In October 2013, I found out about a life changing event, I could make a reality. My high schools French teacher signed up to bring a group of 10 or more people to the country France. The tour group the teacher chose to use was EF tours. The tour he chose was called Paris, Provence, and the French Riviera.** On July 5, 2014 I departed for France. A dream I had for quite some time.
EF tours, alone, are for younger people who may need a group to travel with. The EF company also has a tour group guide called: EF college break. The difference is EF college break is for ages 18-24, with no small groups or extra adult chaperons. With the EF college break, the only adult needed is a tour guide or two, from the EF company. For this review, I will be covering EF tours only. This is the only EF tour I've been on.
Everything EF tours choose for the trip was great. It wasn't luxurious, but it was nice. I didn't have high hopes for luxury, and I didn't expect it. I got exactly what I imagined. The expected itinerary, that you will instantly be provided, was organized. Each day the tour has something planned for the tour group to be doing. I got up early in the morning, before the sun was up, to start my adventures in France. By the time we came back for the day, it was twelve hours later. Each day is full of places to see and your tour guide to show you. Every day, I got some free time. Depending on the location, free time was either in the building or location you are visiting, or free time in the city/town you are in. During most of the building we were at our tour guide let us explore on our own. In Paris, we had some time to explore where we desired. If you don't know French well at all I recommend you go with someone who does! In small little town, you can go with a group of friends, that's what I did.
Signing up and preparing for your trip is very simple! All that is needed is your information and money to pay. The payment can be paid in a couple different ways. First, when signing up for a tour, there is a program fee. After, you can pay it all at once, or you can pay by monthly.
While signing up, the tour you choose may have extrusions available. An example of this was I got offered two extrusions for my trip. One was the Palace of Versailles and another was a French learning class. You can choose all you like (for an extra cost), or choose none at all. Side notes: when not choosing this gives you extra free time in the city you're currently in. Also, if you are hesitant on adding an extrusion, think about it. Don't add it and wait to think about it. First, you may not get your money back. If that doesn't bother you, by all means sign up for the extrusion. Secondly, when on the tour you may or may not have to go to it. It will depend on your tour guide.
Another extension provided on tours is adding extra days. These extra days are not provided in your tour. When adding them, you pay extra. For the Paris, Provence and French Riviera tour, parts of Northern Italy were added for three extra days. I didn't add them.
Another extension provided on tours is adding extra days. These extra days are not provided in your tour. When adding them, you pay extra. For the Paris, Provence and French Riviera tour, parts of Northern Italy were added for three extra days. I didn't add them.
After you're all signed up and paying/paid, you will get more information as time goes on. This all depends on how close your trip is. The closer the departure date comes, the more information you receive. EF tours will email you the hotels you will be staying at, along with helpful tips about the country/countries you're visiting. With flights, you may not get information, your head tour assistant will (ex: the French teacher got all that information to share with us). Also, EF sent backpacks and travel tags to us. :D
Now with that into out of the way, I can review the amazing trip I experienced. Firstly, I will mention my tour guide (I'm disclosing any physical descriptions of him. I don't know if he wants me to share is work aspects on the internet). He was amazing! Every easy going guy. He was mutual in the best ways! I had conflicts on my trip with others, that he had to deal with, and he was mutual on the matter. You could not tell if he was picking sides. With being mutual, you could not tell his opinion, which I liked very much. When a problem occurred, he fixed it right away and knew exactly what to do!
With the EF tour company, I didn't run into any problems with them. The changed our tour dates and notified everyone right away. That was the only small conflict that occurred (but it wasn't even a major one). A bus and a driver were always there, no waiting around happened. Our hotel rooms were booked, with no problem, including our flights. I'm sure there may have been slight problems behind the scenes, but I wouldn't have noticed a thing.
Everything EF tours choose for the trip was great. It wasn't luxurious, but it was nice. I didn't have high hopes for luxury, and I didn't expect it. I got exactly what I imagined. The expected itinerary, that you will instantly be provided, was organized. Each day the tour has something planned for the tour group to be doing. I got up early in the morning, before the sun was up, to start my adventures in France. By the time we came back for the day, it was twelve hours later. Each day is full of places to see and your tour guide to show you. Every day, I got some free time. Depending on the location, free time was either in the building or location you are visiting, or free time in the city/town you are in. During most of the building we were at our tour guide let us explore on our own. In Paris, we had some time to explore where we desired. If you don't know French well at all I recommend you go with someone who does! In small little town, you can go with a group of friends, that's what I did.
That is all for my EF tours review. If I would explain everything, this post would be very long! To check out how my tour went, follow my blog for future post! Also, please read my previous blog post on departing for France, Notre Dame and the Metro. I also have a vlog on the trip. Check it out!
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Thank you for reading au revoir!
*I do not own photos provided in the post above. All from EF Tours Facebook page.
**Here is a link for the tour I took. I must add, this tour is the closest one to mine I found. The itinerary is not exactly the same though. This itinerary has slightly different places than I traveled to, some are new and some I may mention in other posts are not provided anymore. The name has changed to Paris and the French Riviera (Provence is included).
**Here is a link for the tour I took. I must add, this tour is the closest one to mine I found. The itinerary is not exactly the same though. This itinerary has slightly different places than I traveled to, some are new and some I may mention in other posts are not provided anymore. The name has changed to Paris and the French Riviera (Provence is included).
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