Q&A

Our free, home front door pick-up & return service includes the entire Twin Cities area, from Willmar to I-94, from Alexandria to St. Cloud south to Hwy 212. This service also includes Mankato & Rochester. If you are not in our home pick-up area, give us a call and we will make complimentary arrangements for you to help make your departure and return as smooth and hassle-free as possible!

 

When you travel with R&J Tours your quality hotel accommodations, pick-up service, activities and events as stated in the brochure, plus an R&J Tour Director and qualified Driver for motorcoach tours is included. Airfare is included for flyaway tours, including fuel surcharges & taxes and your checked bag fee. Many meals are included in the tour price. We also cover gratuities for included meals, local guides, baggage handling at hotels, and pick-up services.

Gratuities for your R&J Tour Director and Driver, Hotel Room Attendant, and the few meals that are not included in the tour cost.

As soon as you decide which R&J tour you’d like to take, we advise making your deposit which is $100.00 per person (and the optional Travel Protection) right away to reserve your seat(s) as trips fill quickly. We have had trips fill that are over nine months away, so to make sure there is availability for you, don’t wait!

You can sign up for a tour in the following ways: 1) Print an online reservation form to mail in; 2) Tear one of the reservations forms out of the back of your R&J Tours catalog and mail it in with your deposit check; or 3) Give us a call at 1(800)758-6877 and sign up with a credit card. A $100.00 deposit per person is required to secure a reservation for motorcoach tours and a $200 deposit per person is required to secure a reservation for flyaway tours.  International tour deposits vary. The optional Travel Protection is best to purchase with deposit.

 

R&J Tours accepts cash, check, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express. Our preferred method of payment is by check. Please note there is a 3% processing fee of any amount charged on a credit card IF you cancel your tour.

To ensure that you & your fellow Travelers will receive the best travel experience for your investment, please use our Tour Pace guidelines when selecting your tour. If you have concerns about your walking or mobility, please contact our office. Located in the “Dates & Pricing” box at the end of each tour page in our catalog as well as under the "Prices & Information" tab on each tour's webpage, you will find the tour pace for that particular tour.
Light Walking: Tour may require walking up to 2 city blocks at a time, climbing a few stairs, boarding the motorcoach, and walking within hotel & dining areas at a leisurely pace.
Light to Moderate Walking: Tour requires one to be in good health so they can climb stairs and walk up to 3 city blocks at a time, sometimes on uneven terrain.
Moderate Walking: Tour requires one to be in good health so they can handle a mixture of longer & shorter touring days, possibly with walking of 3 or more city blocks at a time. Climbing a flight or more of stairs and encountering uneven terrain is possible.
Moderate to Extensive Walking: Tour requires one to be in good, agile health so they can handle longer touring days with walking of 5-6 or more city blocks at a time and some periods of standing. Expect uneven terrain & stairs.
Extensive Walking: Tour requires one to be in good physical shape so they can handle longer walking tours usually on uneven terrain and with inclines. There could be windy or wet conditions, early or late experiences, or significant temperature changes. Expect longer periods of standing. Regrettably, since this is a highly active tour, it is not appropriate for Travelers who use wheelchairs, walkers, or canes.

Every time you travel with R&J Tours, you will earn R&J Travel Bucks that can be taken off the final payment of a future tour. For example, if the Alaska brochure says “$55 in Travel Bucks” that means that when you return from your Alaska tour, $55.00 will be added to your Travel Bucks in our computer. Then when you sign up for your next tour, $55 will be available to come off the final balance. We’ll keep track of your Travel Bucks in our computer system, so you don’t have to and we try to automatically apply them for you! If you prefer to accumulate them or apply them differently, just let us know.

Our average clientele are in retirement age. Some of our tour destinations tend to draw younger generations like our Alaska, Mexican Riviera, NYC, and baseball trips. We offer multigenerational tours that often times Travelers will bring their children or grandchildren along for a family adventure.

When you purchase the Travel Protection at the time of deposit, you will receive the best coverage. Although you can purchase the Protection up until the time you make your final payment, it is definitely to your advantage to purchase it with deposit. Give us a call at 1(800)758-6877 and we’d be happy to explain!

Approximately 85-90% of our Travelers purchase our Travel Protection to protect their travel investment and ease their minds to know they will be taken care of in an unfortunate circumstance.

The occupancies are based on how many Travelers are staying in one hotel room: Single means one person in the room, double means two people sharing a room, triple means three people sharing a room, and quad means four people sharing a room. Prices are per person.

Our pre-trip packets are mailed around 10 days before departure and include: 1) Pick-up schedules that include hotel information and contact numbers; 2) “Things to Know Before You Go” that details how the pick-up schedule works, packing, weather, tipping, etc; 3) Emergency Medical Form to be filled out and given to the Tour Director on the first day of the tour; and 4) Luggage Tags to be placed on your checked bag that will be handled for you. If your tour is a flyaway, we’ll also include airline packing restrictions.

Each traveler is allowed one large bag to be checked under the coach and handled for them as well as one carry-on bag (you will need to handle your carry on yourself).  To accommodate enough storage room for everyone’s carry-on, we ask that your carry-on be a soft-sided tote bag that does not have wheels. A purse or camera bag can be in addition to your carry-on as well as a C-Pap breathing machine as it is considered a medical device and doesn’t count as a carry-on.

Yes! We have many single travelers that like and choose to travel alone with the luxury of having their own hotel room. Our experience and feedback has been that these single travelers feel very much a part of the group. Traveling with R&J Tours is a very safe and convenient way for singles to travel.

Yes! Sign up for our Golden Ambassador Program in our catalog,then spread the R&J word! As long as we know that you, the Golden Ambassador, have referred a certain new Traveler to R&J Tours, you will receive credit when that Traveler takes their first R&J Tour! Spreading the R&J news can lead to R&J Gift Certificates, valuable gifts, and free tours for you!

If you are unable to make a chosen tour this year, most likely we will repeat that tour next year. Will it be the same? Any changes will only be improvements!

We try very hard not to repeat mystery tours, and if we do, we wait at least 2-3 years and verify with our past mystery records to make sure no Travelers are duplicated. Also, when so much fun was had by all on a Mystery Tour, we often times will bring it back as one of our “known/ regular” trips.

The majority of our tours are casual dress. There are a few events that ask Travelers to wear nice slacks and a blouse or button-up shirt. If there is any event that requires or recommends dressier clothes, we will inform you of this in your Tour Information, Pre-Trip packets.

A detailed daily itinerary with times will be given to you on the first day of the tour by your Tour Director.

Every spring and fall R&J hosts about a dozen Travel Shows throughout the Twin Cities, Hutchinson, St. Cloud, Mankato, Willmar, etc. An hour long presentation highlighting our company and upcoming trips is given. Literature is available and Q&A time is given. There are several drawings for door prizes, plus free cookies and coffee. No RSVP is needed, so invite your friends who might want to travel!

Definitely!  Whether you yourself live out-of-state or you have a friend or relative that lives out-of-state that you'd like to have join you on a tour, we can connect you with any one of our tours!  Just give our office a call at 1-800-758-6877 and ask for Christina, who will assist you in making the special arrangements.

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