has anyone out there taken a tour with e.f.tours,based in boston, mass. my 17y.o. old son and i returned about 3 weeks ago from a trip to london and paris, and it was a fiasco... terribly unorganized, we stayed in a terrible hotel in paris, the tour bus was late(1-2 hours), cutting down on our time to visit museums, and various other sights.... i could go on and on... i'd like to hear your impressions or your experiences with the company.... thanks, kecsmom

This was posted on r.t.e yesterday. Regards, Walter <BR>Group: rec.travel.europe Date: Sun, Jul 2, 2000, 12:16pm From: [email protected] (Dorrie Fletcher) EF Tours <BR>Hi; <BR>I just returned from an ef tour of Italy and Greece with high schoolers . It was great! Now we want to do another next year, but were wondering if we could get input from anyone who has taken educational tours with students. (I teach Art/Art History and am good with languages)Two weeks is the max we feel like doing, and we take 10-12 students. Anyone ever go to Asia or Africa (off topic?) <BR>thank you in advance, <BR>Dorrie <BR>

I went to Paris with my daughter in 1997 with a group of French students and her teacher from the school with ef tours. Our tour director was great on the trip. Our hotel was small but clean and in a good location. Everything went on schedule and it was a great trip. It helped that the French teacher had been so many times before and knew what she was doing. I also went with goahead (a sister company to ef) to Italy last year. It also went smoothly.

I just put the down payment on a trip to Spain for my daughter, through EF next spring. I'd be curious if anyone (or any family members) have gone on that and how it went.

Within the past week or so there was one quite negative posting about an ef tour. <BR>The author didn't name the company at first, it was only after several people responded that she/he named it as ef. <BR>Try doing a search here on EF or tour, and you should find it from 7-10 days ago.

I have traveled with EF tours four times; my group sizes varied from 7 to 27. I have been very satisfied with the tour company, and I plan to use them again two years from now. That is not to say there were not glitches. EF tries to use hotels that are clean, safe, and in good locations. I usually have been satisfied, but the hotels are not up to U.S. standards. (If I expected U.S. standards, though, I probably should have stayed home.) <BR> <BR>The price for the EF tours is an excellent value. Everything about the success of the trip hinges on the tour guide you are sent. He/She either makes or breaks the trip. <BR> <BR>Stacy: You asked about the Spain itinerary. I traveled to Spain five years ago. It was a fabulous tour. E-mail me if you have any specific questions. (Both of my children have also gone on the EF tours, so I have comments from a teenager's viewpoint, also.) <BR> <BR>Deborah

I have been on three EF tours with students, to different parts of England and France. On the whole, I can't complain. I have received excellent service. As another writer noted, hotels are not the same as North American standards, but that is typical for Europe. Rooms are much smaller, and facilities for your typical 2 or 3 star hotels are not what we would expect. Having travelled enough in Europe, I made that very clear to students and parents beforehand. However, we have also stayed in some wonderful older hotels that had huge rooms. My background also made it easier when it came to free time since I was able to get around easily and knew what to see. The troubles you mention are no different from any tour I have been on, student or adult - busses are sometimes late, or get caught in horrendous traffic in places like Paris or London. A good guide makes all the difference - I have been lucky with EF - two of the guides were good (though not great), and one was very good. I have checked out several other student travel companies, but haven't come across one yet which can offer the prices and benefits. Walter - you asked about length of tours. I have gone at Easter each time and stuck to the 10 days including flying days, and it is just enough. A couple days more might be nice, but depending on the group, I would think 2 weeks would be plenty! Contact me if you have further questions.

I just got back from an EF tour to Mexico yesterday. It was the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! Our tour director did all the work while I sat back and enjoyed the sites. Having put together tours for my kids on my own I can really appreciate how much work is involved. Our guide made sure every kid's complaint, question or boo-boo was properly handled. If they can do that great a job in a place like Mexico, I feel confident they can put together a fantastic tour for us next year in Europe. My only complaint are the wacky connections they put us on. But I assume they are getting airline discounts based on less-traveled routes.

I agree with the positive responses about EF tours--I recently took a 14-day tour of Europe with them. The only drawback is that since there are so many students traveling together, there is a very strong tendency for the students to remain in their "american" enclave, and not really get a sense of the culture of the places they visit. I guess this would be applicable to any big tour-based travel package. Ideally, I would prefer to send my child on a smaller program, or on a homestay program.

TTT

One of the things I have learned about EF tours is that how involved the "group leader" is can be key. We have done two Girl Scout tours with them and gave them specific requirement for hotels etc. Yes, we paid a little more than the "packaged tour", but we felt like it was worth. Our guide for London/Paris/Switzerland was so good we have specifically requested her for next year's United Kingdom tour.

i travel every year with groups of students that number anywhere from 28-104 i have been using ETRAV fortye past 7 years .I will not use Ef tours after a bad experience with them on one of our trips we had to go and return on seperate flight causing a logistical headache by splitting our students -one flight went philly-atlanta-madrid , the other from philly -paris -madrid <BR>ETRAV has been great

As Carol recently commented, you can get good results with EFTours if you stay very involved and insist on specifics. In other words, you can't trust them to do the right thing on their own. My daughter's school trip had problems with them and the school won't be using them again.