EF Educational Tours — Local services in Cambridge

My child and I recently embarked on a journey with EF Tours, exploring Italy, France, and Spain. While the locations we visited left a lasting impression, I must express my dissatisfaction with the underwhelming food and accommodations provided by EF Tours. It is disheartening that the experiences fell short compared to my own travels at the age of 16, where the food was exemplary and the accommodations were stellar. Unfortunately, EF Tours failed to meet those standards.

Let's start with Rome. The hotel's isolated location offered little to do or see nearby, and the dinners provided were an embarrassment to Italian cuisine. The first night's lasagna tasted like a frozen tray meal, and the shells with a simple red sauce the following night resembled a canned pasta dish. Moreover, there was a complete absence of protein during both meals. Additionally, it took us an unreasonably long 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel to Rome on one morning. However, I must mention that the grandeur of Ancient Rome and the Gladiator experience were impressive, and the staff at the school we visited were great.

Florence didn't bring much improvement. Although the hotel was slightly better and there were a few bars and restaurants within walking distance, we were still over an hour away from the city we were supposed to be exploring. Due to limitations on the bus driver's hours, our sightseeing opportunities were limited, and there was no option to explore on our own in the evening.

Next was Cannes, and unfortunately, the journey there didn't fare well either. We were disappointed to have our last meal in Italy at a gas station instead of experiencing the city of Genova. Arriving in Cannes, we were told we missed dinner by 15 minutes, leaving us with only 15 Euros each to find dinner in one of the most expensive cities in the world. With less than an hour to do so, it was an impossible task. It felt like EF Tours never intended for us to dine at an actual restaurant in Cannes. Once again, the hotel was located in a neighborhood with limited evening activities, but it was decent and offered an excellent breakfast. Unfortunately, we never got to experience "The French Riviera" as advertised, with no time for the beach or city touring, only a rushed dinner that we essentially had to pay for separately.

In Avignon, we were taken to a Lebanese restaurant, which was unexpected considering our desire to experience French cuisine in France. The staff was friendly, but the deviation from French food was disappointing. Again, the hotel's remote location followed the pattern we experienced throughout the trip.

Our next stop was Barcelona, although we found ourselves roughly an hour outside the city once again. The silver lining was the beachfront hostel/hotel, and the breakfast and dinner buffets were satisfactory with a decent variety. The Barcelona by bike tour was a highlight of the trip.

In Madrid, we were closer to the city compared to previous locations, although still not centrally located. The Tapas dinner in Madrid was okay, but the "amazing Spanish dessert" turned out to be a Nestle ice cream cone, which was quite underwhelming. The other dinner included a small chicken wing/drum with very little meat, leaving some of us to make a quick stop at a fast food restaurant afterward. The Flamenco dancing show, however, was impressive.

All in all, I cannot recommend EF Tours to anyone. While our tour guide was wonderful, she couldn't make up for the numerous shortcomings on EF's part. The locations we visited were great, but the accommodations should have been situated in the actual cities, as I experienced during my own trip to Europe as a high school student. It would have also been beneficial to have detailed explanations of the meals served each night, rather than being rushed through without...

My junior high school daughter & 38 other students plus about 10 adult trip leaders / escorts / chaperones from the Houston area toured Broadway in NYC during Spring Break 2025.

My daughter reported the outbound flight (which was direct / non-stop), the hotel, the meals, the activities & touring were all generally good (thus the awarding of any stars – in this case 2). The nightmare started upon departure.

In what I'm sure was a move to save money / fatten the bottom line, the return was not direct (even though Houston & Newark are both United Airlines hubs w/ numerous daily non-stops between the two). Instead, some miser / bozo w/ EF Tours booked the group's return through Chicago, and on a late-night departure from Newark - just opening the door for delays and disruption. And that's exactly what they got.

26-hours after leaving the NYC hotel, my daughter walked through our door in the Houston area. And in those 26-hours there were multiple delays - first in departing Newark - totaling +/-6 hours. Then - upon arrival in Chicago (long after midnight) - all Houston bound flights had departed so the group got to spend the night (another 6-hours or so) in the terminal at O'Hare AP. (I'm told one EF rep promised hotels would be booked but that didn't happen.) I'm further told that upon being informed of their plight, United Airlines personnel - not EF personnel - managed to get the group home - but not without another delay - this time a 3.5-hour layover in Dallas.

At the end of day what should have been a door-to-door 8-hour trip for the 50 travelers turned into a 26-hour journey from hades. And the lead adult on the trip has since informed me that at crunch time, and throughout all the delays and disruption, EF Support was at best minimal and more often non-existent. I guess they'd gotten their money already, so why should they care?

My daughter has a second trip planned w/ them - most of which we've paid for. She really wants to go so we won't cancel. This time it's an international trip. We don't know flight and hotel details yet. I guess we can only hope "quality of travel" can be factored into the booking philosophy, and maybe even prioritized over "maximize profits above all else".

Either way, here's hoping she gets home quicker from her foreign destination than she did from her...

I want to tell you how incredibly disappointed I am so far in this tour on day one. What an incredible waste of my money, to be informed today that we will not be able to see the Alhambra Palace. You have known that this group of students are coming on this tour for many months now. Imagine my shock when we arrive in Granada and EF did not get tickets for us to see the Alhambra during the day. The absolutely MAJOR site here WILL NOT BE SEEN! We are scheduled for a quick night tour, when little can actually be seen, and we are told how 'special' this is, which of course is not at all true. How is it possible to NOT get us tickets when you have known the dates of our arrival for MONTHS. There is another group of students in our hotel/bus who ARE GOING TO THE ALHAMBRA TOMORROW, while we sleep in and have breakfast and wait for them to finish seeing what we were meant to see during our visit to Granada. Why do they get tickets and we do not? Why are they chosen to experience that which was promised to all students? How are we compensated?

Please tell me how this happened. It is unacceptable and suggests poor planning, and certainly thoughtlessness about our experience. We were informed that we would visit the Alhambra, had made plans to do so, and now we are excluded form what was to be an AMAZING experience.

This is unacceptable.

The food is substandard. For the cost of this tour, we deserve the best possible cuisine. Spanish food is marvelous, and tonights dinner was unacceptable.

Today was a waste of a day. We arrived in Malaga and were left for three hours wandering around the tacky tourist shops and waiting for the rest of the students. EF could have organized and exciting and culturally appropriate experience.

It has only been one day, and you have STOLEN my money and that of my daughter. $8000 for missing the major landmark in Granada, inedible substandard food, and wasting my day doing nothing remotely cultural or interesting. '

I have traveled with students in South America. All planned events occur as organized and we did not cheat our passengers of experiences on their...