ef tours refund reviews

EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Is EF Tours right for you?   

So your kid just came home from school with a gorgeous full color brochure about an upcoming trip to Europe with EF Tours that one of their teachers is leading.  He or she is super excited about all the cool things they get to do and is just begging you to let them go.  

It sounds great, but as a responsible parent, you want to know exactly what you’d be sending your child off to do, and how things would actually work on this trip.  

Well, lucky for you we took a 12 day visit to Europe with EF Tours, and have all the details to decide if taking an international trip with this company is right for you or your teenager.  

We’re going to start with the breakdown of how things work with EF and what to expect as a participant or a parent, and then move on to our specific experience with our tour.  

I always like to start my reviews by reminding you that I was not compensated in any way to write this post.  All opinions are my own, and all costs were paid out of our pocket for this experience.

What is EF Tours? 

EF Tours is a travel company that specializes in international tours for students.   

According to their website , EF Tours has been in operation since 1965 and offers trips for students and teachers designed to “provide immersive, life-changing education.”

Basically, EF Tours organizes international trips for students to a wide variety of destinations, promising “compelling itineraries” full of “experiential learning.”

They also promise to have the “lowest price on the market” for this type of travel.  

EF, as a company, offers may types of tours ranging from group trips for adults to organized gap years for high school graduates.  While these options are available, the bread and butter of the company is the basic high school student tour which is what we took.  

How do EF Tours work?

EF Tours have a pretty straightforward process during the sign up period, prior to departure and during your trip. 

Before we get into that, it must be said that EF Tours operate fully independently of the local school district, and are not endorsed or supported by them whatsoever.  

While this may seem like a school trip, it is not.  It is a trip run by a business who just happens to recruit participants through the school system.  Your local principals, school boards, etc. have zero control or influence on these trips.  The school is only involved in the process as far as whether they allow teachers to hand out information in schools or not. 

The EF in EF Tours stands for Education First.  According to their website, EF claims to “design tours to help educators teach, and so students can learn more—about tolerance, other perspectives, and themselves.”

The Sign Up Process

EF Tours are set up to be “hosted” by a local teacher who is then designated as the “group leader.”  Teachers are incentivized with free and reduced price travel to recruit students to join their tours.  

Tours are advertised by the group leader/teacher to students at their school and to their local community.  Interested students and parents are invited to attend informational meetings either in person or virtually where the group leader/teacher goes over the itinerary and any questions potential participants may have.  

Students and parents can then sign up directly through the EF Tours website, and submit all payments directly to the company.  

Trips are usually initially introduced about two years before the travel date so that participants can make smaller monthly payments to cover the cost of the trip.  Costs for these trips can range widely, depending on the destinations and length of the trip.  

EF has the group leader/teacher set up deadlines for signing up to go on the trip, sometimes including small discounts to encourage enrollment.  This tends to give a false sense of urgency to the sign up process. 

We found that participants can sign up just about any time before the trip departs.  We signed up about a year out from the trip, while another student who traveled with us signed up just a month or two before we left.  

Anyone was allowed to sign up for the trip.  We were encouraged to invite friends and family to join us on the tour, whether or not they were associated with our school or even local to our area.  

Adults did need to pass a background check in order to participate in the trip, since adult tour participants are traveling with minors.  

We were not given specific dates for our trip, but instead we were given a window of time during which the trip would occur.   Our dates were finally confirmed about two months before our departure.  

There are usually two or three optional excursions that can be added to any tour.  These usually include some special activity or visit to an additional landmark.  

Tour participants may also choose to upgrade the insurance for the tour. 

Before Your EF Tour

Once you’ve signed up for your EF Tour, you’ll be given access to a tour portal on the EF website where you can track your payments and what steps you need take next to participate in the trip.  They also provide a fundraising page, where friends and family can pay EF directly to offset the cost of your trip.  

Our group had a few in person meetings at a local restaurant prior to our trip where we discussed issues ranging from passports to packing for our trip to Europe , and got a chance to meet our fellow travelers.  This may or may not be true or all groups that are traveling with EF.  

Each participant in our tour was required to submit a copy of our passport to EF to insure that we had the proper documentation to travel.  

Information about our flights was not available until about a month before our departure, and information about our hotels was not available until we were about three weeks out from leaving.  

EF Tours uses a wide range of airlines, and travelers do not get to indicate a preference.  EF books all travelers in economy class seats for all transportation methods.  EF will book with whatever airline has space available for the lowest price for the group.  

As for hotels, travelers know very little about where they are staying ahead of time.  Per the website, tour participants are assured that “travelers can count on safe, clean and comfortable hotels with private bathrooms” but much beyond that the info is sparse.  

Students can expect to room with one to three other students, and possibly have to share beds.  Adults can expect to share a room with one other person.  For a fee, a single room can be requested for the tour. 

EF does indicate up front that hotels may have small rooms without air conditioning, television, or elevators, and that WiFi may not always be available.  

During an EF Tour

All transportation arrangements are made by EF Tours, including flights, buses, trains, etc.  They book all accommodations and attraction admissions for tour participants. 

Two meals a day are included in the cost of a trip with EF Tours.  Breakfast is provided each day at the hotel, usually continental style, but sometimes with hot offerings just depending on your hotel.  Dinners are are pre-arranged with a preset menu by EF at local restaurants.  EF will make accomodations for those with specific dietary needs, such as gluten free or dairy free meals.

While the teacher recruiting students is designated as your group leader, they don’t actually lead the tour once you start traveling.  EF provides a Tour Director to accompany your group through the entire trip.  

This Tour Director is supposed to handle just about everything on your tour, including all your pre-booked accommodations, meals, excursions, tickets, and transfers.  This person is there to direct the group and handle any problems with logistics you may encounter along the way.  

During the tour, your group will meet up with various local guides who will give you some sort of tour of the city or historic site that you’re visiting.  These tours are usually walking tours, but sometimes are bus tours, depending on the location.  

Tour participants are also given access to an EF Tours App, that just lists your daily itinerary for your trip.  

Our EF Tour Review

Our specific tour featured quite a daunting itinerary.  We toured Europe for 12 days, visiting sites in London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Pompeii and Capri, with no more than two nights in any destination.  

Our tour consisted of 26 travelers from our high school: three teachers, seven adults and 16 students.  We were combined with a group from upstate New York consisting of 14 travelers: one teacher, one adult, one child and 11 students.  There were a total of 40 people on our tour.  

What EF Tours Promised

Before our tour, the group leaded made sure every person who showed an interest in going on the trip got the glossy, full color brochure that outlined our itinerary and told us what to expect on the tour.  

The brochure promised that participants would be “surrounded by the people, the language, the food, and the way of life” of the destinations on our itinerary.  We were assured that our tour director would be “with us around the clock, handling local transportation, hotels, and meals while also providing their own insight into the local history and culture.”  

We would be spending time in three different countries, seeing some of the most beautiful and historic cities in Europe.

The brochure also claimed that students could earn educational credit while on tour, and that all tours feature “experiential learning activities.”

Our tour left some of these promises unfulfilled, but did give us a glimpse at some fantastic destinations in Europe and some amazing memories.  

Our hotels along the trip started out stellar but seemed to go downhill from there, unfortunately ending in truly unacceptable accommodations.  

Even though this wasn’t guaranteed, all of our accommodations had some sort of air conditioning, with some that functioned better than others, and all of them had WiFi.  

For the first four nights during our stays in London and Paris, we were sent to Hilton Hotels .  They both were on the higher end of what I expected based on the descriptions provided by EF Tours of what our hotels would be like.  

The rooms at these Hiltons were very new, immaculately clean and extremely comfortable.  They were both located about an hour outside of the city center, but that wasn’t too much of a problem.  

When we reached Italy, things changed a bit.  

For a quick overnight in Milan on our way to Florence, we stayed at and AS Hotel in Limbiate.  This hotel was a bit older than the Hiltons we’d stayed in, but it was clean, spacious, and comfortable.  

Between Florence and Rome, we spent the night at the Hotel Villa Ricci (not pictured).  This hotel was significantly older than the other three we had stayed at, but it was still clean and comfortable.  While the room wasn’t much to write home about, some members of our group lucked out and got spectacular balconies. 

Once we arrived in Rome, the Villa Aurelia was our home base for two nights.  We learned that this hotel had once housed men studying to join a monastery, which explained the doritory feel of the place.  Again, we found these rooms to be clean and pretty comfortable.  

On our way to Southern Italy, we spent the night in Sorrento at Sisters Hostel .  This was the only true hostel on our trip.  While they still stuck with four students to a room, several of the student rooms had enough beds to sleep up to 12 people. 

Though not quite as refined as the Hiltons, and a little slap-shot with the furniture, we found this place to be clean and welcoming.  While it wasn’t quite as comfortable as some of the other places we’d stayed, it was completely acceptable and had a spectacular view of the Gulf of Naples from the rooftop terrace. 

Things took a turn for the worse on our last night of the tour, when we stayed at Hotel La Pergola in Rome.  This place was truly one of the worst hotels I’ve ever had the misfortune to stay at (and as a travel blogger, I’ve stayed at a LOT of hotels).  

Things started off badly when we discovered that the lights in all the hallways were not on, and that we had to hunt around with our cell phone flashlights to find our way to our rooms.  I asked the front desk to remedy this, but it was never addressed, and we had to repeat the blind search for our rooms every time we went up.  

Upon arrival in my room, I found it to be extremely dirty.  There was a layer of dusty film all over my bathroom and my pillow had an unidentified crusty stain on it.  My daughter’s room had the same layer of dirt in the bathroom, plus a shoe print from where someone killed a bug on the wall.  I checked our beds for bedbugs and thankfully did not find any. 

The front desk did not seem to care and we were told no one was available to come clean the bathrooms.

But the worst experience in this hotel went to a dad on our trip, who’s single room contained only a sofa.   Not a sleeper sofa, but just a hard couch.  There were no linens or towels available to him whatsoever. 

When he asked for these items at the front desk, he was told that we should have called earlier to request them since they were all locked up in a cabinet by the time we arrived at the hotel.   He ended up sleeping on a towel laid out on the sofa with a travel neck pillow, that had been provided to him by his daughter from her room.

The front desk attendant seemed more than annoyed anytime someone from our group would approach them, and insisted that we all leave our keys at the front desk when leaving the hotel for dinner that night.    

We weren’t left with much recourse, since this was a group trip and we were on our last night, so we decided to just grin and bear it, and did our best to get some sleep.  

Overall, I’d say that the hotels provided were quite good, with the exception of Hotel La Pergola.  For ten of the eleven nights of our trip, we were provided with clean, safe accommodations that lived up to what the EF Tours website told us to expect.  

At the time of this publication, EF Tours has been notified of this unacceptable hotel and has yet to respond.  

Meals on the tour ran the gamut from weird to stellar, but overall were not to bad.  Breakfast and dinner every day were included in what we paid for our tour.  

All breakfasts were served at our hotels.  Sometimes they were just continental breakfasts with cold offerings, and sometimes we were given hot breakfasts with eggs, bacon, and such.  Sometimes it was quite obvious where our group was supposed to go, and sometimes it wasn’t. 

Overall, breakfasts were adequate throughout the trip.  

Lunches were not included in the initial price of our trip and were paid out of pocket each day.   

Lunches were always a gamble.   It all depended on where we were and what was going on whether or not we’d get to select a restaurant on our own or if the group would be directed to eat at somewhere specific, and if we’d have lots of great choices or really limited options.  

For example, on our first full day of the trip, we visited the Tower of London.  We told to make sure we ate lunch after our tour, before rejoining the group to get on the bus.  The only options available to us were food trucks along the river right next to the Tower complex.  

It was the worst during our travel days.  We were frequently told we could just grab a bite to eat at the train station or the airport, only to be left with minimal time and very limited options.  

But some days lunch was great.  During our time in Rome, lunch came with some free time to wander, so we were able to go out and select the restaurant of our choice.  

Some days our tour guide would set up a lunch option for us, having arranged a preset menu and price with a local restaurant.  Those options were usually something like a burger, pizza or a cold sandwich.  

I’m not sure if the lunch situations were like this because of our tour guide or because of EF itself.  Sometimes it seemed inevitable, like when we were stuck in an airport or train station.  Other times it seemed like our guide might be creating these situations by not fully informing us what was available near by.  

All dinners were set up at local restaurants before our arrival.  We did not get to select from a menu and were all served the same thing each night, with the exception of those who had special dietary needs.  Each meal came with water, but we were allowed to order additional drinks at our own expense if we choose to do so.  

The worst dinners EF provided happened during the first few days of our trip.  During our entire time in London, we were not once served any traditional English food.  Our Tour Director said it was because “London is a melting pot of cultures,” but our group didn’t buy that.  

Our first group dinner in London was at a Korean restaurant where the group was served a hot stone bibimbap with chicken.  I’m normally a big fan of Korean food, but this wasn’t great. 

The next group dinner was at a Polish restaurant where the group was served a fried chicken patty and french fries.  

When it became apparent on the second night that we weren’t going to be getting any traditional English food, my daughter and I made arrangements to go get dinner on our own, and pay for it out of pocket.  Four other members of our group chose to join us.  

We simply got information from our Tour Guide when and where to meet up with the group after dinner and selected a nearby local pub so we could have a traditional English dining experience.  

Dinners seemed to improve when we got to France. During our first night there we had a lovely traditional French meal of chicken with mushroom sauce in the back room of a small picturesque cafe with a ton of ambiance.   On the second night we had a traditional Alsatian dish called Flammekueche, which was sort of like a pizza with a creamy sauce.  

In Italy, the dinners were quite good.  Of course we were served a lot of pasta, but we also had braised beef in tomato sauce, gnocchi, and pizza.  

According to the folks on our trip who had special dietary needs, the dinners were pretty good for the most part.  Although it did seem that everywhere we went in Italy, anyone who was gluten free or dairy free was served watermelon for dessert.  

Before we left on our trip, we were told by our group leader that we shouldn’t need more that $25 US dollars per person per day for lunches and snacks.  We found that that number was not quite accurate for us, especially if we ever wanted to stray from the planned meals that EF Tours had set up for us.  

We also found that we frequently needed to buy water to stay hydrated in the high temperatures of Italy during the summer, and at most of the locations we visited, water was marked up quite a bit.  

Overall, the meals on our trip were pretty good, but could definitely have been better.  

Our Itinerary

We knew going into this tour that our itinerary would be extremely hectic.  With no more than 48 hours in any location, we expected it to be jam packed.  It was kind of like a tasting menu, where you got a little bit of each destination.  

What we didn’t expect was the significant amount of wasted time and changes to our itinerary that happened on our tour.  

Things started off poorly when our tour guide was an hour late to meet us at baggage claim and then our bus was over another hour late to pick us up at the airport.  

While our tour guide was a very sweet, personable woman, she didn’t seem to understand how to manage the timing logistics for a group of 40 travelers.  

Our group was quite good about being on time to meet up locations with a couple of small exceptions that could not be helped.  No one wanted to be the person that made us late.  

Our tour guide didn’t seem to have this mentality.  She was frequently the last person downstairs at our hotels to meet our bus 15 to 20 minutes after the time she told us to meet her, and did not budget in adequate travel time to most of our destinations. 

For example, while we were driving across Italy, she had our driver stop at a large gas station for a bathroom stop.   She told us we only had five minutes to use the restroom and get back on the bus.  It’s completely impossible for 40 people to make use of just a handful of bathroom stalls in five minutes. 

We were late to our tours in London, Florence, and the Vatican.  We were late to our tour of the Colosseum in Rome.  We were late to our appointment at the Louvre.  We were so late to our tour of Pompeii.  This significantly hindered what we were able to see at our destinations, and made the whole tour seemed very rushed every day.  

Things like this happened over and over again throughout the trip.  This resulted in our group being habitually late to most of the tours we went on, and significantly cut into our time at some really important places.

The only times it seemed like we weren’t late was when we had to catch a flight, a train, or a ferry.  

There were also some pretty significant changes to our itinerary. 

Several items listed on our initial brochure were changed before the trip due to pandemic restrictions and travel challenges, which was fine.  We had ample notice and knew what to expect.    

But there were several instances where visits to certain locations were dropped off our itinerary completely, and visits to other non-advertised locations were added.  

Sometimes this was a good thing, but sometimes it was incredibly frustrating.  

In London, a walking tour of Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden and Leicester Square was replaced with “free time” at the British Museum, which we really didn’t mind. 

But in Florence, visits to San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo were dropped off the itinerary with no explanation.  

On our way to Rome, our guide added a stop in Ovierto, a beautiful small town with picturesque views, wonderful dining and great little shops which we enjoyed immensely. 

But in Paris, a visit to Montmartre was abandoned, even though our dinner restaurant was within a mile of the historic location.  

The best unexpected addition to our trip in my opinion was the opportunity to see a musical in the West End of London.  Our guide was able to secure tickets (for an extra fee) for those who wanted them to a performance of Wicked during our free evening.  It was absolutely fantastic.  

But in the most frustrating example, during our time in Paris a visit to the Frogonard Perfume Museum was added to our itinerary.   No one asked to go there, and most of us seemed annoyed that we were stopping.  We were assured that the stop there would only last 30 minutes, but it ended up taking three times that, leaving us only an hour and a half to visit the Louvre before we had to be back on the bus to catch a flight to Italy.  

These added stops almost always involved additional costs as well, which we were not informed of before leaving for our trip.  This caused problems for a few kids on our trip who weren’t expecting these costs, and they unfortunately had to miss out on some of the better additions. 

There also seemed to be major sites in some of these cities that were not ever even an option to visit or see, due to our limited time in each city.   We didn’t go to Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s Cathedral while we were in London, and there were too many things to count in Paris that we didn’t even glimpse.  While we were aware of this upfront before the tour, it really did feel like they didn’t allow enough time in any location to really see the cities we were in.  

Despite these frustrations, the itinerary did take us to some fantastic places and we had some absolutely unforgettable experiences.  We had a fantastic time seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.  We enjoyed a truly magical and unexpected sunset under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  We got to listen to an orchestra perform in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.  We were able to marvel at the unparalleled artwork inside St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.  We saw the stunningly beautiful sites of Capri from a private boat tour.  Those memories are truly priceless.  

During our trip there were extra excursions offered in any city we stayed in more than one night. 

In London, the excursion was a visit to the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel type ride that gives riders a birds eye view of the city.  In Paris, it was a trip to Versaille to tour the palace and the gardens.  In Rome, it was a tiramisu cooking class.  

We choose not to participate in the excursion in London because I’m not the biggest fan of heights, and in Paris because my daughter wanted the opportunity to spend some extra free time in the city.  

I’m extremely glad we made those decisions.   

While the London Eye excursion seemed to go well for those who went on it, it was over priced.  EF Tours charged each participant $60.  Tickets can be purchased individually at the ticket booth for just $42 USD or for groups ahead of time for just $24 USD.  I’m not sure what EF added to the experience to warrant that upcharge.  

By skipping the London Eye, we were able to have a bit more time to explore and plenty of time to enjoy our pub dinner that we mentioned earlier since the London Eye excursion was timed to happen right before dinner.  

In Paris, those who went to Versaille told us the experience was underwhelming because of the limited time available inside the palace, and the lack of lunch options available to those who went.  

The Versailles excursion seemed overpriced as well.  EF Tours charged $114 USD to each participant.  Tickets to the entire estate are free for those under 18 years old and cost under $30 USD for anyone else, and that’s without a group discount.  Even if every single person had to buy a ticket,  I can’t imagine that the cost for a group tour and the transportation to get the group there cost an additional $84 USD per person.  

The tiramisu cooking class in Rome was not optional for our group for some reason.  I think our group leader made that choice when she set up our trip.  We paid an extra $85 USD above and beyond the base tour price to experience it.  While I could not find information about individual class pricing, I highly doubt that EF paid that much per person for us to spend an hour making tiramisu. 

I will say that the class was a fun experience at a great location, and we all enjoyed the desserts we made together.  

Overall, unless an excursion is of special interest to you, I wouldn’t recommend participating in them, simply because they seem overpriced.  Having extra free time to see the sites of your choice seemed to be the best option during our tour.  

Education on an EF Tour

EF Tours makes a big deal out of their tours being focused on education.  We were promised “experiential learning activities” during the trip.  They even claim you can earn credit for going on these tour.  

We found that there wasn’t that much education attached to our tour.  

The local tour guides who showed us the sights of each city were the most informative folks on this trip, with extensive knowledge of the history and culture at each stop, but we were forced to use amplifying devices called Whispers in order to hear the guides.  These Whispers often had glitches or were garbled, making it very hard to understand our guides.  

Other than the local tour guides and maybe the tiramisu class, I wouldn’t call just visiting these historic places an “experiential learning activity.”  

We also learned that our high school would not give any credit to students who participated in these trips, even though much was made of the educational credit during the pitch to get us to join the tour.  

This isn’t to say that we didn’t learn anything on our trip.  We did have some great cultural experiences while we traveled.  But learning seemed to take a back seat to just being in another country in most circumstances.  

Safety with EF Tours

As a parent considering an EF Tour for my teenager, I know safety was a big concern for me.  

When my husband and I decided to send our daughter, we felt like one of us should go with her since she was only 15 at the time we went on the trip, and had not traveled internationally like this before.  

For the most part, I felt quite safe during our trip.  

Before our trip, our group leader did make sure to advise us about pickpocketing and theft at major tourist sites in Europe, and advised us to be prepared.  She did make sure we were always wary of our passports and where we were keeping them during our travels.  

While on tour, there was only one time that I felt like our group was taken to an unsafe area.  That was during our terrible last night in Rome when we had to walk from our hotel to our dinner restaurant through some pretty sketchy areas of the city.  

Although student were allowed to go out on their own during our free time, they were asked to go in groups of three or four and were left in pretty safe areas to spend their free time.  

The biggest problem I saw with safety was when our Tour Guide would take off walking at a breakneck speed, frequently leaving half our group stuck at crosswalks or a few turns behind.  She usually did a count to make sure everyone was there when we were ready to leave, but she did leave people behind at least twice during our trip and have to go back and get them.  

Most of the time we had no idea where we were headed when we were walking to different locations.  We were never given the names of the restaurants or addresses of where they would be unless we specifically asked for them.  I think communicating with the group more about where we’re going could have avoided some sticky situations that a few of our travelers found themselves in when they were left behind.  

We also didn’t have a way to contact our Tour Guide directly.  Only a couple of people were given her contact information, which made communication confusing and difficult during our free time, especially when she got delayed during our free evening in Paris and our meeting time had to be pushed back significantly.

Curfews and group rules were left up to our group leader, who didn’t set many boundaries for our students.  

Since the legal drinking age in the areas we visited was 18, student who met this requirement were allowed to drink alcohol on our trip, but were asked to limit it to one drink with dinner.  By and large, our students respected this request and did not take advantage of the lowered drinking age to go and party it up.  

Trips like this EF Tour require students to be pretty mature when it comes to safety.  We had a wonderful group of kids who took their personal safety pretty seriously, and didn’t take unnecessary risks that would put them in jeopardy.  Had it been a different group of personalities, I’m not sure how it would have gone.  

EF Tours:  Our Final Verdict

Would I travel with EF Tours again?  That seems to be the question at hand here.  

My EF Tours experience definitely taught me a lot about group travel.  As someone who travels pretty frequently , I usually make most of my own travel arrangements, from flights to hotel reservations to activities.  It was quite nice not to have to worry about any of that.  It really did take a lot of pressure off to just let someone else do all that work. 

But relinquishing that control does require a certain amount of trust.  There were some areas that I would definitely trust EF to arrange again, and other areas where I really think they could do better.  

For this trip it really came down to adjusting expectations once we were traveling.  I really did expect there to be more education involved in what we did while on our tour.  I really did expect to spend some quality time at these major historic sites. 

Once I realized that time would be much more limited at every destination than I expected it to be, the trip went much more smoothly.  

I think our experience would have been better with a more seasoned Tour Guide.  Ours just didn’t seem quite ready to handle all the pressures and logistics that are required for managing a group of 40 people for 12 days.  

EF Tours is definitely a budget tour company, and for the price, you do get a good experience.  

Did EF Tours create the trip of my dreams?  Not by a long shot. 

Did they create a good experience for students who haven’t done a lot of international traveling?  I’d say yes.  

Do I regret going on an EF Tour?  Absolutely not.  I had some incredible experiences in some amazing locations with my only daughter, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.  

Would I go on another EF Tour?  I think I would, but I would definitely choose a slower paced itinerary with more time in each destination.  

Do you have any questions about EF Tours that I didn’t answer?  Feel free to ask me in the comments!!

EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Saturday 20th of July 2024

We just back from a Greece and Italy tour. Most of the issues you had we had as well. Education was limited and we didn’t have time to explore the areas we were with the guides. We had 1 to 4 hours of free time and we didn’t plan ahead because we didn’t get details ahead of time. One example was the night before we traveled we were told we will go to the beach so bring a towel. We were not in a hotel when we went to the beach so around 8:00 pm we had to walk around to find a store with beach towels. Once we left the beach we had to change into our clothes at a restaurant before we got on a ferry. On our schedule it indicated it was an overnight ride but that day we found out we would be on the ferry for 20 hours. I could write a blog on our experience on some of the hotels, the amount of travel times, the lack of information, and unexpected changes. We did enjoy seeing the areas we were exposed to and enjoyed the food that we bought.

Sunday 7th of July 2024

This is a very fair review of EF Tours. I think it gives great insight to what to expect on the basics for one of their tours. I am a teacher and I have "led" (organized) tours with EF since 1998. I'd like to share a little in response to some of the things you mentioned. Hopefully, the teacher who organized the trip you were on took the time and gave very honest reviews on each hotel, each dinner restaurant, & the tour guide. I know EF takes looks into those reviews. We were once joined at a dinner in London (by an EF worker from the London office)... when I asked why she was eating with us, she commented that the restaurant had gotten some negative reviews so she was there to check. I have even been encouraged by a tour guide to make sure I give an honest review and provide details when a hotel is subpar. It happens occasionally but is not the norm--maybe one hotel every other trip, depending on the location. (on a side note, I have never heard back from EF on any "complaint" review I have given.) The last hotel you mentioned should not be, and may not be now, used by EF. The leaving of the keys at the desk has been quite common on most of my trips. It's because of the number of people (students) who lose keys while they are out--so I have been told. We have had to do this in numerous countries throughout Europe. As for the meals, when I first starting traveling with EF, there was always a balance of trying to make sure kids ate and didn't leave dinner hungry but also trying to get students to experience local dishes. I was asked once what I wanted the group to have for dinner--spaghetti (again) or another dish and I chose the other dish. Well, that didn't go well as most of the students just looked at their plate (I thought it was pretty good and nice to have something different). Needless to say the restaurant owner didn't seem to happy either. Again, I think it is a tough balance. However, you shouldn't have been served chicken patty and French fries. (Again I hope the tour guide and teacher gave honest reviews). The overall outcome of the trip really comes down to the tour guide. Having a tour guide who is a GREAT COMMUNICATOR, very organized, manages time well, etc. can make a trip amazing. The tour guide makes or breaks the trip. My last trip in Rome, our guide had us up early (which we didn't like) but when we were standing in the Colosseum basically by ourselves, because we were the first ones in, made it worth it. I would day that most of my EF tour guides have been good...some have been great...a couple have been exceptional. You are definitely right on the next trip being fewer destinations. I have found that fewer countries & not selecting those costly excursions, allows for more free time. EF tried to pack in all they can in a short time. Your lead teacher has to choose trips wisely and know how to work in free time. Obviously I continue to travel with EF--they are a budget company which can attract more students--and your review was pretty spot on with what that budget tour is. It is a quick paced & see all you can in a short time. Your lead teacher has to know some of the inner workings (like contacting other teachers and getting the names of recommended guides) and you really need to get a good tour guide. Both of them need to take the time and do honest reviews. Those things make a huge difference for your trip and for future trips for others.

Louise Emery

Tuesday 9th of July 2024

Thanks for your input! It always helps to have info from someone else who has experience from another perspective.

Friday 21st of June 2024

Our son's backpack is still standing in the corner, gathering dust. Like many people here, we were introduced to EF tours through our son's school, which gave them an air of credibility in our eyes. However, we will do the best we can to advise our school to never work with them again.

Like the author of the blog post, we were not told an exact date, but a timeframe for travel in the months ahead. In fact, they gladly took our money (more than $3,000) without feeling the need to communicate with us before our planned departure date. Because EF Tours is expensive, kids of only three families sought to participate. Within the week of departure we were told to pack and meet at the airport at a certain time on Saturday evening. Only, on Saturday, mere hours before we were going to drop off our son at the airport, the trip was called off.

It took days before our chaperone told us the reason why: she had her passport stolen and could not travel. This is an extenuating circumstance for the company, I understand, but also is no fault of the families. For nearly a month we heard little from the company itself other than they'd offer vouchers and refused to reimburse the families who could not go at other times during the summer.

Nearly a month later, we were offered a replacement trip of the exact length, places, and program of the original trip. This was planned to head out on July 7. We really were hoping our son got to go after all. However, EF Tours now asked for $800 more - not $80, but close to a third of the amount we already paid them and had not received anything for yet (not even the common courtesy that they would communicate with their paying customers). Only a month later, the same trip cost nearly 1/3 of the original price more, vouchers or no. How much more would we pay, even if we were still willing to send our son with them the following year?

There was no guarantee. In fact, when we reached out to EF Tours, they insisted on keeping our money in exchange for vouchers (for those who had other plans and could not travel at the later date) as well as the additional $800. They actually provided us with their law offices address.

We communicated our experience to the State's Attorney General office, the BBB, as well as the FTC and received note from the former two that they have taken up the case.

I would recommend to anyone considering traveling with EF Tours to either go with a different company or plan a trip for yourselves. Just like with people, the true character of a company shows when things do not go as planned. EF Tours is of a scam character to say the least.

Tuesday 25th of June 2024

Wow! $800 is a crazy amount to ask! I really hope you get a resolution soon.

Wednesday 29th of May 2024

We are the latest scapegoats of EF tours which is not worth 10$ for the time they make you wait doing round about trip for 40 hours for a travel worth 14 hours . THE most pathetic travel plan i have ever seen in my entire life. Instead of paying for this tour, I would have taken my entire family with much better planning saving time and money. JUST NOT worth it and am hoping to do something more than just commenting here to avoid atleast 1% of naive parents into signing up for future EF tours from school.PLEASE don't waste precious time

Tuesday 28th of May 2024

Hi Louise A great review, thank you. I am an EF tour director, though I only continue to lead tours where I have already worked with the Group Leaders (the teacher organizing). I won't defend EF, there's no getting around the fact it's heavily profit-driven and as such does not use resources on adequately training its staff, whether they are office based or TDs. They use the cheapest bus companies, negotiate the cheapest menus, the cheapest room rates but of course spend a huge budget on marketing and corporate BS - and it works, they are the biggest student tour operator out there not to mention all its other extensive enterprises. Everything is done last minute which hopefully gives some explanation as to why TDs are often beyond frazzled and they have to spend time away from the group, particularly in their hotel room each night emailing and sorting out things for the next day or next few days which should have been organized well in advance by the company. And given how early morning departures are and late finishes at hotels, you can see that they get very little sleep. More and more we complain that TDs are having to spend days and days in advance on admin to make the tour anything like acceptable - time when they are not being paid and think about it, they have chosen a job which is not office based but are being forced to do so much admin which any other company would handle in the office. We are either already on tour, so it is taking time away from our current group, or we have to spend less time with family when we are in between tours. Cheapest labor, in fact it is free labor! To say nothing of how late they pay us and even then they dispute a lot of payments so we have to wait even longer. Of course TDs should never be late, this is appalling. To play devil's avocate though, in my time I have bumped into colleagues along the way who are in floods of tears because of how their tour is going. Almost always to do with impossible itineraries, tickets not arriving and the company not supporting them, but also sadly, due to relations with travelers. The most likely is parents who have elected to travel on a student trip without understanding what they means for them (long days, staying in poor quality hotels, rushed meals etc.). And sometimes it just takes a bit longer to compose yourself before going back to meet the group. Often I have to be on a call and skip a visit that I was really looking forward to just to sort out some s*** so the tour goes well. Of course to maintain professionalism, I would never tell the group that I have been sorting out s***, they just assume I've been gorging on gelato. Sometimes we are not even provided with a ticket to go into a museum or theatre so we cannot join the group. All aspects of the job has got worse and worse over the years and many of the experienced TDs have jumped ship where they are better paid and generally treated more humanely. I think it is worth emphasizing the importance of strong leadership from the Group Leader. It s amazing that some are willing to travel with kids they have never met until they arrive at the airport. A good teacher will pick good chaperones and give them guidance to prepare for the tour. So free time can be very different between one group and the next. It may sound like kids are let lose, but it is almost always in a controlled environment and the teacher will have set up parameters the students have to keep to. Again the biggest trouble makers are typically parents who travel with the group. Regarding educational aspects of the tour, I would like to deliver more education and we certainly used to do more. But as hotels have got further and further from the centre, meaning longer and longer hours on the go with very little sleep, bus journeys means the students need to catch up on sleep. There are some EF tours which are more educational-focused such as STEM, WW2, And don't forget there is also the 'soft skills' element that should not be overlooked - for most students this is their first time travelling abroad, certainly without their families. So learning self-reliance, not losing their passport, budgeting their spending money, navigating teenage relations, meeting foreigners, starting to understand their own limitations and what they are willing to compromise on or not... there is so much that they are learning and absorbing which you will not find in a text book, but this is life learning and the most rewarding part of the job is to see the kids blossom. More often than not it is the students who are introverted, who make the biggest steps and make the most progress - starting to speak words in the local language, trying different foods, open their eyes wide. The confident kids often stick together and don't appear to grow as much. One of the biggest problems with this kind of tour is that the more things listed on the itinerary, the more people sign up. As an example. teachers often say that they offer a tour, get a few signing up, then they amend it to include Paris and boom, a full bus. Only the most experienced of travelers would look at the shiny marketing brochure and question how it is possible to pack everything in. But having everything in is what sells tours. Kind of a vicious circle. Versailles optional - this is a tricky one. It is overpriced, but is a bestseller and I would like to offer some perspectives. Don't forget to factor in the service you are getting - sure, go there alone, work out the route from which of the Versailles train stations you can work out you can get to and yes under 18s enter for free, work out how to get an adult ticket on your own, queue for a long time (just google the length of those lines), work out where the bathrooms are on your own, options to eat, what train to get back... There are more costs involved with a group. for this visit In order to skip those long queues, groups must pay for group reservation fee, whatever the age of the group. You have to pay for 2 guides if there is more than a certain number in the group, so they split the group in half and have 2 tours at the same time. The Whisper audio headsets have a fee. The bus has to have a separate fee and parking. So yes, it is very profitable, but perhaps not as much as you think. The travel business can be precarious, just look at the pandemic years. Imagine airlines going on strike or sudden weather changes. Tour companies need a little reserve to deal with emergencies and the profits from side trips like Versailles is useful for this. Of course when it is clear that this tour company makes a lot of money by being very cheap on meals, poor buses and hotels, this is hard to hear. Some side trips like the London Eye are absolutely a rip off and teachers should really be more wise to this. Now that I mainly work for companies that have a calmer itinerary, the difference is immeasurable. A good one for teachers and trip organizers to work with is Lingo Tours. Each tour is bespoke so you can bring them your itinerary ideas, they will work with you to come up with something that truly works. Meals are high quality and usually offer a choice and hotels are so much better quality and even if they are not very central, they are not far out like with EF. You will get sleep, you will get an experienced tour director (you can even bring your EF TD with you, we are all freelance after all), you won't pay more and you won't regret it! You won't feel like you are part of a factory product and you will have decisions explained to you so you know you are offering a quality product to people signing up. But, like your tour director, you need to have experience because taking students away on a tour is no easy task and it takes time to understand all that it involves. Another small company that will work with you to design your tour is Global Explorers LLC. ACIS is also good for brochure tour style, but generally works out more expensive, same with Passports. Explorica is the real rival to EF and has a similar set up and EF does not let TDs work for both companies. You have have to laugh, on the EF website it says "Reimagining student travel, one itinerary at a time". If reimagine means "providing a worse product and service than last year" then they have that written correctly. They certainly do not do one itinerary at a time, they do everything en masse and this is a problem - they never turn down business and have too many tours going at the peak season. Adjust expectations appropriately. I hope this comment helps some people to understand the challenges of student touring.

I am happy that I can be helpful. CHAOS and ADRENALINE is how these tours are run. It's a big pity, there is really enough money in the company for these to be great tours. The family who own EF are on the Forbes rich list. Their business school has a reputation like Trump's did! But the family are good at business themselves , very good. But at the end of the day, whether EF does a good job or not, we all need to understand that more people are traveling than ever and this has an impact on many aspects of trips, especially group trips.

Thank you SO much for this info! Having a TD perspective is really fantastic, and does give insight to how things are run. I especially appreciate the recommendations at the end!

Mass. Attorney General Secures $1.4M More in Refunds for Trips Scuttled by Pandemic

The massachusetts attorney general's office received more than 600 complaints from consumers saying they were dissatisfied with ef educational tours' response, by leslie gaydos and melissa simas tyler • published may 21, 2020 • updated on may 21, 2020 at 9:01 pm.

Over the past several months, NBC10 Boston Responds has heard from families in several school districts fighting to get their money back for student trips that were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In March, Glen Mair told us his son and other Nashoba Regional classmates had paid $3,600 for a canceled trip to Italy, and they couldn't get a full refund.

“It's a big hit to all the families, and it's a bigger hit to the kids that paid for the trip themselves,” Mair said.

The trips were booked through Massachusetts-based EF Educational Tours, which specializes in student travel. The company offered three options: travel vouchers they could use within two years, the ability to transfer vouchers to another family or student or a refund, minus a cancellation fee of $1,000.

Christina Hurni, of Plaistow, New Hampshire, paid for her daughter Grace's canceled trip to Spain and Portugal. 

“We're going to lose $1,000 -- that's a lot of money for us,” said Hurni. “I can see paying 10% for overhead or something, but I just can't see paying 30% of our trip. They say we plan these trips for two years and we're losing our whole season for the next four months, and I understand that. We're all hurting. We're all losing financially, but why am I donating to them?”

NBC Responds has received more than 40 complaints across the country, against both EF Educational Tours' international division and EF Explore America, the domestic travel division. 

NBC10 Boston Responds

If you’ve been cheated or swindled, NBC10 Boston Responds is fighting to recoup your money.

Student discounts can save you thousands by graduation: ‘It all adds up'

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Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office received more than 600 complaints from consumers saying they were dissatisfied with the company's response. 

“This is serious money,” said Healey. “Thousands of dollars these families have laid out for these trips.” 

Healey announced Thursday that her office has secured more than $1.4 million in additional refunds for thousands of Bay State families whose EF Tours trips were canceled.

“I appreciate the company recognized that it needed to do more than just offer vouchers for future trips, and that wasn't going to be acceptable,” said Healey. “People really needed to have cash back in their pockets and that's what this achieves, not 100%, but very close to.”

Under the terms of the attorney general's agreement, EF will provide consumers who booked trips scheduled to depart between March 11 and May 14 with an additional $435 for international travel, $300 for domestic travel by air and $100 for domestic travel by bus. 

In a statement to NBC10 Boston, EF Tours said: "In response to these unprecedented times, we have focused on providing our customers with the best and most flexible rebooking and refund options to protect their investment in our tours…we explained our need to focus on business resilience to ensure that we can deliver our tours for the vast majority of customers who have opted to rebook...we are pleased our collaboration with the Massachusetts Attorney General helped identify a path forward that further supports our current customers as well as our future travelers." 

EF Tours confirmed to NBC that the refund policy amendments will be rolled out nationwide on Friday. 

Eligible consumers in Massachusetts have until Sept. 30, 2022, to connect with EF Tours and request a refund from the company.  To request a refund, consumers who booked international trips through EF’s Educational Tours program should call 800-665-5364 to request a refund. Consumers who booked domestic trips through the EF Explore America tours program should call 888-333-9756 to request a refund.

There is also a class-action lawsuit that has been filed over the company's refund policy.

This article tagged under:

Request a check refund

We are currently preparing to issue the refund you recently requested. In most cases, refunds can be issued electronically with the funds being sent directly back to your current account on file. However, we understand the existing account on file may be inactive, or that you may prefer a check to be sent to you by mail instead.

By clicking "submit" below, you are requesting to have your refund issued by check, which will be made out in the traveler’s name and mailed to their primary address on file.

Yes, please issue my refund as a check

Parents frustrated with EF Tours not giving full refunds for student trips canceled due to COVID-19

With the economy in turmoil, most of us watching every dollar, the last thing you need is a travel company refusing to return an upcoming trip.

With travelers canceling their spring travel plans by the millions, airlines and tour companies are swamped with calls. And when you finally get through, many people are then frustrated to learn they may not be getting a refund.

Sarah Hignite and her high school daughter had been looking forward to a school trip to Europe. The ten-day EF Tours trip to Spain was expensive but would be the trip of a lifetime.

"My husband and I worked extra shifts and picked up extra jobs to make the payments for this Spain trip. It was over $8,300," Hignite said.

But COVID-19 canceled those plans.

So, Hignite and other parents contacted EF Tours to learn they could get only vouchers, or pay the penalty to cancel.

"You can accept a travel voucher with no penalties, or you can accept a refund minus $1,000 per person. Well, that is $2,000 in our case, that's a lot of money," Hignite said.

Hignite says it would have been one thing had this been a mid-summer trip, but this was a spring break trip. And the bus was supposed to leave in a week.

Sarah says she will never be able to reschedule.

So, we contacted EF Tours, where a spokeswoman told us they would not give refunds, minus a $1,000 fee per person for nonrefundable charges.

Sarah says that's better than nothing, but still a hit in this uncertain time.

"Some families have paid over $20,000, depending on how many family members were going to go on these trips," Hignite said.

Policies are changing by the day. So, if your travel company is holding onto your deposit right now, check back in another week.

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Reviews 4.4.

18,957 total

Most recent

My daughter had a great time!

My daughter said she had a great tour guide and really enjoyed a trip of a lifetime to Europe!

Date of experience : 06 July 2024

Great experience

Great experience. Wonderful tour guide!

Date of experience : 14 July 2024

Mostly wonderful

Mostly wonderful. A few hotels chosen did not provide enough food. The hotel in Rome had staff that were not very accommodating.

Date of experience : 05 July 2024

Colin had the experience of a lifetime.

We had a great time Our tour guides

We had a great time Our tour guides , bus drivers, and leader were excellent. The hotel we stayed in was lacking in service and in food guality. The cruise we went on the accommodations, service, and food was excellent. The price of the extra tours should have been included in the original price of the tour.

Date of experience : 13 July 2024

New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii

My son and I did the trip to New Zealand, Australia and Hawaii. We definitely made memories of a lifetime. Our guide, Ben, was absolutely amazing. The food was great, the hotels were comfortable and clean, and the places we visited were beautiful. I could have lived with a few less flights and a bit more sleep. Many of our group were sick by day 8 or so, in part due to not getting enough rest. The few days that we had free time, we didn’t have hotel access, so we basically had no choice but to go shopping. Overall, a great experience; I will plan to do a trip with my younger kiddos!

Date of experience : 15 June 2024

Fantastic experience

Great tour director. We were able to enjoy local food and customs. There was no stress in transitioning between locations.

The kids had an amazing experience in Thailand! Everything was perfect from activities to transportation.

Date of experience : 20 June 2024

Highly recommend EF Tours

My son had a great time on this trip! EF did a great job. I felt comfortable and confident that my son was safe throughout the trip. I enjoyed the app which let me know what they were doing every day. My son enjoyed the variety of activities and loved the food. I would not hesitate to send my child with EF on another tour and would highly recommend to other parents.

Thailand 2024

It was a great well planned experience for all of us. They did a wonderful job, we didn’t have to worry at all. My son was in great hands .

Nothing you cover every thing

My son had a great time. He loved everything they did.

A great experience!

We got to experience many different locations. Several fun and unique experiences. Excellent food. And the tour guide was top notch!

Date of experience : 09 July 2024

My child had a great time traveling with her chaperone and friends. I am grateful for this. The groups they were paired with were not ideal or compatible for friendships or community much. The travel days to save on cost were just too long. The hotel in Barcelona was not acceptable. The tour guide and bus tour guide were fantastic. I do think do things could definitely use a polish up. Thank you.

Our son had the greatest experience

Our son had the greatest experience. We had heard of EF Traveler before and it was positive. But thru a group chat we saw daily pictures of all the tours/activities they did. They all looked happy and exhausted at the end of the day. They had a daily schedule of things to do that did not disappoint. The tour guides were very knowledgeable and friendly.

Date of experience : 01 July 2024

EF tours was such a great experience…

EF tours was such a great experience for us and out teenage son traveling abroad. Our Tour guide was awesome and we had a wonderful and safe and exciting trip.

Everything was amazing except most of…

Everything was amazing except most of our day your guides sucked

Awesome experience

Awesome experience! Our guide, Liatus, made every moment exciting, fun, safe and easily navigable. Accommodations and meals were as expected - moderate and perfectly acceptable. A once in a lifetime experience with my Grandson which we will treasure. Wouldn’t think twice about going again.

Kick back & Enjoy

The trip was planned down to every detail. Places to go, where we stay, what to eat and transportation. But what put it over the top was our Tour Director, Pete. He was great with the kids, at giving options during free time and at providing information! He was flexible and made any hiccup unnoticeable. I loved how travel days had fun experiences along the way.

Date of experience : 21 June 2024

Not the best way to travel

Hit or miss with EF, everything is about budget, so the travelers of course get the worst flights with layovers, cheap accommodations far from city centers and dingy, the prefixed meals aren’t good. Teachers try to plan trips without a company, parents save your money and take the whole family for the price EF charges for one student.

The flight refund DC to Norfolk

The flight from DC to Norfolk was not used due to delays and a bus was used instead and there is no relief or refund of the difference in cost

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Reviews 4.4.

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My son went on the Northern Italy…

My son went on the Northern Italy Culture & Cuisine Tour and had an amazing time! He did not want to come home. We were fortunate that our group was large enough to not have to combine with another group which was comforting to me. He enjoyed all of the planned events and took advantage of the afternoon free time exploring the villages. He would love to go on another trip with EF Tours.

Date of experience : 24 July 2024

Eva was an amazing tour guide

Eva was an amazing tour guide! Most things ran smoothly. Our hotel in Athens was dirty and the air conditioning did NOT work which made it difficult for everyone to sleep. Breakfast in Rome at the hotel was excellent. Some of the meals were good, others were very disappointing. More authentic meals on each country would be nice.

Date of experience : 14 August 2024

Amazing experience!

Our tour director (Noel) was the best! They really enjoyed all the museums and activities that were planned. The panel and the Anne Frank House were definitely highlights of the trip. Hotels were amazing and in great locations as well.

Date of experience : 15 August 2024

Great experiences!

We had a great tour of Iceland. We loved seeing multiple areas of beautiful Iceland. The whale watching tour was amazing! We loved the activity with the local fisherman. Our tour director was knowledgeable and engaging. He helped my students better understand each area. Everything was well-planned and flowed smoothly. Highly recommend this tour!

Date of experience : 11 August 2024

Beware of visa issues

We had several issues with the e-visa process. I reached out to several people, in hopes of guidance. However, no one seemed to know how to help. We even called the immigration office in Vietnam for assistance. This was very frustrating and made the process very stressful. I recommend that EF hire/train a liaison to focus on these concerns, as we weren’t the only family to experience issues. In fact, a couple of children weren’t able to join due to this problem.

Date of experience : 26 June 2024

This was a great experience and…

This was a great experience and opportunity. I felt like my child was safe and looked after while she was away. I didn't like that she had to take the tiniest of suitcases which doesn't allow for many souvenirs or memories other than pictures. For some this may be a once in a lifetime experience so she should've been able to shop and buy what she wanted without worrying about having to aquire another suitcase. Other than that she learned and saw a lot and had a great time doing it.

Date of experience : 28 June 2024

The Good Outweighs The Bad

As a Group Leader felt I was fully prepared and supported by EF to handle all the hurdles we encountered on out trip. Granted there is plenty to complain about from dealing with canceled flights to a horrible hotel experience. None the less the itinerary was well prepared, we had an amazing tour director. He was very engaging, knowledgeable, friendly and responsive to our concerns. Our time was valued and respected. We saw A LOT we did A LOT we LEARNED A LOT Japan did not disappoint.

Date of experience : 23 July 2024

The return flight cut it insanely close

The return flight cut it insanely close. Luggage did not make the connection & we had to wait 5 days before it arrived home. Very frustrating because we had another trip to pack for immediately. Also on the way there they had several unnecessary hours to sit around & wait. Seems like better connection flights could have been made.

Date of experience : 14 July 2024

My review on EF

My experience was very fun. I was grateful for the amount of free time and openness we were given to explore the cities we visited. I also enjoyed the film crew we were given to document our adventure.

Date of experience : 21 July 2024

I absolutely loved that I wasn't in…

I absolutely loved that I wasn't in charge of vacation and all stressed out about trip details! I loved every destination and it was so great to not just travel but to learn and hear from the locals.

Date of experience : 06 August 2024

Wonderful experience.

The tour was amazing… full of great places to visit… the scenery was amazing. Our tour guide Georgia was superb. The historical lessons I learned were forever stamped in my mind. Do note this tour requires a lot of walking and hiking but worth it all. If you are not able to walk 5-8 miles a day, you may want to pick another tour option. The only pitfall was the cruise ship which obviously is a sturdy vessel but in dire need of a makeover. The cruise staff , drinks and food were wonderful but the ship is obviously old and needs to be updated.

Date of experience : 11 July 2024

Amazing Tour!

This tour was truly fantastic! Every moment was enjoyable and it offered my travelers valuable insights into the cultures and lifestyles of Greece and Italy. There is a significant amount of driving involved, especially in Greece. However, we made stops at various sights and tours along the route, which helped break up the long drives. If you prefer spending more time in one location rather than multiple places with extensive driving, then this tour may not be suitable for you. On average, bus travel times ranged from 3 to 4 hours. Overall, this tour provided a comprehensive experience in a short period and was truly memorable. I highly recommend it to anyone keen on exploring both countries!

Date of experience : 22 July 2024

My son had an amazing time

My son had an amazing time! Everything about this trip was new for him - the incredibly long flight, the 14hour time difference, the heat, the food, the culture. All of it. I was very nervous and I had read that sometimes the hotels, food and logistics could be poor but he didn't experience that. Hotels were well located, food was authentic local restaurants and all the logistics went incredibly smooth

Date of experience : 07 August 2024

A wonderful experience

According to our daughter, everything was great except the food options. She felt safe, understood what was happening, had fun, loved the scenery, and learned a lot about different countries and cultures. Part of the journey was experiencing meals from elsewhere, but she had a hard time finding enjoyable options. The tour guides were super great, Derry from Derry was her favorite.

Date of experience : 10 August 2024

Amazing European Experience

Our tour guide Steve made the trip so much more informative. From start to finish we enjoyed every minute. Once in a lifetime experience for our family of 4. I highly recommend EF Tours.

Date of experience : 21 June 2024

Japan trip and tour guide was superb!!!

Tour guide KaiSan was excellent! He was so informative, helpful, and kind. Loved visiting the different cities in Japan. Most favorite were strolling the streets and shops, trying authentic Japanese food, and the stop where we took a skyride to walk to a shrine. We were so high up we were literally walking in clouds - gorgeous! Suggestion to reduce the amount of shrines we stop at and allow more free time to explore and walk the city as the shrines took up most of the days.

Another EF Tour Knocked Out of the Park!

The tours were very interesting, educational, and provided a wide variety of culture and agriculture. Every detail was well planned. The logistics were taken care of with out any major issues. Our tour guide and bus driver were phenomenal. The local people, tour guides, and tour hosts were incredibility kind, pleased to see, humorous, or all the above.

Get the details right and it would be perfect.

The itinerary changed and was not updated on the web interface. It was hard to get in touch with a person to get information about adjusting our son's return trip so that we could meet him and continue traveling after the trip. The billing system worked great. Our son enjoyed the trip very much. Osaka was the least liked section of the trip. Kyoto and Tokyo, and Hakone were well liked.

Great tour!

The tour was very thoughtful for our schedule and our needs. The guides were super informative. Food was more than plenty and sometimes exceptionally yummy. We were kept on safe routes that were doable by all.

Date of experience : 22 June 2024

It was all around an amazing trip…

It was all around an amazing trip however the tour guides all sounded like their souls were sucked out of them. Two of the three hotels were nice but one had roaches and ants. It was nice exploring the city with a group I was familiar with. The other issues included lack of support when our flight was delayed almost a full day causing us to lose time on the trip and there were no options at dinner. You just got what they served. No options. But overall I had a great time and it was an amazing trip

Date of experience : 04 August 2024

Usher concert postponed hours before tour opener in Atlanta, more shows pushed

ATLANTA — Us h er is postponing his tour opener hours before he was set to take the stage Wednesday.

The singer, who was set to embark on his Past Present Future tour Wednesday night at the State Farm Arena in his hometown of Atlanta, pulled the plug on the first show after dealing with physical pain in the lead up to the show.

"For my 30-plus year career, 100% of my blood, sweat and tears has gone into putting on the best performance and creating a memorable experience for my fans," Usher wrote in a statement shared to social media Wednesday . "I have every intention of doing that for this tour as well which is why I have to postpone tonight's show and reschedule it for a later date to give my body a second to rest and heal. You’re still going to get a bit of the past, some of the present and a unique look into the future on the rescheduled date but you’ll also be getting 100% of me."

He continued: "The last thing I want to ever do is disappoint you, the fans who have been eagerly waiting for this tour to start. However, I wouldn't be the entertainer that I am if I can’t physically give you my best."

On Thursday, Usher also canceled his next two shows , which were also set for Atlanta's State Farm Arena on Friday and Saturday.

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"Earlier this week, I suffered an injury to my neck while rehearsing to provide my fans with the greatest USHER show of all time," he wrote Thursday in a message shared to social media . "My hope was that with physical therapy and medical treatment, I would be able to overcome the injury and be ready for opening night. Unfortunately, the injury has not healed yet, and my doctors have instructed me not to perform any shows this week."

UPDATE: Usher postpones more concerts after injury. What does that mean for his tour?

Will Usher reschedule his concert?

The slate of Atlanta shows set for the State Farm Arena will be rescheduled for dates in December, Usher said in his Thursday statement.

The Aug. 14 show will be rescheduled for Dec. 9, Aug. 16 concert on Dec. 10 and the Aug. 17 performance on Dec. 12.

His next shows are set for Washington, D.C., on Aug. 20 and Aug. 21 at Capital One Arena.

The singer, 45, ended his Wednesday note with a positive outlook, "I can't wait to celebrate this legacy with you," signing it simply "Usher."

The Essentials: As Usher prepares for Super Bowl halftime show, here are his must-haves

The tour is set to be the culmination of a landmark few years for Usher, who rocked his 2024 Super Bowl halftime show performance in February, days after releasing his ninth solo studio album, "Coming Home," and wrapped up his critically acclaimed Las Vegas residency with 100 shows.

He announced the tour days before his Super Bowl halftime show outing, originally releasing 24 dates in North America before expanding to 58 shows through November. The tour is set to pick back up in Europe in 2025, bookended in London from March to May.

'Oh, I'm ruined': Usher talks Super Bowl show, reveals most 'personal' song on new album

Usher concert postponement comes after Essence Festival performance and Lovers and Friends festival cancellation

Usher hit the stage over the summer at the annual Essence Festival of Culture in July, performing hits from his "Confessions" album.

"Anytime that I've been able to be a part of the festivities of New Orleans' all-time famous Essence Festival, it's always a celebration," he told the USA TODAY Network at the time. "This year was a little bit more unique because I'm celebrating the 20th anniversary of 'Confessions.'"

Days before his performance, he stepped onto the BET Awards stage to receive the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award following a musical tribute performed by Keke Palmer, Chloë, Coco Jones and more.

In May, organizers for Usher 's  Lovers & Friends music festival  shared a  statement to the official website  and to  social media  hours before the festival was set to start, alerting it was forced to be canceled in an "incredibly heartbreaking decision."

"Lovers & Friends Festival organizers have been monitoring the weather for several days and proactively preparing for a windy Saturday," the statement read.

The Las Vegas R&B extravaganza , named after the singer's 2004 hit song with  Ludacris and Lil Jon , was set to be held at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds but could not go on after "the National Weather Service has now issued a High Wind Warning."

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner advance in Cincinnati Open

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek survived in her return to hard courts Wednesday night in the Cincinnati Open, outlasting Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-2

MASON, Ohio — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek survived in her return to hard courts Wednesday night in the Cincinnati Open, outlasting Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7 (8), 6-2.

Playing for the first time since finishing third for Poland in the Paris Olympics on clay, Swiatek set up a third-round match against Marta Kostyuk — a 6-3, 7-5 winner over Lulu Sun.

“For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from like the slowest surface to the fastest surface,” Swiatek said. “But that’s why I’m still happy with my performance, and looking forward to another match to kind of still do the grinding and implement what I was working on, but not really focusing on the results.”

Swiatek won her third straight French Open title in May and has six WTA Tour victories this season.

On the men’s side in the U.S. Open tuneup event, top-ranked Jannik Sinner got past American Alex Michelsen 6-4, 7-5 in his first match.

In the late match, Jiri Lehecka upset fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (2), 6-4.

Earlier in women’s play, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva beat 11th seeded Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-2. Andreeva was playing her first match since taking a silver medal in doubles in Paris.

“I just went out there, tried to show my best level, and tried to win a match, and I think I did it,” Andreeva said.

Andreeva will face 2016 Cincinnati champion Karolina Pliskova.

Toronto semifinalist Diana Shnaider of Russia, Andreeva’s doubles partner in Paris, beat Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-4.

Sinner improved to 25-2 on hard courts this season and advanced to a third-round meeting with Australia’s Jordan Thompson. Sinner is trying to reach the quarterfinals in Cincinnati for the first time.

“I’m very happy to be in the next round,” the Italian star said. “For me this is a place where I used to struggle a lot in the past years, so let’s see what I can do this time.”

Thompson beat Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-4.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, in his first tournament since announcing he would no longer be coached by his father, rallied to beat Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Tsitsipas, the No. 9 seed, revealed that Apostolos Tsitsipas would no longer coach him after losing to Kei Nishikori in his first match last week in Montreal.

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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Culinary and historic tour of Northern Italy

The destinations and activities were carefully urated and on the topic of the tor (culinary and history tou of Northern Italy). The guides were knowledgeable and the bus driver was patient, funny and followed all the road safety rules. Overall a great experience!

Date of experience : July 31, 2024

All the staff were extremely…

All the staff were extremely knowledgeable and shared great insight into traveling with a group of students. On top of that, we learned a ton about the history of Munich and we had so much fun! Thank you for an amazing experience!

Date of experience : August 12, 2024

Beautiful sites and wonderful people

The sites chosen and the hotels we stayed at were first rate. I learned a lot about the Canadian battle sites and the food for the most part was amazing. The people we got to meet were gracious and added a lot to our experience. I didn't really like the way the trip was organized the first day and would hope if I brought students, they wouldn't be expected to start their tour immediately after flying for so long. But other than that, I am very excited to organize a similar tour of northern France for my students.

Date of experience : August 09, 2024

Excellent experience

Excellent experience! The trip was awesome. Positive people - well organised. Loads of fun! The trip permitted me to understand the ins and outs of group travelling - there was a ton of experienced people to consult. I would do it again in a heart beat! Thank you!

The EF staff accompanying us was great. The chemistry between the travellers was perfect. Munich is a great city. The activities planned were perfect!

La Bella Vita in Italy

The itinerary was fantastic. We went places, Masserias for example, that I would not have done if travelling on my own. The food and wine experience was amazing and the cooking classes were a lot of fun. I appreciate the attention to detail that created a memorable experience for me. The landscape was postcard perfect. The EF staff interacted with the group in a way that created meaning and connection. Lisa’s morning hugs were a welcome start to our day! I came away with new friendships and I’m grateful for having been part of such a wonderful experience.

Date of experience : July 18, 2024

Mo was awesome

Our guide Mo was awesome! He knew areas very well and could see when the kids needed more or less time. He recommended the best areas for both adults and kids. He took charge or everything and was always one step ahead of us with grabbing tickets or handling situations. Our bus driver Jeffery was also easy going and great company, the kids loved his energy. The first dinner we stopped at at Zaks Cantina in Ottawa was disappointing and has some troubles with a couple restaurants not being able to accommodate food allergies.

Date of experience : August 02, 2024

The Puglia discovery tour was a much…

The Puglia discovery tour was a much anticipated dream come true! The food, wine, magnificent locations (both inland and by the sea), the EF staff and travellers were exceptional! So much fun!! The tour was well organized and we learned so much about this beautiful part of Italy! A huge thank you to the EF staff!

Date of experience : August 01, 2024

Very well organized trip

Very well organized trip. My daughter really enjoyed it. The group leaders are very well trained and experienced.

The EF staff on tour and TD were…

The EF staff on tour and TD were phenomenal. They went above and beyond to ensure the group experienced the best of Puglia. Their focus on creating a genuine caring community among the travelers was noticeable daily. They deserve special recognition for their efforts. Well done!

From start to finish… Japan, an unforgettable experience!

From start to finish, everything was absolutely fantastic. Your team’s enthusiasm, expertise, and attention to detail made the entire journey unforgettable. Even when faced with a little hiccup in Kyoto, you handled it with such creativity and flair, turning it into an extra day of fun and exploration. It’s clear that you know how to keep things exciting and ensure that every moment is memorable!! I’ll definitely be spreading the word about how amazing your tours are and can’t wait for the next adventure with you! Forever grateful!!

Date of experience : July 29, 2024

Really great Experience

Really great Experience! Great communication up front. Kids got a lot of free time and had to independently get themselves from point A to B over lunch. Well fed and taken care of. Overall very happy.

Wasn't well planned and execute the trip

We.had non communication with the leaders tour, during the trip was a reservations problems in Hotels, was coordinate previously efficiently. In New York the kids didn't go to the Liberty Statute Island. I have the impression in general that it wasn't well planned the trip.

EF staff are awesome

The EF staff that planned and traveled with us made this trip unforgettable.

Date of experience : August 14, 2024

Top Notch!!

EF continues to be an amazing company that cares about the people that travel with them!

According to my daughter who went to…

According to my daughter who went to Italy, the tour guides were wonderful and very informative. Accommodations were mostly good except for the three star hotel they stayed in in the city of Lucca. Paint chipping off the walls, and bedsheets that felt like the curtains. Might be something to look into, not expecting luxury of course but that seemed a little below par. Otherwise the trip was fantastic and we would absolutely sign up with EF tours again in the future!! Thank you so much for all your help and your excellent customer service leading up to the trip! 😊

Above and beyond just the tours

My kids had such incredible experiences throughout their travels. Sights and experiences they will never forget. Sadly while they were away on their trip,we had a family tragedy happen at home. Our teacher along with EFT, we're so supportive and provided to our children's needs during this terrible situation that happened at home. I am so grateful to our teacher and EFT for all they did to ensure my children were looked after. Thank you EFT for being above and beyond just the tours

Date of experience : July 26, 2024

Travel for Credit.

Hotels, restaurants, bookings were all great. Tour Directors were fantastic. Distance to hotel in Montreal (St. Hyacinthe) and activities was terrible for the amount of time spent in transit. Final details provided on the itinerary before the trip were very last minute. So many groups traveling at the same time, that logistics were not at a level that I'd expect for providing information to parents. 8 day "Travel for Credit" program to Ottawa, Montreal, and New York City (July 2024)

Date of experience : July 13, 2024

Reply from EF Tours Canada

Hi Cory, we appreciate your feedback and understand your concerns about the hotel location and sharing of last-minute details. We strive to provide a seamless travel experience for our travellers. We're glad you enjoyed the other elements of this tour, and will use your feedback to look into hotel locations and pre-departure communication in the future!

Ants infested hotel rooms

The hotel booked in New York was infested with ants. Staff assured the rooms would be deep cleaned while the kids were out for the day but my son's room still had ants when he returned and they had no other rooms for him so he had no choice but to sleep there. So disappointing and frustrating for a parent 10 hours away.

Hi Erin, thank you for taking the time to review your son's experience with us. Our team's main priority is safety and security - that includes comfort - we sincerely apologize that this was his experience while on tour. Please know that we take this feedback seriously and will utilize the Group Leader's official evaluation to take a closer look at our accommodations in the future.

The chosen hotels were way too far from…

The chosen hotels were way too far from the city centers. This should be clarified in the trip information sessions. For example: staying in Ste-Hyacinthe for Montreal. Some reasonably priced hotels could be found much much closer thus allowing more time for the kids in the cities. Otherwise, the tour seems to have been fun and well organized.

Date of experience : July 22, 2024

Hi there, thank you for sharing your experience with us on tour. We often choose hotels located just outside the city center so that your travel investment can be better used for enriching activities. We understand, however, that this is not suitable for everyone and we appreciate you sharing your concerns. We have received your group leader's official evaluation and will use it to look at this element for future tours.

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Swifties in Vienna Cry, Commiserate and Try to Shake It Off

Taylor Swift fans from around the world grappled with disappointment and fear after a terrorism plot derailed the Vienna dates of the Eras Tour.

Taylor Swift Fans in Vienna React After Cancellations

Taylor swift fans described their disappointment after organizers canceled her eras tour dates in vienna after austrian authorities uncovered a terrorist plot targeting the event..

“We’re just really happy that everyone’s safe.” “We planned all year to be here. So, what a huge disappointment for our friends and for our kids.” “It’s kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity to come with my bestie to see Taylor Swift. And so I’m a little bummed.” “I guess, at the end of the day, safety comes first. But it’s really heartbreaking as well for me and for all of the fans of Taylor Swift.” “The concert itself being canceled is sad, but also we’re really thankful that the men and women who were tracking this, caught it before anything major could have happened.”

By Sarah Maslin Nir

Reporting from Vienna

Just as she was boarding her flight at Boston Logan International Airport headed for a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Mary DePetris excitedly checked the online fan group, Swiftie Nation.

Austrian authorities had discovered a terrorist plot targeting Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in the city, she read. On Wednesday, just before takeoff, organizers canceled all three shows. Ms. DePetris, 47, stepped onto the plane and broke the news to some of her fellow passengers.

“Half the plane was crying,” Ms. DePetris said. “It’s not just about the shows, it’s the community coming together and feeling safe at her concerts, and Swifties letting their guard down. And this just shifted all of that,” she said. “How can we do that now that we feel we are targeted?”

As the estimated 200,000 people who had been expected to worship at Ms. Swift’s proscenium in Vienna grappled with crushing disappointment, wasted money and a measure of fear at narrowly avoiding danger, a sea of fans flooded the baroque city looking for ways to shake it off.

They traded Eras merchandise in the shadow of the vacant stadium, or dissolved into tears when they caught the strains of Ms. Swift’s stanzas drifting from the doorways of sympathetic gift shops or churches. Some hung handmade friendship bracelets — a treasured Swiftie talisman inspired by a song lyric — on a tree on Corneliusgasse, a central Vienna thoroughfare whose name echoes the title of Ms. Swift’s song “Cornelia Street.” There, hundreds hugged, cried and commiserated in the middle of the road.

Tempering the dejection for many was a feeling that a missed concert was far from the worst outcome possible. On Thursday, Austrian authorities released information on the two teenagers they say planned to attack , outlining a picture of a terrorist assault designed to kill as many people as possible with machetes and explosives, plotted by the pair who had become radicalized by Islamic extremism on the internet.

One had recently started a job for a events service provider that was working at the Ernst Happel Stadium, where Ms. Swift was scheduled to play, according to Franz Ruf, a senior Austrian security official. The suspect, who the authorities did not name but said was 17 years old, was arrested there on Wednesday.

“I feel grateful to be alive,” said Charlotte Keller, 34, a human resources manager from Rome outside the stadium on Thursday.

Ewald Tatar, a manager at Barracuda Music, which organized the Austrian leg of the Eras Tour, said in a news conference that the decision to cancel the concerts was made together with Ms. Swift’s management, based on the information received from authorities.

“Although it was not an everyday decision, it was definitely the right one,” Mr. Tatar said, citing the fact that one of the suspects was an arena employee as a deciding factor. According to Barracuda’s website, all tickets would be automatically refunded within the next two weeks.

In an essay for Elle magazine from 2019 , Ms. Swift said her “biggest fear” was the potential for an attack on one of her concerts. “After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour,” she wrote, referring to terrorist attacks at concerts in those cities in 2017 that killed a total of 82 people and wounded hundreds of others.

Ms. Swift wrote at the time that she worried about keeping “3 million fans safe over seven months,” during her Reputation Tour. Her Eras tour will be three times as long, with more than 150 shows over two years that one company estimated could generate $4.6 billion in North America alone.

Ms. Swift has not yet commented publicly on the situation.

Inside the 16th-century Lutheran City Church in Vienna on Thursday, a group of teenagers from the Czech Republic sat in a pew, inconsolable. A sign outside said, “Dear Swifties, we sympathize,” and Ms. Swift’s song “August” blasted through the sanctuary: “I can see us lost in the memory,” she sang. “August slipped away into a moment in time …”

The girls sang, too. And they sobbed.

“We came here carefree,” said one, Katherine Penkavova, 18. “And now we face danger,” she added. The girls leaned their heads down on the back of the pew. “At least we can sing our feelings here,” Ms. Penkavova said.

The city tried its best to dry the floods of tears.

Listings of palliative events popped up almost immediately. Vienna’s Albertina museum and municipal pools offered Swifties free entry, while Austria’s national railway offered refunds on unused train tickets. A dance party called “Shake It Off” invited fans to come dressed in their sparkly concert best. A restaurant offered free flutes of pink sparkling wine for every crushed concertgoer.

For some the concerts had meant more than a silly, good time, including Eliya Briand, 22, and her sister Naomi, 24, who arrived in Vienna on Thursday from Netanya, just north of Tel Aviv, seeking a reprieve from Israel’s war in Gaza. Now thousands of miles from home, the sisters felt they were facing the same fear.

“It has been a really, really difficult year, and this concert was sort of an escape from the reality at home,” Eliya said.

Her sister Naomi said they had come “from war, from terror — and now we meet it again.” She added, “For this concert to be canceled because of that specific reason, it hurts a lot more.”

Some, like Teng Yilin, 22, were making the most of the situation — while blinking back the occasional tear. Ms. Yilin flew in for a single day from Shanghai to live her dream of seeing Ms. Swift live. She arrived before dawn on Thursday and was scheduled to leave around midnight. She got the news about the cancellation on the plane, but didn’t believe it until she saw people crying when she landed.

Wandering Vienna lost in grief before dawn, Ms. Yilin and her boyfriend were taken in by a group of Swifties, some of whom had come from as far away as South Africa. They bought her beers, she said, and the bar owner played Taylor Swift songs.

“At the beginning, it was sad, but after a few hours we were laughing,” Ms. Yilin said. “I’m heartbroken,” she added. “But I think it was still a good night.”

It was still too early to assess the economic fallout from the canceled concerts. The Austrian Hotel Association offered its members legal guidelines to manage an expected influx of cancellations, but Oliver Schenk, a spokesman for the organization, said that he had received conflicting reports.

“It is not yet possible to say how high the financial loss is for the companies,” he said.

Outside the stadium on Thursday, there was no coveted Eras merchandise for sale. Vendors began to pack up tubs of uneaten wurst and untapped kegs of Austrian lager.

Stefan Schneider, 48, the owner of Arena Cocktail Catering, said he had spent 10,000 euros, about $11,000, on hotel rooms for 60 staff members he brought in from Germany for the three-day event, plus another 10,000 euros in cocktail ingredients. The event would have accounted for 30 percent of his yearly income, if all had gone well, he said. He added that he had no insurance.

“It’s a disaster,” Mr. Schneider said, but looming larger than that was his fear that other concerts could be under threat. “It’s a problem. You have thoughts, what about the next event? What about disaster after disaster?”

Next week, the singer’s global tour is scheduled to begin a run of five sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium, a 90,000-seat arena in London. A spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement that there was “nothing to indicate that the matters being investigated by the Austrian authorities will have an impact on upcoming events here in London.”

With all the tickets for the London gigs snapped up and further tour dates fixed through December, it was unlikely that the disappointed Swifties in Vienna would get to see the singer soon.

And without a concert to prep for, they flooded the city.

The Spanish Riding School tours appeared sold out on Thursday, and braceleted people queued for tickets to Schönbrunn Palace. Mozart and Taylor Swift songs competed for earspace across its winding streets. Alex Januschke, a waiter at Cafe Tirolerhof, said he had spent the afternoon managing tables of disconsolate fans.

“My advice?” he said. “See the city!”

Melissa Eddy contributed reporting from Berlin, Christopher F. Schuetze from Leipzig, Germany, and Alex Marshall from London.

Sarah Maslin Nir is a Times reporter covering anything and everything New York ... and sometimes beyond. More about Sarah Maslin Nir