What to Really Expect from EF Tour Trips

By Kamila A-F

Around the MRHS campus, one can find a colorful poster promoting an opportunity to travel around Asia on most hallways. As someone who went on a European trip in June of 2025, I can tell you how accurate the poster is to the actual experience. 

One of the main focuses of EF tours is to make it affordable for students to travel. I do think that is true, as it's set up to be monthly payments and the sooner you sign up for it, the less money you owe every month. However, it is important to note that the various deals and offers might make it seem urgent and pressuring. Regardless, the payments are fair for the trip. These payments end up including the plane ticket, the hotels, the tours and historic sites as well as dinner. One thing to note is that lunch is not provided and you are required to pay for extra food outside of what EF tours or hotels offer. 

According to some other reviews, some people have had unfortunate experiences where the quality of hotels end up being poor. During my trip however, they were all decent. None of them were mind-blowing stays, of course, but they all were decently spaced for the amount of people in the room, clean, organized, and comfortable. We'd mostly get randomly assigned partners for each hotel, which for my group wasn't really a problem. If accommodations did need to be made, you would 100% be able to communicate that to the adults you were with. 

The actual places we got to go to were incredible and worth it, especially if you are interested in history. In Poland, we were able to go to Auschwitz and get a tour, one of the more notable stops. We also got to visit the remains of the Berlin Wall in Germany, the St. Vitus Cathedral in Czechia and many other sites. We got tours across different countries that included rich history across centuries. The cities we visited and got to explore were beautiful, with my personal favorite being Prague in the Czech Republic. On the note of that, EF tours allow for free time, where travelers can explore and learn on their own. With that privilege, some of my group and I had a lot of fun and even had the opportunity to go clubbing. 

With that freedom however, the concern for safety can arise. We were often in large cities, so of course the risk of petty crime like pick pocketing are to be expected. Our tour guide provided by EF tours gave us those warnings, as well as the other adults on the trip. I do believe overall, you are mostly responsible for your own safety. Lenient rules were set in place, including lack of real curfew. That being said, we did communicate and would check in with adults and were also mindful of smart choices. 

One thing I would keep in mind if you are interested in EF tours is the fast-pace the trips are. My trip was a total of ten days that covered five different countries. Due to the limited times, we went through activities without being able to rest much. Once we had landed in Germany after a nine hour flight, we were basically thrown right into a tour and diner. The next morning we were out of the hotel by 7:00pm to continue our exploration. It was definitely draining, but I still found myself enjoying the experience and would encourage others to do so if they desire traveling and learning about new cultures.