EF Educational Tours Reviews

My child had a better experience with Explorica tours

The overall experience was good. The trip itself was smooth and easy to manage and I felt comfortable the whole time. However I was charged $870 dollars on my personal account when a student canceled on our trip a month before the trip and EF left me with the bill. If leading a trip is going to cost me money for planning it and putting time into it, I would rather just do it on my own.

The trip started out nicely, however once they arrived to the hotel in England, I was told that the rooms were full of bugs and the mattress was covered in mold. Once this was discovered, EF Tours did not make other arrangements for the students to stay. They had to endure this for three days. Once, they left England the rest of the trip was enjoyable.

It was wonderful! I was on the trip and have been on other EF trips as well. This was by far the best… educationally, food and accommodation and a balanced itinerary.

We had many wonderful experiences in Costa Rica. I wish they would have cancelled two of the activities due to the torrential rains. They insisted we would still see animals but we didn't and it was miserable walking through a foot of water in the jungle or another time being in an open boat.Even in June we had many other sunny and dry experiences that were amazing.

Our EF 12-day tour guide (Eliuth) was AMAZING and he adjusted some of our tours to accommodate the group. The EF itinerary said 3 local guides, but we ended up with 8. In Peru you can't drink the water and EF said they would provide water, but for 3 days none was provided. At a hotel, I bought 2 boxes of water for refilling. The flight home schedule was not traveler friendly and I mentioned that they day we got the call for our flights, but there was no changing the schedule. We boarded in Lima Peru and had to empty our water at the boarding gate (not security), flew 6 hours overnight with no water, had such short layoers that our group did not have time to use an airport bathroom or buy any food before the next flight. Without Eliuth this trip would have been more challenging. Also, I think EF could have done more to prepare the kids for the altitude, but I did that in the meetings leading up to the trip.

The tour guides were excellent and the places we visited were really neat!

Our daughter loved her experiences and the friends she made on the trip. She experienced so much and also learned some independence. Very well run. We had no worries while she was abroad.

Overall, the tour was a pretty good tour. Some of the highlights were our tour guide and our bus driver. They both did a great job. The cities that we visited and the historical landmarks that we visited within those cities were also great. As an adult that accompanied my student on the tour, I was rather disappointed with three things. 1) The airplane travel. I live in a hub city for an airline and ended up being placed on two other airlines. Traveling from the US to Europe wasn't bad. We had no problems. Returning to the US from Europe. I was delayed by 24+ hours due to weather. If EF Tours would have used the major airline that flies directly into the city I live in from Amsterdam, instead of probably going with what I would guess was the cheapest airfare, I would have not had to incur flight delays and would have returned home on time. 2) The hotels that we stayed at weren't too bad. They didn't look great from the outside, but on the inside, they were normally decent. There were two downfalls to the hotels. In order to save money EF Tours put us at hotels about 30-40 minutes outside of the main downtown area. If we stayed closer, we would have had more time to tour the cities we were visiting. My second complaint about the hotel was that the hotel in Switzerland was rather disappointing. There was no air conditioning. With the amount of money that I paid, I should have been staying in a hotel with air conditioning. I understand that all hotels in Europe don't have air conditioning, but to me air conditioning should be required when traveling from the US. 3) The food was just average. Again, for what I paid for this trip, I would expect that the food would have been better. It wasn't horrible, but it didn't "WOW" me. Maybe I am the wrong demographic to be providing a review because I am providing it from a parent's perspective, but this is what I thought. My son (the student on the tour) had a great time, but he shared some of the same concerns as I did.

Many things, first our tour guide Tony Kyte was great. We stayed on time, saw many sites and learned a lot about the history and the culture. The local guides were equally great. Really cannot find a negative with the tour.

Good tour, daughter enjoyed it. Easy payment ta so was not too painful. Inflexible flight rules was only bad thing. If a student only needs one way flight, you need to make it work so they travel with the group. I had to throw away a ticket.

My son had a very well planned tour that hit all the hot spots in Japan. Don’t think we could have found a more thorough tour.

Very organized. My daughter had a was provided with Andi the tour guide and her day was filled with activities to do for the day. She experienced Switzerland and Paris.

Amazing - my 15 year old son had a blast

Our trip to Spain was memorable! Our tour guide was AMAZING and made the trip fun! We got to do a lot in just a handful of days. The bus lost air conditioning, and the first hotel was not the best-- but overall it was a great trip!

My daughter had a great time! Everything was well organized and coordinated! Their tour guide was phenomenal!

This is for the 9 day adventure trip to Costa Rica under EF Tours. Overall well organized tour that gives you an idea of what the culture is like but having a lot of different adventures built in. Awesome tour guide and bus driver. Only “room for improvement” would be too much down time in the second night stay, which was in a very remote area of the country in a small village. We couldn’t do much exploring in the evening due to our safety (large animals in the wild and we aren’t the top of the food chain). Our child was the youngest on the group and really enjoyed it. The whitewater rafting was the favorite among most of the kids and chaperones. Second and third favorites were waterfalls and animal sightings in the national parks followed by the optional tour that cost a little extra. The optional tour was well worth it. It took you to a local chocolate factory where we made our own chocolate and of course taste tested a few samples. Expect to ride on a bus approximately 2-4 hours between hotels/experiences. This truly is not bad since it gives the guide a chance to go over what to expect that day, answer questions, and most importantly for teens, to nap and recharge. This was my third EF trip and will only do the ones that visit 1, maybe two countries, so you have plenty of time to experience the location and don’t feel rushed to move every day to someplace multiple hours away. Would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for adventure but also wanting to see animals, national park scenery and some culture. This company, is. Great for those that want to do little planning but want a good overview of what a country is like. They tend to try to hire local (to that region of the country) as much as possible. If you or your child is one that loves a lot of free time, please ask them or read about the descriptions of each trip carefully. Some countries/trips will easily have more free time than others mainly because of the locations you will be staying (larger cities vs remote villages).

I & my son had a great time with this tour (EF - Austria, Germany & Switzerland), especially in Switzerland. It's our favorite place.

The tour overall was great and well planned it was just very fast paced! Some countries, like Austria, we really only got a few hours in and there was not much time to explore fully. Our tour director Federico was amazing! He helped the tour to run smoothly and was incredibly kind, fun, knowledgeable, and prepared.

I loved not having to make arrangements for anything. Everything was planned and taken care of. All we had to do was show up at the times we were told to meet. Jamie was a wonderful tour director, and I hope you get lucky and he leads your tour. EF packs a lot in a trip, but it's a great way to see the highlights of a country.