not be complete without a mention about how they make numerous contributions to political leaders. Why would a tour company that specializes in tours to Washington DC make so many contributions....In wonder about that one.

By the way if you have missed it, take a look at the other posts in this blog to see the comments made by former World Strides employees and customers. It is a real eye opener.

If you really like the information in this blog and want to make other people aware of the facts please Stumble it, Digg it or Tweet about it. The more people that are informed the better and maybe one day our kids and schools will not be taken in by this kind of company anymore.

Headaches with Worldstrides

The time is getting closer for the parents to come up with the money for trip. In a few weeks all the money is due. I will be calling Worldstrides myself to see if they offer any financing options for the price of the trip. As a group we have been highly disappointed with Worldstrides as a company to deal with. They are constantly adding $15 late fees and $6 processing fees to each monthly statement we get from them. At those rates their monthly payment system is more expensive than using a credit card.

This is the first time that the Lebanon School district used Worldstrides and it will be their last. The school district had been using a local travel agency for years for the trips and had heard good stuff about Worldstrides (via Worldstrides own publicity no doubt) that they thought that they would give Worldstrides a try. The only problem with that is the fact that we are suffering because of it and it might put the kids trip into jeopardy.

In the last few weeks I have done some internet searching to see what I could dig up about Wordstrides. I have found out that they did have a bankruptcy (see updated blog post for the truth about Worldstrides in great detail - click here), not an official bankruptcy but failing to pay huge debts. Around 2005 and they were also investigated by the Federal Government for fraud concerning a group of high schoolers that purchased a trip from Worldsrtrides to see President Bush's inauguration. They never got to the inauguration.