Reviews
Two tour consultants from Denver joined us on our EF tour to France and Spain. They were wonderful. They gained insights to what teachers and students need and want for a successful, meaningful trip. I had the time of my life with them. They really listened to and cared about my opinions. Wonderful people I'd love to visit again one day.
Trip insurance is a scam. I was refunded 54$ and had to pay a $300 cancelation fee. After I lost my job and could.not pay for my son to go on the trip. Don't use this company as they are overpriced and use deceiving business practices.
ZERO STARS: this tour company is an absolute joke. Customer service is horrible. My child went on a tour in June 2022 and there were problems from the very first day of travel, and here I am still fighting with this unethical organization to get a refund for the excursions missed, etc. Do your research, find another company or just make your own tour group.
I booked my trip to Greece, Italy, and Spain that was supposed to happen June 2018. I booked far in advance in March of 2017 and was informed on Friday the 29th of December by my teacher not by EF tours that I was unable to continue with my trip as two others had cancelled. When I read the cancellation policies stated on their website it says that within 149 days of the trip the cancellation fee is raised from 300 to 500. Luckily I cancelled at 155 days. When I called to cancel I asked why I had to pay the cancellation fee of 300 dollars as I felt I had to choice but to cancel. Austin I think was his name told me that if I had postponed until 2019 or transferred to another group I wouldn't have to pay. I was also not informed that paying for the global insurance is non refundable. All in all I lost $550 and never left the country. I recommend to anyone thinking of booking a trip with them, to do more research to avoid losing a lot of money like I did.
One star for failing to make cancellation fees fully transparent. Before booking, be certain to find and carefully read the micro print of the cancellation policy for your trip. The sign up page shows a "non-refundable fee" but the insurance policy is also non-refundable and EF charges an additional cancellation fee in our case $300. DO NOT PURCHASE unless you can afford to pay as much as $560 not to go on the trip if you have to cancel for any non-urgent reason. Buyer beware.
Bad management at the local and national levels. None of the employees think for themselves; they’re akin to robots on auto-pilot. They don’t deserve to work with students from all over the world; they don’t represent America well and student success is not the top priority. They’re pretty good at inventing policies on the fly that don’t benefit anyone involved, least of all the students. They’re like old factories that produce products in mass numbers, with little regard for working conditions or the health of the employees, with the expectation that everyone shows up, shuts up, and doesn’t cause any ruckus in the pursuit of padding the company’s pockets think Enola Holmes 2…if you cause any problems, you’re silenced and sent packing. Quite surprising they’re still in business with the amount of mismanagement in this company.
I purchased a school trip for my daughter to depart for Panama in May 2020. Of course, the trip is cancelled. EF tours is penalizing us $1000 if we opt for a refund. The trip insurance does not cover our loss.
This company is unethical and I wish the option for a negative star rating was available. We paid over $4k for our son to g oon his high school senior trip through EF Educational Tours in June. To date the company has refused to cancel the trip sending kids to Italy, Eurpoe etc in light of COVID-19. The trip begins in early June and the company hangs up on you when you call, they do not respond to the online chat or the countless online forms we have completed with them. We paid for the additional trip insurance and they have still not refunded our money. DO NOT use this company - you wil losse money. During a major healthcare pandemic COVID-19 they are taking advanatage of families and high school students that already had their senior year tuned upside down. This company located on Blake Street in Denver should be ashamed of how they are taking advantage of families during COVID-19.
I went on an EF Tour to Italy with my daughter. I was extremely frustrated that we missed the first day of our tour in Venice because of an illegal 1 hour connection booked by the company. I helped pay for the hotels for students because they said they would reimburse us. It took 2 months of fighting with the company and their travel insurance to get reimbursed $1200 I paid. I was very unhappy. On the tour we never stayed in the city we were visitng. We were usually at least an hour away which meant at least 2 hours on the bus each day commuting from a hotel far away. This was not communicated prior to our trip and I would not go again because of this reason. Our tour guide was excellent and we were safe so that was the good part of the trop. I would not recommend EF tours!
Son was signed up for a trip in May. Due to the virus obviously that trip is off. EF will return only part of the money and we have to eat $1000. They explained that normally they would return far less. Honestly, I think this is horrible customer service during an unprecedented time in our country. EF also after speaking with them I got the impression that they feel like they are doing us a favor by us only eating a 1000. Poor. Lots of people we know are in the same boat and are extremely frustrated.
