EF Educational Tours
Reviews and Complaints

Avoid at all costs! This company is a scam.

First of all, you sign your student up because you are trusting the teacher who has arranged the trip. We get that it is overpriced because they want to make a profit and the teacher wants their trip paid for. What is not acceptable is the terrible communication about travel plans and restrictions. Especially during a pandemic where these things change constantly.

Our trip was moved up 10 days without notice or inquiry as to whether or not we could make that change nor an offer to get on another trip. Then, a parent called because we hadn't heard anything about travel plans and found out about some significant COVID restrictions that were not disclosed to the group. Many are not able to meet those restrictions and need to cancel. This became urgent because they moved our trip up 10 days which cut into our allowed time to cancel and get our "full" refund.

When we called to cancel, they refuse to give us our full refund and claim to keep $500 despite their poor communication, COVID restrictions, and the paid insurance plan which has turned out to be a scam too. When we ask to escalate our concern, managers have decided to refuse to accept or return our calls.

They know they are being dishonest and scamming these kids and their families. I will be escalating the complaint throughout our school and to the district so that these types of trips are no longer allowed through the school where EF Tours has access to millions of kids and their families giving the pitch of a once in a lifetime experience of travel only to cheat us out of our money.

EF tours is a Ponzi scheme. Even with purchasing their insurance, the company refunded the trip less $500.

My daughter's school board is not allowing travel. This is the second time with the pandemic this trip has been canceled and a voucher is asinine. You can't run a company and be this crooked. I was a chaperone a few years for EF tours when I worked as a teacher.

The food was terrible and the accommodations were questionable. However, the kids always had a good time together and that's what I was trying to give my daughter even though I knew I was paying double what it would cost for a family trip. She will have been out of the school for 2 years and to send her with a bunch of strangers is not the trip we signed up for. I know some of the groups we were put on buses with were horrible and not at all the type of people I would want my kids around...

know this, if you accept a voucher and send your child there is no way you will ever know who they are with or the chaperones that will be in charge of your children. It will be complete strangers.

I like many on here would give the company zero stars at this point if I could. However, I do take some solace that I may see them filing bankruptcy if they continue on this path.

Parents – DO NOT send your students on an EF Tour – it is a huge waste of time and money. If you want your children to get a cultural and educational trip through Europe choose another company – or better yet, plan it yourself as you will be a better job that this company.

You will pay the upward for $4,000 for a trip that would cost you less than $2,000 to plan yourself. In short – the accommodations are terrible, you are “lost in transit” a majority of the time, the food is cheap, subpar, American food that is already chosen for you and the itinerary is horribly planned.

Let me first start out by saying that I went as a chaperone and I’ve traveled Europe before with a Rick Steve Tour and as a solo-traveler. I knew this trip would be a rushed, highlight reel of Europe due to the fact that we would be seeing London, Paris, Florence and Rome in just 10 days so my expectations were hopefully optimistic – but I was still EXTREMELY disappointed. I kept having a gut feeling that I should cancel my reservations and only two hours after landing and meeting our guide – I was sincerely regretting not trusting my gut.

Let me start by saying that the airfare booked for our trip was the cheapest tickets (same with the overnight train and hotel accommodations) – with only an hour layover between our connecting flights were we were forced to run (with 17 people) to get to our flight on time.

It was a miracle from God that we were able to catch our flight from Paris to Houston with less than an hour to get from our original flight, through customs and passport control and then to our connecting gate. The flight and gate attendants were all but closing the plane doors when we arrived.

I had spent 10 days in London on my solo trips before and was shocked to discover that our hotel (which was the budget Premier Inn chain of hotels) was a one-hour train ride outside of London in Tolsworth. When we arrived at our hotel either the tour company or the hotel did not receive our confirmation and they had no rooms for us. We spent two hours sitting in the lobby (after traveling all day) until a large wedding party checked out and we suddenly had room available.

That day, we seen Convent Garden – which is great, but low on the totem pole of things to see in London. The next day we seen Buckingham Palace and Convent Garden AGAIN. The final day in London was spent back at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. With this being an “educational” trip for students I was surprised that we did not see the Globe Theater or Westminster Abbey – only Convent Garden and Buckingham Palace – seeing that these two places have a lot of history and content that would have been relevant to subjects these students would have studied in school.

So if you are expecting for your child to receive an “educational” tour – then you will be sorely disappointed. We did go to the Tower of London for about two hours – around noon – which is not enough time to even see one feature of tower. Some kids saw the exhibits, some saw the Beef Eaters, but no one was able to see the Crown Jewels as there was no enough time to wait in line.

Paris was more of the same – with the additional experience of our group (we were paired with another school from Missouri) getting dropped off almost 5 miles away from the city center where we were supposed to meet again that evening with no map, no bus tickets, only the suggestion to download the CityMapper app and find a place to use public transit. Luckily, I had traveled in Europe before and was able to piece together a decent day of sightseeing after having to purchase multiple transit tickets for the students in my group.

But as a parent, imagine your child in a similar situation, either by themselves or with a chaperone with little or no travel experience? If you are expecting for your EF Tour Director to be with the group at all times you will also be sadly disappointed. Other than in the morning and evening journeys to and from the city, waiting with us in the train stations (SO MANY train stations) and leading us to and from other guides (who were fantastic. The walking tours were great), and at dinner, our tour director was mostly MIA and wasn’t a very good resource of knowledge when it came to suggesting restaurants and places to see during our free time – which was either laughably short or seven hours long.

When we arrived in Paris he informed us that Paris was more dangerous than London, he didn’t really care for Paris, and he also DID NOT SPEAK FRENCH! He could not even communicate with our bus driver (who he had a heated exchange with in front of our students upon arrival).

Florence and Rome slightly improved – mostly because our tour director was from Italy and his attitude improved immensely after we arrived back in his home country and the fact that Italy is a beautiful countryside to see, even in the worst of circumstances. We had one incredible meal while in Italy but returned to the basic pasta and pizza we had been given the entire trip (along with chicken, french fries and ice cream).

The hotel we stayed in while in Italy were terrible. While they did have a small, family owned, quaintness to them – they were old, dirty and smelled of cigarette smoke.

In the end, our students were practically cutting cartwheels on the way to the plane to go back home.

I know that adults have higher expectations than the teenagers who attend these tours – but by Day Three, I had 17 disappointed and tired juniors and senior on my hands. They had been paying and looking forward to this trip FOR THREE YEARS! Even they were displeased with the “cultural experience” they were promised and instead were given chicken and french fries, showed the most basic of tourist highlights when they were expecting to see museums, art, and cultural highlights that each country had to showcase. I was angered by the fact that this company could have offered them that experience – but instead phoned it in because they were dealing with teenagers who would not know the difference.

Save your money and DO NOT use EF tours.

Also, do your research. I trusted that the teachers in charged has done their due diligence but I was mistaken.

While doing a very basic Google search of “EF Tour reviews” during my long train rides in and out of the city on Day One, I was surprised to see that I was not the first (nor will I be the last) person to have a terrible experience but I was also surprised to see that most teachers either get a huge discount or cash reimbursements for the number of students they get to participate in the tour.

Do yourself a favor and save up an extra $1,000 and go on a Rick Steves Tour – or plan a trip on your own. Trust me, you will get more of your money’s worth than you would using this company.

We had two sons scheduled to do a EUROPEAN TRIP with EF TOURS. They cancel the trip in 2020 and had the kids re-up for 2021.

I understand COVID-19 happened, but they held the kids 5000+ dollars for that whole period and then charged a service fee of 200 bucks but provided nothing but holding cash for two years in their account. Then we are still waiting on a refund had to fight with the insurance company to get 2209 back from them, and they are saying we have to wait another 6 week to get a check from them less the 190 bucks they charged the kids for insurance. So the kids are out 400 some odd bucks and nothing was ever provided.

Do not use this service. It's a pain, and they are not providing anything other than free trips to teachers.

I was sending 2 of my teenage sons on the EF school tour for their graduation gifts. The day before they were scheduled to leave, the tour was cancelled due to the pandemic.

I understand that they are giving options for future travel with no penalties however it would be really helpful during this difficult time to get a FULL refund. They are offering refunds, minus $565 per person to cover their expenses. I am now going to be out-of-pocket $1130 for something that is BEYOND my control. Being penalized for a global pandemic is just absurd!

I didnt even cancel the trip, they did!

On top of that, when speaking to a representative, I was told multiple times that unfortunately, pandemic is not a covered reason for refunds, and the insurance policy would not cover it also. But hey, were offering so many future travel options up to 2022 that they can take advantage of with no penalties. Maybe you should look in to it further. Ive looked and weighed alllll options.

At this time, the BEST option for our family would be to get our money back and cut ties with this company. I FUNDRAISED for BOTH my kids trips, plus spent additional money on winter clothing theyll never use, as we live in a tropical setting and have no need for them. I mentioned that to the rep, and was told well Im sorry you live on an island. Seriously, what the...??!?

Then I was told to read the contract that was signed regarding their cancellation policy. Once again, WE DID NOT CANCEL THE TRIP, THEY DID!!

If other companies are giving full refunds with no problem, as Im sure theyre INSURED for the unexpected, the representative for this company informed me that she can assure me, they have not budged for ANYONE regarding full refunds. Something needs to be done!!!

We booked a trip with EF Tours through the school for June 2020.

We decided this would be our daughters Senior trip and I also decided to go.

Today, March 18th, 2020, because of the Coronovirus, more than likely our trip will be cancelled.

If we decide to ask for our money back, we lose $1,000 of the $4,800 we paid (including the $165 protection plan we paid for).

This is what they posted.

6. Why can't I get a full refund?

You may redeem your Future Travel Voucher for a refund of all monies paid to EF minus $1,000.

This allows us to partially cover costs related to non-recoverable payments to our suppliers, our staff, and the investment we continue to make in itinerary, date and destination flexibility.

Hmmm... this trip is not until June. Im not sure who they paid so many months in advance.

And also, WE didnt cancel. This is an unprecedented situation.

I refuse to accept a voucher and travel in the future with a company that doesnt care about their customers.

DO NOT USE THEM !!

GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!