RSD Travel Reviews 

My husband and I travelled with RSD Travel on the 8-day Cyprus tour in November 2025. Unfortunately, our holiday was overshadowed by multiple distressing incidents with one of the local guides. His behaviour was inappropriate, discriminatory, and unprofessional, and several other guests witnessed the same conduct and raised their own complaints. This should never happen on any tour. It was upsetting, intimidating, and it affected the experience for multiple people on our coach.

Alongside the guide’s behaviour, we also noticed a strong emphasis on shopping stops throughout the trip. We expected a few commercial visits to the leather, jewellery, and carpet outlets (which were advertised), but the shopping pressure extended into villages, markets, and other stops. On some days, lunch was delayed to mid-afternoon because of extended shopping visits, despite very early morning starts. This structure made parts of the tour feel unbalanced and, at times, uncomfortable for some guests.

However, I want to acknowledge that when we returned home and submitted a formal complaint, RSD handled the situation professionally and respectfully. They:

apologised for what we experienced

confirmed the guide’s behaviour fell below their expected standards

reassured us that no “disruptive guest” report existed (despite one being threatened)

forwarded the issue to their Quality Management team for investigation

stated clearly that staff who do not meet standards are not tolerated

offered compensation as a goodwill gesture

Their communication was prompt, courteous, and focused on resolving the issue properly. We felt listened to and taken seriously, which genuinely mattered after such a distressing episode.

That said, while RSD’s aftercare was excellent, the incident itself and the heavy extra shopping focus of the itinerary did affect the overall quality of the trip. The complaint handling deserves credit, but these issues should not have arisen in the first place.

For these reasons, I’m leaving a 3-star review:
RSD dealt with the complaint responsibly and with integrity, but the holiday itself was impacted by both the guide’s behaviour and the heavy emphasis on extra shopping stops.

We very much enjoyed joining the Balkan touring holiday organised by RSD. The week's itinerary was comprehensive covering the main sights, towns and cities in Northern Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania.
Our tour leader was excellent, knowledgeable of places visited and very well organised.
Our coach driver was competent and we felt safe at all times when travelling.
We moved on each day and each of the hotels we stayed in was of a good standard. Optional buffet diners provided an adequate choice of food.

Incredibly good value, informative, great hotels… slightly out of the way, and unknown in advance but couldn’t fault the organisation. Overall an excellent trip!

Fantastic holidays with a highly reputable company- that must not be missed! A great chance to see the world, with a friendly, extremely well organised company and staff. Been on five holidays with them with more to follow. Awesome experiences!

This is our 3rd time with RSD,so far we were really satisfied with their itenirary, this time very extrmely satisfied because the tour guide OZLEM was very in detailed information ( both cultural & historical) of every single places in Antalya and Cappadocia and she was very very organized and very helpful. We were in very safe journey every single day because the driver MURAT was very attentive and very helpful about our luggage. The only thing that you can improve, some of the hotel(first hotel)

Our first time with RSD travel - Cappadocia cultural tour. It has been a wonderful trip. Our tour guide Abdullah guided us through all the way with lots of information shared re: places visited. Our travel throughout felt safe with our driver Ismael. Will surely look for future trips with RSD and will recommend this travel company with fam and friends.

Extremely interesting cultural tour starting in Antalya and going to Capadocia, with great information given by Ozlem who informed us about all the places in great detail.
The coach was comfortable and driver very courteous always loading and unloading the bagage.
The packages offered by RSD are comprehensive and good value for money.
Overall a very satisfying experience.

N.Cyprus ( October 25)….Once again ( my 14th trip with RSD) a fabulous cultural tour.So much to see and do with a superb itinerary and Tour Guide.One not to be missed.

RSD used to provide good value well organised coach trips to many countries. Now these holidays are potentially twice the headline cost and built on dull shopping visits and shabby hotels.
You could double the advertised cost when you add the additional excursions and half board, not to mention the airport surcharges for most dates. Our Cyprus trip looked cheap but there was intense pressure right from the start to purchase additional excursions.
We were told that if we did not pay immediately for these extras we would be stuck in isolated hotels with nothing to do. This was a clear lie- the hotel ran a regular free shuttle to an excellent beach.
RSD keeps prices low by sheer volume- the whole plane was on the same trip, with five coaches shuttling round the island, but they also depend on sponsorship from shopping outlets. Hours are spend hanging about in dismal car parks on industrial estates, whilst the most attractive elements of the tour-like the sandy turtle beach mentioned in the advertising-are allocated only 20 minutes.
On several days lunch was delayed by shopping stops to mid-afternoon after a very early start. The guides were often unpleasant and abrasive, even though almost everyone on the trip was elderly and many were frail with disabilities.
When we complained RSD blamed one bad apple, made some empty promises, and gave us a derisory £30 refund (not that we wanted one). They ignored the issue of a corporate culture of misleading marketing and upselling of “optional” extras.
Holidaymakers beware- those cheap RSD deals are not what they say on the tin.

8 Day tour of the Balkans, starting 1 Nov.

Our guide, Ishmael, was excellent, as was the driver. Local guides were used for specific tours, all of whom were founts of knowledge and spoke excellent English. Food was pretty good. Price was good.

Outbound flight was cancelled, and although the communication at Gatwick could have been better and we lost the first day as a result, they put us up in a nice hotel and sent us out the next day. I got the feeling they would look after us whatever eventuated.

We spent more time travelling on the coach than I expected or wanted. At the time of booking, it wasn't clear the exact distances planned for each day, and even if it had been, the mountainous roads meant that 50km could take 2 hours. This is not an activity holiday and is really only suited for the over 60s - and not very active ones at that!

The cheap price is subsidised by the compulsory shopping trips-which some may enjoy, but they soaked up the best part of 1 day of a 7 day trip.

Having said that, we enjoyed the trip and got to see bits of four countries in a week, in countries where I'd struggle to travel independently. I'd prefer if they revised the route a little to maybe drop one country and thus spend less time travelling, but that's a personal preference.

The organisation couldn't be faulted. The instructions were very clear and all reps were waiting to greet the guests. The cultural tour was well planned and thoroughly interesting. The temperatures in November were around the 26 degree mark, so comfortable for a lot of walking. The hotels were good and adequately met our needs. The guide was a bit of an acquired taste.
Overall really good value for money.

Visiting numerous places of interest with a very knowledgeable guide

Notre circuit au Cambodge a été merveilleux. Tant au niveau organisation, timing, sites visités, hôtels. Les 2 guides ont été formidables, gentils et à l écoute.
Nous garderons un très bon souvenir.
Rien de négatif.
Nous l avons fait du 6 au 20 septembre.
Mme d Avola

Great price, good excursions, great guides and drivers

The only negative, buffet food always cold!

Der RSDeutschland ist/war ein Reiseveranstalter für die Gerigverdiener im Land. Ab 300 Euro, 14Tage mit Frühstück , Bildungsrundfahrt mit Leder-, Schmuck-, und Teppichfabrik.Danach ein Hotelaufenthalt zum Entspannen. Leider findet ausser wenige Ausnahmen dieses Prinzip/Angebot ein Ende...alles nur noch eine Woche , das ist eine Halbierung der Reiseleistung zum gleichen Preis.
Damit hat der RSD den Anspruch für die Minderbemittelten verloren. Man reist nicht so weit für eine Woche, das ist Stress.
Machen sie das bitte Rückgängig sonst finden wir nicht mehr zueinander....das wär schade!

I have been recently in another interesting affordable/cheap tour with RSD in North Cyprus. The itinerary had covered places of historic and culture interest in North Cyprus. However, aspects of further RSD tours desire improvement to fully enjoy them. Not knowing hotels in advance is not pleasant. We would like to know where we will stay in advance (2-3 days) in order to know the location and the possibilities to explore local area by ourselves, outside the tour.
In this tour, the guide was knowledgeable in cultural and political aspects of the island. The bus was exceptionally clean, but not at high “functionality” (e.g., nobody troubled to change the time, no internet). The hotels were 3-4 stars (not 4-5 stars), isolated, often in the middle of nowhere. In the previously RSD trip in Turkey, we have wonderful five stars hotels, one on the littoral.

The coach was excellent and the driver amazing driving through some difficult conditions. The guide Bashja was great very experienced and very clear with instructions and information. We had a Lovely group of people and mingled well. There is lots of travel and early mornings and lots of walking but many comfort stops. Our hotels in general were very good, some little problems like one of the showers was not fully working but again adequate. The food decent although for vegetarians it was a bit repetitive. I think if you want 4 star English hotels this area is not quite ready but all the beds were clean and comfortable, the staff amiable and the guide was always there to help with problems. I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday, it was a pleasure to go to an area that was different and so beautiful. I would definitely book with this company again.

We have just arrived back from an interesting full-on cultural tour of The Balkans. It was a good way to visit all the countries in 8 days, every day was an adventure.
Our tour guide Ishmael, was very friendly and knowledgable and always happy to answer questions.
The hotels were basic, but clean and comfortable. There was plenty of food at the buffets. Gourmet ? Not exactly, but catered for all tastes.
The coaches were clean and comfortable and had air conditioning.
Would I go again? Yes, already looking to see where to go next !

Appalling customer service, wouldn’t answer direct questions, will never recommend or use again!!!!!!!!!

Wir haben schon verschiedene Reisen mit RSD unternommen und waren immer sehr zufrieden.Diesmal haben wir uns für die China Reise entschieden und wir sind auch diesmal nicht enttäuscht worden.Es stimmte alles,hervorragende Hotels,ein tolles Schiff und ein hervorragender Reiseleiter Yu, der uns sein Land mit viel Wissen näher gebracht hat.Stets freundlich und hilfsbereit ist er mit uns von Süd nach Nordchina gereist und wir haben die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten gesehen.Dank an alle,für diese unvergessliche Reise.