Report: Review of my first trip with Overseas Adventure Travel - The Baltics

Well, that is a nice comprehensive overview of the way the tour worked and it would all appeal to me. If you change your next tour to OAT, it will be interesting to see if it conforms to this style as well. I am SO not a tour person but there are destinations where I would consider it - and recommendations from people I would trust are valuable. Thank you!

Sounds like my kind of tour and I am not a tour person, so far. Are you traveling solo, Valerie? Were there many couples?

OAT does attract a lot of singles since they don’t charge a single supplement. There are a lot of singles on the tour - some traveling with friends and some not. The tour looks like this - 3 couples - so that’s 6 people. 3 groups of 2 friends traveling together. That’s up to 12. Then it seems like there are 3 singles.

But everyone is inclusive, friendly, and no one ever eats alone if they don’t want to.

On the nights that there is no included dinner, our guide has sent out a WhatsApp text setting up an impromptu group dinner anyways…every single night. She adds optional activities for our down time almost every day.

I’m super curious if OAT trip #2 will have a guide this good. The tour members I have talked to say that they always have amazing guides.

Hi, Valerie. Thanks for sharing your OAT experience. I'm still on the independent traveler side but am considering trying the world of organized tours. It sounds like OAT would be a great place to start.

I loved my week I spend in the Baltics a few years ago. I'm headed over to read more about the trip on your blog 🙂... (URL in Valerie's profile for anyone else who is interested).

Thanks for the info, Valerie. We were scheduled for a monthlong OAT a tour to Morocco in 2020 and you know what happened next. We really, really liked their itinerary. It covered everything we wanted to see and do better than any other tour company. Unfortunately, getting our sizable deposit back in 2020 was a bear but I suppose a lot of tour companies were slow refunding money that year due to unforeseen circumstances. As an aside, I am enjoying your blogs of your travels with Ron.

I’m definitely intrigued by OAT. I loved how you and Ron had dinner in the home of a family, arranged by the tour. That’s an opportunity I’ve never heard of a tour providing, and I don’t know how you could do that traveling independently. The Baltics are such interesting countries and seem like a great place to take a tour and learn all about the culture, history and politics. I’ve really enjoyed your blog.

@Dave - OAT has some pretty eclectic itineraries and those are what I’m drawn to when I choose the tour part of our trips. I’m always looking for the tours that connect cities that are harder to connect and the tours that get me out in the countryside since I don’t rent a car when we travel and can’t do that.

@Laurel - I’m traveling with my partner, Ron:)

@Mary - I’m glad you’re liking it! It’s way more detail than I can fit on this site. I read tons of OAT refund horror stories during COVID too and it made me nervous. But I have TWO neighbors in my complex - both of whom have traveled with OAT numerous times since COVID (about 7 trips between the two neighbors) and so I knew that they are now running solid trips, despite what happened during COVID.

@Carroll - Thank you! The dinner with the Lithuanian family was an absolute highlight and I will definitely be doing it again on the next OAT tour I book. I was so unsure about it that I was thinking of just bowing out - but I’m so glad I didn’t.

Valerie, thanks so much for this review! I've booked an OAT tour to Egypt and Jordan in early 2025, and this confirms what I've read about OAT from others. Especially that it attracts many solo travelers, which I'm happy about. :-)

This will be my first organized tour so I'm really glad to read your thoughts about it. As it stands, I'm getting more and more excited about my tour, so again, thanks for this! I'm glad you have had a great experience! Heading over to your blog now!

I have travelled with OAT on 4 trips, and based on those trips, I would say they are one of my favorite tour company. We have also done many trips with Road Scholar (US only) and find them to be tops for education. We are doing Mexico City with Road Scholar in January.

Why OAT: focus on the 'unusual' in their itineraries, small group, most tours are long enough (12-15 days) to get a 'feel' for the area, flexibility in changing schedule when it benefits the tour, no single fee if you book early enough (and often whenever you book), like-minded travelers who focus on the culture of the area and not concerned about shopping. I just finished the Baltics Trip and it was my least favorite, but still good ... so that tells you what you might expect. It was good and delivered what I wanted (learn about the Baltic countries) so no real complaints. Turkey (or maybe India) was my favorite. :)

There are so many good tour companies, with each of them often being unique in their approach.

Valerie this will be so helpful to people and glad you were pleased with your tour. I will be curious if you do another OAT tour if it gets as high marks as this one. I know you are picky (like me) about food and hotels. Lane from this forum ( blogs at Lane is Going Places) has also done several OAT tours and seems to really like them. As you know, we are doing our first Road Scholar tour in January to Mexico. It gets very good reviews. I’m curious if it will change my mind about Mexican food, my least favorite ethnic cuisine.

After reading on the forum here that they refused refunds to people after OAT cancelled trips at the start of covid I'd be wary of booking with them.

See for example
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/tours/rs-tours-compared-with-overseas-adventure-travel-tours-update
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/beyond-europe/overseas-adventure-travel-refund

Valerie! What a wonderful time you had! I can understand almost bowing out of the family dinner. I just don't like those but glad you did. I have been on one family dinner with Rick's Village Italy tour which was fine in spite of my being reluctant to go.

Off to read your details!!!

Wonderful post, Valerie, sharing your comparisons & highlights of this company’s tours.

I really enjoy traveling independently while I can, but I agree that there’s places where it’s just not convenient with my method of traveling by train.

A former co-worker also really likes traveling with OAT and recommended them when I was first considering my 2024 options.

Thanks for this review, Valerie. I prefer a tour when traveling with one of my longtime friends, but I have covered too much of the ground of the Rick Steves tours that she would take. So I'm interested to investigate the OAT itineraries for places she and I can go. And we don't room well together, so the no-single-supplement sounds good too.

Valerie, Thanks for this report. I'd never thought of looking at OAT. I've been searching for a good Northern Ireland tour. Theirs is the best I've found so far, even if I then have to do Ireland, also. Nonetheless, I am still looking for a solely Northern Ireland tour if any exist...

@Wray - Here you go - Road Scholar has a Northern Ireland tour: https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22092/the-best-of-northern-ireland-past-present-and-future

@Mardee - a lot of people on this tour have done Egypt and Jordan with OAT and loved it. Morocco seems to be another favorite. I’m definitely doing their Morocco tour in March 2025.

@Tammy - If I don’t move the fall Gate 1 to an OAT tour, the next one will be Morocco. I think almost everyone on this tour has done Morocco with OAT and loved it.

@Pam - we did! And now we get a week in London!!!!!!

@Jean - Thanks! I like independent travel too but we’ve lately found it fun to do 1 week on our own, a two week tour, and then another week on our own. Best of all worlds!!!!!

@CWSocial - I’ve got a list of about 5 OAT adventures I plan to thoroughly research when I get home from this trip. They do put together some good itineraries!!!!!

@Valerie. Thanks for the Road Scholar info! I don't know how I missed that. That being said, there is something about it that doesn't excite me, but the OAT one does. I had been hoping SeymourTravels would have one, but not at present. I'll keep looking. Besides, I've never been to Ireland so perhaps I shouldn't rule the OAT tour out.

Thank you for posting this Valerie. We were signed up for our first OAT tour to Morocco in March 2020 and had issues recovering money from them. After that experience, I’ve been reluctant to book with them again, even though I’ve seen some very interesting tours. I’m likely to be traveling solo in the future, so the free single supplement and lots of singles is also very appealing to me. I will definitely give OAT another look due to your experience as well as others who have chimed in!

I have found it useful to look at the Road Scholar and OAT itineraries for ideas when planning my independent trips.

Morocco seems to be another favorite. I’m definitely doing their Morocco tour in March 2025.

I would love to go to Morocco! I couldn't do the March 2025 one, but will keep that one on my radar. Thanks!

@CindyP and John - I had also followed their refund stories on this site and on other travel sites and they definitely scared me. I hope that OAT’s behavior was an extreme example of things gone awry during COVID. I only gave them a chance because of the numbers of tours my two neighbors have done in the last 2 years.

I’m glad I did! And one other note - a lot of OAT reviews are complaints of their air connections they set up when you buy air as part of your package. I buy my own airfare - I don’t trust any tour company to do it the way I like. All the tour companies I like - Odysseys Unlimited, Road Scholar and now OAT? Well I hear air travel stories from my tour mates about connections and layovers I would never book.

I've taken 3 trips with OAT over the past three years (Egypt, SE Asia, and "Crossroads of the Adriatic" (former Yugoslavia)), and they've been great. For two of them I used their air, and they provided good routings at what I thought was a fair price. For SE Asia I did my own air, but that was because I was able to use miles for a business class ticket, rather than any concern about OAT's arrangements. I didn't hear any of my fellow travelers complain about their OAT air arrangements. I did have a COVID-affected trip, but didn't ask for a refund. I just postponed to a departure the following year, at the same price (i.e., the money I had paid for my 2020 trip, paid for my 2021 one instead). That worked out well for me.