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Enjoy everything you get on all of our tours (staff-vetted hotels, guided sightseeing, authentic meals), plus some pretty amazing extras. Call 1-800-438-7672 to find out all the perks of custom departures.

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Custom travel planning possibilities

When it comes to custom travel planning, the sky’s the limit! Plan a custom departure of any existing tour by giving it a personalized twist, ranging from:

  • Adding special activities & inclusions to the itinerary
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Combine your creativity with our travel expertise and what do you get? Incredible Customized Tours like these.

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Visit scenes from the screen

“We reached out to Go Ahead Tours to see if they have any tours that visit Outlander sites in Scotland,” shared traveler Lisa. “And they do! I started there and chose to create a Customized Tour to make it exactly the experience my group was looking for.”

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Celebrate life & travel

Lifelong traveler Judy organized a very special customized trip to Italy for a group of over 70 breast cancer survivors and supporters.

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Plan a pilgrimage

Group Coordinator Diane found inspiration in our Marian Shrines & the Way of St. James tour and designed a personalized trip to holy sites in France, Spain, and Portugal.

“Talk to your Tour Consultant and work together to make the tour perfect for your group. You'd be surprised the things you could add to a Customized Tour that you perhaps never even thought of.”

– Diane, Go Ahead Group Coordinator

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Chaotically Yours

EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

EF Tours Pin Image

Is EF Tours right for you?   

So your kid just came home from school with a gorgeous full color brochure about an upcoming trip to Europe with EF Tours that one of their teachers is leading.  He or she is super excited about all the cool things they get to do and is just begging you to let them go.  

It sounds great, but as a responsible parent, you want to know exactly what you’d be sending your child off to do, and how things would actually work on this trip.  

Well, lucky for you we took a 12 day visit to Europe with EF Tours, and have all the details to decide if taking an international trip with this company is right for you or your teenager.  

We’re going to start with the breakdown of how things work with EF and what to expect as a participant or a parent, and then move on to our specific experience with our tour.  

Trevi Fountain in Rome during EF Tours

I always like to start my reviews by reminding you that I was not compensated in any way to write this post.  All opinions are my own, and all costs were paid out of our pocket for this experience.

What is EF Tours? 

EF Tours is a travel company that specializes in international tours for students.   

According to their website , EF Tours has been in operation since 1965 and offers trips for students and teachers designed to “provide immersive, life-changing education.”

Basically, EF Tours organizes international trips for students to a wide variety of destinations, promising “compelling itineraries” full of “experiential learning.”

They also promise to have the “lowest price on the market” for this type of travel.  

EF, as a company, offers may types of tours ranging from group trips for adults to organized gap years for high school graduates.  While these options are available, the bread and butter of the company is the basic high school student tour which is what we took.  

How do EF Tours work?

EF Tours have a pretty straightforward process during the sign up period, prior to departure and during your trip. 

Before we get into that, it must be said that EF Tours operate fully independently of the local school district, and are not endorsed or supported by them whatsoever.  

Queen Victoria Statue in London

While this may seem like a school trip, it is not.  It is a trip run by a business who just happens to recruit participants through the school system.  Your local principals, school boards, etc. have zero control or influence on these trips.  The school is only involved in the process as far as whether they allow teachers to hand out information in schools or not. 

The EF in EF Tours stands for Education First.  According to their website, EF claims to “design tours to help educators teach, and so students can learn more—about tolerance, other perspectives, and themselves.”

The Sign Up Process

EF Tours are set up to be “hosted” by a local teacher who is then designated as the “group leader.”  Teachers are incentivized with free and reduced price travel to recruit students to join their tours.  

Tours are advertised by the group leader/teacher to students at their school and to their local community.  Interested students and parents are invited to attend informational meetings either in person or virtually where the group leader/teacher goes over the itinerary and any questions potential participants may have.  

Students and parents can then sign up directly through the EF Tours website, and submit all payments directly to the company.  

Trips are usually initially introduced about two years before the travel date so that participants can make smaller monthly payments to cover the cost of the trip.  Costs for these trips can range widely, depending on the destinations and length of the trip.  

EF has the group leader/teacher set up deadlines for signing up to go on the trip, sometimes including small discounts to encourage enrollment.  This tends to give a false sense of urgency to the sign up process. 

We found that participants can sign up just about any time before the trip departs.  We signed up about a year out from the trip, while another student who traveled with us signed up just a month or two before we left.  

Anyone was allowed to sign up for the trip.  We were encouraged to invite friends and family to join us on the tour, whether or not they were associated with our school or even local to our area.  

The Colosseum in Rome on an EF Tour

Adults did need to pass a background check in order to participate in the trip, since adult tour participants are traveling with minors.  

We were not given specific dates for our trip, but instead we were given a window of time during which the trip would occur.   Our dates were finally confirmed about two months before our departure.  

There are usually two or three optional excursions that can be added to any tour.  These usually include some special activity or visit to an additional landmark.  

Tour participants may also choose to upgrade the insurance for the tour. 

Before Your EF Tour

Once you’ve signed up for your EF Tour, you’ll be given access to a tour portal on the EF website where you can track your payments and what steps you need take next to participate in the trip.  They also provide a fundraising page, where friends and family can pay EF directly to offset the cost of your trip.  

Our group had a few in person meetings at a local restaurant prior to our trip where we discussed issues ranging from passports to packing for our trip to Europe , and got a chance to meet our fellow travelers.  This may or may not be true or all groups that are traveling with EF.  

EF Tours Trip Portal

Each participant in our tour was required to submit a copy of our passport to EF to insure that we had the proper documentation to travel.  

Information about our flights was not available until about a month before our departure, and information about our hotels was not available until we were about three weeks out from leaving.  

EF Tours uses a wide range of airlines, and travelers do not get to indicate a preference.  EF books all travelers in economy class seats for all transportation methods.  EF will book with whatever airline has space available for the lowest price for the group.  

As for hotels, travelers know very little about where they are staying ahead of time.  Per the website, tour participants are assured that “travelers can count on safe, clean and comfortable hotels with private bathrooms” but much beyond that the info is sparse.  

Students can expect to room with one to three other students, and possibly have to share beds.  Adults can expect to share a room with one other person.  For a fee, a single room can be requested for the tour. 

EF does indicate up front that hotels may have small rooms without air conditioning, television, or elevators, and that WiFi may not always be available.  

During an EF Tour

All transportation arrangements are made by EF Tours, including flights, buses, trains, etc.  They book all accommodations and attraction admissions for tour participants. 

Two meals a day are included in the cost of a trip with EF Tours.  Breakfast is provided each day at the hotel, usually continental style, but sometimes with hot offerings just depending on your hotel.  Dinners are are pre-arranged with a preset menu by EF at local restaurants.  EF will make accomodations for those with specific dietary needs, such as gluten free or dairy free meals.

While the teacher recruiting students is designated as your group leader, they don’t actually lead the tour once you start traveling.  EF provides a Tour Director to accompany your group through the entire trip.  

This Tour Director is supposed to handle just about everything on your tour, including all your pre-booked accommodations, meals, excursions, tickets, and transfers.  This person is there to direct the group and handle any problems with logistics you may encounter along the way.  

St Peters Basilica in the Vatican

During the tour, your group will meet up with various local guides who will give you some sort of tour of the city or historic site that you’re visiting.  These tours are usually walking tours, but sometimes are bus tours, depending on the location.  

Tour participants are also given access to an EF Tours App, that just lists your daily itinerary for your trip.  

Our EF Tour Review

Our specific tour featured quite a daunting itinerary.  We toured Europe for 12 days, visiting sites in London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Pompeii and Capri, with no more than two nights in any destination.  

Our tour consisted of 26 travelers from our high school: three teachers, seven adults and 16 students.  We were combined with a group from upstate New York consisting of 14 travelers: one teacher, one adult, one child and 11 students.  There were a total of 40 people on our tour.  

What EF Tours Promised

Before our tour, the group leaded made sure every person who showed an interest in going on the trip got the glossy, full color brochure that outlined our itinerary and told us what to expect on the tour.  

The brochure promised that participants would be “surrounded by the people, the language, the food, and the way of life” of the destinations on our itinerary.  We were assured that our tour director would be “with us around the clock, handling local transportation, hotels, and meals while also providing their own insight into the local history and culture.”  

We would be spending time in three different countries, seeing some of the most beautiful and historic cities in Europe.

The brochure also claimed that students could earn educational credit while on tour, and that all tours feature “experiential learning activities.”

Our tour left some of these promises unfulfilled, but did give us a glimpse at some fantastic destinations in Europe and some amazing memories.  

Our hotels along the trip started out stellar but seemed to go downhill from there, unfortunately ending in truly unacceptable accommodations.  

Even though this wasn’t guaranteed, all of our accommodations had some sort of air conditioning, with some that functioned better than others, and all of them had WiFi.  

Hilton Garden Inn in Rungis, France, booked by EF Tours

For the first four nights during our stays in London and Paris, we were sent to Hilton Hotels .  They both were on the higher end of what I expected based on the descriptions provided by EF Tours of what our hotels would be like.  

The rooms at these Hiltons were very new, immaculately clean and extremely comfortable.  They were both located about an hour outside of the city center, but that wasn’t too much of a problem.  

When we reached Italy, things changed a bit.  

AS Hotel Limbiate, Italy, booked on an EF Tour

For a quick overnight in Milan on our way to Florence, we stayed at and AS Hotel in Limbiate.  This hotel was a bit older than the Hiltons we’d stayed in, but it was clean, spacious, and comfortable.  

Between Florence and Rome, we spent the night at the Hotel Villa Ricci (not pictured).  This hotel was significantly older than the other three we had stayed at, but it was still clean and comfortable.  While the room wasn’t much to write home about, some members of our group lucked out and got spectacular balconies. 

Hotel Villa Aurelia in Rome, Italy booked by EF Tours

Once we arrived in Rome, the Villa Aurelia was our home base for two nights.  We learned that this hotel had once housed men studying to join a monastery, which explained the doritory feel of the place.  Again, we found these rooms to be clean and pretty comfortable.  

On our way to Southern Italy, we spent the night in Sorrento at Sisters Hostel .  This was the only true hostel on our trip.  While they still stuck with four students to a room, several of the student rooms had enough beds to sleep up to 12 people. 

Though not quite as refined as the Hiltons, and a little slap-shot with the furniture, we found this place to be clean and welcoming.  While it wasn’t quite as comfortable as some of the other places we’d stayed, it was completely acceptable and had a spectacular view of the Gulf of Naples from the rooftop terrace. 

Viewing the sunset from the rooftop terrace at Sisters Hostel in Sorrento, Italy

Things took a turn for the worse on our last night of the tour, when we stayed at Hotel La Pergola in Rome.  This place was truly one of the worst hotels I’ve ever had the misfortune to stay at (and as a travel blogger, I’ve stayed at a LOT of hotels).  

Things started off badly when we discovered that the lights in all the hallways were not on, and that we had to hunt around with our cell phone flashlights to find our way to our rooms.  I asked the front desk to remedy this, but it was never addressed, and we had to repeat the blind search for our rooms every time we went up.  

Upon arrival in my room, I found it to be extremely dirty.  There was a layer of dusty film all over my bathroom and my pillow had an unidentified crusty stain on it.  My daughter’s room had the same layer of dirt in the bathroom, plus a shoe print from where someone killed a bug on the wall.  I checked our beds for bedbugs and thankfully did not find any. 

The front desk did not seem to care and we were told no one was available to come clean the bathrooms.

But the worst experience in this hotel went to a dad on our trip, who’s single room contained only a sofa.   Not a sleeper sofa, but just a hard couch.  There were no linens or towels available to him whatsoever. 

When he asked for these items at the front desk, he was told that we should have called earlier to request them since they were all locked up in a cabinet by the time we arrived at the hotel.   He ended up sleeping on a towel laid out on the sofa with a travel neck pillow, that had been provided to him by his daughter from her room.

The front desk attendant seemed more than annoyed anytime someone from our group would approach them, and insisted that we all leave our keys at the front desk when leaving the hotel for dinner that night.    

Pictures from Hotel La Pergola in Rome, Italy, booked by EF Tours

We weren’t left with much recourse, since this was a group trip and we were on our last night, so we decided to just grin and bear it, and did our best to get some sleep.  

Overall, I’d say that the hotels provided were quite good, with the exception of Hotel La Pergola.  For ten of the eleven nights of our trip, we were provided with clean, safe accommodations that lived up to what the EF Tours website told us to expect.  

At the time of this publication, EF Tours has been notified of this unacceptable hotel and has yet to respond.  

Meals on the tour ran the gamut from weird to stellar, but overall were not to bad.  Breakfast and dinner every day were included in what we paid for our tour.  

All breakfasts were served at our hotels.  Sometimes they were just continental breakfasts with cold offerings, and sometimes we were given hot breakfasts with eggs, bacon, and such.  Sometimes it was quite obvious where our group was supposed to go, and sometimes it wasn’t. 

Breakfast Buffet for EF Tours travelers

Overall, breakfasts were adequate throughout the trip.  

Lunches were not included in the initial price of our trip and were paid out of pocket each day.   

Lunches were always a gamble.   It all depended on where we were and what was going on whether or not we’d get to select a restaurant on our own or if the group would be directed to eat at somewhere specific, and if we’d have lots of great choices or really limited options.  

For example, on our first full day of the trip, we visited the Tower of London.  We told to make sure we ate lunch after our tour, before rejoining the group to get on the bus.  The only options available to us were food trucks along the river right next to the Tower complex.  

It was the worst during our travel days.  We were frequently told we could just grab a bite to eat at the train station or the airport, only to be left with minimal time and very limited options.  

But some days lunch was great.  During our time in Rome, lunch came with some free time to wander, so we were able to go out and select the restaurant of our choice.  

Pasta Carbonara at a restaurant in Pompeii, Italy, on an EF Tour

Some days our tour guide would set up a lunch option for us, having arranged a preset menu and price with a local restaurant.  Those options were usually something like a burger, pizza or a cold sandwich.  

I’m not sure if the lunch situations were like this because of our tour guide or because of EF itself.  Sometimes it seemed inevitable, like when we were stuck in an airport or train station.  Other times it seemed like our guide might be creating these situations by not fully informing us what was available near by.  

All dinners were set up at local restaurants before our arrival.  We did not get to select from a menu and were all served the same thing each night, with the exception of those who had special dietary needs.  Each meal came with water, but we were allowed to order additional drinks at our own expense if we choose to do so.  

The worst dinners EF provided happened during the first few days of our trip.  During our entire time in London, we were not once served any traditional English food.  Our Tour Director said it was because “London is a melting pot of cultures,” but our group didn’t buy that.  

Our first group dinner in London was at a Korean restaurant where the group was served a hot stone bibimbap with chicken.  I’m normally a big fan of Korean food, but this wasn’t great. 

Korean Food in London, England, provided by EF Tours

The next group dinner was at a Polish restaurant where the group was served a fried chicken patty and french fries.  

When it became apparent on the second night that we weren’t going to be getting any traditional English food, my daughter and I made arrangements to go get dinner on our own, and pay for it out of pocket.  Four other members of our group chose to join us.  

We simply got information from our Tour Guide when and where to meet up with the group after dinner and selected a nearby local pub so we could have a traditional English dining experience.  

Dinners seemed to improve when we got to France. During our first night there we had a lovely traditional French meal of chicken with mushroom sauce in the back room of a small picturesque cafe with a ton of ambiance.   On the second night we had a traditional Alsatian dish called Flammekueche, which was sort of like a pizza with a creamy sauce.  

In Italy, the dinners were quite good.  Of course we were served a lot of pasta, but we also had braised beef in tomato sauce, gnocchi, and pizza.  

According to the folks on our trip who had special dietary needs, the dinners were pretty good for the most part.  Although it did seem that everywhere we went in Italy, anyone who was gluten free or dairy free was served watermelon for dessert.  

Gnocchi in Rome, Italy, served during EF Tours

Before we left on our trip, we were told by our group leader that we shouldn’t need more that $25 US dollars per person per day for lunches and snacks.  We found that that number was not quite accurate for us, especially if we ever wanted to stray from the planned meals that EF Tours had set up for us.  

We also found that we frequently needed to buy water to stay hydrated in the high temperatures of Italy during the summer, and at most of the locations we visited, water was marked up quite a bit.  

Overall, the meals on our trip were pretty good, but could definitely have been better.  

Our Itinerary

We knew going into this tour that our itinerary would be extremely hectic.  With no more than 48 hours in any location, we expected it to be jam packed.  It was kind of like a tasting menu, where you got a little bit of each destination.  

What we didn’t expect was the significant amount of wasted time and changes to our itinerary that happened on our tour.  

Things started off poorly when our tour guide was an hour late to meet us at baggage claim and then our bus was over another hour late to pick us up at the airport.  

While our tour guide was a very sweet, personable woman, she didn’t seem to understand how to manage the timing logistics for a group of 40 travelers.  

Our group was quite good about being on time to meet up locations with a couple of small exceptions that could not be helped.  No one wanted to be the person that made us late.  

View of the coast of Capri, Italy on an EF Tour

Our tour guide didn’t seem to have this mentality.  She was frequently the last person downstairs at our hotels to meet our bus 15 to 20 minutes after the time she told us to meet her, and did not budget in adequate travel time to most of our destinations. 

For example, while we were driving across Italy, she had our driver stop at a large gas station for a bathroom stop.   She told us we only had five minutes to use the restroom and get back on the bus.  It’s completely impossible for 40 people to make use of just a handful of bathroom stalls in five minutes. 

We were late to our tours in London, Florence, and the Vatican.  We were late to our tour of the Colosseum in Rome.  We were late to our appointment at the Louvre.  We were so late to our tour of Pompeii.  This significantly hindered what we were able to see at our destinations, and made the whole tour seemed very rushed every day.  

Things like this happened over and over again throughout the trip.  This resulted in our group being habitually late to most of the tours we went on, and significantly cut into our time at some really important places.

St Pancras Train Station in London, England, on an EF Tour

The only times it seemed like we weren’t late was when we had to catch a flight, a train, or a ferry.  

There were also some pretty significant changes to our itinerary. 

Several items listed on our initial brochure were changed before the trip due to pandemic restrictions and travel challenges, which was fine.  We had ample notice and knew what to expect.    

But there were several instances where visits to certain locations were dropped off our itinerary completely, and visits to other non-advertised locations were added.  

Sometimes this was a good thing, but sometimes it was incredibly frustrating.  

In London, a walking tour of Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden and Leicester Square was replaced with “free time” at the British Museum, which we really didn’t mind. 

But in Florence, visits to San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo were dropped off the itinerary with no explanation.  

On our way to Rome, our guide added a stop in Ovierto, a beautiful small town with picturesque views, wonderful dining and great little shops which we enjoyed immensely. 

But in Paris, a visit to Montmartre was abandoned, even though our dinner restaurant was within a mile of the historic location.  

The best unexpected addition to our trip in my opinion was the opportunity to see a musical in the West End of London.  Our guide was able to secure tickets (for an extra fee) for those who wanted them to a performance of Wicked during our free evening.  It was absolutely fantastic.  

Entrance to Wicked in London's West End

But in the most frustrating example, during our time in Paris a visit to the Frogonard Perfume Museum was added to our itinerary.   No one asked to go there, and most of us seemed annoyed that we were stopping.  We were assured that the stop there would only last 30 minutes, but it ended up taking three times that, leaving us only an hour and a half to visit the Louvre before we had to be back on the bus to catch a flight to Italy.  

These added stops almost always involved additional costs as well, which we were not informed of before leaving for our trip.  This caused problems for a few kids on our trip who weren’t expecting these costs, and they unfortunately had to miss out on some of the better additions. 

There also seemed to be major sites in some of these cities that were not ever even an option to visit or see, due to our limited time in each city.   We didn’t go to Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s Cathedral while we were in London, and there were too many things to count in Paris that we didn’t even glimpse.  While we were aware of this upfront before the tour, it really did feel like they didn’t allow enough time in any location to really see the cities we were in.  

Despite these frustrations, the itinerary did take us to some fantastic places and we had some absolutely unforgettable experiences.  We had a fantastic time seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.  We enjoyed a truly magical and unexpected sunset under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  We got to listen to an orchestra perform in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.  We were able to marvel at the unparalleled artwork inside St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.  We saw the stunningly beautiful sites of Capri from a private boat tour.  Those memories are truly priceless.  

During our trip there were extra excursions offered in any city we stayed in more than one night. 

In London, the excursion was a visit to the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel type ride that gives riders a birds eye view of the city.  In Paris, it was a trip to Versaille to tour the palace and the gardens.  In Rome, it was a tiramisu cooking class.  

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We choose not to participate in the excursion in London because I’m not the biggest fan of heights, and in Paris because my daughter wanted the opportunity to spend some extra free time in the city.  

I’m extremely glad we made those decisions.   

While the London Eye excursion seemed to go well for those who went on it, it was over priced.  EF Tours charged each participant $60.  Tickets can be purchased individually at the ticket booth for just $42 USD or for groups ahead of time for just $24 USD.  I’m not sure what EF added to the experience to warrant that upcharge.  

By skipping the London Eye, we were able to have a bit more time to explore and plenty of time to enjoy our pub dinner that we mentioned earlier since the London Eye excursion was timed to happen right before dinner.  

In Paris, those who went to Versaille told us the experience was underwhelming because of the limited time available inside the palace, and the lack of lunch options available to those who went.  

The Versailles excursion seemed overpriced as well.  EF Tours charged $114 USD to each participant.  Tickets to the entire estate are free for those under 18 years old and cost under $30 USD for anyone else, and that’s without a group discount.  Even if every single person had to buy a ticket,  I can’t imagine that the cost for a group tour and the transportation to get the group there cost an additional $84 USD per person.  

The tiramisu cooking class in Rome was not optional for our group for some reason.  I think our group leader made that choice when she set up our trip.  We paid an extra $85 USD above and beyond the base tour price to experience it.  While I could not find information about individual class pricing, I highly doubt that EF paid that much per person for us to spend an hour making tiramisu. 

I will say that the class was a fun experience at a great location, and we all enjoyed the desserts we made together.  

Overall, unless an excursion is of special interest to you, I wouldn’t recommend participating in them, simply because they seem overpriced.  Having extra free time to see the sites of your choice seemed to be the best option during our tour.  

Education on an EF Tour

EF Tours makes a big deal out of their tours being focused on education.  We were promised “experiential learning activities” during the trip.  They even claim you can earn credit for going on these tour.  

We found that there wasn’t that much education attached to our tour.  

The local tour guides who showed us the sights of each city were the most informative folks on this trip, with extensive knowledge of the history and culture at each stop, but we were forced to use amplifying devices called Whispers in order to hear the guides.  These Whispers often had glitches or were garbled, making it very hard to understand our guides.  

Other than the local tour guides and maybe the tiramisu class, I wouldn’t call just visiting these historic places an “experiential learning activity.”  

We also learned that our high school would not give any credit to students who participated in these trips, even though much was made of the educational credit during the pitch to get us to join the tour.  

This isn’t to say that we didn’t learn anything on our trip.  We did have some great cultural experiences while we traveled.  But learning seemed to take a back seat to just being in another country in most circumstances.  

Safety with EF Tours

As a parent considering an EF Tour for my teenager, I know safety was a big concern for me.  

When my husband and I decided to send our daughter, we felt like one of us should go with her since she was only 15 at the time we went on the trip, and had not traveled internationally like this before.  

For the most part, I felt quite safe during our trip.  

Before our trip, our group leader did make sure to advise us about pickpocketing and theft at major tourist sites in Europe, and advised us to be prepared.  She did make sure we were always wary of our passports and where we were keeping them during our travels.  

While on tour, there was only one time that I felt like our group was taken to an unsafe area.  That was during our terrible last night in Rome when we had to walk from our hotel to our dinner restaurant through some pretty sketchy areas of the city.  

Rome, Italy during an EF Tour

Although student were allowed to go out on their own during our free time, they were asked to go in groups of three or four and were left in pretty safe areas to spend their free time.  

The biggest problem I saw with safety was when our Tour Guide would take off walking at a breakneck speed, frequently leaving half our group stuck at crosswalks or a few turns behind.  She usually did a count to make sure everyone was there when we were ready to leave, but she did leave people behind at least twice during our trip and have to go back and get them.  

Most of the time we had no idea where we were headed when we were walking to different locations.  We were never given the names of the restaurants or addresses of where they would be unless we specifically asked for them.  I think communicating with the group more about where we’re going could have avoided some sticky situations that a few of our travelers found themselves in when they were left behind.  

We also didn’t have a way to contact our Tour Guide directly.  Only a couple of people were given her contact information, which made communication confusing and difficult during our free time, especially when she got delayed during our free evening in Paris and our meeting time had to be pushed back significantly.

Curfews and group rules were left up to our group leader, who didn’t set many boundaries for our students.  

Since the legal drinking age in the areas we visited was 18, student who met this requirement were allowed to drink alcohol on our trip, but were asked to limit it to one drink with dinner.  By and large, our students respected this request and did not take advantage of the lowered drinking age to go and party it up.  

Trips like this EF Tour require students to be pretty mature when it comes to safety.  We had a wonderful group of kids who took their personal safety pretty seriously, and didn’t take unnecessary risks that would put them in jeopardy.  Had it been a different group of personalities, I’m not sure how it would have gone.  

EF Tours:  Our Final Verdict

Would I travel with EF Tours again?  That seems to be the question at hand here.  

My EF Tours experience definitely taught me a lot about group travel.  As someone who travels pretty frequently , I usually make most of my own travel arrangements, from flights to hotel reservations to activities.  It was quite nice not to have to worry about any of that.  It really did take a lot of pressure off to just let someone else do all that work. 

But relinquishing that control does require a certain amount of trust.  There were some areas that I would definitely trust EF to arrange again, and other areas where I really think they could do better.  

For this trip it really came down to adjusting expectations once we were traveling.  I really did expect there to be more education involved in what we did while on our tour.  I really did expect to spend some quality time at these major historic sites. 

Once I realized that time would be much more limited at every destination than I expected it to be, the trip went much more smoothly.  

Eiffel Tower at sunset in Paris, France

I think our experience would have been better with a more seasoned Tour Guide.  Ours just didn’t seem quite ready to handle all the pressures and logistics that are required for managing a group of 40 people for 12 days.  

EF Tours is definitely a budget tour company, and for the price, you do get a good experience.  

Did EF Tours create the trip of my dreams?  Not by a long shot. 

Did they create a good experience for students who haven’t done a lot of international traveling?  I’d say yes.  

Do I regret going on an EF Tour?  Absolutely not.  I had some incredible experiences in some amazing locations with my only daughter, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.  

Would I go on another EF Tour?  I think I would, but I would definitely choose a slower paced itinerary with more time in each destination.  

Do you have any questions about EF Tours that I didn’t answer?  Feel free to ask me in the comments!!

EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Wednesday 21st of February 2024

Expectations make a difference!

Thanks for taking the time to go through all these details. My son did go on one of these trips in his junior year of HS and loved it. I can understand the concerns you mentioned and makes those points something to think about when scheduling a group tour. As an adult, I have been to Europe twice with groups (travel award from workd) I know EF Tours has groups for that as well, and have been apprehensive to just 'jump in". Trying to analyze what is the best option to finally get to the Grand Canyon. Thanks for your perspectives

1concerned Mama

Monday 29th of January 2024

Hi, daughter is going through EF summer of 2024 to Europe, she has been told by a teacher that students will have "free time" to walk around and do as they please. Do you know is this a Supervised free time? I am kind of weary about letting her go as it is, let alone being unsupervised in another country without me. I'm honestly leaning towards just canceling her trip after reading some of these comments.

Louise Emery

I'm not sure how it will be handled on your trip, but on ours students were allowed to go out unsupervised. The teacher from our school asked that they stay in groups of at least 2. Most of our students chose to be in groups of 3 or 4, some with an adult and some without. We were given specific instructions on where and what time to meet up again. Most of the time, we only had a couple of hours. But my daughter and I did skip one of the optional excursions (the one to Versailles) which gave us an entire afternoon in Paris to ourselves. Our students handled this freedom quite responsibly, and we didn't have any issues. The only time we ever had someone not show up at our pick up spot, it was one of the adults on the trip who didn't plan accordingly. The group we were paired with from another school did not allow their students to do this. They all stayed together for their entire trip. I would get specifics from the the lead teacher organizing your trip as to how your group is going to handle this.

Sunday 3rd of December 2023

Thank you for this review. Based on your hotel photos, it looks like you opted for the single adult room. I will traveling with my teens to Paris, Nice, Florence and Rome with EF Tours in the Spring of 2024. Would you say the upgrade was worth it?

Monday 4th of December 2023

Yes. Having space of my own after being crammed in a very full bus for most of the day was VERY worth it. My daughter was fine rooming with the other kids, and preferred it to hanging out with mom at night. But for me, it was definitely a good choice.

Saturday 4th of November 2023

This was a wonderful review. As someone who has used EF twice in the past to lead trips, with two more trips planned for this current school year, I can say that this is pretty spot on. It's not that I dislike the trips, but the two I led were wildly different animals. The first one was a custom tour I created for students. We had 17 travelers total: Two teachers, three adults, and twelve students. It included a lot of free time to go around exploring and doing things in smaller groups. We had a wonderful Tour Director who realized this trip was largely planned out by someone who has been to those places before (Germany: Berlin & Dresden, Czech Republic: Prague and Brno, and Austria: Vienna), so his job was more to give a welcome and then give some insights as we went along when needed or if he felt I may have missed something.

The other tour was to Italy, visiting Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento, Capri, and Naples. This was a trip for seniors who were graduating and it was all about just the experience of being in Italy, sightseeing, and enjoying a trip as a culmination of their school careers. We again had about 15 travelers: Two teachers, four adults, and ten students. We had a wonderful guide on that as well, but the itinerary was from the EF web site, not one of my own creation, which gave it a different feel overall.

The food situation was also wildly different. EF is infamous for their lack of options in regards to the food offered at dinner, and I have heard some horror stories. My first trip to Central Europe saw us having chicken and rice twice in the first four days. By the time we got to Vienna, we decided as a group to opt out of the dinner and our director found us a different restaurant where we could order our own meals as we liked. The Italy trip had good food that varied, and the director brought us to an incredible place for lunch on our way to Pompeii that was a multi-course meal with drinks and a gentleman playing guitar and singing a few songs for us while there. All for about $20 USD.

So far, I have been very lucky about the trips I have taken between the hotel locations and other issues, but that is another issue EF is infamous for. You have to pay an extra fee to get hotels "in the city center", which can still be pretty far from things. Spending an hour to travel to what you want to see because your hotel is outside the city is ludicrous. No one does that on a trip, but that is EF's bread & butter. In addition, if you have preferred hotels you may have stayed at before, EF will only use them if they are partners, but claim to "put them on your request sheet" in case they do add them as partners in the future before your trip. I have yet to have them ever say "yes, we work with them and can request that hotel!"

Lastly, beware the "EF Special". This is when they book your flight for the cheapest possible fare. What isn't mentioned here is that the cheapest often comes with between 1-3 layovers to get to your destination. I can understand one, but there should never be more than that unless it is 100% unavoidable...which it is never that, so there shouldn't be more than one layover. EF has a penchant for going through Heathrow in London. Pre-Brexit, this wouldn't have been an issue. I had traveled through there before 2019 and it was a breeze. Since Brexit, it is more of a hassle than it is worth, yet EF still continually chooses it as their transfer gateway, taking valuable time away from being on the ground in your first location.

Yet, I still like them as a company. They have been at this for a long time and know what they're doing. They HAD the lowest prices in the business until the post-pandemic inflationary period began. Now their prices have skyrocketed. I don't know if I'll be using them again going forward, at least not in 2025.

WAYS TO PAY FOR TOUR

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Pay in Full Pay the full tour balance at the time of enrollment with your Visa or MasterCard, ATM/debit card and personal check.

Automatic Payment Plan Payments are automatically deducted from your bank account based on your preferred monthly or bi-weekly schedule. Accepted payment methods include ATM/debit card and checking account, only.

Manual Payment Plan Make less frequent payments according to EF’s Manual Payment Plan Schedule. You’ll receive invoices and can pay with Visa or MasterCard, ATM/debit card and personal checks. A $40 Plan Fee Plan Fee is applied if traveling to tour by plane and a $20 Plan Fee is applied if traveling to tour by bus.

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Online Giving Raise funds to pay for your tour with a personalized online Giving Page. Friends and family can make secure online contributions to your individual Giving Page and have it applied directly to your tour balance.

Fundraising Tips Visit our blog for tried-and-true fundraising ideas to help raise money for your tour.

Explorer Scholarship Every year we award $50,000 to deserving travelers through this needs-based scholarship. It’s just part of our commitment to making educational travel affordable for more students. For scholarship details or to apply, check out our Explorer Scholarship .

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Grand Russia

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Grand Russia is a team of professionals who work in the field of tourism for more than 10 years. We know our country and we know the best ways to show you the maximum of it for a short period of your vacation. Our team makes it’s best to provide you the highest quality of service for a competitive prices and make your visit to Russia unforgettable.

There are 4 “NEVERS” which we guarantee to our customers:

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Best Way to Explore Russia!

We take pride in inviting you to a perfect journey across Russia, where you can explore history, culture, and life like never before. Being the Best Russian Tour Agency , your trip will be full of excitement, very informative and extensively enthralling!

Grand Russia is a reliable Russia Travel Agency with dedicated travel professionals who are all to serve different groups such as incentive groups, corporate groups, sports, leisure and more. Our association with leading tour operators and tour companies empower us to layout a wonderful trip for you that are according to your needs and within budget. No matter from which part of the world you belong, you will relish our services.

We are locally owned and managed a company with offices located here. We are in the Federal Registers of Tour operators in Russia (PTO 018637). Due to our local presence, people visiting in this amazing part of the world get the best; be it the lowest prices available with the highest levels of quality Russian Travel . Find our tailor-made packages which you will not find anywhere else!

Our customer testimonial that you can check is proof our excellent services that we offer! Whether you are planning for summer or winter vacations, you will experience a great tour of Russia.

With our services that are on offer comprise of:

Package tours across Russia (groups and individuals both)

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There are many more that you will find in your tour packages that will make your travel to Russia with our company a memorable one. In addition to our standard services, Grand Russia offers tours packages to Moscow and St Petersburg . You cannot resist our Two Hearts of Russia (7 Days &6 Nights) , Golden Moscow (4 Days &3 Nights) , Sochi (3 Days & 2 Nights), Golden Ring (1 Day & 2 Days), and many more.

As a leading travel agency specializing in the tour to Russia and Former Soviet Republics, we are connecting the travellers from every part of the world for more than 10 years. Not only the warmth of Russia as a whole but you will discover how easy and affordable is our services to unravel the exquisite beauty of this great nation. We work closely with Russia Tourism and offer airline tickets, visa services, hotel accommodations, tours and any other assistance you may require while touring here.

You do not have to be worried about any travel-related services for domestic and international tours when Grand Russia is at you service. We not only take care of the rates but also offer the basic planning to execution, expertise and yet most made to order service from air travel, railway reservation, coaches and car rentals, hotel bookings, holiday packages, etc.

Get full information about all necessary documentation & requirements for the processing of Visa, we provide an invitation letter and a voucher for getting a tourist visa in the embassy of Russia.

“Honest alliance last forever: we work on this principle.”

Grand Russia is a tour company providing original and professional private tours in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Golden ring towns and around Russia. We have a team of professionals who work in the field of tourism for more than 10 years. Guides from our team are all licensed and speak fluent English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese and many other languages.

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COMMENTS

  1. Student travel programs

    We bottled some of this event's magic in our student Summit video recap. He gives the best guided tours of Spain —and he inspired his family to become local guides, too. Hundreds of destinations. Endless possibilities. EF Educational Tours offers student tours at the lowest prices guaranteed. Learn why teachers and parents choose EF for ...

  2. EF Tours for Adults

    Enjoy a $100 discount off all tours, on top of any current promotion, for being a loyal EF traveler. Score hundreds in savings—and travel ASAP—on guided tours all around the world. There's always more to explore. Call 1-800-590-1161 to talk to an expert Tour Consultant. Enjoy the same experiences you know from other EF tours with EF Go ...

  3. Educational travel for adults

    Safety is a top priority here at EF, which means we're continuously taking steps to help provide a safe experience for students on our tours. With that goal in mind, we require all adult travelers aged 20 and older to complete a background check before traveling on an EF tour. To make the process as simple as possible, we're working with ...

  4. Traveling with EF Educational Tours

    On Tour. EF handles everything from flights and hotels to meals and sightseeing, so the group can relax and focus on the tour experience. The group's personal, full-time Tour Director takes care of on-tour details and provides cultural insight and knowledge for students. Everyone travels together on one tour bus and shares the same Tour ...

  5. Customized Tour

    Customized Tour. The experience of a lifetime is waiting for you. Every detail from the cities you'll stay in to the cultural discoveries you'll make have been customized by your teacher for your group. Take a look at your personal itinerary for a sneak peek of what's in store. The itinerary for this tour is still being finalized.

  6. Student Trips and Educational Tours

    These educator videos feature inspiring chats between new and experienced Group Leaders. Check out our top tips for managing money on tour (hint: one includes the Till Financial app). Hundreds of destinations. Endless possibilities. EF Explore America offers student trips across the U.S. and Canada.

  7. Solo Travel Tours

    Whatever your reasons for traveling solo, you're not alone: More and more travelers—1 in 4, to be precise—are choosing to set out solo. Watch our video to see what going solo's all about. Friendship. Flexibility. Full planning support. These are just a few advantages you'll enjoy on our solo group tours.

  8. Guided Tours & Group Travel Tours

    Private Tours. Go private and enjoy any of our immersive, expert- planned trips exclusively with your group. Find out how it works. Ready, set, get inspired. Destination guides, travel tips, and real traveler stories to inspire—and enrich—your ... Other EF Tours brands

  9. Experiential learning and travel projects for students

    Powered by students. Before, during, and after tour, our Personalized Learning Guide taps into each student's own passions and interests. Whether they're excited by ancient history or modern architecture, it connects their interests to your destination and helps them develop an essential question to investigate while traveling.

  10. Passports and Visas

    Passports. A passport is required for all EF Educational Tours. We recommend applying for a passport as soon as you enroll on a tour, as it can take up to 12 weeks to process. U.S. citizens traveling abroad must bring a passport that is valid for at least six months after the tour's return and has at least three blank pages.

  11. Sign in to your EF account

    Sign in to your EF account and access the online learning platform that suits your needs. Whether you want to learn a language, connect with your campus, or teach online, EF has the right solution for you. Join the global EF community and start your journey today.

  12. Study Abroad Programs

    These partnerships allow us to create irreplicable study abroad programs that are fully accredited by five of the country's most respected organizations: EF Study Abroad, the leader in short-term study abroad, develops custom, scalable short-term study abroad programs that help our institutional partners maximize travel and skill-building ...

  13. Customized Tour Packages

    Plan a custom departure of any existing tour by giving it a personalized twist, ranging from: Adjusting the itinerary to fit a certain theme (from WWII history to family reunions to jazzercise—we've seen it all!) Designing a brand-new itinerary to destinations around the world Call **1-800-438-7672 to get started or request details now.**.

  14. Student Tours and Educational Travel

    Because you'll get to meet people like Patrizio P., one of our Tour Directors, who gets to travel all around Europe for a living. Hundreds of destinations. Endless possibilities. EF Educational Tours offers life-changing student trips for the best value. Learn why teachers and parents choose EF for educational travel experiences.

  15. EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

    According to their website, EF Tours has been in operation since 1965 and offers trips for students and teachers designed to "provide immersive, life-changing education.". Basically, EF Tours organizes international trips for students to a wide variety of destinations, promising "compelling itineraries" full of "experiential learning ...

  16. Adult Travelers on Student Tours

    Adult travelers. Our tours are designed with students in mind—from the affordable prices to the active itineraries that maximize educational value. We want to ensure that adults traveling with us have an amazing time, too. In addition to reading through our Help Center's collection of Preparing to Travel and What to Expect on Tour articles ...

  17. My Student Travel Fundraising Blueprint

    Scott H. Scott H. is the Dean of Students and former high school Spanish teacher. He began traveling with EF Tours in 2001 and has led dozens of student tours to various Spanish-speaking countries. Scott strongly believes that student travel builds self-confidence and inspires students to develop and work towards long-term goals.

  18. Payment Options

    Accepted payment methods include ATM/debit card and checking account, only. Make less frequent payments according to EF's Manual Payment Plan Schedule. You'll receive invoices and can pay with Visa or MasterCard, ATM/debit card and personal checks. A $40 Plan Fee Plan Fee is applied if traveling to tour by plane and a $20 Plan Fee is ...

  19. Most Popular Tours for Girls

    Personalized learning: Every tour comes with a personalized learning platform that taps into each girl's passions to help her put a more personal lens on the trip. College readiness: An EF Tour for Girls is a perfect opportunity to write about on a college application. That's why we created the UnCommon App, a series of guided exercises to ...

  20. Tour & Travel Agency in Moscow

    In addition to our standard services, Grand Russia offers tours packages to Moscow and St Petersburg. You cannot resist our Two Hearts of Russia (7 Days &6 Nights), Golden Moscow (4 Days &3 Nights), Sochi (3 Days & 2 Nights), Golden Ring (1 Day & 2 Days), and many more. As a leading travel agency specializing in the tour to Russia and Former ...

  21. VISA-Free St. Petersburg Shore Excursions

    Private Shore Excursions. 1-Day Private Tours. 2-Day Private Tours. 3-Day Private Tours. Tour for Art Lovers. Jewish Heritage Tour. City Tours. The Hermitage Tour. Palaces and Parks.

  22. Tours

    Private tours to USA, Russia and Europe. Book now and have fun! Menu mobile. Tours . All tours list; Moscow; Saint Petersburg; New York; San Francisco; Lisbon; Milan; Los Angeles; ... 2-Day Tour in Moscow With a Friendly Guide (75) + Add to wishlist. Popular $ 367. 3-Day Tour in Moscow With a Friendly Guide (75) + Add to wishlist. Popular $ 127.

  23. Moscow

    Price per person. 638,09. View details. About the tour Reviews 10. 8 days / 7 nights. St. Petersburg Moscow. We offer you a unique opportunity to visit Russia's two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. This fascinating, week-long tour will take you to the historic Russian capitals that have always played the most important part in the ...