We had a wonderful time seeing all the highlights and getting ample free time to shop, dine, and stroll. Our guides were warm and friendly. We hated to say goodbye! The accommodations and food were great, as well. We saw so much more and gained knowledge that we never would have on our own. I highly recommend EF Tours! show less

From beginning to end my students really enjoyed this experience. We visited many varied locations in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. We saw everything from Medieval city walls, Renaissance city halls, Gothic Cathedrals, fairy tale like castles in the snow, a city of canals, a concentration camp, 700 year old beer halls, roman amphitheater, and 360 degree views from the top of a mountian, to name a few. Students got a real feel for how people lived and now live in other locations. Our highly trained and knowledgable tour director aptly lead us the entire way. As we came to the end of the tour, I repeately heard comments like "I would love to come back here again!" or "I want to go on another trip with you, where are you going next?"

I would highly recommend this trip to others. show less

This trip was the best week of my life!!! I loved being able to experience the beauty of these countries for myself. Our trip was well organized and we were treated so kindly by everybody. Not to mention our tour guide was the best we could’ve possibly had. I can now say that I have an entirely new perspective of the world and what it has to offer. I would recommend this trip to everyone!! You will not be disappointed. show less

This was a great travel experience. We got to go to 5 countries, and experience big cities, small towns, historical sites, and modern marvels.

This tour had something for everyone and was beautiful and historical. show less

We cannot thank EF tours and all the leaders of my kid's high school group enough! They help make this experience one that will stay in the memory books forever and that she will talk about for a lifetime! We cannot wait for next years trip to Ireland! They also went above and beyond the call of duty to get our kids and leaders back home safe after a cancelled flight. Thank you!! What an amazing experience for our child! show less

We all had an amazing trip. The hotels were top notch, meals were excellent, tours were perfect, tour guide was wonderful and bus driver was great. Thanks so much for the best experience ever. show less

There were far too many sites my tour visited to say that any one place was my favorite. Right from the outset, Rothenburg was breathtaking with all the quaint houses, cobble stone streets and bridges, from my perspective it was hard to decide where I wanted to point my camera. Lucerne with the beautiful majestic swans high mountain peaks. The Walt Disney castle was beautiful. The Romeo and Juliet balcony, the coluseum, in Verona. Just thinking about it brings goose bumps to my skin and such wonderful memories... Had I not ventured out on a New York trip seven years ago I would have not known the experience of travel with EF Tours. Each and every trip has been fantastic and memorable. I have recommended EF to may of my acquaintances and taken both my daughters on such trips. Both have been very appreciative. I love EF Tours. show less

The best thing about this tour is that you get a wonderful mix of history and culture with excitement and breathtaking scenery. Munich is a wonderful start to the tour with Dachau and Neuschwanstein, but with the opportunity for free time in the downtown to visit the Hofbrauhaus and the Glockenspiel. The stop in Venice and the affect it has had on my students is invaluable. They walk around all day saying, "I can't believe that I'm actually here." Even the water taxi ride and glass-blowing demonstration were things that the students talked about days after we had left. The stop in Lucerne is the perfect break to the first half of a busy trip. The city is quiet and quaint with the opportunity for students to see Mt. Pilatus and the swiss folklore dinner show is a laugh-riot. The Rhine falls and Heidelberg are pretty and the pedestrian zone always has some sort of action happening. Some students have never ridden a train before so the High-Speed-Train from Strassbourg to Paris is definitely a highlight, and then once you're in Paris, the jaws really do drop. The trips to Versailles, and the Eiffel Tower are so well organized and then the free day is great because you really get to pick your perfect day in Paris. This tour really has the perfect balance between routine, and flexibility and with all the variety of stops and sights, you get a wonderful experience for every student. show less

I went on this tour when I was in the 11th grade and I have to say that it changed my life. It was an eye opening experience and I learned so much without even realizing it. I went back to my social studies class and my grade went up 12%!! I learned all about new cultures and history and fell in love with traveling. My tour guide was amazing! And I made lots of new friends and ended up going on another EF trip the next year! show less

I had been living in Europe for 5 months before this trip and met up with my tour group at the beginning, so I knew a lot of what my tour group should get out of a trip to Europe. Beautiful sights, great food, things like that.
So while the sights were beautiful we had little to no time in any place we expected to. All our hotels were far out from the town we were "staying in" (which I understand money-wise for places like Paris or Venice, but for every single place besides Munich, really?). Most of the places that I had expected to see and love -- and did end up being my favorite parts -- like Innsbruck or Strasbourg, were drive-by places where we'd only have two hours to explore a place (or in Strasbourg's case, 45 minutes after a near useless walking tour, are you kidding me). We were only given two hours for the entirety of Dachau!
We're in these amazing gastronomic countries like Italy and France, and 95% of the time we were eating dinner at the hotels. Other members of the tour were saying that they thought the food in Italy would be better and I was reassuring them that "it IS, it's amazing, we're just eating crappy hotel versions of it!".
I knew that there would be a lot of travel time, but this amount was absurd and painful. Our bus driver would either get lost or go the long way to avoid the tolls, so a five hour bus ride turned into seven hours! We weren't allowed to get up or move around on the bus at all, and rest stops were only 15 minutes every 2-2.5 hours for 50 people. There was no time to go to the bathroom, let alone do that and buy a snack and stretch. Our tour guide made us put stuff back because it was taking too long.
Speaking of our tour guide, she was a really nice person, but her "punctuality" went so far that it was terrible and judgmental, and actually dangerous! We would be told a certain time and then by the end of the trip, people would get to the meeting spot 20 minutes before just to avoid getting lectured for not being punctual. In Heidelberg, another woman and I were running "late" and got to the meeting point three minutes early and our tour guide immediately set off walking when she saw us coming. She didn't even wait to let us catch up with the group, let alone take a minute to make sure everyone was there. Two 16 year old girls got left behind in Germany alone because they were one minute early to the meeting time and by then everyone was gone. They were sobbing on the bus from the stress and it was so unnecessary. And I technically got left behind at Notre Dame de Paris too because she didn't check that everyone was with her, and if I wasn't completely ok traveling by my own and found people who knew where the next meeting point was and when, I would've been in trouble.
The places we saw were amazing as always, but unlike when I went to Ecuador and loved it, I'm so so glad that this tour wasn't my first experience traveling or being in Europe. And I feel bad that young people left thinking that that was what Europe offered. But I still can't help and think how much more enriching my travels would've been if I just used the money I spent on EF Tours to get myself there alone instead. I would've seen more, ate more, and had so much more fun. EF can do so much better than this trip. show less