EF Ultimate BreakReviews of efultimatebreak.com

The main drawback of this trip was the group size—over 40 travelers—which felt excessive. The group dynamic suffered as a result; most people stuck to the friends or family they came with, and there was a noticeable lack of cohesion or camaraderie. A smaller group would have likely created a more connected and enjoyable experience. Our tour guide, Saki, was fantastic. She offered excellent suggestions and was helpful throughout the trip. That said, I strongly urge EF to stick to the published itinerary. On the final leg of our journey, we were originally scheduled to leave Kyoto for Osaka in the morning and visit Osaka Castle at 10 AM. Based on this schedule, we purchased tickets for Universal Studios accordingly. However, just a day before departure, EF informed us that the group would not leave Kyoto until 10 AM—making it impossible to keep our Universal reservation. As a result, two of us had to navigate three different train transfers during peak commute hours just to make it on time. It was stressful and disappointing. Additionally, the tour description mentioned a cruise on Lake Ashi, which sounded like a highlight—but in reality, it turned out to be just a brief 7-minute boat ride. These kinds of small but important details are not clearly communicated, and it felt misleading. I’ve traveled with other companies that limit group sizes to 15–20 people, and the experiences were far superior. Unfortunately, this trip with EF did not meet those standards. This will be my first and last trip with EF.

I think the company offers amazing trips and opportunities for those traveling alone. I think they could work on being more transparent on what's included in certain cities; Barcelona Sagrada Familia and Rome Colosseum. Tour directors also really impact the experience.

Our guide Robbie was awesome! This trip was SO MUCH walking/hiking. I really enjoy moving around, but the trip was listed as low activity and we were constantly moving/traveling. It was kind of exhausting. I literally couldn’t stay hydrated. Our group was huge. Honestly too big. Our tour guide was a literal angel and people took advantage of this. We were always left waiting on people to leave or move on. We were in Tokyo for what felt like eternity, but Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka which I liked much more than Tokyo for a very brief period.

Disclaimer: I really wanted to give this trip 5 stars, but I also have to give a fair and balanced review. Despite the stars, I love what EF stands for and have recommended & convinced others to book with this company! Let's start with the pros: It's Europe! Even in winter, the experience is nothing short of amazing, simply due to the nature of seeing iconic places you've always dreamed of visiting. Just show up and be amazed. And don't forget to leave packing room for souvenirs, budget for excursions that may come up & save some funds to tip your tour director at the end. Having an awesome and experienced tour guide helped with making most of the trip enjoyable and smooth sailing. Navigating things was made easy by bus passes, apps and a super responsive and helpful tour director. Overall, this tour was a really lovely combination of structure and freedom. Faced paced for sure, but well worth the energy investment. (YOLO, right?) Rome and London are great places to start and end the tour, but I might suggest restructuring the trip to add an extra day to Paris or one of the other shorter stops along the road trip. I also highly recommend booking in advance the Anne Frank House tour in Amsterdam. This was by far the most impactful highlight of the trip. The cons: Logistics and safety. Despite being unable to be connected with a member of the flight team during a several-hour long delay in checking into my return flight at the airport and experiencing a separate lengthy delay in getting a response from EF's travel insurance company regarding medical expenses upon my return home, my main grievance is with the lack of concern for participant safety as evidenced by the lack-luster response to my direct complaint about the utilization of 3-level bunk beds for tour bookings. After experiencing physical trauma I'll now have to live with for the rest of my life, I would have expected more than a suggestion to simply upgrade my pre-booked future trip to ultimate plus. The reasonable suggestion wasn't made in preference, but in genuine concern for future participants. The notion that adjusting future EF tours to only book hostel rooms with standard 2-level bunks is infeasible "due to the nature of things in Europe" is both dismissive and inaccurate, as only one hostel of the 5 countries we visited was booked with a 3-bunk option. A lot of people book with a tour company because they presume its safer to have the umbrella of a company looking out for you during your travels. In my case with EF, this was both true and untrue. They no longer post 3 stars or less on the site. So, the post I submitted for the European Road trip never got posted there. The exact review, which is by all means fair, is what I've pasted above.