Exploring the World as a Road Scholar: Travel Tips with Kelsey Knoedler Perris

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to all of our listeners joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to one of our Successful Aging episodes this month on the Living to 100 Club program, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. On each program, our conversations educate and inspire, helping you get the best out of all the years we're given, regardless of what obstacles come our way. You can learn more about my club at my website. Be sure to take a look at my new training and activities manual, Better, Longer, and Happier: A Guide to Aging with Purpose and Positivity. It's a series of 12 modules in a card deck format for activities directors at senior living communities. Visit my website, livingto100.club/agingmanual. BLH. Now on to our program. On today's podcast, we learn about the exciting travel and learning opportunities found with Road Scholar, the not-for-profit world leader in educational travel for older adults. We have as our guest Kelsey Perry, an experienced Road Scholar and PR director for the organization. Approaching its 50th year anniversary in 2025, Road Scholar hosts nearly 5,000 educational programs each year and brings its travelers to over 100 countries around the world, including the US. These group travel experiences are focused on learning about the destinations from local experts and promoting authentic cultural interaction for solo adventurers, couples, or friends and siblings traveling together. First, a little background. Kelsey has spent her career doing sales, marketing, and communications in the travel and hospitality industry. She's worked at Road Scholar, the not-for-profit world leader in educational travel for older adults, since 2016 as a writer, social media manager, and PR professional. An active traveler herself, Kelsey caught the travel bug when studying abroad in Ireland. She holds a BA and an FMFA in creative writing and lives in Providence with her husband and son. Kelsey, welcome to our program today.

Thank you so much for having me.

Great, I'm looking forward to learning more about Road Scholar. I love the I love the model. So tell us, I always like to open by asking our guests, tell us maybe the high points in your journey, your career that brought you to where you are today with Rhodes Scholar.

Yeah, well, I grew up in north central Wisconsin in a really small town originally, and I was a big reader. I was the black sheep in my family of, of athletes. So I was the one under the bleachers reading my books. And I mentioned that because I think that that was really— reading was really my first method of transportation, of travel. So that really opened my eyes to just, you know, being curious about the world and different places. So then I went to St. Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana, which is across the street from Notre Dame, studied creative writing, and I studied abroad in Ireland, as you mentioned in my bio, my entire sophomore year. And that was very transformative, as it is, I think, for most people who study abroad. And Ireland is my absolute favorite place in the whole world, and I would live there if I could, and I will someday.

But I love it.

Um, I got to do— yeah, I got to do lots of traveling around Europe, uh, during that time, and I had never left the country before, so that was really big for me. And then, um, when I graduated from college, I decided to get my MFA in creative writing as well. Didn't really know what I was going to do exactly with that. Of course, I'd love to be a novelist, but that is a little bit of a challenge. So I always thought, like, marketing and advertising might be a good route for me to use my passion for writing. And then I graduated and, um, really just decided I wanted to move to Boston and kind of pulled the trigger, figuring I would have to wait tables and get my feet on the ground. But I got a job right away at a luxury bike tour company in Boston and didn't really realize there was even opportunities to have a career in travel because I thought, doesn't everyone just book it online themselves now? Um, but they're— exactly. But, but then I really— that really experience really opened my eyes to group travel and how special that experience can be. So I there for 4 years, 4 or 5 years, and then I came over to Road Scholar, which also is headquartered in Boston, although we're fully remote now. Um, and I've been there about 8 and a half years, started as a copywriter and moved my way up to PR director, which I've been doing for about the last 3 years. So it's a really, really wonderful organization to work for, and they treat us really well, and I love working there. It's a wonderful community and company culture, so I like to mention that too.

Well, great. Thanks. That, you know, you sound excited about it. You, yeah, I can see the sparkle in your eyes as you talk about your work. Yeah. So background and your love for reading and travel and spending a year in Europe in college and then taking a position and learning more about world travel as a, as a career and doing marketing and advertising. That's the best of all of your skills and strengths. That's great.

Right. It really combines all my passions for travel, for writing, and for service too, because I love that Road Scholar is a not-for-profit and I can feel like I'm contributing, you know, good things to the world too.

So, well, so tell us about Road Scholar. What is it and what is the mission of Road Scholar?

Yeah, so Road Scholar has been around almost 50 years now. We're celebrating our 50th anniversary next year. But when we were founded, we were called Elder Hostels. So some of your listeners might recognize that name. And when we first were founded, we were a little bit different. We took older adults to college campuses, and they would stay in the dorms and eat in the dining halls and learn from the professors in the lecture halls. So it was still about learning, and you still could travel to different places across the country, but it was really more of like a back-to-campus type experience. And we've evolved over the last 50 years to be more of an educational travel organization. So we're still a nonprofit, we still serve older adults, and we're still all about learning, but it's more about now a combination of, you know, in-classroom lectures combined with experiential learning out in the field. So you might do a lecture about the Colosseum and then go out and see it in real life and really get to see and live that history and walk in the footsteps of the people who made history. So that's really where we are now. And so basically, the programs are— it's group travel. So you enroll in a program, and pretty much everything's included for you— the hotels, the group leader who's with you for the extent of the week or however long the program is, the meals. You know, all the activities, everything like that. So once you enroll, everything's kind of paid for. You just show up and sit back and relax and enjoy the ride and enjoy the learning.

Wow. No travel, no airfare, I take it. Is that in the package?

Airfare is included in some of them, but not for most of them, although we do have an air department that can book airfare for international programs. If you are traveling domestically, you have to kind of get there yourself. At least for now. I think we're working on maybe adding domestic too.

But yeah, so the fee includes everything, um, travel, lodging, transfers, meals, plus the tours, plus being immersed in the local culture. Is that, um, is there a membership for a Rhodes Scholar, or is it just a single fee for your actual travel?

Right, no, no, no membership, just whatever the cost of the program is. And, you know, we have a breadth of programming that starts I think $700, $800 for an in-person program for a week and goes up to our private jet program, which is thousands and thousands of dollars. So there really is a huge range of prices. We also have a scholarship program, so we offer financial aid in the forms of scholarships and caregiver grants for full-time family caregivers. So we really try to make our programs accessible to as many people as possible.

Well, sure. So what are the hot destinations? What are the popular travel destinations?

Hot destinations? Well, definitely, uh, I would say internationally we have, I would say, Costa Rica, Italy, France, Ireland, a lot in Europe. Um, African safaris are really popular among our participants. Croatia, I would say, as far as kind of some hot trendy destinations, Croatia and the Azores, which is in— are some islands off of Portugal. Those are really some kind of like hot new destinations that are popping up. Um, and then as As far as in the US, our national parks programs are definitely the most popular. A lot of our active outdoor programs as well as all of our programs in Florida, I think that's the number one state for us.

Wow. Yeah, you cover up a lot of territory.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty much anywhere you want to go, if that's on your bucket list, we probably have a program there.

Sure. Okay. Any on your to-do list yet? Any?

Ooh, Azores is definitely top of mind. I have a toddler at home now, so travel looks a little bit different in the short term. But I did go on a Quebec City program with my mom last year, which was really great. I finally got her to go on a Road Scholar program. And we might go to Savannah this next year. So kind of in the short term, more destinations a little bit closer to home in the US are probably on my short-term wish list. But definitely Azores and Japan, I would say, are really where I would love to go once I have the time.

And yeah, and the toddler grows a little bit more.

Yeah, exactly.

Sure. So who's your typical traveler? Who— what, what makes up the average travel person?

Yeah, so we serve people, uh, over 50, so people in their 50s to people in their 100s. Uh, average age is 72. Um, more than half are women. Um, and 30%— about 25 to 30% are solo travelers, and most of them are women. So we have lots of solo female travelers. Um, A lot of them are retired educators because of our mission of lifelong learning and educational travel. I think that's why we draw a lot of educators as well as our non-profit status as well. And I would say the average Road Scholar is someone who is there to learn. You know, we're not looking for people— if you're someone who likes to, when you're traveling, go sit on a beach and read a book and just relax or go to the spa or go shopping, that's not a Road Scholar participant. They're not there for like the luxury accommodation. And to relax. They're there to be active and to be doing things and to be learning things. So that really, that really attracts a certain type of person. And so we hear so much from our participants again and again every day that the camaraderie on our programs is something that really, that they really enjoy about it. And they learn as much from the other Road Scholar participants as they do even from the instructors. And they have as much fun meeting them and making friends as they do, you know, just coming on the program and learning.

Mm-hmm. Well, so why would I pick Road Scholar if I want to travel to Europe, um, you know, see the big cities? What's, what, what's the incentive for me to, to do that? I mean, I— you talked about the benefits and the features, but how would you convince me to go through Road Scholar instead of just doing everything on my own?

Yeah, I mean, this is something— I never thought I would be interested in group travel until I started working in it, until I experienced it myself, because I am like the spreadsheet planner who who gets enjoyment out of planning my trips as well. But I've found that, you know, they're not better or worse, they're just very different. And I think there's a place for both of those in my life personally. And I, you know, again, as the mother of a toddler now, the idea of having someone else take care of all the planning is just really, really exciting and so relaxing. So you may not be there to relax on a beach, but it's relaxing in that everything is taken care of for you and you can just be taken care of. And so that is something that I hear also from our participants that they really love about travel. Traveling with Road Scholar. And I also think just, you know, that again, back to that educational benefit, you know, everything we do is about learning. And so you're not just gonna go walk through Old Town Prague and look at the beautiful architecture, but you're gonna learn about the architecture, learn about the historical sites and what happened there. And so that is something that is, you know, you certainly could go just on walking tours and organize that yourself, but we give you access to, you know, both, we take you to both the iconic sites that you don't wanna miss, but also some of the hidden gems that only the locals really know about. And we have a lot of those authentic immersive experiences where you can go into an Italian family's home and cook pasta with them and just really get to have an immersive experience that really would be difficult to find on your own.

Mm-hmm. Sure. Yeah, it's easy to read the travel books, right? But we don't know what the tourists don't know.

Yeah, right, exactly. And we know, we do all that research. We know which hotels are going to be in a safe neighborhood and and conveniently located. And you have the group leader who's with you the entire length of the program, who takes care of all the logistical details. And if you lose your luggage or somebody gets injured or something, they're, they're always there to kind of help too, which is just such a— the peace of mind is really hard to, to put a, to put a price tag on.

Sure. Yeah, priceless. Yeah. So who are the local experts? Who are the people that are immersing the travelers into the local culture?

Yeah, so you have a group leader who is that person that's with you the entire length of the trip, and they take care of all the logistics, but they're also experts on the program and on the location that they're leading the programs. So they'll do some history and some cultural learning along the way. If you're on like a hiking program, that group leader will also be a hiking expert, but also they'll know about the flora and the fauna and the natural history of everything that you're learning as you walk through, you know, Joshua Tree or Death Valley. And then, so that's the group leader. And then we also we also have what we call instructors who you'll meet along the way, and they are experts in whatever they are teaching you about. So that might be an academic professor, it might be a lobster fisherman, it might be a winemaker. So it's whoever really has the expertise in, in what that topic is that we want you to learn about in the area. So, um, there's, there's a mix of those. We call that— we refer to them all as faculty, but we have group leaders and then we have the instructors as well.

Sure. Yeah, I can understand that. Makes for a really complete experience that way. Your, your basics are taken care of, but also you're, you know, you get this chance to learn and kind of stop, stop searching on your own and, and just kind of absorb it. I think that's a good combination. Yeah, yeah. So no memberships, you say, and everything is inclusive in the package once you purchase. Can you give Can you give our listeners any idea, um, what kind of percentage— let's say you plan a trip to Europe and it's $5,000 and you're doing that travel on your own. Can you give us an idea how much more it would be? Would it be 20% more or 50% more?

It's been 10 to 20% more if you went with a commercial tour operator or if you went and traveled independently. But there's also those elements of, like we were talking about, those things that are priceless, like knowing that you have someone looking out for you. Um, all of the tips and taxes are included which you kind of sometimes can forget about, including for the group leaders. And we also include the Road Scholar Assurance Plan in all of our programs, which we find really important for the audience that we serve, the older demographic. So that is basically the medical side of travel insurance. So if you're traveling internationally, especially, that includes, you know, if you were to get injured and you have to go to the hospital, that's included in the insurance. Emergency medical evacuation, 24-hour emergency assistance and things like that. So that's included in all of our programs in the price. Yeah. So that those kind of of just having everything taken care of and the peace of mind are both things that are really hard to put a price on.

That's right, sure. So you said 10 to 20% above the—

10 to 20% is what we say. It certainly depends on the trip and the destination, but yeah, no, real value.

I can see that. Um, I can see that. I, I've always enjoyed kind of traveling. When my wife and I travel to foreign lands, I, I just like to rent the car and we book our own hotels and we get lost and we get lost and we get lost. And I mean, I love the independence, but lately we decided to start doing some group travel, so I can see the upsides to having this planning done. But also, I love the, uh, notion of being kind of exposed to the local culture and local restaurants and that are not on the tourist guide. So I think that's, that's a real plus. I love that.

And for some people that are a little nervous about, was group travel really for me, we do have some independent programs where they have a little bit more extra time built into it. So it kind of gives you a balance of being able to be with the group and then also have a little more independent time to explore on your own. And then the group leader will always give you ideas and recommendations on what to do during that free time.

Well, yeah, great packages. I love that. And when we spoke earlier, you talked about the virtual travel opportunities. What's that about?

Yeah, so we, uh, developed our virtual programming during the pandemic, as many organizations and companies were, uh, to be able to continue to engage with serve our participants even though everybody was isolated and homebound. So we developed them really out of necessity, but we have seen how impactful the programs have been for people. You know, even though the, the doors of travel are open, there's still people who can't travel, whether that's because of mobility issues or caregiving responsibilities or financial reasons. So our virtual programs allow us to continue fulfilling our, or pursuing our lifelong learning mission to, to reach as many people as possible. So we have our 1-hour lectures that we developed within 2 weeks, 2 weeks of the pandemic shutdown in 2020. And those are— there's at least one per month that are free. So that's also a great way if you're not sure about Road Scholar, you're just hearing about us now, to go and try us out and get a feel for what our learning and our educational content is like. So there's at least one a month that is free. The rest are $25, and those are offered— they're just new ones all the time, so you're not seeing the same one over and over. And then we also have our multi-day online programs, which are several days, 3 to 5 days usually of programming for several hours per day. And there, those, for those, everybody we ask to have their camera on and be engaged. And you're learning from the same instructors that you would learn from if you were out in these destinations, whether it's from, you know, you're talking about Easter Island or Antarctica or Italy, you're learning from the same people that you would learn from if you were on a program. So you're getting a lot of the same educational content. Everything is live. Everything's interactive. You can ask questions of the instructor. We also try to incorporate that aspect of camaraderie and engagement by making sure we built in discussions among the participants so they can meet each other as well. And, you know, they're, they're really wonderful experiences and we've heard great things. They're great for people who can't travel, but even for people who do travel, it's a kind of to supplement their travels, to try out a destination they're not sure about, to kind of revisit a destination that they've been to and they love and they just want to kind of relive that. So they're really meant to recreate the travel experience as much as possible. Um, you know, without leaving home.

Sure. So you're seeing the same, same sites and the same experiences as people who are actually on site?

Yes. Yeah.

So there's a lot of group— is it the same, you know, travel to Mallorca? Or, I mean, are people actually locally who kind of signed up with Road Scholar as well as virtual in the same experience?

Oh no, no, they're, they're separate. So the, the virtual programs, everybody is at their computer, including the group leader and so they are doing live lectures, but they do do, um, virtual field trips where they'll go out kind of like in Old Town Prague and take the camera around, and you'll get like, you know, a walking tour of, of certain places.

I see. Okay. Yeah, so that sounds like a great experience to where you can immerse yourself virtually and kind of get shown a lot of the same sites as if you were actually traveling. Yeah. And that— there's a fee for that, I take it?

Yes, the, as I said, the, the virtual programs, we have at least one per month that is free. The rest of them are $25. And then the, uh, multi-day programs are in the over $100, in the hundreds of dollars. It just depends on the program. And we do have scholarships for those as well.

Sure. Yeah, that's great. Now you also told me about the grandparent to grandchild program. What's that about?

Yeah, that's really unique. When I started working at Road Scholar, that was something that really caught my eye and I just thought was so remarkable. Um, we do family programs, which is, you know, all 3 generations, grandparents and their kids and their grandkids. But what's really unique are this, are the grandparent programs. And in the travel industry, they're sometimes referred to as SkipGen. So that's just the grandparents and the grandkids traveling together. And those are just really special experiences for grandparents to be able to share their love of learning, their love of travel and culture with their grandkids. There's a lot of them are kind of outdoor activity programs. So if grandparents really love biking or kayaking, they share some of those loves with their grandkids as well. And there's just something about traveling without the parents in there that just allows the grandparents and the grandkids to really get to know each other on a real individual person-to-person basis. Uh, that is just, it's just different. And you know, you can learn about your grandkids and they can learn more about you as a person too, and not just like as grandma. So I think that's really special and you just create these lifelong memories. Memories that, you know, your grandkids are going to have for the rest of their lives. So they're really, really special. We hear really moving testimonials from those programs.

Yeah, that's a great program. I'm sure that's very popular. Yeah. And I'm guessing no age limits, right, on the grandchildren?

I mean, they start as young as 5 or 6, and then they go up to, you know, 18. And then if they're older than 18, you could just bring them on any Road Scholar program, basically.

So I see. Okay, so to be part of the program Um, the grandchild, 5 to 18, thereabouts.

5 to 18, yeah. And then the different programs and different dates have different age ranges. We kind of try to keep the kids within a certain— their certain age range so that they can make friends with each other too, and that the activities are, uh, easy to manage. And depending on the age ranges, so you, you don't really want a 6-year-old and an 18-year-old on the trip together. So we— each different date and different program is, um, organized by age range.

I see. Sure. So people can access your catalogs and see all of the opportunities. How do they do that?

Yeah, we have our website is roadscholar.org, and don't forget it's R-O-A-D scholar.org. It's a play on word with Road Scholar. So you can go over there and we have a great find your— find an adventure tool where you can filter all— we have, as you said, thousands of programs, so it can be kind of overwhelming to know where to start. So you can filter all of our programs by all the different different, you know, by price range, by activity level. We have a huge range of activity levels as well, by destination, lots of different categories. Or if you're someone who likes to just page through a brochure, we still do lots of brochures and catalogs as well. So you can go to our website roadscholar.org and sign up for a catalog, and you could even choose which catalog you want depending on your interests.

Yeah, what a great program. I'm sure there are others like this, right? You have other people that are not competing necessarily, but other that offer the same?

Yeah, we say we don't have competitors, of course, but there are commercial tour operators out there who cater to older adults, but we are really the only nonprofit who does what we do. And so that really, as I said, we were able, allows us to offer scholarships and grants to keep the value really high and the cost costs low because we don't build in huge profit margins. And it just, it's just a different vibe among the participants. And so that's really hard to like put a, you know, to, to, to describe, but it, it's just a different experience. And I, and I've heard from our participants that, you know, some of them will travel with other commercial tour operators, but it's, they just really love Road Scholar and the educational component is just really unmatched.

Yeah, wow. Well, okay, thank you, thank you. So what's the, what's the main takeaway for the listeners on this program? What would you hope they remember from our conversation?

I just hope that your listeners walk away inspired to travel, to travel the world, to get out there, um, and, and just try something different. If group travel or Road Scholar would be, would be new and different to you, um, we also hear so often, especially, you know, if there's any solo travelers out there listening, any solo agers that who live alone or even, you know, we found last year that 60% of our solo travelers are actually married people who travel without their spouses. So there's a lot of people whose spouses may not be interested in travel, but they are and they just, they don't let that hold them back. They get out there and they see the world and Road Scholar is a great way to do that if you're traveling solo. So especially for those solo travelers out there who are a little bit hesitant to go kind of, you know, take that leap and go on your own, Road Scholar is a really great option for those people, whether you, like I said, whether you're married or single, single or widowed. We have lots of widows who travel with us as well. So you're always going to find other solo travelers on the program to connect with. And in fact, we even hear people all the time that can't— arrived solo and they left with a friend who they ended up becoming travel companions for years to come.

So, well, great stories, I'm sure. Yeah, terrific program. I love that. I love that. Thanks so much.

Where would you go, Joe? Where would you go? What's next on your list?

Oh, Well, you know, we're traveling coincidentally to Europe in a couple of weeks. We haven't been to Paris and London. We've been to other parts of Europe. But my goal is kind of Eastern Europe and Romania and Bulgaria and some of those areas. I just think there's a lot of mystery and history there.

Mystery and history. I love that. We have a new program in the country of Georgia that is a really awesome program that I would love to go on as well. And one of those that really I didn't know anything about until until we had that program and I looked at it and learned about it. That's one of the things about working at Road Scholar is it's really great to be immersed in these places and get to learn about new destinations all the time. But my, my wish list just keeps getting longer and longer and bigger and bigger. Like, I used to write the program descriptions for our, our domestic programs. And so, you know, now Natchez, Mississippi is on my wish list and St. Charles, Missouri and Detroit, you know, places that I just didn't really know much about before. But then I had to research for work and it just, you know, know, just makes my bucket list longer and longer.

So yeah, well, I, I think travel is so important. I mean, it's not always possible, but we need to get out of our hometowns. I, I know people who I went to high school with, and you know, they, they never left that town. They traveled, of course, but I think it's so important to get out and experience the world and learn about other cultures and see that we're not so different after all. We might have different languages and different backgrounds. We're really all the same. Really all the same.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Terrific. Well, thanks so much, Kelsey. It looks like we're out of time for today, but before we wrap up, I just wanna remind my listeners to visit my website, livingto100.club. You can sign up for my email list and download a free copy of my 9 Tips to Make Living Longer Enjoyable. And if you're affiliated with a senior living setting, be sure to look for my new training manual and activity guide, Better, Longer, and Happier. Kelsey, thanks so much for being a guest on our show today. And I just want to repeat the website, it's roadscholar.org. R-O-A-D scholar.org. Great.

Thanks so much.

It was fun. Yeah, you're very welcome. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. Hope to see you next time.