Good Life Abroad Company

Laurie Beth, you might want to check out this thread about Good Life. I would have reservations about it myself. The two posts praising it were from first-time posters, and there's some other info you night want to read.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/portugal-reviews/the-good-life-abroad-accomodation

I'm glad Mardee linked that older thread with the 2 reviews from people who had just joined the forum and have not posted except on that thread.

I monitor the Senior Travel forum on TA which is where my link in the first post on the old thread takes you. HOWEVER, no one has posted on it since March and no one has come back with any kind of review recently- either positive or negative. I'm actually surprised the 2 who posted positive reviews here haven't hopped over to TA to post on that 7-page long thread. There are some posts in that TA thread from 2024 trips.

I'm not sure what the price comparisons are but Road Scholar has a 6-week Living and Learning programs in Italy, France and Spain. Here's the link at least use as a comparison.

https://www.roadscholar.org/collections/living--learning/

The cost is pretty high because I think the apts are higher end that we Rick Folks are used to. The cost also includes medical insurance as well as planned activities. I like the concept though. I'm not a fan of Road Scholar. I took 3 trips with them and they are very inconsistent. The one to Cuba was excellent, the one to San Miguel de Allende was OK and the 'garden' tour of the Southeast was not OK. One plantation we visited had alligators all over the lawn and featured a gold cart trip to a swamp to see more alligators. Not my idea of a garden tour. We had a bus in really bad shape, all meals provided were just at the hotel we were staying in and pretty blah and the guide brought his wife along so he never interacted with the tour members. I may try another one in the future, but wouldn't want to try their long stay independent ones as I just don't trust their consistency.

That's a shame about the garden trip. To me the inconsistency is because they contract out to so many different providers and they do not seem to have good oversight on their programming. I think it was easier for them when many of their providers were University outreach departments but that was long ago and far away.

I will add that I find their main program office in France excellent and the 3 programs I've done in France were very good with very nice restaurant choices. I have NOT done a Living and Learning program though and would hate to get "stuck" in a 6-week program that was not as good as I felt it should be.

I did their 2-week Art of Living in Provence tour right before Covid and it stayed at the same hotel in Aix as their Living and Learning program so we saw them in the breakfast room. They seemed to be having an excellent time but that is not anything more than observational because I didn't actually talk to any of them.

I also didn't realize the Good Life Abroad Company provided medical insurance. That is an interesting point.

I hope you find something that works for you! And yes, I want a report on it, lol!!

Pam, which hotel was it in Aix? They also keep a list of English speaking clinics/health care providers to help you if you have an emergency.

Laurie Beth, if you book something with them, I hope you will write a report about it. It would be good to know how your experience was, and whether it was worth the higher price. :-)

It was this one:

https://www.adagio-city.com/fr/hotel-6796-aparthotel-adagio-aix-en-provence-centre/index.shtml?code_hotel=6796&merchantid=RT-MD137744&sourceid=6796-hotelsheet&utm_source=TripAdvisor&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=6796-hotelsheet

(Sorry that link is so long!!)

It was a great location and easy to walk to the main fountains area in Aix. Supermarket nearby. The rooms were small studios with a full size fridge and microwave. It was very nice to have the ability to pick up something light for dinner if the program had provided a big lunch. Staff was very nice...all young, very responsive (I had a problem with my bathroom - toilet would not quit running - and they promptly moved me to another unit) although this was in 2019 so before Covid.

I would stay here again. It did not have much in the way of "charm" as it was your standard cookie cutter Accor facility. It did have good AC and an elevator.