EF Educational Tours Reviews

The activities and tour guides were wonderful. We were able to see and do so much in a day, and overall the trip was a once in a lifetime experience we will remember forever. My only complaints are about the lodging and food. We spent 3 nights in a claustrophobic hotel room with a view of abandoned buildings. The beds were smaller than twins and the blackout shades were inadequate in a location with 24 hour daylight. The food was mediocre and we were disappointed to not have exposure to more local cuisine.

Date of experience: July 22, 2024

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed Her EF educational tour to London. Her first time in Europe, her trip was filled with historical sites, cultural activities, and must sees and do’s while in London! She raved about her EF tour guide and has already asked about going on the next EF school tour!

Date of experience: July 10, 2024

As a parent on the Italy trip, I can speak first hand to organization and execution of this well planned, yet flexible trip. We had the best tour guide and bus driver ever! We were able to experience a wide range of sights, sounds, and tastes of the country. It was a very physically demanding trip, as it should be, because it's geared for the students. It was a truly amazing, once in a lifetime, experience. We will definitely go again!

Date of experience: July 14, 2024

Everything about the trip was amazing! Working with my TC to plan it was so smooth and fun. We had an incredible time on tour and the Global Leadership Summit was the best yet! Our TD was stellar and everything was planned so well! EF staff is the best there is!

Our trip was the perfect mix of educational and fun! My favorites were the moments where it feels like fun but learning is happening! The Global Leadership Summit is an incredible learning opportunity! No one does student travel like EF!

Date of experience: July 26, 2024

David, our tour guide, was phenomenal! He was very knowledgeable, funny, great with the kids and adults. If there were ever any problems, we never knew about it because he kept everything running so smoothly. I did also enjoy all the activities we did, especially the more adventurous ones like zip lining and whitewater rafting.

Date of experience: July 24, 2024

We took our first EF trip to Scotland and England in July. EF took care of the travel arrangements, hotel accomodations, meal reservations and had an amazing tour guide. It was so nice to just sit back and relax and not have to worry about our next day as it was all planned out. We missed our flight out of Heathrow and our tour guide was in constant contact to help us once we finally arrived in Scotland.

Date of experience: July 09, 2024

Just wonderful exhibits and the hotel location was great. The farm activity before Stonehenge was awesome because it pushed a lot of indoor nerds to try physical problem solving. There were so many great spots near the hotel: Hard Rock Cafe, MinaLima, Lillywhites, All Bar One, China Town, Leicester Square. It’s in the heart of London with easy access to plenty of great places during downtime. Even with the issues of being late and not having enough time at Bletchley Park and the Computer Museum, as well as needing more time in the Science Museum and missing the planetarium shows at the observatory because we were scheduled to leave before they started at 12:45, this trip was one of the best journeys I’ll ever have. I don’t think I’ll ever have one quite like it again.

Date of experience: July 27, 2024

Our tour guide Roy was an expert in so many areas including bringing our group into one cohesive unit. The kids loved all the activities that we did and while we were walking or busing between the fun things, Roy would tell us about the history, culture, ecology and geology of the area.

Date of experience: July 13, 2024

The EF Tours guides that took us to each site and informed us about each place were terrific. They were able to answer questions and give lots of historical information about each site. Our EF Tour guide that oversaw our entire trip, however, was not as experienced and that led to our trip not going as smoothly as anticipated. She was very friendly and seemed to be trying, but it was obvious that she was new at this.

Date of experience: July 18, 2024

I did not like some of the hotels we stayed at and I found that we did a lot of back tracking while traveling from airports, hotels and attractions which made for a lot of downtime sitting on a coach bus. Our tour guide was amazing, super friendly, helpful and had a ton of knowledge about the places we visited. He made it a point to spend time with every person on the trip. You could tell how much he loved his job.

Date of experience: July 27, 2024

First of all, we saw more than just Germany: which I thought was totally amazing! My daughter and I enjoyed going to different countries around Germany. It made the experience a huge surprise. Our team leader made sure we had proper accommodations when our flights were cancelled. Ulli, our tour guide, really worked hard to make sure we were able to see a lot of the countries and get everywhere on time. We got to explore a lot. Ulli taught us languages and kept us engaged. Elias did a great job with the tour and history of Maxamillion and his bloodline. Our tour guide for ArchBishop Detrich Vaugn Reitenhour was wonderful as well. Ulli let us explore and challenged us to run up all those mountains to see the beautiful castles and gardens. The Alps were our absolute favorite!!! Oh, the beauty of GOD's mighty voice and hand.

Date of experience: July 22, 2024

My son went to Japan. His return flight had a layover for 8 hours in Canada on the return, but the high schoolers they latched onto his group had a reasonable return flight. He also said the teens made them late to everything, were obnoxious and ruined a lot of the experience. Its pretty unfair to make one group wait/deal with that when they were being respectful. EF customer service is mediocre at best. Any questions or complaints are answered with a quote from the contract you sign and basically amount to "if you don't like it, you're going to lose x thousand dollars." There is no retribution for the missed tour time or bad experience, even though it was the company that forced the two tour groups together. We won't use them again.

Date of experience: July 05, 2024

Our EF tour Rep Lewis and our bus driver Steven. They were both so awesome and knew lot about the land and important people in Ireland and London. We enjoyed our trip very much because of them. They made our experience heart felt and memorable. 10 out of 10 recommend!!

Date of experience: July 27, 2024

Our tour guide Stella was fantastic, helpful, warm, and very knowledgeable of all extremes (shopping to history). She pivoted when we had issues with grace and positivity and made each of us feel special and part of the family.

Date of experience: July 13, 2024

I loved the trip and my favorite part was my tour guide, Grazia. She let me sit with her and told me a in depth history of Italy and its culture. However, we spent a lot of time on the bus because our hotels were so far away from the actual cities. The hotel breakfast and dinner as well as the pre paid for meals were disgusting. I was disappointed because I was so excited to get to try all different types of Italian cuisine and I didn’t on my trip. That was also due to the fact that my chaperone was very strict and lazy, and when the students wanted to try to find an authentic restaurant she forced us to go to the ones in the main squares. Which were more expensive and didn’t have any options for allergies. So I had to get something that made me sick and spent the rest of my day in Florence feeling ill.

Date of experience: July 26, 2024

The tour guide had a great itinerary. Every stop was enjoyable, our tour guide was patient yet able to control our groups. Planning was on point and the amount of time to go explore was a bit short buy workable. Would definitely recommend 👌

Date of experience: July 25, 2024

My child felt safe, and was extremely pleased with the activities. He also could not stop raving about the guide!!! Everything that was planned was accomplished. The memories made, the independence, and the experiences were well worth the cost.

Date of experience: June 20, 2024

Ramona and Janne are amazing Tour Directors! They helped the students on our double bus tour have a wonderful experience in the Alps and Mediterranean Coast. The students' favorite experiences on this tour were the Alps experience on Mt. Pilatus, visiting the villages in Cinque Terre, and swimming in the Mediterranean and in the river at Pont du Gard. It is a fast paced tour, but the kids get to see and do so much that it is worth the exhaustion at the end. :) With how crowded European travel has become, I definitely recommend asking for whispers or extra tour guides for walking tours. And always upgrade your meals! It's worth the extra cost.

Date of experience: July 22, 2024

My daughter could not stop raving about her trip to Belize with EF Tours. There were so many activities and learning experiences, mixed with just enough free time to be silly with the other teens. She said it was the best trip of her life, and is already planning her next adventure with EF.

Date of experience: July 10, 2024

It was so well done that I felt very little anxiety in letting my 18 year old go on this trip. She had never been out of the country and never even been on a plane and so naturally there is some nervousness about the trip. However, the teacher was so great about keeping us informed and preparing for the trip that I felt secure in trusting her in their hands.

Date of experience: July 25, 2024