By: Mia Solomon
Everyone should get the chance to travel at a young age, and EF Tours makes that possible. Teenagers are known for getting too caught up in their own lives and forgetting about the world around them, it’s important that they get some perspective and the opportunity to experience all the world’s wonder and beauty. EF Tours was created to take teenagers away from their conventional lives for a little while, in order for them to see what the world is like and stretch their minds past what they are used to.
There was a statement from their website that really caught my eye, “The experience has changed everything about the way I see the world and different cultures” after seeing this I knew I had to go on one of their trips to experience it for myself and now firsthand I can honestly say that I couldn’t agree more; EF was life changing. While I had gone out of the country before, it wasn’t anything like this trip. All the other times it had been with my parents, and they had taken care of my boarding pass and luggage and customs, but now suddenly it was all up to me. The experience was constantly forcing me out of my comfort zone and pushing me to do things I didn’t think I was ready for. I learned so much and I wouldn’t trade the experience and knowledge I gained for the world.
An average day on an EF tour would start off with a phone call from the hotel at around 7:00, waking me and my roommate up. Usually we stay in a new hotel every night so once we woke up we would pack our things and eat breakfast at our hotel. The mornings always moved pretty quickly and we would be on our bus on our way to a new province by 9 a.m. Most days we had a 2-5 hour bus ride until arriving at the destination where we would drop our luggage off at our new hotel and quickly begin our next tour. Our tours usually lasted all day and excursions were optional either early in the morning or in the evening. I loved every place we went for its rich history and unique atmosphere, my favorite excursion was the one to Mount Etna because it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
EF tours offers a wonderful experience. We got an in-depth tour of every historical monument we saw and plenty of free time to shop around, eat lunch, take pictures or just admire the scenery. My favorite aspect of the trip was how much freedom we got as teenagers. Every day no matter where we were, we had a few hours to go without supervision and explore the town with just a map and a couple of friends; I appreciated that they trusted us enough to do that.
Of course there are many alternative tour groups to choose from if EF isn’t for you. The tour company that is most like EF is Go Ahead Tours. A ten to thirteen day trip with EF tours to Italy and Greece costs around $3,060 while the same trip cost around $1000 less with Go Ahead Tours. I can’t say that Go Ahead tours provides a better deal than EF because I haven’t been on a trip with them and cannot vouch a fair opinion. However, it could be that EF tours offers things that Go Ahead doesn’t, and vise versa.
Educational Tours strives to break the barriers between countries and helps everyone at a young age get a unique perspective on the world by traveling and learning unconventionally. This is one of the most important things as a teen in terms of finding yourself and experiencing things that will shape you as an individual. I know that EF taught me many things that can’t be taught at home or school and it was an illuminating experience that can’t be measured with a price or accounted for in a description.
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