Had to cancel a trip with them and they just straight up stole over $2k from me. Had to cancel my trip due to work reasons and that wasn’t / “qualified reason” so now I’m loosing out on a lot of money. Do not book, complete scam.

I had decided to cancel a trip I had to Dublin on January 9th. One of my friends had done the same on the same day and time as me. I was told I would get my money back within a week. It has been a month since then and I still haven’t received a refund. I will take further actions if necessary however I just want my money back. They expect us to pay on time but don’t have the courtesy to pay us back within the time provided to us.

This trip is insanely rushed even under the Plus package which is supposed to be for "anyone that just values their me time, Plus combines an immersive itinerary with more space to unwind." We got trapped in London due to weather and the adjustments to travel and accommodation were unlivable and would have had me in a hospital the next day. I am a disabled person who travels often. It is against the law to not provide appropriate accommodations and options for the disabled as I mentioned to my tour guide and he only suggested to book my own accommodations and request a reimbursement - again, illegal to not offer me an option. EF refused to rebook our trains at different times even though it was totally possible and booked small cars for everyone to drive 6+ hours to Paris to try and make it in time for New Year's (they did not). Half of us bought our own train tickets and are now fighting for reimbursements. Again, I am disabled, so I could physically not travel via a long car ride. The accommodations for that extra night in London were an unsecure, dirty, and nonhandicapped accessible hostel when we all paid for hotel accommodations. Over half of us were forced to book our own accommodations as well because EF refused to separate us when we are all adults and could find our way to meeting point in the morning. The hostel had blood and hair in the sheets, trash in the hallways, it smelled like urine, co-ed shared bathrooms with naked strangers, homeless people scattering the bottom floor, no security so anyone can walk in and have access to our belongings, and had giant steps to enter which is a large challenge for a handicapped person (and everyone else who at this point were only running on two hours of sleep). PLUS: Those of us who did make it to the NYE party got stranded because Irakalis' (our tour guide's) bus never showed up and all the other guides just left us. We were left, intoxicated, and wandering the Paris metro we didn't know on our first night by ourselves because no cars/taxis/ubers would show up. EF DOES NOT have a 24/7 helpline that actually helps you at all in case of an emergency like this and our host was heartless and treated us like spoiled Americans who were actually now broke because we all spent way outside of our budget to be safe. You use these travel companies to save you time, stress and pay in advance. We all agreed we didn't save on any of these items and were definitely weighed down by stress and the financial position this company put us in when we were across the world by ourselves. Even before the unusual circumstances, this was not the trip I signed up for and was very stressful, rushed and did not match this description. Use 30under30experiences or Contiki instead.

I have been trying to make the best of this trip, but honestly, I’m having a terrible time. This has been the most stressed I’ve ever been on a vacation. I’m currently stuck in Iceland, no one from the EF team will not respond to me, I’m out a LOT of money, I’m FREEZING, and I’m severely uncomfortable. I would HIGHLY NOT RECOMMEND EF Ultimate Break for any of your travel needs. They do NOT take care of your problems— they just make the most money they can off of you and do not actually care about your comfort or concerns. This trip has sent me on an incredibly LOW low, and I just want to go home, but that would be a substantial amount of money I can’t afford. I have been bouncing around contacting EF, JetBlue, Icelandair, and British Airways. I still don’t have my luggage, and it is the LAST DAY of planned activities already. I also found out from JetBlue that there was a refund issued for $834 for the original flight we didn’t make (that’s just one of them)— yet, *I had to pay $1100 to EF Ultimate Break to rebook on my new itinerary that made me miss my first day of touring, and I DID NOT see that $834. I am beyond mad and tired and ready to be home safe. This is disgusting service.

Three people (including myself) were stranded in Italy while the rest of the group went to Greece because of technical issues with our tickets, and the company took many hours to contact us, and even longer to get back to us with another flight. There were issues with two of the excursions where most/all people couldn't go and the company never got back to a majority of us. Only breakfast is included (it's usually some bread and ham or something). It's a gamble how your trip goes depending on who booked the same trip as you, since you'll be spending a lot of time on a bus with them (bus days were literally full days from early morning to nighttime). My favorite parts of the trip were spent away from the group; if you've been to Europe before, you're better off skipping almost all of the excursions (they're all tourist traps (even your tour guide's recommendations) and you're better off looking independently). If you've never been before and want to stick with the group, go ahead! Also, the quality of your trip is highly dependent on your guide (mine was fine, but I know other people who had awful guides). I'm pretty sure the 4.9 stars on the EF website are bought or fake. Also, you will get seriously sick multiple times on the trip. It's guaranteed. The only positives are that you don't have to worry about how to get from one country to another, since you have a group bus, and that you'll know everyone you're bunking with (and if you have a decent tour guide, you can request to not be roomed with people you don't like). Also, EF lies about the number of people you're bunking with. My tour was only supposed to be a max of 4 to a room, but we had multiple cities where it was 9 girls in one room. And they obviously never responded to our complaints about being lied to. Also, some of the locations and hostels were super sketchy and in the middle of nowhere; it's obvious EF tries to save a buck wherever they can. Overall, you could not pay me to book with EF again. Huge waste of money and huge regret; from now on, I travel solo or with friends.

Ef plans everything for you… so you don’t need to worry about the hassle. I was booked on three different airlines which wasn’t their fault. I just toughed it up and dealt with the hand I was given. I only did a carry on luggage in order to not lose baggage. I made it to Barcelona just fine. The group dynamic was easy to get along with. No one was left out. The food and drinks were amazing. I loved the flamenco show! Overall, just be smart about the choices you make

Our trip didn’t even happen. We arrived at the port after a full day of traveling just to sit on the boat for over an hour wandering what was happening. Eventually we were told this trip was cancelled, and EF would need to rebook a new trip. No itinerary was provided and communication was poor throughout. The worst part is no refund was offered for those who wanted to do their own trip at this point. We basically were stuck waiting on news from EF and forced into their new itinerary in the meantime. This new itinerary had significantly more travel(we wasted about 5/11 days traveling) so ended up being a huge waste. EF has yet to make this right, we clearly paid for something we were not provided.

booked a trip in 2019 for a 2020 trip. EF cancelled it during Covid and didn't offer any travel during my desired time. I scheduled my own trip and went to Europe. I then rebooked a Australian trip (because I could not receive a refund) for 2023. Around Aug. 2022 I realized the trip would cost nearly 12k grand, I again requested a refund on my initial $4k down payment. I was told they would keep $600 to cover incurred cost for a trip that was over 250 days out. They handled this very poorly and I was spoken to very poorly. I would not recommend this travel agency. They are simply trying to take advantage of consumers at every opportunity.

I'm posting on here because EF doesn't post reviews 3 stars or less on their website (which is automatically a huge red flag). I just recently came back from a trip with EF, and it was so beyond disappointing. The only really great thing about this trip was the people. I loved my group and I loved my tour director. But be warned, EF will give you terrible and cheap meals, accommodations, and flights. Starting with the meals, EF plans trips in some amazing cities, and the food is probably the most exciting part of these cities and a huge part of what makes it fantastic. Eating good quality food with good people is what makes any trip or event memorable. But the places EF led us to to eat, was so awful. It was so upsetting, and a waste of money. For flights, from where I live there are plenty of nonstop flights going to where I was going to for this trip. EF gave me long, grueling, inconvenient layovers in some random cities - and this was obviously to cut corners on the flights to keep more of my money. All of the hotels were dirty, outdated, and cheap. If I'm paying so much money for a trip, EF must be pocketing a lot of it. Because it definitely did not go towards a good trip. You can do as you will, but if I could go back in time and tell myself to not do the trip with EF...I would do it in a heartbeat. Don't say I didn't warn you.Just don't let them rob you.

*I cancel my trip and is almost 3 months after and I still haven’t received my money * May 9,2023 i ask to cancel my trip, I ask to be refunded to the original card that I used(credit card) they told me no that they would send me a check.Mia Kelly send me a confirmation email stating that the check at most would that 2 weeks to get to me.June 1,2023 I emailed them saying I have not received the check, Ashley Palmer responded saying that checks that 4 weeks.June 10,2023 send another email, Ashley Palmer responded saying that the check was issue on May 17,2023.June 22,2023 send an email stating that I haven’t received my check,Ashley Palmer responded asking me what is my address.June 28,2023 I send another email saying that I haven’t received the check.On june 29,2023 Siena Cashan email me asking to confirm my address again.I send an email on July 1,2023.Ashley Palmer responded July 5,2023 saying that they send a new check.July 5,2025 Lara Bone( manager) send me an email saying that a new check was issue.July 11,2023 I send an email saying that I haven’t received my check,Ashley Palmer responded that the check was issued on June 29,2023.July 11,2023 Lara Bone(manager) tells that they are going to void that check and send a new one.They told me they Can issued an refund to my card on file(credit card), that they previously told they could not do.July 14,2023 I emailed them saying that I haven’t received any refunds.July 17,2023 I got a check I send an email to Lara Bone(manager) saying that I got the check.She responded saying that the claim was close.On July 20,2023 I got a notification from my bank saying that my account was overdrawn I call my bank and they told me that the check that I deposit did not have funds.I email back to Lara Bone(manager) telling her that my bank account was overdrawn because of them and she told that they send the check so I shouldn’t have any issue.She call me staying that it was a miscommunication issue on MY part and they would send a new check I decline and told them that they need to fix it today.She told me that was impossible after I threatened to take legal action she ask me for my checking account information when I ask when I would see the money in the account she told me that they send it immediately but it takes my bank account a couple of days to approve it.Couple of hours later she send me an email saying that they send the money.I call my bank because I don’t trust them(Ef trip) and my bank tells that they haven’t received anything.I send an email to Lara Bone and she responded that it takes Ef 2- 5 days to put the money in the account so she lied again.I have screenshot if anyone wants them please DONT USE THIS COMPANY.