Mary recently shared her experience with a different tour company on another thread. At the end of the thread she shared this email she had received from Rick Steves Tours in response to one she had sent the company. It has such good information in it and I was concerned many who would be interested in this information wouldn't read all the way to the end of the older thread, I have pasted it here.
"I emailed RS Tours to let them know of our recent experience in Costa Rica so that we could all learn from it and this is their reply. I don’t think they will mind me sharing this info -
Thanks very much for your email and invaluable feedback Mary. We are very excited to start running our first tours since the start of the pandemic, and also anxious to avoid missteps. I know they’re inevitable, but the more we can learn from others’ experiences the better prepared we can be.
We do know that medical grade N95 or KN95 masks are often required at sights and venues, so that’s what we’ve instructing our participants to use on our tours—this information goes out to all of our tour members in the form of COVID updates and packing reminder emails.
We know that COVID protocols and regulations need to be taken seriously and that starts with the leadership of our tour teams of guides and drivers. Until local guidelines change, masks need to be worn properly and at all times when we aren’t in the privacy of our rooms or dining.
We are requiring our Feb-Apr departures to provide negative COVID tests at the beginning of the tour, and anyone experiencing COVID symptoms during the tour would need to test to continue the tour. We plan to have self tests available to administer (proctored by a guide) in situations where we are in remote areas or pharmacies are closed, but in those cases we’re requiring a second test to be taken once we get to a place where an official test can be administered by health care officials. Even in cases of double negative results, if a participant still has symptoms we’d want them to be seen by a physician to make sure they’re not contagious before returning to the group so we could be assured that the risk of others getting sick is minimal.
To incentivize participants to safeguard their health as well as the group’s, Rick has developed a new COVID Wellness Refund policy:
If a Tour Member tests positive for COVID within 48 hours of the start of a tour or during tour, we will refund tour payments in full or pro-rata respectively. If a Tour Member tests for COVID (takes a day off from tour activities because they’re feeling crummy and tests for COVID) and it’s negative we will refund that day.
We know that our reputation and people’s confidence in Rick Steves’ Tours is on the line, and we all want to do our best to keep everyone as healthy as possible on our tours.
This is very reassuring to say the least. And hubby is feeling much better."