EF Tours: school travel

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do NOT use EF Educational Tours! We were scammed out of almost $500 when our son's tour was cancelled and we asked for a refund.

Our son was signed up for an EF Educational Tours trip to Germany and Switzerland. We had been paying monthly installments for a year and a half when we were informed by the school 4 months before the trip was to take place that the tour was cancelled.

Upon calling EF Educational Tours to receive a refund for the cancelled tour, we were informed that we would have to pay a $585 cancellation fee ($95 cancellation fee - which we were aware of- and a $490 insurance fee, of which we were not aware), even though it was the school that cancelled the trip, not us.
EF Educational Tours's position is that because THEY were not the ones that cancelled the trip, the trip was therefore not considered cancelled at all, since we could have rebooked our son on one of the school's other tours, none of which were of interest to us.

In researching EF Educational Tours online, we find countless terrible reviews exposing the company as a scam. Many other families have akso been forced to pay the same $585 fee for trips that they themselves did not cancel - it seems to be part of their business model. The company has a 1.16/5 star rating from the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General of Colorado has investigated them under the Consumer Protection Act. (https://www.bbb.org/us/ma/cambridge/profile/travel-agency/ef-educational-tours-0021-15313)

We wish we had done this research before signing our son up. We would highly recommend no one sign their child up for any EF Educational Tours programs.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

[Anonymous]

I’m the OP of this thread and my trip experience was great. Hotels were budget and far out, and food was not gourmet, but I was pleasantly surprised. Sorry to the PP who lost money on a cancelled tour. There are tons of stories about that linked to EF online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm chaperoning a school trip with EF Tours and just wondered if others could share experiences/tips? The google reviews are pretty bleak though the teachers associated with the trip use them regularly and have very positive things to say.

The teachers are positive about them because they get a free trip if so many people sign up.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EF Tours sounds like a total rip off. They jack up the price for students and parents so the teachers can attend free.

This and usually there is a "scholarship" so students who might not be able to afford to go otherwise might do so.

+1

[Anonymous]

My son went on an EF tour last year and had a great experience. It is a huge undertaking to get a large group of middle schoolers abroad. And while the teachers do not have to pay for their trips, they are spending their vacations chaperoning middle school students for no pay, which seems like more than a fair deal.

[Anonymous]

My high school senior just came back from a Panama tour. They stayed at the Holiday Inn, went to the most touristy attractions, and had little to no autonomy. The food was sub-par. Also, there were not enough beds, and my 180 pound son shared a full sized bed with another young man. So disappointed. This is exactly the way our family would never travel!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've chaperoned multiple trips with both EF and Explorica.

What are your concerns/questions? Where are you traveling? What age students?

Can you tell me the differences and similarities of chaperoning with both companies? Which do you prefer and why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EF Tours sounds like a total rip off. They jack up the price for students and parents so the teachers can attend free.

I think it is a rip off and yet I'm SO glad my parents let me do it when I was in high school. It felt so good to just go by myself without my parents.

+1. I did two EF tours in middle school (early 90s) - the food and lodging were crappy and we spent a lot of time on tour buses, but it was a formative experience as far as my first international travel, having some independence, and forging new friendships with kids on the trip. I'm glad my parents encouraged me to do it, and it led to a lot of international travel in HS, college, and my 20s.

[Anonymous]

DS went on a EF tour to Japan with 70 8th grade classmates. Considering flights to Japan can be $2000, I thought the total price was reasonable. The teachers and chaperones absolutely deserve to go for free because I certainly wouldn’t want to pay to go to chaperone dozens of 13-14 year olds!

He had a great time. Yes, the big group dinners were not great food, especially the kids who had food restrictions who sometimes were given vegetables and rice. But he had so much fun and did so many activities/saw so many sights.

[Anonymous]

I did this with another travel program as a teacher. To those who are frustrated that the teacher "goes for free," time is money. The teacher is responsible for setting up meetings with students and parents throughout the year which was about a cumulative 40 hours for me. The teacher is working...working....working while on this trip. Yes to those outside of the education field, it looks free. But for the teacher it's reimbursement for the marketing, recruitment, organization, and chaperoning of the students. I definitely did more than $4700 worth of work for the trip I went on to the Galapagos but would do it again

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS went on a EF tour to Japan with 70 8th grade classmates. Considering flights to Japan can be $2000, I thought the total price was reasonable. The teachers and chaperones absolutely deserve to go for free because I certainly wouldn’t want to pay to go to chaperone dozens of 13-14 year olds!

He had a great time. Yes, the big group dinners were not great food, especially the kids who had food restrictions who sometimes were given vegetables and rice. But he had so much fun and did so many activities/saw so many sights.

Can you share more about this specific trip. We are looking at sending our middleschooler on the Japan tour.

[Anonymous]

Wow this brings back memories. The first time I ever spent time in DC was with my 8th grade class trip with EF from the Bay Area to DC back in April 1998. Used EF. While the memories of the trip are, in fact, formative and it was a wonderful time from a 14 year old’s perspective, I remember the EF part being rough and I remember we teachers and chaperones complaining. We stayed at one of the small hotels out near PJ Skidoo’s in FFX. And that was before they fixed them up. Was a fleabag. Each morning we would go into DC it was in rush hour traffic. Penny wise pound foolish. Food was a disaster. I think Denny’s was the nicest place we ate and it was mostly Roy Roger’s type stuff. A couple times the restaurants didn’t even have our reservation. The flight from SFO-IAD was nonstop. Makes sense because both were and still are United hubs. Lots of nonstops. The return was DCA through STL with a tight connection. Who sends 50 8th graders on a tight connection? That must have been nightmare fuel for the chaperones. Completely avoidable. All that being said: from my perspective then it was so much fun. Looking back now in my 40s that must have been way sub par for the chaperones.

All this being said, this was 26 years ago, so take everything with a healthy grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm chaperoning a school trip with EF Tours and just wondered if others could share experiences/tips? The google reviews are pretty bleak though the teachers associated with the trip use them regularly and have very positive things to say.

The teachers are positive about them because they get a free trip if so many people sign up.

Do the teachers get a free solo trip at another time without the students? Because I think that I'd rather not travel than bring 30 middle schoolers to Europe for the chance to go along free with them.

Ex-teacher here. I think you're overestimating how hard it is to chaperone 30 middle schoolers (for many teachers, this is really not that hard) and you're underestimating the value of the trip relative to teachers' salaries.

[Anonymous]

Any new reviews

[Anonymous]

My DD just went to Croatia over last spring break. The teacher that went had done many with EF, so I think experience was a plus, she would know how to deal with them.

My DD had the time of her life. And so did all her friends. There was one yucky hotel, but otherwise she thought it was amazing.

I'm sure we overpaid, but she was so happy and thankful, and all 20 or so of the kids seemed to have a blast.