I just can't get over how many corners EFtours cuts. They take you to CHEAP hotels and serve you CHEAP meals at restaurants rated 3 stars. This is alright for kids, but for adults that have any expectations, it's severely disappointing. It's been brought up countless times by other people and beaten like a dead horse, yet EFtours KEEPS DOING THE SAME THING. Please.... PLEASE change your business model! I'm tired of going to hotels that have roaches. I'm tired of going to hotels that claim that they have a gym/sauna and don't. I'm tired of going to hotels that have front doors that won't lock. I'm tired of going to hotels without working WIFI. I'm tired of going to dinner and getting served CHEAP no-topping cheese pizza and no drink options other than water. Diet anything or even tea would be great, but EF takes the free route with water. You'll pay $4000+ and they'll milk that for profits... that's all it is. On a positive note, our main tour guide was AWESOME. read more

Went on a trip to Europe with 25 parents/students. Got stuck in airport for 17.5 hrs.. Air Canada awful to deal with.. EF was not much better until i shared knowledge of them being sued for over 1.6 million.. lost a whole day of our trip and now the EF rep we had from the states wont call or email us back. Knowing we deserve compensation from the headache, mental and physical stress we experienced and a terrible beginning of what was to be a lifetime experience. We lost a night of hotel expenses, excursions we were scheduled to do. Out of pocket expenses while being displaced for over a day. The only good thing from EF was our tour guide. She was amazing. Id give her 5 stars but the other part of the trip was -4 stars... read more

Do not book with @EFtours or @goaheadtours They have cancelled two trips and we have to pay 2 separate cancelation fees ($1000!!) additionally the food and hotels are not as promised. read more

Sorry, but I booked. Then, I had 30 days and tried to cancel because my baby has been in the hospital over and over. We just couldn't afford it anymore. However, I was not only out the $95 but also the $540 that I had paid for my son because he'd be traveling all alone... all that to say, the trip wasn't even until summer 2025 and we can't afford to lose all $635 dollars. But, here we are. No grace and no mercy extended from this company or insurance. read more

I have now been waiting for 8 weeks for a refund. No one at this place has any information. If you ask to speak to someone in charge, they say there isn't anyone. If you ask to speak to the legal department, they give you an address. They absolutely refuse to return my money. This company is completely ridiculous! read more

I would give less than one star if possible. EF tours continues to take advantage of students as the world opens up and returns to more normal conditions. Son's Costa Rica tour was postponed a year (ok with that, I get it), but even thought the country is open with no vaccine or other health requirement, EF tour continues to require them even if student has medical exemption. And, this all was not part of the original contract signed. They feel it is ok to change their contract at any time and still not offer full refund. To boot, there has been a lack of communication about those changes. I was just informed the day before the deadline to cancel. Stay far away from this company. read more

I am sharing some of the key issues with this EF Tours company, based on what I experienced first-hand (as a parent of a LISD student) and heard from close friends. These educational tours are NOT affiliated with Independent School Districts. If there is any issue with this trip, ISD can NOT offer any support and simply step aside. * EF tours is a HORRIBLE company. Look into their google reviews before sending your children with them. Their rating is 1.5 out of 5. https://www.yelp.com/biz/ef-educational-tours-cambridge-3 * Look at BBB and you will find thousands of complaints. * All the support staff travelling with your kids get a free ticket (air fare, hotel, food, transportation, etc.), which was taken from students' share of payment. And most of those people go for sight-seeing on their own and will NOT stay with your kids in any city. Simply they are enjoying it with your money and give a 5-star rating to EF-tours raising their review ratings. If only students' ratings are considered, this company gets a half star rating. * They overcharge students & parents. Teachers and their families go free on student's money. As a teacher, you bring 6 students, and you get 1 free ticket from EF Tours for you or your family member. So, you bring 24 students and the teacher's whole family of 4 can go on tour 100% free. * They change the trip schedule and cost anytime. If you make full payment (say $4000) and 1 month down the line, the cost will become $6000, and you will be notified of the pending balance $2000. If you cannot afford that, you will have to cancel and lose almost $1000. Their risk-free cancellation period is 1 week, and they have the right to change the trip schedule and cost any time. PLEASE READ THEIR POLICIES VERY CLOSELY and they are written in such a way to benefit them anyway. * Teenage students need to share small, cheap & filthy rooms with 4 other students and struggle for bathrooms, share beds, etc. These hotel rooms are comparable to US homeless shelters. * I am sure your kids will bring home a lot of bedbugs and diseases from those cheap hotels. * No lunches will be provided. Cheap breakfast and dinners from low-cost road-side places will be given to students. * No vegetarian / vegan food options. So, they will surely struggle with hunger. Kids with food allergies - pray to God, as no one can save them. * Tour guides know nothing about the respective cities. EF tours have a connection with local companies, and they randomly send anyone they can find. * The money parents pay for their child (to EF Tours) is good for the whole family to travel on their own. i.e., EF Tours trip cost is 3 to 4 times more expensive. * Kids will spend a lot of time waiting for cheap transportation or hours in commute (below average buses) as EF tours book hotels that are cheap and far away. * Bad customer service and you must wait 2 hours to speak with someone. * Your teen kids will surely miss the connecting flights and sleep on the airport floor and their customer service does not answer your calls. So, you will not know when they can take the next flights. This is due to their cheap tickets, too less / high connection times. You will surely lose 2 days' worth of time due to their cheap planning in flight connections. * Absolutely no / bad medical support, which costs outrageous. * They don't care about young kids! All they care about is money! No due diligence, just a BAD tour company to send your kids with. Best thing is to STAY AWAY from this company. read more

I just got back from an EF college study tour to France and Germany (which was actually an alumni tour with adults of a wide range of ages, 20s to 70s). The trip was originally scheduled for 2020 and was postponed twice due to Covid. The rebooking/rescheduling and communication about it from EF was acceptable. Our EF tour leader was a gem - knowledgeable, funny and kind, and he was genuinely distressed over some issues that occurred on the trip that were out of his control and for which he got little support from EF. He deserves to work for a more supportive company. The university professors who organized the tour worked hard to give us fabulous, hands-on learning experiences. I lead student travel for my school, so I know how much work it takes to organize and communicate about such a trip. However, everyone should know that EF is well-known among educators for a few issues on tours - especially overseas tours - in terms of hotels, meals, and transportation. First, hotels: Our hotels in 3 different cities were not central to anything we actually were doing on the tour. I knew this would be the case going in because of prior experience with EF. It's one thing when you have to take a longer train or bus ride to your hotel as a traveling group of teenagers or university students. It's another thing when you have a group of adults of all ages, some of whom walk with canes. EF saves money by going as cheaply as they can on the hotels. Our accommodations were clean, the hotels had decent lobbies with bars, the rooms were in decent repair, but the beds were minimal with thin pillows - true budget hotel nature. But, when it takes a 30-minute train ride to get from anything you're doing in Paris back to your hotel, it puts a downer on the experience. I would have gladly paid a bit more to have a hotel that was on the Metro line in Paris and not one that required an RER trip well outside the city center. (And, I know this can be accomplished within a more "budget" price because I traveled to Paris in 2019 with a different student travel company for a very similar price and stayed in a Paris neighborhood in a budget hotel and not a suburb.) Our two hotels in Germany were slightly closer to the city centers but still required train or taxi rides to get to them conveniently rather than being able to easily walk back. This makes it difficult when you're on a tour as we were where we were having a wide variety of hands-on experiences that left us with learning materials/gifts to hold on to. It would have been nice to be close enough to easily go back to the hotel and drop some stuff off before returning back out to explore. (We did not have charter bus transportation within two of the three cities we explored.) Food: EF's group meals are notoriously mediocre. I experienced this back in the late 1980s as a high school student on a tour, and it hasn't changed since then. We only had two group dinners included on the 10-day trip I just completed. So, other than the hotel breakfast each morning (adequate), our money paid to EF only covered two dinners; that's it. And, one was at a restaurant in Paris that's basically an "EF group factory cafe" that provided a very average French bistro meal. The other was at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, where not only did we wait over 2 hours to even be served, we got only an entree and some potatoes, and a very cheap dessert (fruit with some cream) - no salad or appetizer of any sort and only one drink included despite the long wait. Our EF guide and our university leaders had to fight with the head waiter, the manager, and the chef to get us served anything at all in that amount of time. Some of our group were giving up and ready to leave and go to another restaurant. In traveling with a different student travel company to France just 3 years ago, we had multiple other meals included in the trip price and were often offered a choice of plates at those restaurants, even on a group pricing situation. Additionally, they were all better local spots that weren't necessarily there to cater to groups. Transportation: We were supposed to be picked up by bus from CDG in Paris, but instead EF arranged 3 vans where we had to cram in and therefore had no seatbelts. It was unsafe. Also, part of our group paid extra for a side trip to Normandy where the bus company EF contracted arrived over an hour late to pick them up and then later left them stranded on the side of a French highway on the way back when the bus driver had a mental breakdown. (No joke.) When they called the EF emergency hotline, they got no assistance. None. They ended up booking Ubers to get back to a train station. Also, our bus from France to Germany arrived at our hotel almost two hours late, but at least that driver was awesome for the rest of the trip. In short, EF does everything in a pretty average manner, so know that going in. In my experience, WorldStrides and ACIS are both much better student travel companies. read more

I organized three travel groups with EF. Overall, EF provided a lot of support to me as a teacher and led me through the process of getting the trips going. The trips themselves are exciting and students get to see a lot of sites. Students also spend a lot of time on the bus, not sure how this can be avoided. THESE TRIPS ARE DESIGNED FOR STUDENTS, NOT ADULTS. Please keep this in mind if you decide to travel with your children. We've had a few centrally located hotels, but one hotel was over an hour away from Lucerne and another time it wasn't a hotel at all, but some type of dormitory style school/training center. With the exception of the latter hotel, all hotels were very nice, but usually located about 30 -40 minutes from the sites we wanted to see. I had to step down from my trip this year and EF shut off all communication to me and only communicated with the new tour leader. This happened even though we had left things as I would be providing the parents and students with information. I've had parents asking all kinds of questions as is common, but I've had no answers for them. I don't know why the tour consultants at EF decided to treat a repeat customer like this, but now I'm looking for a new tour provider. Any suggestions? read more

If you want your money stolen from your child who has worked for a year to save up for his senior trip, than this is the educational tour for you. He has learned that people steal your money and don't have any decency. Thanks for the lesson. I will make sure that I let everyone know what great service you have. The trip was insured and due to the worldwide epidemic, you decided to make an exception and steal the students' money. Disasters bring out the best and worst in people. This epidemic has brought out your worst. I wouldn't give you any stars but it won't let me. read more

EF Tours does not care about your children or their experience and will steal your money. My daughter was supposed to go to Japan as an 8th grader in May 2021 but the trip was canceled due to Covid. They subsequently gave us two future Japan tour options with a different school so we chose the March 2022 trip. They have since canceled the trip again because Japan is not allowing visitors due to Covid. When I called EF to again reschedule to a future Japan trip, they told me I would have to figure out which of our local schools are travelling to Japan in the future or take the alternate trip they were offering to Belize. My daughter specifically wanted to experience Japan, Belize is not a substitute! I asked if they could tell me which schools and what timeframe the next Japan tours are planned like they did the first time they canceled but they said that they did that only as a "favor" to their customers the previous time but they wouldn't do it this time. So I'm supposed to do all the leg work and call every school in the city even though they have this information at their fingertips??? I immediately asked for a refund since they weren't willing to help whatsoever to schedule a future Japan tour. They said it would take 4-6 weeks to get a refund and they keep $500 for the cancellation! So EF collected $3,753 over two years, earned interest, canceled the tour twice, gave me an alternate tour that is nothing like what I paid for, and now keeps $500? They are absolutely ridiculous and I am filing a lawsuit to recover my stolen money. This company is crooked, do not give them your hard earned dollars! UPDATE: They brought their internal and external attorneys to a small claims trial! After they refused to give in at mediation, the judge threw out my case because their terms and conditions stipulate that a case must be brought in Massachusetts. They probably spent more in attorney fees than what they owed me so I'm satisfied. It's just better not to deal with this crooked organization. READ ALL THEIR FINE PRINT. It only protects them, not your children. read more

Not a tour review, but a EF tour policy comment. Please be aware that there is a huge penalty if you enrolled for the tour and decided to cancel. If you cancel 150 days or more prior to the tour date, there is a $395 cancellation fee involve. If you are inside of the 150 days, the cancellation fee goes up. I understand that there may be other agencies involve with the tour, but it is still a lot of money especially for parents who are trying their best for their child's education. Other big travel agencies don't even charge for cancellation. Please do your due diligent before signing up for your child. Learn from our mistake. read more

Son wanted to go on a trip with his class to Japan so I started making payments. The total was $4200. and some change. First the trip was rescheduled, which was ok, then they said that my son had to be vaccinated so I cancelled the trip. They charged $70 to make payments, charged $165. For protection plan, then charged $500. For cancelling the trip. The trip was 102 days away from departure. I feel I was ripped off and Im going to make some noise and see what I can do to get my money back. read more

Poor communication and poorly organized. We were left stranded in Paris walking and riding the metro because EF overbooked the buses. Our group did not get to go to the Eiffel Tower because we did not have a bus! So disappointing!! We had to carry all our belongings with us for the entire day because the bus that dropped us off in the morning was not the same one to pick us up in the evening. Hotels were over an hour and a half outside of the cities, nowhere close to anything! We did not have enough hotel rooms when we were in Paris. Aurora, was very nice, but not organized. Don't expect to get any money back for any activities/excursions on the itinerary that get canceled or changed. Overall, the trip was exhausting and disappointing. I will not travel with EF again. Save money and use a travel agent to plan and prepare a much better trip! read more

My son was set for the Amsterdam/Paris 2023 tour. I deeply regret my involvement with this unconscionable company. Had I thoroughly vetted this company instead of naively believing they were legitimate or reasonable due their affiliation with the district, I would've never invested a dime. I've traveled with Sister Cities International and have never encountered such shady business practices. I attempted calling and initiating chats with this company for two weeks without ever reaching a customer service representative due to staffing shortages. Red Flag. When I finally spoke to a representative about my concerns regarding the conflict/war in Europe and my apprehension about sending my child overseas not knowing how events would continue to unfold, she (very cavalier) plowed through the verbiage detailing the company's ridiculously greedy cancellation policy. She didn't care or apologize for the poor responsiveness of the company. The $300 cancellation fee snowballed into a figure around $600. They kept the travel protection insurance $165, the non-refundable deposit $95, and the "manual payment plan fee $50." They kept $610 dollars of my hard earned money...even with the threat of a Third World War. No way to treat hard working families during such uncertain times. I had to bite the bullet in order to secure the "quickly filling" spots on the trip. I feel scammed. read more

Ok... don't get me wrong... our tour guide (shout out to Simone!) was incredible... BUT EF really messed up our trip (we did the Italy and Spain tour). We arrived at the ATL airport early in the morning, only to find out that EF forgot to confirm our flight. Yep, completely forgot to... click a button. We could have done better ourselves. We were stuck there and missed another day in Rome (we were already missing one because our flight got cancelled, but that one, I acknowledge, was not EF's fault). Our teachers figured something out to where part of the group was able to fly out directly to Rome, but the majority had to wait it out. Those of us who didn't have a direct flight ended up having a long layover and got to explore Amsterdam (everything we bought in the ATL and AMS airports and Amsterdam--i.e. train tickets, food--will supposedly be refunded, but we haven't received any info on how to do that). The rest of the trip, once we arrived in Italy, went relatively smoothly. There were a couple of hitches that we had to make up for ourselves, though. One morning, when we had to make it to our tour time for the Royal Palace in Madrid, EF had straight-up forgotten to set up a bus for us for the day, so we had to call around 10 cabs for our 50 person group. We would have had to find a way to find cabs to take us to Toledo if our guide hadn't called his girlfriend, who helped him arrange a bus for us. Another disappointment was that seeing the Sagrada Familia did not involve going inside and taking a tour. (this was a common theme: we saw the Florence Cathedral from the outside, but there wasn't time allotted or tickets purchased for us to be able to go in). A few of us used our free time/lunch break in Barcelona to go. I've been told it's a minor miracle that we got the tickets the night before. Would've been nice if EF had made that clearer. We were in Valencia for 2 nights, and EF had planned for us to have dinner in the hotel both of those. Our teacher chaperones and tour guide ended up working out a way to get cash from EF so that we could get dinner in the city. I did have a wonderful experience with my friends and saw so many cool places. The trip was a great introduction to traveling abroad. I largely attribute this to the teachers from my school who came and our guide. It would have been even better if EF could have gotten their act together instead of forcing our teachers to stress over planning a trip as it happened, one they didn't expect to plan. So the bottom line is, EF is really good at only 2 things: making mistakes and hiring awesome tour guides who have to fix all of their problems. read more

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We paid in full and were sold a cancellation insurance policy for my son's trip through EF Explore who canceled the trips twice despite other people still traveling during this time. 2 years later my son no longer attends the school and EF only wants to offer a voucher for the full amount. They refunded all but $350 and told me directly that I would need to file a claim for all but the registration I paid them from Seven Corners and the policy amount for trip insurance for the $150. I filed a claim with Seven Corners in early October. On October 20 I finally received a response they needed more information which was sent immediately. I did not get a response until I reached out on their Facebook post about their family game room with a ping pong table in mid January. They said Covid made things busy to promptly respond to claims (I think ping pong was the culprit) and they promptly denied they claim as fast as they took my money stating that the child no longer at the school qualified as a cancellation covered. They did not respond for months and when a review was left they responded with a denied claim and money not refunded is for work that we never received the benefits from. I have been back and forth (like ping pong) with both companies denying any responsibility for what I was told was covered. What I was told by EF was not what was sold to me. Between the coordinated effort between the two companies, they make the process as difficult as possible so you will give up. Do not use this company and save your money on the insurance. I will not be using either EF Tours or Seven Corners ever again. read more

If I could give this company zero stars I would. They took over half of my girlscouts money as a penalty for canceling a trip and transferring the money to another EF tour account! read more

I can't warn you enough about EF tours and the 21 and 22 year olds who work there and are the managers responsible for the emergencies, travel, and hiccups along the way. My 16 y/o signed up late (2 months before) for which we paid extra. They then put him on separate (indirect) flights to France which we thought was a mistake. The travel from the U.S.A. to France was beyond stressful and we asked that they change it for the way home given that they were flying home on July 4 weekend and the airline industry is fragile and broken (i.e., we didn't want him stuck alone at Charles DeGaulle airport!). We spent DAYS trying to change his flight and were met with a manager (who was 24) who say she was sorry that there was nothing she could do. Eventually, our tour leader/chaperone was able to convince someone to place him with the rest of the group. DO NOT USE EF. They are horribly run, irresponsible, and not the least bit helpful under stress. read more

DON'T DO IT!!!! Here's the quick version...We had a flight cancellation (EF booked flights), and after being delayed/stranded for 36 hrs awaiting EF's decision, they cancelled the trip and sent us home before we ever made it to our destination country. Despite EF being refunded by airlines (I have proof), they have refused to refund over $11,000 that we paid for a trip that was not delivered. Insurance company only works with EF and will not give actual customer any information despite being the one that purchased policy. When I spoke with EF, I was told, 'if we weren't willing to risk losing a refund due to cancellation, we should have rethought group travel to begin with'. This is how they treat the future leaders of our world. Bad business practices?? $11,000 and my son has literally not a thing to show for it?!?!?!?! Looking into legal options now against both... read more

Most reviews here are about cancellations, bad food, horrible customer service, money scam. Well, let me tell you what happened to us! WE GOT KICKED OUT! Not only EF Tours employ unprofessional customer service representatives, they employ the worst teachers and chaperones! Those people travel for free at our kids expense! On June 13, I traveled on Adriatic Odyssey tour with my son and daughter. The Group Leader was the teacher from my kids middle school, her husband was a chaperone. From the very beginning she was picking on my son and made him a subject of bullying. She would complain that he is too loud, his voice is annoying, laughing too much, using his phone too much, etc. She forcefully took away his phone during the Catacombs visit when he used it as flashlight. She sent him to my room as a punishment. She was preventing him to approach his friend. I did my best to cooperate with her and keep him away. Because he stayed in my room other kids were making fun of him, and the situation was getting worse. On the 7th day of the tour during 5-hour bus trip from Delphi to Athens three boys including my son got engaged in bickering. They were all loud, however, words they used were not profanity or anything derogatory. Next day our Group Leader during an excursion to the museum informed me that she is sending us home! Her words "I've had enough! I haven't enjoyed this trip so far. I don't want to look after your son on the cruise. I contacted EF and they've booked you a flight home!" According to their rules the GL can kick out anyone and they must pay for the tickets back home themselves! To cut the long story short, my husband and I called numerous people to complain about this insanity. EF finally agreed to find the accommodation for us in Athens, but we were not allowed to be on the cruise! Being a sh..ty service they did not provide me with the hotel right away, so I paid for it out of pocket. They said they'll reimburse me later. At least we were allowed to fly back with the rest of the group upon their return from the cruise. My daughter was on the cruise but she had a miserable time due to this messy situation. She was embarrassed and just stayed in the room when she could. So now we are back home and I've been trying to find the right person, number, or email to whom I can submit my complaint. I was given a bogus email, I was told to call the number again and again, their chat is useless, they just say - call this number! Today I wrote two more emails. and I will pursue until I get a satisfactory reply. As for the teacher, I reported this situation to the school principal and the school district. She abandoned us in the foreign country and the school should take responsibility as they allowed her to promote EF trip among the students. UPDATE. The EF Tours agreed to reimburse me for one hotel night. They cover their a** by making you sign all kinds of papers. My miserable experience and distress means nothing to them. Please save your money and never travel with them! read more

Man where to start. Communication is no so great! The school teacher is using them and I am not a fan at all. Teacher talks about a scholarship but guess what it passed before the school season started. I am also nervous with all the places on the list hopefully they will get to see stuff and not be rushed. I will add more once they get back. But run for real run read more

Absolutely horrible company. Our daughter has a food allergy which is pretty common these days and this company is of no help. We would think a company that coordinates student trips as a business would have a plan for students with allergies but they don't. Our daughter will be eating granola bars for 4 days that we send her with and we will probably not get compensated for our child not being able to eat any of the meals. read more

Booked a trip that was cancelled due to Covid. When I tried to get my money back, I was told they would not be refunding the money and either had to take a $450 "cancellation fee" (even though they cancelled) or use a voucher for a new booking. I tried to file a claim with the insurance packaged with the trip, but since EF cancelled and not me personally, my claim was denied. Stay far away from this company read more

The second day everything was okay until the dinner . They started with bread, which was clearly old because it was very chewy. The service was kind of slow and the first dish was cooked vegetables. The vegetables were cold and worst of all multiple students had hair in and on the vegetables and the next dish, the rice. The rice was flavorless and tasted like dish water, and again more hairs in it. And a bug was found in the water. When some people told the staff they stood behind the bar and laughed. The last was the tirimisu, it was mushy and clearly old, almost nobody ate that night, we had to order our own food later. Students said they felt sick during and after and some gagged. One child only ate the parmesan that was meant to go on top of the bread, another child gagged on a hair, there was 4 people who had hair in their food. I needed a gluten free meal and it definitely had gluten in it as I am still sick from it. Our other chaperone seized in my arms this morning and I really think that the food had a lot to do with it. The people at the restaurant were laughing at our expence was the worst. They know what they are doing to EF tourists and they enjoy being ugly to us. Laughing at the bug being in the water that they served us was uncalled for and making saffron rice in a pan is so cheap. It costs 89 cents to buy in America and they served it to us as a main course. It was like we were eating grewl. Prisoners have better food and treatment. We were a joke to them and one hair is a mistake, 4 or more in a row, and a bug is absolutely disgusting and disgraceful. I still feel sick and one of the students last night is diabetic and had an episode because there wasn't proper nutrition on the plate. We were treated like we were subhuman and these kids come from families that don't have a lot of money and worked really hard to get here. This was absolutely cruel and should not be tolerated. I see how EF gets it' money. It gives restaurants a certain amount of money and with that money they can pick out whatever they want to serve us which is normally subpar and does not give us a good idea of what the culture is like. I am hoping that we get to have a moment to ourselves so that we actually get a moment to where we can try what the actual cuisine is supposed to taste like. These restrants are taking advantage of its tourists and EF if EF thinks that the food is suitable consumption. This place should not be on our tour let alone be in business. They do not care about people and they made it very clear that they don't like Americans and that they are the butt of the joke to them. Feeling us thier hair, a bug, and plastic in our 98 cent rice and stale/old bread and laughing at our distress is inhumane. My chaperone ended up having a seizure in my arms the following morning due to dehydration from the food poisoning that she had had the previous night. It was absolutely terrifying. I could barely hold her up and I had two students help me put her on the ground of the bus as bus drove and we tried to get her back to consciousness. Once she got back to consciousness we gave her some water and she ended up throwing up the previous night's dinner. Ironically, it was not the dinner that had the hair and bugs in it that gave us all food poisoning. It was the dinner that we got the night after. My chaperone managed to get her bearings a little bit, but continued to throw up on the way to our destination. We decided that it would be in her best interest for her to take a taxi to go back to the hotel to rest for the rest of the day. The students at this point started to realize that the restaurants that we were going to were not on the up and up, so they would check their scores beforehand to see what they fared online and all the restaurants that we went to had a below three star rating. People complained online about how pour the establishments were is also included the hotels in which we stayed in which also had very low ratings. We now realize how EF is able to make profit from our trips is for the fact that these places that they're choosing are such low ratings is probably super cheap to book them. They also seem to give only a certain amount of money to these restaurants in the restaurants fix us, gruel for dinner instead of the actual food which is on the menu for others. This was a commonality for all the restaurants. read more

Crooks taking money from kids to go on trips that are then changed after you sign up. He signed up for Japan, they changed it to Iceland.

This company steals your money and preys on opportunities to take advantage of people. I received an email that they changed their COVID policies after I was already paid in full and I booked the trip before COVID for my child. My child has a serious health condition that prevents her from getting vaccinated. They do not care they will not issue a full refund even though they are the one that made the change. When I booked I there weren't any regulations or I obviously would not have booked. They are benefiting off this situation and it is sickening. They are thieves and should be shut down. This would be zero stars if I could! read more

I just tried to rebook a tour that I cancelled ONCE because there were a lot of unanswered questions and confusion regarding the initial reservation. One of the issues concerned the cancellation window. Although, I paid the full cost of the tour, I was only given 72 hours for a full refund. Their website specifically stated that if you pay in full you are given 60 days for a 100% refund. I told EF Tours that I wanted to do some additional research to make sure the trip was right for me. The total trip cost was several thousand dollars. Apparently EF Tours don't like it when a traveler cancels a tour. They should understand that any reasonable person would want to make sure they are spending their hard-earned money wisely. I am completely shocked they were reluctant to rebook the tour. Thank goodness they are not the only tour company available. read more

There was poor supervision. Hotels are at least an hour away from the city. Kids spent 3 hours on a bus getting to the hotel from London the first night. Some tours were not prebooked so the other group that joined us went in to Windsor castle while our kids were given "free time". Chaperones bought their own tickets to go in! read more

If I could give this company zero stars I would. It's been almost a month since we came back from our trip. We didn't have the best experience. We were introduced to EF tours through our daughter's school in El Paso , which gave us an air of easiness in some way. However, if you have kids younger than 14 years-old, I hope you do a thorough research before making a decision. EF Tours does not care for kid's safety. If you are promised a family room or told that there will be no problem with keeping your kids with you, then ask them for something in writing. EF tour leaders in El Paso are not trustworthy and take no accountability, so be extremely careful. My daughter is a 12 year-old and the tour leader refused to allow us to keep her with us in the same room and threatened us with kicking us out of the tour if we didn't obey her rules. I had several conversations with this person (tour leader) trying to make her understand that kids's safety is extremely important. We all bear the responsibility of protecting them and that the awareness of a 12 year-old is not the same as 15+, but she didn't care. My daughter was exposed to very disturbing and obscene noises at night (it was recorded), she couldn't sleep and was afraid for her safety. When I reported this to the tour leader, her response was "it's part of the European culture and student experience". Really! We are talking about 12-year old, this answer is unacceptable. To put in perspective, college students left their room and move with their parents because they felt more comfortable and safe with them. So, how come this EF Tour leader did allow college students to stay with their parents and not a 12 year-old who was terrified for her safety? It was a nightmare. I strongly believe that EF Tour leaders could have done a better job with the kid's rooming. I already reported this to EF Tour company and have not received a response or an apology for how we were treated during our trip. I wouldn't recommend EF Tours to any family. read more

I would recommend anyone but these people. Read the reviews. There are horrible experiences out there. They took our money and delivered nothing. 8 thousand dollars! Seriously look anywhere else. Remember I told you so. you will regret doing any business with these people. Keep you money and burn it instead. It will at least keep you warm while you throw it away. read more

Only care care about squeezing as much money from the patrons as possible. Horrible flights, revolting food, cheapest in-country travel as possible, and terrible customer service. read more

My recent trip to Italy with Education First (EF) Tours was an absolute nightmare, leaving me deeply disappointed and regretful of my decision to book with this company. From the lackluster hotels to the subpar meals and inadequate planning, it was an experience that I would not wish upon anyone. Let's start with the hotels. Not only were they located over an hour away from major cities, but the breakfast provided was a repetitive and unappetizing affair. Stale croissants, sweaty cheese, and bad coffee became the unfortunate norm. It's baffling how EF Tours could choose hotels that offer such a limited and unappetizing breakfast spread, considering the importance of a good start to the day, especially when embarking on a busy travel itinerary. To make matters worse, the lack of transportation options further hindered our exploration of the cities. When we needed a taxi to take us to Rome for a night out, we were informed that our hotel was too far for them to provide service. This left us stranded in our Hotel. The excessive amount of time spent on the bus traveling to various destinations was another major letdown. Instead of maximizing our time in each location, we found ourselves trapped in a bus for extended periods, robbing us of the opportunity to fully immerse ourselves in the cultural and historical wonders of Italy. This was a missed opportunity and a poor planning decision on the part of EF Tours. The so-called "free dinner" was a dismal experience as well. We were herded into the basements of restaurants that offered no choices in the menu. The food, predominantly pasta with tasteless tomato sauce, lacked any semblance of flavor. This lack of variety and consideration for dietary preferences or restrictions is unacceptable, especially when exploring a country known for its rich culinary heritage. Adding insult to injury, our time in Venice, Italy was woefully inadequate. This beautiful city deserved much more attention and exploration, yet we were hurried through its streets without enough time to truly appreciate its charms. Only a mere 30 minutes of free time to explore this wonder of a city. It felt like a missed opportunity and a disservice to the travelers who were hoping for a more immersive experience. To give credit where it's due, the tour guide and bus driver were the only saving grace of the trip. Their professionalism and expertise managed to salvage some of the experience. They were really a gift during a high stress "vacation". All in all, my experience with Education First (EF) Tours was a complete disaster. From overpriced packages to being trapped in activities we didn't desire, and being served inedible food, it was an overall disappointment. I strongly advise against booking a tour with EF Tours, as there are plenty of other companies that prioritize customer satisfaction, quality accommodations, and well-planned itineraries. EF tours seem to maximize their profits without any consideration of their patrons. My son and I worked hard and saved money for over 18 months for this disappointing trip. read more

I'd give this company zero stars if that were an option. Be very, very wary of their cancelation policy. My daughter was scheduled for a trip to Paris with her high school in February 2004 and given the potential safety issues, we decided to withdraw her. Despite the school opting for the peace of mind cancelation insurance, they still kept $800 of our money. read more

DO NOT TOUR WITH THEM! i have been trying to get a refund back for 3 years for a trip that was canceled in 2020. i tried to use their representative chat system on their website and the representative was taking forever with her responses so EF closed before she could tell me what is going on with my refund. I was on that chat system for an HOUR. she asked for my account number 40 minutes before they closed and couldn't do anything? i dont know if i will ever get the thousands of dollars i paid this company back. there is even a 1,000 dollar reduction in my refund i'm trying to get sent to me. i repeat, do not tour with them, just save money and plan an affordable trip on your own. read more

TERRIBLE! We cancelled our daughters trip to the DR 8 Months prior to her departure. We are charged a 500 non refundable fee!! Fee is in three parts: 95.00 deposit, 165 for travel protection, and 240 for misc (fees they state they have to pay to vendors they contract with). DO NOT BOOK with them. I was agreeable to the fees and asked for the 165 to be included back in my refund since she was not traveling and it was so far in advance and they refused. To contact a supervisor, they have a generic email so I was not able to talk to a person. Again, be wary of this company as that kind of fee for cancelation LONG in advance seems excessive. Buyer beware. read more

This tour company does not even deserve any stars! During April vacation, my daughter went on her senior trip with this company to the Dominican Republic. Little did she know that it would not be a memorable experience, but a nightmare! They left on a Sunday and spent the entire day traveling because of connecting flights. They stayed at this B & B that looked like you took prisoners there to torture them! My daughter had shared a room with 3 other girls and they had to deal with bugs falling from the ceiling, not able to get new towels. The second day my daughter and her roommate got sick...vomiting from both ends! Apparently, the food at the B & B was put out and not covered exposed to the elements and they consumed this food as well as drank milk that was sitting (without being placed on ice) for almost 2 hours. Their milk is not pasteurized so susceptible to going bad quick. My daughter ended up having to be brought to the emergency room because she was severely dehydrated from explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting the entire day! The doctor on call admitted her and ran many tests. The head teacher at Lowell Catholic and the tour guide for EF never disclosed to the doctor the fact that my daughter consumed both the milk and the exposed food. After a couple of days of being hospitalized and me being given the opportunity to finally speak with the doctor is when she found out. Her response was, "This is new news to me". Wow! My daughter had to go through all this testing when in the end it was food poisoning. The EF tour guide took a picture of the milk my daughter drank and sent it to me saying the, " it is not expired!" Seriously, expiration date has nothing to do with it! It went bad from sitting out in the hot weather without being put on ice! After begging, my daughter wanted to leave the hospital because she was afraid she would be exposed to some kind of disease considering the conditions of the hospital - horrible! Finally, the doctor reluctantly agreed to release her, but my daughter was still very weak and lethargic!. I wanted to bring her home, but it was recommended that she stay there until she gained strength because the ride to the airport was 2 hours away from the prison they were staying at! So, the first day back, she was told to stay at the inn while the rest of her class went off to enjoy a day of touring. She was left with one bottle of water, dry cheerios, and bananas. By the end of the day, when all returned she begged for food because she was hungry had not really eaten at all for the 3 days in the hospital. She asked for wrapped food because I was told by EF tours that they could provide that. While going back and forth with the head teacher about getting wrapped food, the head teacher said she had to reach out to EF tours to confirm they approved the wrapped food, meanwhile my daughter was starving and sick again in her bathroom. At the same time, the head teacher was demanding that she come down from her room to give her credit card to her so she could get her food. I texted her during this and said that she was sick in her room and could not come out. I begged her to just get food because she could not move from the bathroom. Her response was that she was not spending anymore money because she had already spent $20.00 earlier when my daughter was released from the hospital. Are you kidding me! Refusing to feed my daughter because you do not want to pay for it. After going back and forth with these people, my daughter finally got food delivered 4 hours after she asked for it...it was almost 10pm before she got food. This poor girl was sick on the toilet and neither the EF tour guide or the head teacher would get her food and drink. I have never heard anything like this! After hours of starving, my daughter could not really eat and went to bed hungry. I was woken up by a phone call from my daughter in the middle of the night with her crying that she was in excruciating pain, her chest was hurting (prob from all the vomiting) and she could hardly breathe. I was crying at this point because my poor daughter is stuck in another country with this god awful teacher and a tour company that does nothing to intervene! Needless to say, for the remainder of the trip my daughter could not participate and was sick even for the entire following week after they returned. I reached out to EF asking for a refund and they declined my request over and over. They would say you could talk to highest level of mgmt but to just be pacified and waste my energy and time. EF DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU AND FEEL THAT THEY DO NOT NEED TO REIMBURSE YOU EVEN WHEN YOUR SICKNESS IS BECAUSE OF THEM BRINGING MY DAUGHTER TO A PRISON WHERE SHE CONTRACTED FOOD POISONING! MY DAUGHTER WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SICK IF EF TOOK HER TO A RESORT WHERE THE CONDITIONS WERE NOT CONDEMABLE! WE PAID $4,000.00 FOR MY DAUGHTER TO BE MISTREATED, STARVED, AND PLACED IN A PRISON WHILE SEVERELY SICK!! read more

DO NOT USE EF Tours! My travel companion had an emergency, so we canceled the trip two months in advance. We bought the insurance. It took six months of runaround with Seven Corners Insurance, and they reimbursed us less than half of what we paid for the insurance. My attorney is now involved. Save yourself the headache and your money and don't use this company! read more

I've been traveling to Europe for the past 30 years and for the past 10 years in a row I've been fortunate to take my son with me to different countries and show him how other cultures live, play and explore historic locations, so when I was informed that his senior trip would be going to WW2 locations I was all for it. this was put together by EF tours, and although I never heard about them in the past with the itinerary provided it sounded fantastic and when I was asked to go I jumped at the opportunity to share this with my son. With that said, this has been one of the worst experiences I was ever a part of and I'm happy I was there to witness it first hand. the tour was very uncoordinated and put together as if it were their first tour. the hotel locations are in the worst areas possible and for the most part 1or 2hrs away from anywhere. they pick the cheapest places available with sub standard breakfast that kids started their days with no food due to little to no options. as for the dinners the locations picked were insulting, students were given no choice on what to eat but were handed food as if in a mess hall shelter, and again students either was forced to eat what was given or go back to the hotel after a 14hr day hungry and was almost shunned upon for saying they didn't like the food. and you were supposed to believe this were local foods when the locals would not touch this stuff. I was fortunate to be along with my son and buy him and I food in almost every situation but no one else was that fortunate. the teacher chaperones on the trip would not say a word because they all paid little to nothing to be on this trip unlike myself and every parent who expected our children to be in a safe location and have a decent meal or at least an option which none were ever given, this was an expensive trip and again I do this every year and extremely unhappy. students were left with a bad impression of how beautiful Europe can be with the foods and sites of the areas when we were treated with such disrespect. as for the locations they were as to be expected but for the most part all or most locations were free to get in, and areas that require time to explore you were given 40min to 2hrs at certain locations but free time of 3 to 4hr in hot shopping areas with little to nothing to be seen. we were driven by locations of areas that were never to be seen, 10 min rush in front of the eiffel tower but 40 min to explore a park. local guides were great and very knowledgeable of the areas but again for the amount of money spent on this trip almost 12g for my son and I was not worth it at all. again I am happy I was there to see how this operation played out and see how every paying person on this trip were subjected to sub standard conditions. But unfortunately with all of these bad reviews that the board of education should have reviewed prior to using them will not change a thing because then teachers will not be able to travel for free, well not free paid by every paying person on this tour but themselves. Which is a huge joke in itself. Teachers will never complain about food or boarding when they didn't pay for anything! So beware this is NO bargain save your money and take your child to Europe yourself. read more

They are Thieves! I paid $2500 for my daughters trip. Yes I had to cancel it due to covid restrictions. They said it would be a cancellation fee of $450 then they turn around and say the fee was $1200. Yup they sure did take $1200 to cancel and process a refund check only to mess up the check the first time and have to send out a second one! The employees are rude! They will not let you speak. They speak over you. Will never ever do anything like this again! Save yourself some money and just put money up for a trip for your child! Do not use this company! read more