EF Tours communicates extremely well when it comes to getting money. How to set up your account to get money from others and the reminders of getting your money come frequently. You will never be in doubt that have a balance. EF Tours has limited credit card options but they will be more than happy to take money directly from your checking account. EF Tours will charge you if you do not use a payment plan. Opposite of what most companies do, they have to get additional sources of income. While COVID19 has forced manny changes. EF tours will allow you to put your balance to another tour if you desire but if you want your money back...not so fast...they want $500. They have not paid anyone for anything; the airlines have not been paid, the hotels have not been paid or the tour guides. The $500 must be need to send you emails to remind you that you owe them money. If you do have a question about a tour, their customer service is horrible. Waiting on hold for 20 minutes and no answer. IF you request a call back..you get called back and put on hold again. Email response are slow and in my experience do not answer your questions. While my son has not gone on a tour as we are waiting for final determination at what can be offered with COVID19, I will be asking our school administration to reconsider working with EF Tours just based on our experience to date. If given the change, find a different tour company. read more

If I could give this company zero stars I would. Canceled tour due to Covid 19 and have to pay a $350 cancellation fee plus a 4-6 week refund rate due to all the cancellations. This company is money hungry! The staff is unforgivably the rudest and the management staff is NOT much better. This company is a fraud, I am most definitely reporting them to the BBB. The way situations are being handled, this company should be ashamed of themselves!!!!! Never use this company! read more

Don't use company. During pandemic our school had a trip planned to Washington D.C on May 5 ,2020. Over 100 students where going. Cost of trip was 605 in which they are keeping 250$ or 41% due to know fault of their own. It's despicable and unconscionable. Company has bad business practices read more

I would give them 0 stars if available. EF is the cheapest BECAUSE it is the WORST! DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD ON AN EF TRIP! I have been a teacher leader on several trips for my high school and the accommodations and food have gotten so bad that it is actually a danger to your child's safety. We were placed at a truck stop along the M1 outside of London. We were expected to walk 2 miles to the nearest Tube station ALONG THE FREEWAY. Four kids were put in a room with a queen sized bed and two mattresses on the floor. One student woke up in the middle of the night, tripped on the mattress and got a black eye after smashing her head against the wall. EF and their "safety first" motto is a joke! They never inquired about her health and tried to lie and say she was drunk so they wouldn't be held accountable for her injury. We were placed in the furthest locations from the city center that it would take over an hour to drive into Rome or Lucerne. Our hotel in Lucerne had a quiet policy after 9:30. Then, they placed seven 18-year-old boys in a room without air-conditioning and expected them to be quiet. The rooms with four girls were probably louder. I cannot tell you what a nightmare the trip was. EF did everything in their power to deny that there was a problem. I could go on for hours about the terrible food. Just know that you will only be provided coffee, warm milk, corn flakes, last nights rolls that you didn't eat and cheese for breakfast. Every day. The kids were asking if they were on a diet or in prison. They place students 4 to a room in hotels that charge less than $100 a night. They are so bad that you would cry if you drove up to these locations. You certainly wouldn't put kids in these terrible locations outside of the city. I will never travel with them again and I feel like I should apologize to every student I encouraged to come on this trip! read more

I share the same feelings as all of the other parents on here. My two children were supposed to go on a school trip to China over spring break which was changed to Germany/Switzerland and then was ultimately "postponed" by EF Tours. EF Tours refuses to give a full refund By calling the trip postponed and not canceled and wants to keep $1000 for each child claiming that they can always take a future trip down the road even though my son is graduating from high school and my daughter will be attending a different school next year. Meanwhile, my daughter had a summer immersion in Spain educational program planned for July through another similar company and they issued a full refund Which is already been credited to our account and have the flight company they use working on getting the airfare back and promised a $500 credit towards her flight should we not be able to get a full refund through the airfare directly. I can guarantee you I will be using that company for any future trips and never use EF Tours again. They should be ashamed of themselves and realize that it is not worth keeping these deposits when weighed with the amount of business that they were lose in the future. read more

We have taken three trips with EF and absolutely loved each one: Costa Rica, Peru, and European Carousel (AMAZING). I really cannot believe all of the people giving EF one star, as most of their complaints are their own fault - I would recommend EF over any other student tour company. I think many of the poor reviews are just due to people not knowing what to expect, not knowing what's EF's job and what isn't (i.e. cancelled flights are not EF's fault) and not reading everything that EF sends out. YES, there is a lot of walking - the tours are not made for people who may struggle to walk several miles a day. YES it's a packed tour - we went from 7 am to 9 pm every day, but you're in another country, so why not?! The hotels are outside the city, and this is clearly stated before you even arrive. I think this is actually safer because then the kids have no reason to want to sneak out. The hotels are extremely safe, although many don't have AC in Europe, which, again, was clearly stated when I signed up for the tour. We opened our windows at night and were fine! I'm not sure how people are getting bad hotels - every single one of ours was clean and safe. Our hotel in Switzerland was absolutely beautiful. Maybe the other reviews were just setting their expectations too high - for me, I prep students to know that the hotel rooms will be extremely small, but clean. We've never had an issue. As far as breakfast being small and only croissants - that is a typical European breakfast. Also stated clearly in materials sent home by EF. Dishes are all the same at dinner unless a student has an allergy. I always tell my students if they are picky, bring snacks or decide to eat it and try something new. If dinner was catered to the desires of each student, we'd be at dinner for hours, cutting into the time of sight-seeing. If you're extremely picky, international travel may not be for you. One person mentioned hidden cancellation fees. The cancellation fees are very clear and are listed on their website and in the back of their brochure. Tour directors are always fantastic. We loved ours in each place we have visited. They work hard to meet the needs of all staff and students, which brings up another point - these trips are geared towards teenagers, not adults, another thing that is stated in some of the material that EF sent home for adult travelers. If you travel regularly internationally, you have to be ready to roll with the punches. You never know what to expect and you will likely be physically uncomfortable at some point. EF takes excellent care of their teachers. I attended a free conference in Rome and will be going to Scandinavia for free next summer with my husband because of our rewards points. I will continue to book student tours through EF until I have a reason not to, which I don't foresee happening! Keep up the good work! read more

EF Education First - Half of our students in Paris - Tours Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Evidently a world pandemic does not justify waiving cancellation fees for a child's trip. 4 different people I spoke with and only one was professional. I will never use this company again. read more

The feelings I had when I talked with EF? They are sales-focused, not teacher or student-centered. They push large groups. They even told me it was safer to travel with a large group of 35+ with a 10 to 1 youth to adult ratio as compared to a small group of 15 with a 5 to 1 youth to adult ratio. If you are considering travel as a tool for meaningful impact for youth on a personal level, I recommend looking elsewhere. read more

A-holes--Did they get bailout stimulus money??? Anyone want to file a class action lawsuit against these scammers? Please include me. We paid for the school trip in full on March 2019 for a summer trip in 2020 ($4,310 paid in full). Now because of COVID they are refunding the money MINUS $500--for a trip that is still over 7 months away. I understand that they had to cancel, but why charge the students? Airlines, cruise ships, hotels all are giving 100% refunds. These opportunists are cashing in on students and their families. We even had the "global travel protection"! What a damn scam this company is. read more

Would not provide a full refund on a... Would not provide a full refund on a trip for our 17 year old son and his school, this is his hard earned money and he did not cancel EF Tours did so he should receive a full refund, do not use this company for your travel plans. read more

I have been traveling with EF for many years. I have never had any reason to give a negative review. 2020 and 2021 have been difficult to say the least but the communication has been excellent. There is a lot of unknown regarding any travel and EF has been up front with that. Cancelation policies are communicated and have been updated to address the Covid Pandemic. All of our past trips have delivered the experiences that were agreed upon prior to leaving. All but 1 hotel has been acceptable and accommodations were changed for that 1 instance. I plan on continuing to partner with them for student travel. read more

DO NOT use this company. They are keeping money from thousands of travelers all over the country who's tours were cancelled or postponed due to travel bans and quarantine. And travel insurance is useless. read more

This tour company has no idea what it is doing!! its a scam. it chooses the cheapest version of any option and the client/student is the one that suffers. don't choose this company !!! read more

I spent a year researching all the student travel companies when I was tasked with finding a program for my students. I have never regretted my decision to travel with EF. Every aspect of every detail is thought through, and the Tour Consultants, Tour Directors, and Customer Service people are professional and courteous. I have now taken six tours with EF. I had two more planned for 2020 and 2021 but chose to postpone them due to the pandemic. EF has worked with me to make this easy for my travelers. They are doing everything they can to ensure that we have a safe experience when we can travel again. I trust them because on the few occasions that I have experienced an emergency on tour, everything was handled immediately and with every regard for the well being of my students and chaperones. Nothing compares with watching my students blossom into independent, confident young adults. It's one of the things I miss the most about travel. I used to be wide-eyed at all the sights, but now I find joy in just watching my students' faces as they discover the world. I can't wait to travel again, and I will always use EF. Do your research, read the fine print, choose your tour based on the needs and abilities of your students, and you will not be disappointed! read more

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As a teacher who has taken over 300 students abroad all over Europe with EF Tours over the course of multiple trips, I feel comfortable vouching for the high standards EF has consistently reached for my families over the years. Covid has certainly made EF critique it's insurance policies and adapt/adjust. I believe they will emerge a better company bc of this pandemic, an unique event that has unveiled problems never foreseen/confronted before. I know that there certainly has been missteps made, included in my own travels with them. However, on the whole, my travelers have overwhelming been provided with immersive, inexpensive, quality travel with responsive staff and a willingness to listen. It's a company that has opened my student's minds to experiential learning and a priceless perspective on the world. I'm grateful for that. Jason read more

The only positive thing about this entire trip was our tour guide who was knowledgeable and kind despite all the horrible things that happened during the trip. To start, EF puts you on the worst flights imaginable. My first flight (out of 3) was cancelled the night before I was supposed to leave and EF refused to help me. I spent 8 hours on hold with the airline to get booked on another flight. I made it to my second flight and was denied boarding for no reason (at the fault of the airline). I called the 24/7 EF emergency line and they said they could only help me during business hours from Mon - Fri between 8am - 5pm ET. I later learned they helped someone else on my trip over the weekend, which was outside their "business hours." The emergency line is useless and the people who answer the phone are incompetent. I was stranded in another country for 24 hours with no assistance from EF and still had not made it to my destination. They refused to help me with the airlines, booking a hotel for the night or meals. When I finally made it to my destination, I had missed 2 days of the trip. The hotels on the trip are the worst I've stayed at in my entire life. They are dirty and in extremely inconvenient locations. The restaurants we were taken to were not great - I could have found better on my own and you're stuck in a bus with 40 other people for the majority of the trip. We spent more time on a bus than actually touring the cities. On my trip home, I barely made my connecting flight and was lucky because I would've been stranded AGAIN in a foreign country. Others on my trip dealt with lost luggage, more cancelled flights, being stranded or left on their own to figure it out. I understand a lot of these issues were airline related, but it's also because EF puts you on the cheapest possible flights, which means you get the worst service and no one cares about you. It's truly remarkable how little EF cares about their trip attendees. Once I arrived home, I called EF to talk about my experience and to discuss reimbursement for the two days I missed. I had also purchased the travel insurance. I was told to file a claim and that "they rarely decline claims." The girl I spoke with said she'd talk to her supervisor and get back to me. I followed up three times and haven't heard from her in 5 months. She completely ghosted me. I filed a claim and followed up with them multiple times as well and just today, again 5 months later, received an email saying my claim was denied. This company has the WORST customer service I've ever experienced and they DO NOT care about you or your safety during their trips. They want your money and that is all. I spent an additional $1,000 on a hotel and food while I was stranded because the city I was in was completely sold out on hotel rooms - money I will never see again in addition to what I spent on the trip itself. Even if you are a poor college student, you deserve a way better experience than this company provides. DO NOT USE THEM!! read more

I used EF for one school trip after having used other companies for different trips and have many issues with their company and its policies. The biggest issue on the trip to Italy was when a student had a medical emergency and the ONE EF guide provided for 38 people was unreachable for over 30 minutes. I just find that completely unacceptable. To be fair the office and supervisor I spoke with were very helpful and listened to my concerns later, but in the moment when you need someone who speaks the language, that is just unacceptable. Understandably one bad situation doesn't fairly define a company, but the trip overall was just poor quality, cheap, nickel and dimed, and overall bad. The hotels are far from the city you are visiting, as in over an hour bus ride, the only good provided is breakfast and dinner (with the hotels providing free breakfast), many sites are not included in the price, and there is a constant sense of cheap quality. For example, we went to a glassblowing demonstration that lasted two minutes followed by a ten minute speech about how much their goods cost and how great the EF discount really was. Every "demonstration" has been that - an excuse for the company to get a kickback. It's a really lousy company that only cares about shaving as much profit as it can at the cost of really cheap quality experiences, with no support for its employees or it's customers. I would not recommend this company. read more

The service could not possibly be worse! Impossible to get a hold of anyone. Did tour with school. Cancelled due to Covid They rebooked for 2021 My child is graduating Told us we could get refund or book another tour. COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE to get a hold of anyone by the necessary date. Complete Money grab STAY AWAY. Use someone local that has accountability read more

Our son was scheduled for a tour in Europe with his school through this company. After several months of payments, we had to back out for some very personal reasons. I was heartbroken for my kid and, moreover, expecting a huge chunk of our payments to be retained by this company for cancellation fees, etc. To my surprise, the representative I spoke with, named Alexa, was sympathetic to our plight and plugged in a replacement kid (who had just signed up) to take my child's place... thereby saving us money we really needed! She didn't need to do all that for us; I would never have been the wiser. But she did, and I am so grateful. read more

My daughter's just came back from EF Tour to London and Paris today. She has horrible experience. They don't give enough time to sightseeing tours. They keep rushing her tour. To make matter worst her tour were paired with another school from Las Vegas. Her room has bed bugs and they won't give her another because all the rooms were sold out. read more

We scheduled a trip for my daughter for her hs graduation in 2020. Covid hit, she decided to keep her trip just reschedule because EF tours wanted to keep part of her money. Fast forward to 2022 her trip is scheduled for July 2022 because of the travel requirements she is unable to meet them and they only offering to give back half of the money less $500 fee. I made contact with a person over the phone, she stated I could not speak to a manager I had to send them an email. read more

They scam people out of hundreds of dollars by canceling trips and saying they have a cancelation fee for a trip they canceled. There is an ongoing class action lawsuit against them. read more

If I could do a negative zero I would. This trip was way overpriced and it was not organized. Our tour guide was fine. I think it was EF hadn't organized anything. We were supposed to have about 3 sit down dinners that EF was to made reservations for all of us. None of the places in Boston or NYC knew about us. Parts of it was rushed (30 mins at one museum). Too long at others. I also think they tried to cram too much stuff in and you couldn't absorb anything. Also, the hotel rooms ended up being about 2hrs one way out of each city. I would have thought at least close by no doubt. So we spent way too much time traveling. The buses that we traveled on were rickity. We made reservations for this trip 2 years out. You couldn't have paid me or my child to go on this trip. I could go on and on but it makes me angry. read more

If I could give less than 1 star, I would have. They canceled our daughter's trip to NY due to covid ( Completely understand that), but they refuse to issue us a full refund ( kept $700). This is terrible, I assume that is how they make their money, keeping people's hard earned partial refunds read more

I'm extremely disappointed with this company during this global pandemic. My daughter saved her own money for two years and asked for her birthday and Christmas gifts to be money given towards her trip. Now that they are not able to go, I really feel like EF needs to step it up and be like the Disneyworlds, Hilton's, Marriott's etc. and refund ALL payments and fees. This is the ONLY company that I know of who is not as flexible as other companies. Very disappointing. I will never give another recommendation or another penny to this company. I've emailed and called so many times and get the same generic message sent to me. UGH! Boo EA! read more

If I could leave 0 stars, I would! The poor way my situation was handled makes me wonder how they would handle an unexpected situation in a foreign country! Please do not pass judgement before reading my entire review... and it's long! I realize that we shoulder some blame for the problems that occurred, but I feel that EF Educational Tours was unreasonable in the way that they handled the situation. My child was booked on a spring break 2019 trip through her middle school in the fall of 2018. We began monthly payments & prepared for the trip. In December 2018, I was informed that my daughter would not be allowed to go on the trip, due to behavior concerns. She was being bullied at her school & had some inappropriate responses to the bullying. I do not disagree with the school's concern & the cancellation of her trip because I feel that their major concern should be for the safety of everyone. Responsible behavior is always important but especially in a foreign country. My concern is the way it was handled. I was told that she was no longer welcome and that we could get a refund of some of our money. The teacher in charge made it seem like they were doing me a favor by refunding as much as they were, because it was past the 110 day deadline which only allows a 50% refund. I actually feel that we should get more back because we did not cancel, but that's another story... Remember, none of this decision to cancel was our choice... we did not cancel the trip, the school did. The children involved in the bullying were not going on the trip and the trip had spaces available, but as I said, I do understand their concern. So, I assumed that since EF had been notified & had a discussion with the teacher, that they would begin to process our partial refund. Instead, they made another charge to our card. They were continuing to charge for a cancelled trip. When I called to discuss this, they said it was as because I had not contacted them to cancel the trip. Of course I had not, because I was told that the teacher & EF had already cancelled, as they had already figured out exactly how much my refund would be. EF even acknowledged that she was cancelled & that they knew it... I just needed to double cancel. So, I cancelled her space on the trip. Then they said they could send the partial refund as a check made out to my 14 year old daughter. I should mention that the payments were obviously not made by her, they were made by an adult, and they were not made by check. They were made by a debit card, which they had on file, & had been charging successfully for several months. So, they said they could also refund the money if I could confirm the account (although clearly, they knew which account they were continuously charging.) I did not have the info with me, so they said get the routing number, etc & call back. Several times I called back and was placed on endless holds and never got through to a human. After many days, when I finally got through to give them the routing information, the new person (she was actually very considerate & knowledgeable) said, no, she could not use the routing info for a refund, she needed me to confirm the last 4 digits of the card associated with the account. That was the actual end of my rope!!! She was kind enough to call me back in a few hours, giving me time to get the card and now we should be getting our partial refund (although I will believe that when I actually see the refund come through.) I feel like EF Educational Tours mis- handled this entire situation. Perhaps I should be just as angry at the school, because even though it was 100% their decision, I am forced to literally pay for all the consequences. I do not feel that I should be responsible for the $300 cancellation fee, in addition to the $95 deposit. Isn't a deposit what you lose when you cancel? Of course, they said that this is all explained in legalese in the paperwork, but this seems like an unusual situation. Also, we are not to be refunded the $165 cancellation insurance that I purchased, even though the insurance could never be used because she was never going to be allowed to go on the trip. It is actual CANCELLATION INSURANCE that does not cover a cancellation made for reasons beyond our control!!! So, my cancellation insurance which should help refund some of my money, will not only NOT COVER this cancellation, but the cancellation insurance itself is non-refundable. Yes, I will be speaking my mind to the insurance company (of course, they are a separate group) & also review them on Yelp !!! I hope this helps someone, because this whole fiasco has cost so much... Not just the money, but the endless time on the phone and the ridiculous ways they handled this. Once they were informed that she was not allowed on the trip, they should have stopped the automatic payments & began the refund. It makes me wonder how they would handle an unexpected situation in a foreign country! read more

Please, please pay attention to people saying to run away from RF language exchange programs. They are just trying to make a buck. If you think they will deal with you as a real business with respect for customers, you are mistaken. If you are used to dealing with great companies with great customer service and return policies that are reasonable, you will be surprised to learn that EF doesn't care about you as a customer. There is always one idiot out there. read more

EFTours is AWESOME! Students are so well taken care of the entire trip and get to see the world.

We are a family who strongly believes in world travel, and this trip to Japan would have been our 4th with EF Tours. Not that any of that matters. I just visited my account page to find that my entire account had been deleted...all of it. No payment records, no prior trips, nothing. Why would this be? Probably so that I can't start disputing my monthly payments from the past two years. My son is a senior. He wanted to see Japan. EF Tours "redirecting" the trip to a place he does not want to go is not "Peace of Mind." This policy is just plain wrong, we deserve refunds, and I refuse to believe I just "donated" $3700 to your crooked company. You are insured to the eyeballs, yet we can't receive our money back?! Parents, don't do it. It's not worth the risk. read more

Do not trust this company. Terrible tours and way overpriced. They will use any excuse and opportunity to make money, and they do not care about the customer. Ridiculous fees. (Oh yes, they are spelled out in fine print buried at the back of the brochure). For example, $200-$800 to add a middle name to the ticket (to agree with passport) if it is within 110 days. 110 days????? Almost 4 months? Don't expect a reminder email either. Tickets are not even printed by then, airline charges nothing to change it, yet EF will charge up to $800 for a couple of key strokes? And try asking them why the fee is so large. First they will tell you it is the airline, then a non-existent middleman. You will never get a straight answer until they slip up and let you know that they are the ones pocketing the fees. Stay away! Just another one of these egregious companies sticking a noble idea in their name to hornswoggle the unwary. Really, I mean, the address is "2 Education Circle" in the same city where Harvard is located???? Clever, clever, clever. read more

The worse tour agency out there, and they work directly with schools. My son was signed for a Summer 2020 tour, and of course it was rescheduled, however, he can not go, and we have no use for the voucher they are trying to offer to us. They are charging me a cancelation fee during Pandemic!!!! Run from this company. They steel your money! read more

Trying to cancel within the penalty free period and it's mandatory to speak with someone but no one ever answers the phone or returns calls from the "call back" option. Wasted hours on hold and still cannot get through!!! We are filing fraud with our bank and formally complaining with BBB! read more

Sadly, I have already paid for over half of a trip I'll be taking in July. I just received an email notifying me that if I want to room with my niece, who is the only female youth in her group, I will have to pay $50 a day. In addition, they've already nicked and dimed me for everything- I even had to pay a $50 fee to have auto draft payment- a service that saves them money. The customer service is horrible, and I am honestly dreading this experience. read more

Original date was cancelled due to COVID but still charging me $500 in cancellation fees. Horrible company. read more

I have been trying to cancel a tour due to Covid and travel advisories, or reschedule to a future date. Departure is this week. No response on emails, so I have been calling and I have been on hold for almost five hours now and the recording keeps saying I am in the #2 position in the queue. FIVE HOURS! Their website is full of lies about booking with flexibility and risk-free reservations without cancellation penalties. NOT TRUE. This is my second trip having to cancel due to Covid and we never got a penny back on either one. read more

Do not use EF. I was warned about them by colleagues, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Their prices might be lower, but don't let that lure you in. I am a High School teacher in Texas and initially planned a Costa Rica trip for summer 2020. That trip never happened because of the pandemic. It was postponed until summer 2021 and it still didn't happen. EF did not provide full refunds as they should have. Instead, the offered vouchers for a future trip. Most of these students were seniors and didn't want to travel later. The other option was to refund money paid MINUS a $500 fee. $500!!! Now, they will try to talk your head off about how they are actually losing money and what not but this is entirely untrue. I had somewhere around 30 students cancel because the trips keep getting postponed and EF made $500 off of each of those students. I have trip scheduled for March 2022 and have some students wanting to drop. They have a friend that is willing to take their place. EF will NOT allow them to do a simple swap. The currently enrolled student will drop and lose $500 and the new traveller will enroll at the current rate which is $1000 more than the original price. I have tried to make them see how this is wildly irrational but they won't budge. read more

Last year, I was a host mom to a foreign exchange student placed from EF (my second one) I must say I am extremely disappointed in the lack of professionalism, lack of response, lack of empathy, lack of involvement that EF has shown. In one particular case, I called Jen Difendorf, one of the directors. I was told that I could only speak to Jen in "urgent" situations. Apparently Jen did not think this was "urgent" enough and passed me off to one of her subordinates, Fernanda. BTW: I had previously tried to contact Fernanda four (4) times with no response, ever. I even left Fernanda a message expressing my disappointment that she would not return a phone call!! In another urgent situation, I again called Jen and in this particular instance it was URGENT and of a potentially criminal and abusive nature. Two of the coordinators had taken approximately 8 foreign exchange students on a camping trip with a man who, 4 months later was arrested for molesting children on camping trips. Two weeks after his arrest, the kids saw it on TV and were extremely upset! I contacted the police and also EF. Again, I called Jen and left a detailed message . Again this was not URGENT enough for her to respond. Again, she passed me off to Fernanda. ( I did not want to speak with Fernanda, as she is utterly useless). Via FB, the kids all told me that they wanted a meeting, amongst themselves, without an EF coordinator or host parents. I agreed to host it a my house! One of the coordinators, Tina totally nixed the idea, telling the host mom of two of the girls, that this was not an EF sanctioned event. So the host mom forbade them from coming to the meeting. Keep in mind that Tina was one of the coordinators that planned the trip with the alleged child molester. She even told me that the 2 girls already had closure and didn't need to come to the meeting!! The girls told me that they never told Tina that and that they really wanted to have a meeting!! I spoke with Jen, who from Boston told me that everything had been handled, the kids all had individual telephone conversations with Fernanda, nothing had happened, everyone has been notified and everything is fine. Really?!! For the record, one student had been acting out of character; staying in his room, disengaged, uncommunicative, among other things. He ended up transferring to another host family in Milwaukee. There are several other Foreign Exchange Student programs available, I would certainly NEVER use EF again!! read more

My daughter booked a vacation with this company and because of Covid they canceled her trip and then she rebooked another trip spent all that time on the phone and they canceled that trip now they refused to give her her money back and I tried calling them and they put you on forever hold this is not a real legit company these are scammers that don't hold up their end of the bargain and they know $1500 is not enough to go up and sue them in a court of law but I'm gonna try other avenues there's got to be a way to get my daughters money back perhaps I'll send them over to a collection agency or something. I have a company myself and I know what it's like to have situations that have to be tended to that don't always benefit the company but to stay legitimate and to be a good and trusted company you must respect the people that trusted you and if you don't you will fail I have actually never seen such low ratings for any company read more

Education First is a scam. Do not spend your money. It is expensive and not an accredited language program. First-hand experience sending my son to France. 1. The teachers were not good, my son barely learned French 2. The EF counselors did not supervise activities appropriately, and my son was injured. No one was supervising the kids. 3. They charge extra for all activities after you have paid thousands of dollars. 4. The extra activities are also a scam. For example, they told the kids that it cost 60 euro to take the boat from Saint Raphael to Saint Tropez. This is what they charged the kids for this activity. In fact, the boat round trip is 32 euros and the bus round trip is 6 euros, so the kids each paid an extra 30 euros just to take a boat, and there was no activity once they got to Saint Tropez. 5. EF said that on the weekend they would take the kids to Monaco and to a water park. They never took the kids to either, instead they said that the kids could go to the beach. read more

Sounded great - booked and paid for tour with our school however when they didn't have enough people sign up and we didn't want to go with people we didn't know we lost $1400 and then it's taken them over 6 weeks to mail refund check to us. Claimed mailed to wrong address when I called after a month to see where the funds were - then said have to cancel, reissue, etc - still have not received our refund. Would not recommend using them unless you have money to lose. Sounds great - experience awful! read more