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EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Is EF Tours right for you?   

So your kid just came home from school with a gorgeous full color brochure about an upcoming trip to Europe with EF Tours that one of their teachers is leading.  He or she is super excited about all the cool things they get to do and is just begging you to let them go.  

It sounds great, but as a responsible parent, you want to know exactly what you’d be sending your child off to do, and how things would actually work on this trip.  

Well, lucky for you we took a 12 day visit to Europe with EF Tours, and have all the details to decide if taking an international trip with this company is right for you or your teenager.  

We’re going to start with the breakdown of how things work with EF and what to expect as a participant or a parent, and then move on to our specific experience with our tour.  

I always like to start my reviews by reminding you that I was not compensated in any way to write this post.  All opinions are my own, and all costs were paid out of our pocket for this experience.

What is EF Tours? 

EF Tours is a travel company that specializes in international tours for students.   

According to their website , EF Tours has been in operation since 1965 and offers trips for students and teachers designed to “provide immersive, life-changing education.”

Basically, EF Tours organizes international trips for students to a wide variety of destinations, promising “compelling itineraries” full of “experiential learning.”

They also promise to have the “lowest price on the market” for this type of travel.  

EF, as a company, offers may types of tours ranging from group trips for adults to organized gap years for high school graduates.  While these options are available, the bread and butter of the company is the basic high school student tour which is what we took.  

How do EF Tours work?

EF Tours have a pretty straightforward process during the sign up period, prior to departure and during your trip. 

Before we get into that, it must be said that EF Tours operate fully independently of the local school district, and are not endorsed or supported by them whatsoever.  

While this may seem like a school trip, it is not.  It is a trip run by a business who just happens to recruit participants through the school system.  Your local principals, school boards, etc. have zero control or influence on these trips.  The school is only involved in the process as far as whether they allow teachers to hand out information in schools or not. 

The EF in EF Tours stands for Education First.  According to their website, EF claims to “design tours to help educators teach, and so students can learn more—about tolerance, other perspectives, and themselves.”

The Sign Up Process

EF Tours are set up to be “hosted” by a local teacher who is then designated as the “group leader.”  Teachers are incentivized with free and reduced price travel to recruit students to join their tours.  

Tours are advertised by the group leader/teacher to students at their school and to their local community.  Interested students and parents are invited to attend informational meetings either in person or virtually where the group leader/teacher goes over the itinerary and any questions potential participants may have.  

Students and parents can then sign up directly through the EF Tours website, and submit all payments directly to the company.  

Trips are usually initially introduced about two years before the travel date so that participants can make smaller monthly payments to cover the cost of the trip.  Costs for these trips can range widely, depending on the destinations and length of the trip.  

EF has the group leader/teacher set up deadlines for signing up to go on the trip, sometimes including small discounts to encourage enrollment.  This tends to give a false sense of urgency to the sign up process. 

We found that participants can sign up just about any time before the trip departs.  We signed up about a year out from the trip, while another student who traveled with us signed up just a month or two before we left.  

Anyone was allowed to sign up for the trip.  We were encouraged to invite friends and family to join us on the tour, whether or not they were associated with our school or even local to our area.  

Adults did need to pass a background check in order to participate in the trip, since adult tour participants are traveling with minors.  

We were not given specific dates for our trip, but instead we were given a window of time during which the trip would occur.   Our dates were finally confirmed about two months before our departure.  

There are usually two or three optional excursions that can be added to any tour.  These usually include some special activity or visit to an additional landmark.  

Tour participants may also choose to upgrade the insurance for the tour. 

Before Your EF Tour

Once you’ve signed up for your EF Tour, you’ll be given access to a tour portal on the EF website where you can track your payments and what steps you need take next to participate in the trip.  They also provide a fundraising page, where friends and family can pay EF directly to offset the cost of your trip.  

Our group had a few in person meetings at a local restaurant prior to our trip where we discussed issues ranging from passports to packing for our trip to Europe , and got a chance to meet our fellow travelers.  This may or may not be true or all groups that are traveling with EF.  

Each participant in our tour was required to submit a copy of our passport to EF to insure that we had the proper documentation to travel.  

Information about our flights was not available until about a month before our departure, and information about our hotels was not available until we were about three weeks out from leaving.  

EF Tours uses a wide range of airlines, and travelers do not get to indicate a preference.  EF books all travelers in economy class seats for all transportation methods.  EF will book with whatever airline has space available for the lowest price for the group.  

As for hotels, travelers know very little about where they are staying ahead of time.  Per the website, tour participants are assured that “travelers can count on safe, clean and comfortable hotels with private bathrooms” but much beyond that the info is sparse.  

Students can expect to room with one to three other students, and possibly have to share beds.  Adults can expect to share a room with one other person.  For a fee, a single room can be requested for the tour. 

EF does indicate up front that hotels may have small rooms without air conditioning, television, or elevators, and that WiFi may not always be available.  

During an EF Tour

All transportation arrangements are made by EF Tours, including flights, buses, trains, etc.  They book all accommodations and attraction admissions for tour participants. 

Two meals a day are included in the cost of a trip with EF Tours.  Breakfast is provided each day at the hotel, usually continental style, but sometimes with hot offerings just depending on your hotel.  Dinners are are pre-arranged with a preset menu by EF at local restaurants.  EF will make accomodations for those with specific dietary needs, such as gluten free or dairy free meals.

While the teacher recruiting students is designated as your group leader, they don’t actually lead the tour once you start traveling.  EF provides a Tour Director to accompany your group through the entire trip.  

This Tour Director is supposed to handle just about everything on your tour, including all your pre-booked accommodations, meals, excursions, tickets, and transfers.  This person is there to direct the group and handle any problems with logistics you may encounter along the way.  

During the tour, your group will meet up with various local guides who will give you some sort of tour of the city or historic site that you’re visiting.  These tours are usually walking tours, but sometimes are bus tours, depending on the location.  

Tour participants are also given access to an EF Tours App, that just lists your daily itinerary for your trip.  

Our EF Tour Review

Our specific tour featured quite a daunting itinerary.  We toured Europe for 12 days, visiting sites in London, Paris, Florence, Rome, Pompeii and Capri, with no more than two nights in any destination.  

Our tour consisted of 26 travelers from our high school: three teachers, seven adults and 16 students.  We were combined with a group from upstate New York consisting of 14 travelers: one teacher, one adult, one child and 11 students.  There were a total of 40 people on our tour.  

What EF Tours Promised

Before our tour, the group leaded made sure every person who showed an interest in going on the trip got the glossy, full color brochure that outlined our itinerary and told us what to expect on the tour.  

The brochure promised that participants would be “surrounded by the people, the language, the food, and the way of life” of the destinations on our itinerary.  We were assured that our tour director would be “with us around the clock, handling local transportation, hotels, and meals while also providing their own insight into the local history and culture.”  

We would be spending time in three different countries, seeing some of the most beautiful and historic cities in Europe.

The brochure also claimed that students could earn educational credit while on tour, and that all tours feature “experiential learning activities.”

Our tour left some of these promises unfulfilled, but did give us a glimpse at some fantastic destinations in Europe and some amazing memories.  

Our hotels along the trip started out stellar but seemed to go downhill from there, unfortunately ending in truly unacceptable accommodations.  

Even though this wasn’t guaranteed, all of our accommodations had some sort of air conditioning, with some that functioned better than others, and all of them had WiFi.  

For the first four nights during our stays in London and Paris, we were sent to Hilton Hotels .  They both were on the higher end of what I expected based on the descriptions provided by EF Tours of what our hotels would be like.  

The rooms at these Hiltons were very new, immaculately clean and extremely comfortable.  They were both located about an hour outside of the city center, but that wasn’t too much of a problem.  

When we reached Italy, things changed a bit.  

For a quick overnight in Milan on our way to Florence, we stayed at and AS Hotel in Limbiate.  This hotel was a bit older than the Hiltons we’d stayed in, but it was clean, spacious, and comfortable.  

Between Florence and Rome, we spent the night at the Hotel Villa Ricci (not pictured).  This hotel was significantly older than the other three we had stayed at, but it was still clean and comfortable.  While the room wasn’t much to write home about, some members of our group lucked out and got spectacular balconies. 

Once we arrived in Rome, the Villa Aurelia was our home base for two nights.  We learned that this hotel had once housed men studying to join a monastery, which explained the doritory feel of the place.  Again, we found these rooms to be clean and pretty comfortable.  

On our way to Southern Italy, we spent the night in Sorrento at Sisters Hostel .  This was the only true hostel on our trip.  While they still stuck with four students to a room, several of the student rooms had enough beds to sleep up to 12 people. 

Though not quite as refined as the Hiltons, and a little slap-shot with the furniture, we found this place to be clean and welcoming.  While it wasn’t quite as comfortable as some of the other places we’d stayed, it was completely acceptable and had a spectacular view of the Gulf of Naples from the rooftop terrace. 

Things took a turn for the worse on our last night of the tour, when we stayed at Hotel La Pergola in Rome.  This place was truly one of the worst hotels I’ve ever had the misfortune to stay at (and as a travel blogger, I’ve stayed at a LOT of hotels).  

Things started off badly when we discovered that the lights in all the hallways were not on, and that we had to hunt around with our cell phone flashlights to find our way to our rooms.  I asked the front desk to remedy this, but it was never addressed, and we had to repeat the blind search for our rooms every time we went up.  

Upon arrival in my room, I found it to be extremely dirty.  There was a layer of dusty film all over my bathroom and my pillow had an unidentified crusty stain on it.  My daughter’s room had the same layer of dirt in the bathroom, plus a shoe print from where someone killed a bug on the wall.  I checked our beds for bedbugs and thankfully did not find any. 

The front desk did not seem to care and we were told no one was available to come clean the bathrooms.

But the worst experience in this hotel went to a dad on our trip, who’s single room contained only a sofa.   Not a sleeper sofa, but just a hard couch.  There were no linens or towels available to him whatsoever. 

When he asked for these items at the front desk, he was told that we should have called earlier to request them since they were all locked up in a cabinet by the time we arrived at the hotel.   He ended up sleeping on a towel laid out on the sofa with a travel neck pillow, that had been provided to him by his daughter from her room.

The front desk attendant seemed more than annoyed anytime someone from our group would approach them, and insisted that we all leave our keys at the front desk when leaving the hotel for dinner that night.    

We weren’t left with much recourse, since this was a group trip and we were on our last night, so we decided to just grin and bear it, and did our best to get some sleep.  

Overall, I’d say that the hotels provided were quite good, with the exception of Hotel La Pergola.  For ten of the eleven nights of our trip, we were provided with clean, safe accommodations that lived up to what the EF Tours website told us to expect.  

At the time of this publication, EF Tours has been notified of this unacceptable hotel and has yet to respond.  

Meals on the tour ran the gamut from weird to stellar, but overall were not to bad.  Breakfast and dinner every day were included in what we paid for our tour.  

All breakfasts were served at our hotels.  Sometimes they were just continental breakfasts with cold offerings, and sometimes we were given hot breakfasts with eggs, bacon, and such.  Sometimes it was quite obvious where our group was supposed to go, and sometimes it wasn’t. 

Overall, breakfasts were adequate throughout the trip.  

Lunches were not included in the initial price of our trip and were paid out of pocket each day.   

Lunches were always a gamble.   It all depended on where we were and what was going on whether or not we’d get to select a restaurant on our own or if the group would be directed to eat at somewhere specific, and if we’d have lots of great choices or really limited options.  

For example, on our first full day of the trip, we visited the Tower of London.  We told to make sure we ate lunch after our tour, before rejoining the group to get on the bus.  The only options available to us were food trucks along the river right next to the Tower complex.  

It was the worst during our travel days.  We were frequently told we could just grab a bite to eat at the train station or the airport, only to be left with minimal time and very limited options.  

But some days lunch was great.  During our time in Rome, lunch came with some free time to wander, so we were able to go out and select the restaurant of our choice.  

Some days our tour guide would set up a lunch option for us, having arranged a preset menu and price with a local restaurant.  Those options were usually something like a burger, pizza or a cold sandwich.  

I’m not sure if the lunch situations were like this because of our tour guide or because of EF itself.  Sometimes it seemed inevitable, like when we were stuck in an airport or train station.  Other times it seemed like our guide might be creating these situations by not fully informing us what was available near by.  

All dinners were set up at local restaurants before our arrival.  We did not get to select from a menu and were all served the same thing each night, with the exception of those who had special dietary needs.  Each meal came with water, but we were allowed to order additional drinks at our own expense if we choose to do so.  

The worst dinners EF provided happened during the first few days of our trip.  During our entire time in London, we were not once served any traditional English food.  Our Tour Director said it was because “London is a melting pot of cultures,” but our group didn’t buy that.  

Our first group dinner in London was at a Korean restaurant where the group was served a hot stone bibimbap with chicken.  I’m normally a big fan of Korean food, but this wasn’t great. 

The next group dinner was at a Polish restaurant where the group was served a fried chicken patty and french fries.  

When it became apparent on the second night that we weren’t going to be getting any traditional English food, my daughter and I made arrangements to go get dinner on our own, and pay for it out of pocket.  Four other members of our group chose to join us.  

We simply got information from our Tour Guide when and where to meet up with the group after dinner and selected a nearby local pub so we could have a traditional English dining experience.  

Dinners seemed to improve when we got to France. During our first night there we had a lovely traditional French meal of chicken with mushroom sauce in the back room of a small picturesque cafe with a ton of ambiance.   On the second night we had a traditional Alsatian dish called Flammekueche, which was sort of like a pizza with a creamy sauce.  

In Italy, the dinners were quite good.  Of course we were served a lot of pasta, but we also had braised beef in tomato sauce, gnocchi, and pizza.  

According to the folks on our trip who had special dietary needs, the dinners were pretty good for the most part.  Although it did seem that everywhere we went in Italy, anyone who was gluten free or dairy free was served watermelon for dessert.  

Before we left on our trip, we were told by our group leader that we shouldn’t need more that $25 US dollars per person per day for lunches and snacks.  We found that that number was not quite accurate for us, especially if we ever wanted to stray from the planned meals that EF Tours had set up for us.  

We also found that we frequently needed to buy water to stay hydrated in the high temperatures of Italy during the summer, and at most of the locations we visited, water was marked up quite a bit.  

Overall, the meals on our trip were pretty good, but could definitely have been better.  

Our Itinerary

We knew going into this tour that our itinerary would be extremely hectic.  With no more than 48 hours in any location, we expected it to be jam packed.  It was kind of like a tasting menu, where you got a little bit of each destination.  

What we didn’t expect was the significant amount of wasted time and changes to our itinerary that happened on our tour.  

Things started off poorly when our tour guide was an hour late to meet us at baggage claim and then our bus was over another hour late to pick us up at the airport.  

While our tour guide was a very sweet, personable woman, she didn’t seem to understand how to manage the timing logistics for a group of 40 travelers.  

Our group was quite good about being on time to meet up locations with a couple of small exceptions that could not be helped.  No one wanted to be the person that made us late.  

Our tour guide didn’t seem to have this mentality.  She was frequently the last person downstairs at our hotels to meet our bus 15 to 20 minutes after the time she told us to meet her, and did not budget in adequate travel time to most of our destinations. 

For example, while we were driving across Italy, she had our driver stop at a large gas station for a bathroom stop.   She told us we only had five minutes to use the restroom and get back on the bus.  It’s completely impossible for 40 people to make use of just a handful of bathroom stalls in five minutes. 

We were late to our tours in London, Florence, and the Vatican.  We were late to our tour of the Colosseum in Rome.  We were late to our appointment at the Louvre.  We were so late to our tour of Pompeii.  This significantly hindered what we were able to see at our destinations, and made the whole tour seemed very rushed every day.  

Things like this happened over and over again throughout the trip.  This resulted in our group being habitually late to most of the tours we went on, and significantly cut into our time at some really important places.

The only times it seemed like we weren’t late was when we had to catch a flight, a train, or a ferry.  

There were also some pretty significant changes to our itinerary. 

Several items listed on our initial brochure were changed before the trip due to pandemic restrictions and travel challenges, which was fine.  We had ample notice and knew what to expect.    

But there were several instances where visits to certain locations were dropped off our itinerary completely, and visits to other non-advertised locations were added.  

Sometimes this was a good thing, but sometimes it was incredibly frustrating.  

In London, a walking tour of Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden and Leicester Square was replaced with “free time” at the British Museum, which we really didn’t mind. 

But in Florence, visits to San Miniato al Monte and Piazzale Michelangelo were dropped off the itinerary with no explanation.  

On our way to Rome, our guide added a stop in Ovierto, a beautiful small town with picturesque views, wonderful dining and great little shops which we enjoyed immensely. 

But in Paris, a visit to Montmartre was abandoned, even though our dinner restaurant was within a mile of the historic location.  

The best unexpected addition to our trip in my opinion was the opportunity to see a musical in the West End of London.  Our guide was able to secure tickets (for an extra fee) for those who wanted them to a performance of Wicked during our free evening.  It was absolutely fantastic.  

But in the most frustrating example, during our time in Paris a visit to the Frogonard Perfume Museum was added to our itinerary.   No one asked to go there, and most of us seemed annoyed that we were stopping.  We were assured that the stop there would only last 30 minutes, but it ended up taking three times that, leaving us only an hour and a half to visit the Louvre before we had to be back on the bus to catch a flight to Italy.  

These added stops almost always involved additional costs as well, which we were not informed of before leaving for our trip.  This caused problems for a few kids on our trip who weren’t expecting these costs, and they unfortunately had to miss out on some of the better additions. 

There also seemed to be major sites in some of these cities that were not ever even an option to visit or see, due to our limited time in each city.   We didn’t go to Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s Cathedral while we were in London, and there were too many things to count in Paris that we didn’t even glimpse.  While we were aware of this upfront before the tour, it really did feel like they didn’t allow enough time in any location to really see the cities we were in.  

Despite these frustrations, the itinerary did take us to some fantastic places and we had some absolutely unforgettable experiences.  We had a fantastic time seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.  We enjoyed a truly magical and unexpected sunset under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  We got to listen to an orchestra perform in Piazza della Signoria in Florence.  We were able to marvel at the unparalleled artwork inside St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.  We saw the stunningly beautiful sites of Capri from a private boat tour.  Those memories are truly priceless.  

During our trip there were extra excursions offered in any city we stayed in more than one night. 

In London, the excursion was a visit to the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel type ride that gives riders a birds eye view of the city.  In Paris, it was a trip to Versaille to tour the palace and the gardens.  In Rome, it was a tiramisu cooking class.  

We choose not to participate in the excursion in London because I’m not the biggest fan of heights, and in Paris because my daughter wanted the opportunity to spend some extra free time in the city.  

I’m extremely glad we made those decisions.   

While the London Eye excursion seemed to go well for those who went on it, it was over priced.  EF Tours charged each participant $60.  Tickets can be purchased individually at the ticket booth for just $42 USD or for groups ahead of time for just $24 USD.  I’m not sure what EF added to the experience to warrant that upcharge.  

By skipping the London Eye, we were able to have a bit more time to explore and plenty of time to enjoy our pub dinner that we mentioned earlier since the London Eye excursion was timed to happen right before dinner.  

In Paris, those who went to Versaille told us the experience was underwhelming because of the limited time available inside the palace, and the lack of lunch options available to those who went.  

The Versailles excursion seemed overpriced as well.  EF Tours charged $114 USD to each participant.  Tickets to the entire estate are free for those under 18 years old and cost under $30 USD for anyone else, and that’s without a group discount.  Even if every single person had to buy a ticket,  I can’t imagine that the cost for a group tour and the transportation to get the group there cost an additional $84 USD per person.  

The tiramisu cooking class in Rome was not optional for our group for some reason.  I think our group leader made that choice when she set up our trip.  We paid an extra $85 USD above and beyond the base tour price to experience it.  While I could not find information about individual class pricing, I highly doubt that EF paid that much per person for us to spend an hour making tiramisu. 

I will say that the class was a fun experience at a great location, and we all enjoyed the desserts we made together.  

Overall, unless an excursion is of special interest to you, I wouldn’t recommend participating in them, simply because they seem overpriced.  Having extra free time to see the sites of your choice seemed to be the best option during our tour.  

Education on an EF Tour

EF Tours makes a big deal out of their tours being focused on education.  We were promised “experiential learning activities” during the trip.  They even claim you can earn credit for going on these tour.  

We found that there wasn’t that much education attached to our tour.  

The local tour guides who showed us the sights of each city were the most informative folks on this trip, with extensive knowledge of the history and culture at each stop, but we were forced to use amplifying devices called Whispers in order to hear the guides.  These Whispers often had glitches or were garbled, making it very hard to understand our guides.  

Other than the local tour guides and maybe the tiramisu class, I wouldn’t call just visiting these historic places an “experiential learning activity.”  

We also learned that our high school would not give any credit to students who participated in these trips, even though much was made of the educational credit during the pitch to get us to join the tour.  

This isn’t to say that we didn’t learn anything on our trip.  We did have some great cultural experiences while we traveled.  But learning seemed to take a back seat to just being in another country in most circumstances.  

Safety with EF Tours

As a parent considering an EF Tour for my teenager, I know safety was a big concern for me.  

When my husband and I decided to send our daughter, we felt like one of us should go with her since she was only 15 at the time we went on the trip, and had not traveled internationally like this before.  

For the most part, I felt quite safe during our trip.  

Before our trip, our group leader did make sure to advise us about pickpocketing and theft at major tourist sites in Europe, and advised us to be prepared.  She did make sure we were always wary of our passports and where we were keeping them during our travels.  

While on tour, there was only one time that I felt like our group was taken to an unsafe area.  That was during our terrible last night in Rome when we had to walk from our hotel to our dinner restaurant through some pretty sketchy areas of the city.  

Although student were allowed to go out on their own during our free time, they were asked to go in groups of three or four and were left in pretty safe areas to spend their free time.  

The biggest problem I saw with safety was when our Tour Guide would take off walking at a breakneck speed, frequently leaving half our group stuck at crosswalks or a few turns behind.  She usually did a count to make sure everyone was there when we were ready to leave, but she did leave people behind at least twice during our trip and have to go back and get them.  

Most of the time we had no idea where we were headed when we were walking to different locations.  We were never given the names of the restaurants or addresses of where they would be unless we specifically asked for them.  I think communicating with the group more about where we’re going could have avoided some sticky situations that a few of our travelers found themselves in when they were left behind.  

We also didn’t have a way to contact our Tour Guide directly.  Only a couple of people were given her contact information, which made communication confusing and difficult during our free time, especially when she got delayed during our free evening in Paris and our meeting time had to be pushed back significantly.

Curfews and group rules were left up to our group leader, who didn’t set many boundaries for our students.  

Since the legal drinking age in the areas we visited was 18, student who met this requirement were allowed to drink alcohol on our trip, but were asked to limit it to one drink with dinner.  By and large, our students respected this request and did not take advantage of the lowered drinking age to go and party it up.  

Trips like this EF Tour require students to be pretty mature when it comes to safety.  We had a wonderful group of kids who took their personal safety pretty seriously, and didn’t take unnecessary risks that would put them in jeopardy.  Had it been a different group of personalities, I’m not sure how it would have gone.  

EF Tours:  Our Final Verdict

Would I travel with EF Tours again?  That seems to be the question at hand here.  

My EF Tours experience definitely taught me a lot about group travel.  As someone who travels pretty frequently , I usually make most of my own travel arrangements, from flights to hotel reservations to activities.  It was quite nice not to have to worry about any of that.  It really did take a lot of pressure off to just let someone else do all that work. 

But relinquishing that control does require a certain amount of trust.  There were some areas that I would definitely trust EF to arrange again, and other areas where I really think they could do better.  

For this trip it really came down to adjusting expectations once we were traveling.  I really did expect there to be more education involved in what we did while on our tour.  I really did expect to spend some quality time at these major historic sites. 

Once I realized that time would be much more limited at every destination than I expected it to be, the trip went much more smoothly.  

I think our experience would have been better with a more seasoned Tour Guide.  Ours just didn’t seem quite ready to handle all the pressures and logistics that are required for managing a group of 40 people for 12 days.  

EF Tours is definitely a budget tour company, and for the price, you do get a good experience.  

Did EF Tours create the trip of my dreams?  Not by a long shot. 

Did they create a good experience for students who haven’t done a lot of international traveling?  I’d say yes.  

Do I regret going on an EF Tour?  Absolutely not.  I had some incredible experiences in some amazing locations with my only daughter, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.  

Would I go on another EF Tour?  I think I would, but I would definitely choose a slower paced itinerary with more time in each destination.  

Do you have any questions about EF Tours that I didn’t answer?  Feel free to ask me in the comments!!

EF Tours Review: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Friday 21st of June 2024

Our son's backpack is still standing in the corner, gathering dust. Like many people here, we were introduced to EF tours through our son's school, which gave them an air of credibility in our eyes. However, we will do the best we can to advise our school to never work with them again.

Like the author of the blog post, we were not told an exact date, but a timeframe for travel in the months ahead. In fact, they gladly took our money (more than $3,000) without feeling the need to communicate with us before our planned departure date. Because EF Tours is expensive, kids of only three families sought to participate. Within the week of departure we were told to pack and meet at the airport at a certain time on Saturday evening. Only, on Saturday, mere hours before we were going to drop off our son at the airport, the trip was called off.

It took days before our chaperone told us the reason why: she had her passport stolen and could not travel. This is an extenuating circumstance for the company, I understand, but also is no fault of the families. For nearly a month we heard little from the company itself other than they'd offer vouchers and refused to reimburse the families who could not go at other times during the summer.

Nearly a month later, we were offered a replacement trip of the exact length, places, and program of the original trip. This was planned to head out on July 7. We really were hoping our son got to go after all. However, EF Tours now asked for $800 more - not $80, but close to a third of the amount we already paid them and had not received anything for yet (not even the common courtesy that they would communicate with their paying customers). Only a month later, the same trip cost nearly 1/3 of the original price more, vouchers or no. How much more would we pay, even if we were still willing to send our son with them the following year?

There was no guarantee. In fact, when we reached out to EF Tours, they insisted on keeping our money in exchange for vouchers (for those who had other plans and could not travel at the later date) as well as the additional $800. They actually provided us with their law offices address.

We communicated our experience to the State's Attorney General office, the BBB, as well as the FTC and received note from the former two that they have taken up the case.

I would recommend to anyone considering traveling with EF Tours to either go with a different company or plan a trip for yourselves. Just like with people, the true character of a company shows when things do not go as planned. EF Tours is of a scam character to say the least.

Louise Emery

Tuesday 25th of June 2024

Wow! $800 is a crazy amount to ask! I really hope you get a resolution soon.

Wednesday 29th of May 2024

We are the latest scapegoats of EF tours which is not worth 10$ for the time they make you wait doing round about trip for 40 hours for a travel worth 14 hours . THE most pathetic travel plan i have ever seen in my entire life. Instead of paying for this tour, I would have taken my entire family with much better planning saving time and money. JUST NOT worth it and am hoping to do something more than just commenting here to avoid atleast 1% of naive parents into signing up for future EF tours from school.PLEASE don't waste precious time

Tuesday 28th of May 2024

Hi Louise A great review, thank you. I am an EF tour director, though I only continue to lead tours where I have already worked with the Group Leaders (the teacher organizing). I won't defend EF, there's no getting around the fact it's heavily profit-driven and as such does not use resources on adequately training its staff, whether they are office based or TDs. They use the cheapest bus companies, negotiate the cheapest menus, the cheapest room rates but of course spend a huge budget on marketing and corporate BS - and it works, they are the biggest student tour operator out there not to mention all its other extensive enterprises. Everything is done last minute which hopefully gives some explanation as to why TDs are often beyond frazzled and they have to spend time away from the group, particularly in their hotel room each night emailing and sorting out things for the next day or next few days which should have been organized well in advance by the company. And given how early morning departures are and late finishes at hotels, you can see that they get very little sleep. More and more we complain that TDs are having to spend days and days in advance on admin to make the tour anything like acceptable - time when they are not being paid and think about it, they have chosen a job which is not office based but are being forced to do so much admin which any other company would handle in the office. We are either already on tour, so it is taking time away from our current group, or we have to spend less time with family when we are in between tours. Cheapest labor, in fact it is free labor! To say nothing of how late they pay us and even then they dispute a lot of payments so we have to wait even longer. Of course TDs should never be late, this is appalling. To play devil's avocate though, in my time I have bumped into colleagues along the way who are in floods of tears because of how their tour is going. Almost always to do with impossible itineraries, tickets not arriving and the company not supporting them, but also sadly, due to relations with travelers. The most likely is parents who have elected to travel on a student trip without understanding what they means for them (long days, staying in poor quality hotels, rushed meals etc.). And sometimes it just takes a bit longer to compose yourself before going back to meet the group. Often I have to be on a call and skip a visit that I was really looking forward to just to sort out some s*** so the tour goes well. Of course to maintain professionalism, I would never tell the group that I have been sorting out s***, they just assume I've been gorging on gelato. Sometimes we are not even provided with a ticket to go into a museum or theatre so we cannot join the group. All aspects of the job has got worse and worse over the years and many of the experienced TDs have jumped ship where they are better paid and generally treated more humanely. I think it is worth emphasizing the importance of strong leadership from the Group Leader. It s amazing that some are willing to travel with kids they have never met until they arrive at the airport. A good teacher will pick good chaperones and give them guidance to prepare for the tour. So free time can be very different between one group and the next. It may sound like kids are let lose, but it is almost always in a controlled environment and the teacher will have set up parameters the students have to keep to. Again the biggest trouble makers are typically parents who travel with the group. Regarding educational aspects of the tour, I would like to deliver more education and we certainly used to do more. But as hotels have got further and further from the centre, meaning longer and longer hours on the go with very little sleep, bus journeys means the students need to catch up on sleep. There are some EF tours which are more educational-focused such as STEM, WW2, And don't forget there is also the 'soft skills' element that should not be overlooked - for most students this is their first time travelling abroad, certainly without their families. So learning self-reliance, not losing their passport, budgeting their spending money, navigating teenage relations, meeting foreigners, starting to understand their own limitations and what they are willing to compromise on or not... there is so much that they are learning and absorbing which you will not find in a text book, but this is life learning and the most rewarding part of the job is to see the kids blossom. More often than not it is the students who are introverted, who make the biggest steps and make the most progress - starting to speak words in the local language, trying different foods, open their eyes wide. The confident kids often stick together and don't appear to grow as much. One of the biggest problems with this kind of tour is that the more things listed on the itinerary, the more people sign up. As an example. teachers often say that they offer a tour, get a few signing up, then they amend it to include Paris and boom, a full bus. Only the most experienced of travelers would look at the shiny marketing brochure and question how it is possible to pack everything in. But having everything in is what sells tours. Kind of a vicious circle. Versailles optional - this is a tricky one. It is overpriced, but is a bestseller and I would like to offer some perspectives. Don't forget to factor in the service you are getting - sure, go there alone, work out the route from which of the Versailles train stations you can work out you can get to and yes under 18s enter for free, work out how to get an adult ticket on your own, queue for a long time (just google the length of those lines), work out where the bathrooms are on your own, options to eat, what train to get back... There are more costs involved with a group. for this visit In order to skip those long queues, groups must pay for group reservation fee, whatever the age of the group. You have to pay for 2 guides if there is more than a certain number in the group, so they split the group in half and have 2 tours at the same time. The Whisper audio headsets have a fee. The bus has to have a separate fee and parking. So yes, it is very profitable, but perhaps not as much as you think. The travel business can be precarious, just look at the pandemic years. Imagine airlines going on strike or sudden weather changes. Tour companies need a little reserve to deal with emergencies and the profits from side trips like Versailles is useful for this. Of course when it is clear that this tour company makes a lot of money by being very cheap on meals, poor buses and hotels, this is hard to hear. Some side trips like the London Eye are absolutely a rip off and teachers should really be more wise to this. Now that I mainly work for companies that have a calmer itinerary, the difference is immeasurable. A good one for teachers and trip organizers to work with is Lingo Tours. Each tour is bespoke so you can bring them your itinerary ideas, they will work with you to come up with something that truly works. Meals are high quality and usually offer a choice and hotels are so much better quality and even if they are not very central, they are not far out like with EF. You will get sleep, you will get an experienced tour director (you can even bring your EF TD with you, we are all freelance after all), you won't pay more and you won't regret it! You won't feel like you are part of a factory product and you will have decisions explained to you so you know you are offering a quality product to people signing up. But, like your tour director, you need to have experience because taking students away on a tour is no easy task and it takes time to understand all that it involves. Another small company that will work with you to design your tour is Global Explorers LLC. ACIS is also good for brochure tour style, but generally works out more expensive, same with Passports. Explorica is the real rival to EF and has a similar set up and EF does not let TDs work for both companies. You have have to laugh, on the EF website it says "Reimagining student travel, one itinerary at a time". If reimagine means "providing a worse product and service than last year" then they have that written correctly. They certainly do not do one itinerary at a time, they do everything en masse and this is a problem - they never turn down business and have too many tours going at the peak season. Adjust expectations appropriately. I hope this comment helps some people to understand the challenges of student touring.

I am happy that I can be helpful. CHAOS and ADRENALINE is how these tours are run. It's a big pity, there is really enough money in the company for these to be great tours. The family who own EF are on the Forbes rich list. Their business school has a reputation like Trump's did! But the family are good at business themselves , very good. But at the end of the day, whether EF does a good job or not, we all need to understand that more people are traveling than ever and this has an impact on many aspects of trips, especially group trips.

Thank you SO much for this info! Having a TD perspective is really fantastic, and does give insight to how things are run. I especially appreciate the recommendations at the end!

Friday 3rd of May 2024

Hi, I signed up for the 2025 Rome and Greece trip with this company. Was wondering what I should do there and if there is anything to not do. Let me know if I should cancel a certain hotel stay or guided trip.

Saturday 4th of May 2024

Not sure if you can cancel one portion without cancelling your participation in the whole trip.

Friday 12th of April 2024

I have gone on 4 EF tours (England and Scotland), (London and Paris), Rome, and one called Bell'Italia, which was basically a road trip through Italy. The meals are always meh, and the hotels were usually ok to good. I'm surprised at your lackluster tour guide. We have ALWAYS fallen in love with all 4 tour guides!!! They are all friends for life now. I wish you could have had that experience. The kids just adored them all. I did find the more jam packed the itinerary is, the more stressful the trip can be, but on the other hand, you get to see it all.

The Scoop: What to Know About EF Go Ahead Tours

Affordable, experiential, and accessible tours are ef go ahead tours' focus..

The Scoop: What to Know About Trafalgar Tours

• Curious about EF Go Ahead Tours? Here’s our objective snapshot of what to expect from the tour company.
• I’ve updated it for 2024 and verified that all the info is current.

The tour company EF Go Ahead Tours is owned by EF Education First, a company that’s been offering language, academic, and cultural programs for more than 50 years. The tour arm of the company focuses on being an affordable, experiential, and accessible way for travelers to connect with the world. 

TourScoop Takeaways

• Countries: 87 countries on seven continents
• Tour size average: The standard group size is capped at 38 guests. EF Go Ahead Tours’ small group tours range in size from 10 to 22 people. Private tours can be arranged with seven or more people, and custom tours with 14 or more people.
• Tour type: Coach, ferries, trains, flights

Credibility Check

EF Go Ahead Tours is accredited by the Better Business Bureau has an A+ rating from the organization, though currently user ratings are low on the site. The company is an active member of the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA). Note that there are many more ratings and reviews of EF Educational Tours (the branch of the organization that operates academic programs) than EF Go Ahead Tours, but that they are operated separately and for different audiences. 

Tour Destinations

EF Go Ahead Tours has itineraries in 87 countries on all seven continents. Some of its most popular destinations include Italy, Portugal, Kenya, Costa Rica, and Ireland.

EF Go Ahead Tours has many different tour types . On the more traditional end of tours are its multi-country and grand tours, which bundle multiple destinations into a single trip. There are also city stay tours, which give travelers the chance to go deep in a single European city for a week of guided excursions. There are also special event tours that focus on special access to major celebrations like Oktoberfest, New Year’s Eve, and St. Patrick’s Day. Additionally, the company has history tours; national park tours; religious and spiritual tours; tours geared to families; and tours for solo travelers.  

It also operates small group tours that range in size from 10 to 22 people and focus on adventure travel, food and wine, or safari and wildlife. 

Tour Guides

Tour leaders, known as tour directors, bring backgrounds in tourism, history, and/or education. Tour directors partner with local guides along the way to offer participants additional insights into specific destinations. Many tour directors have been with EF Go Ahead Tours for 20 years or longer. 

Inclusions/Extras

Itineraries are a mix of guided tours and group meals, plus free time so guests can explore at their own pace. Airfare isn’t part of the base rate, but EF Go Ahead Tours offers flight booking with airport transfers, plus help if flights are canceled. 

Typical Travelers

EF Go Ahead Tours guests tend to be 35 and older, with most tours attracting a mix of solo, couple, and group travelers. 

Communication 

Travelers who have booked a tour can download EF Go Ahead’s mobile app to access resources and pre-departure information. Within three months of tour, the company offers a pre-departure information session that’s also available on-demand. 

The company regularly updates its FAQ Hub with frequently asked questions. It also has a dedicated expert team for urgent issues that may arise before or during a tour.

Loyalty Program

EF Go Ahead Tours’ loyalty program, Club Go , allows guests to earn tour credits to put toward future trips, collectible moment and milestone badges, flexible rebooking benefits, and an online hub. 

Private Options

Any of the company’s 175+ itineraries can be packaged as a Private Tour . EF Go Ahead Tours allows groups of 14 or more to customize their experience on a custom tour, and offers private tours on existing itineraries for groups of seven or more. 

Sustainability Efforts

EF Go Ahead Tours has partnered with Eden Reforestation Projects to create and conserve forests to plant 3 million mangrove trees. The company has been carbon negative since 2021, with the goal is to be historically carbon neutral (dating back to 1965).

The company collaborates with the communities it travels to in an effort to preserve local cultures and encourage sustainability. It also works with travelers to share how thoughtful travel choices can leave a lasting, positive impact on destinations, people, and the environment.

Health and Safety Practices

EF Go Ahead Tours puts into place health and safety protocols with its Travel-Ready Approach . As part of this, it operates both a crisis response team and its EF Global Safety Network, which constantly reviews national and international travel guidelines. It also offers 24/7 on-call support,  50,000 EF staff on the ground in 50 countries, and more than half a century of traveler support. 

Family Companies

EF Go Ahead Tours parent company EF Education First focuses on programs for students and teachers. It has language programs, university programs, and gap year offerings.

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EF Tours Company Profile- Educational Student Travel

EF is a massive educational tour company offering global group travel to students of all ages. "EF" stands for "Education First," and EF's accreditation efforts live up to the marketing. And market domination does not mean impersonality -- EF delivers not-to-be-forgotten travel that can be tailored to you and your group.

EF's Been Around

EF has been in the tour biz since 1965 when Swedish founder Bertil Hult took a group of students to Britain for English study. Its closest competitor in the longevity department is CHA Tours, on the scene since 1969. Explorica was founded in 2000 by a former EF prexy and operates along the same lines as does EF but on a smaller scale.

EF Gets Around

EF travel options circle the globe, with educational tours to Europe ranking high on the popularity scale; guided travel can also be had to Africa, Asia (Japan and China) and the South Pacific, Australia and Latin America (Brazil, Caribbean, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru). EF travel arm EF America offers US and Canada trips .

EF Is Around

EF has offices in over 50 countries worldwide, meaning staff personally check out local hotels and restaurants before booking travelers, and staff help is not far away should a need or emergency arise. And bilingual tour directors can help handle most of what might come up during a trip abroad, like losing a passport. The company's central office overlooks Switzerland's Lake Lucerne; US headquarters are in Cambridge, Mass. (Contact info below.)

"EF Is People"

One EF employee says of educational travel, "The people side of it is what makes a difference." Many EF higher-ups, even the head honcho herself, started EF life as tour directors, and tour directors could be seen as the street-level lifeblood of any group travel company. EF's posse of hundreds get a decent amount of training and are likely to be local to your destination. And these tour directors do what they do because they love it. From the pavement up, EF really is built on a caring crew.

Applause-worthy Accreditation Efforts

EF puts the education in student travel by supplying high school accreditation (contingent on your school's okay) for trips. Earn a semester's worth of credit post-trip by reading and writing before you go, snapping photos and journaling while you're there and completing assignments, like answering essay questions, when you return. According to EF, about 100 hours of work equal a semester's credit through EF. Cost: $100 after 2006.

Safety First

Student safety is paramount -- one oft-heard EF tale has London-office staffers hoofing it around town to reassure travelers all was well within minutes of London's 2005 tube bombings. Tour directors receive emergency preparedness training, and a trip with EF showed me that hotels are safe and in quiet neighborhoods. Post 9/11, EF developed a " Peace of Mind " policy enabling penalty-free cancellation should traveler doubts of any kind arise pre-trip.

How to Get Started

Trips are instigated by teachers or interested adults, who become "group leaders" and sign up participants. Ask at your counseling office or call EF to learn whether a teacher at your school is planning a trip, or ask your favorite educator (how about TA's?) to consider planning some group student travel.

How Much it Costs

EF brass say they lead with their people and price the product in the market, and prices are indeed in line with other educational group travel companies. Expect to pay a one-time $95 "enrollment" fee. And read, read, read -- circumstances exist under which you can't get money back or may have to pay more (airport security fees may suddenly rise, for instance).

Evaluate, Evaluate

Each group leader is given the opportunity to evaluate his/her group's tour director and travel experience post-trip. These evaluations form the basis of quality control at EF; in fact, it's fair to say the company lives and breathes by evaluations, which help EF determine whether tour directors are excelling, which hotels are slipping and what travelers are looking for in general. Tour directors also assemble annually with honchos in EF's Lucerne HQ to give input and feedback from the road.

What's New

EF Educational Tours has two new tech trip helpers cooking for 2006, both aimed at integrating international experience, via student travel, and technology. If you're one of the many student travelers who'd rather carry earbuds than guidebooks, you'll find EF Educational Tours's new EF on iTunes, or TourCasts, handy personal trip guides via iPod.

And EF is also introducing iStory Tours, a partnership with Apple providing teachers and students on tour with an Apple tech expert who tags along to help the traveling gang create cool vids and multimedia presentations.

Bottom Line

EF Tours stands out. I took a trip with EF in the spring of 2006 and spent seven easy days seeing several European cities and sights with a gang of Texas high school students and one extraordinary teacher, on her eighth trip with EF. I was exceedingly impressed with EF's global goings-on and extreme efficiency -- considering the numbers of students and companions the company jaunts around the world, almost nothing is left to chance. Remember to read before you go and your expectations should be exceeded. I'd travel with them again.

EF contact info:

EF Educational Tours: EF Center Boston - One Education Street, Cambridge, MA 02141-1883 Learn more: 1-800-637-8222 Enrolled travelers: 1-800-665-5364 Webmail Company website

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3 benefits of family group tours.

Traveling with family is a great way to make lasting memories. Here’s why taking your family on a group tour is even better.

You can experience other cultures together Family tours will bring you closer together in ways you couldn’t imagine. There’s simply no better way to experience other traditions than with the people who created yours.

There’s no stress When you go on a guided family tour, everything is planned for you—from transportation to activities and even most meals. We do all the work, so you can have all the fun.

It’s not just your family Family trips with Go Ahead Tours mean your family will be a part of a larger group tour. If you'd rather keep it all in the family, you can also  book private family group tours  for seven or more.

Frequently asked questions about our family travel packages

While all of our tours are family friendly, Italy, England, France, Greece, and the U.S. National Parks are our most popular destinations for families. Here are a few family friendly vacations that we recommend:

• London, Paris & Rome: You can see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, visit Versailles Palace, explore the Colosseum, and drool over delicious pizza and pasta together.
• The Greek Islands: Relax together in Mykonos, see the stunning coastline in Santorini, and learn all about the characters of Greek mythology like the Minotaur and Zeus.
• A City Stay tour: Live like locals. Our City Stay experiences offer families the chance to go at their own paces, while having access to a guide whenever they need it.

Read more about these three family friendly vacations .

When planning a trip with family, it can be hard to find a time that works for everyone. That ’ s why we offer a variety of week-long, escorted family tours, including:

• A Week in Switzerland, Germany & Austria
• A Week in Ireland: Dublin, Cork & Galway 
• Venice, Florence & Rome
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Any tours highlighted on this page are great tours for families. Some of our best family-friendly tours to Europe include:

• London, Paris & Rome
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None of our tours are specifically for families, but you are always welcome to bring your family on them! Whether you’re traveling with your cousins, parents, children, or grandchildren, our tours are perfect for families of all kinds. Just know that children must be at least 7 years old to travel with us, and some tours may not have other families on them. Learn more about our private and customized tours .

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Fire kills 8 in office building near Moscow

The Associated Press

June 24, 2024, 5:12 PM

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At least eight people died Monday in a fire in an office building near Moscow, including two who jumped from the building to escape the flames, authorities said.

State news agency Tass said the fire in Fryazino, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of the Russian capital, was caused by a malfunctioning electrical system. Videos shared on social media show thick plumes of smoke rising from windows throughout the multistory office building.

The regional governor Andrei Vorobyev said in a post on the social platform Telegram that oxygen tanks stored in the building exploded, causing some ceilings to collapse. Two people died when they jumped from the building and six more died inside, Vorobyev said.

He said offices in the building were rented by 30 different companies, including the Platan Research Institute, which produces electronics.

The Platan Research Institute is among several Russian companies sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for meddling in foreign elections, carrying out malicious cyber operations and undermining security abroad. The Treasury listing said the Platan Research Institute is based at the same address as the building that caught fire.

The website for the town of Fryazino — which touts itself as a center of scientific excellence — said the Platan Research Institute is the “leader, sole developer and manufacturer,” in Russia of a number of “unique devices,” including lasers, flat liquid crystal screens, video modules and white-emitting LED lighting.

Russian newspaper Kommersant was more descriptive, saying the Institute develops equipment used by Russia’s military, including in fighter jets, bombers and helicopters, as well as in missiles, “all types of nuclear submarine missile carriers,” long-range radar and anti-aircraft missile systems.

Kommersant said the company was created to develop electron beam devices for radar and space technology, mainly for defense purposes.

Ruselectronics, the Platan Research Institute’s parent company, denied that the company was affected by Monday’s blaze. In a statement published by Tass, state-owned Ruselectronics insisted the building had passed to private ownership in the 1990s and that the Institute was no longer a tenant.

Independent Russian media suggested the company had recently moved to a neighboring building.

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

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Eight killed in fire at Moscow office building including two who jumped to escape

Local reports suggest the building could have housed parts of a russian defence business., article bookmarked.

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At least eight people died in a fire in an office building near Moscow, including two who jumped from the building to escape the flames.

The fire in Fryazino, about 15 miles northeast of the Russian capital , was caused by a malfunctioning electrical system and made worse by exploding tanks of oxygen.

The exact use of the building is yet to be made clear by Russian authorities, but local reports suggest it could have housed parts of a Russian defence business.

Offices in the building were r ented by 30 different companies, including the Platan Research Institute, which produces electronics, regional governor Andrei Vorobyev said in a post on the social platform Telegram.

He said that oxygen tanks stored in the building exploded, causing some ceilings to collapse. Two people died when they jumped from the building and six more died inside.

The Platan Research Institute is among several Russian companies sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for meddling in foreign elections, carrying out malicious cyber operations and undermining security abroad.

The Treasury said the Platan Research Institute is based at the same address as the building that caught fire.

The website for the town of Fryazino — which touts itself as a centre of scientific excellence — said the Platan Research Institute is the “leader, sole developer and manufacturer,” in Russia of a number of “unique devices,” including lasers, flat liquid crystal screens, video modules and white-emitting LED lighting.

Meanwhile, Russian newspaper Kommersant said the Institute develops equipment used by Russia’s military, including in fighter jets, bombers and helicopters, as well as in missiles, “all types of nuclear submarine missile carriers,” long-range radar and anti-aircraft missile systems.

Kommersant said the company was created to develop electron beam devices for radar and space technology, mainly for defence purposes.

Ruselectronics, the Platan Research Institute’s parent company, denied that the company was affected by Monday’s blaze.

In a statement published by Tass, state-owned Ruselectronics insisted the building had passed to private ownership in the 1990s and that the Institute was no longer a tenant.

Independent Russian media suggested the company had recently moved to a neighboring building.

Videos shared on social media show thick plumes of smoke rising from windows throughout the multistory office building.

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2 Russian Women Put on a Play. Then the State Came for Them.

The prosecution of a prominent playwright and a director in Russia over their work is a chilling sign of increased repression, cultural figures say.

By Valerie Hopkins

They wrote and staged their play as an indictment of terrorism, examining the deception and depravity of violent extremists and the people whose lives they ruin.

But now the two women behind the production of “Finist the Brave Falcon” are standing trial in a Moscow courtroom, charged with justifying the kind of acts they meant to condemn.

The director, Yevgenia Berkovich, 39, and the playwright, Svetlana Petriychuk, 44, two highly decorated fixtures of contemporary Russian theater, have been in custody for more than a year. They face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

One of their lawyers and people in the Russian cultural community contend that the prosecution is one of the clearest examples of the accelerating crackdown on freedom of expression since Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022.

Cultural figures supporting the women say this is the first time in Russia’s post-Soviet era that a work of art is effectively being put on trial. The prosecution has been condemned by some of Russia’s best known intellectuals, including the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitri A. Muratov and the director Kirill Serebrennikov, under whom Ms. Berkovich studied, as well as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups.

“Finist the Brave Falcon,” interweaves a classic Russian fairy tale with the personal tragedy of a woman who falls in love online with a radical extremist, who deceives her into coming to Syria to join the Islamic State. But there is no happy ending; instead, feeling horrified and betrayed, she returns home to Russia, where she is convicted as a terrorist.

The script was loosely based on the reported experiences of hundreds of women who joined the extremist group from Russia and former Soviet countries like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

As the trial opened last month, both Ms. Berkovich and Ms. Petriychuk said that their play put forth an antiterror message.

“I staged the performance to prevent terrorism,” Ms. Berkovich said, according to the independent news outlet Mediazona. She said that she felt “nothing but condemnation and disgust” toward terrorists.

“This play is about what not to do,” Ksenia Karpinskaya, a lawyer for Ms. Berkovich, said in a video interview. “It is a prophylactic. You can’t go on stage and say, ‘Don’t join ISIS, it’s bad,’ because no one will go to your play, and no one will listen anyway. But when they show what happened to people who, well, answered this trap of recruiters, everything is clear.”

She called it a “very straightforward play,” and argued that “a play cannot be the object of a crime, because it is a work of fiction.”

But Russian prosecutors have said because the play is about women recruited by the Islamic State, it is justifying, even romanticizing, terrorism.

The case could have a chilling effect on cultural expression, said Mikhail Dyurenkov, a teacher and a former art director of Lyubimovka, the Moscow literary festival where the script of “Finist the Brave Falcon” was given a public reading for the first time, in 2019.

“This opens the door to a world where any person, and any work, can be accused of terrorism, or another crime, just because it was mentioned,” he said.

“Dostoyevsky could have been tried for killing an old woman,” he added, alluding to the plot of “Crime and Punishment,” one of Russia’s most famous novels. The author of “War and Peace,” Leo Tolstoy, “could be tried for inciting a war,” said Mr. Dyurenkov, who fled Russia in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Even before the verdict, the case is sounding alarms in the Russian theater community, which had been flourishing despite years of creeping pressure on the cultural establishment.

“Of course, it will eventually be destroyed gradually,” said Marina Davydova, a Russian theater critic currently in exile. “Even if it has not yet been destroyed now, it will be destroyed in the near future.”

Before the war, “Finist the Brave Falcon” had little trouble getting to the stage, and initially received the blessing of the state.

The production received financing from multiple state-supported institutions, which means its script was vetted at various stages for potentially offensive content. After it debuted in 2020, it won two Golden Mask awards — Russia’s top honor for theatrical works — a prize supported by official structures, including the Moscow mayor’s office and the Russian culture ministry.

Ms. Davydova pointed out that “Finist the Brave Falcon” debuted years before the criminal trial began; not only did it not violate any rules, she said, but it received broad support and praise from the cultural establishment.

In 2019, before its official debut, it was even performed in a correctional colony for female minors in the Tomsk Region, and a write-up on the institution’s website summarized its message: “The consequences of gullibility and naiveté are terrible — criminal cases and long-term imprisonment.”

“These two young women are being tried for what they did with essentially universal approval,” said Ms. Davydova.

The criminal case was begun several months after a pro-Kremlin actor wrote a post on the social network VK.com expressing disgust that a play directed by an antiwar liberal would be shown in his city, Nizhny Novgorod, in the wake of Ukraine’s attack on the Crimean Bridge earlier that month. He labeled the show “undisguised sympathy for Ukraine and hatred of the current government.”

The performance there was canceled and the man, Vladimir Karpuk, eventually became one of the star witnesses for the prosecution.

Another key prosecution witness was a religious studies professor at Moscow State Linguistic University, Roman Silantyev, who produced an analysis that found that the text “contains signs of the ideology of Islamism and jihadism, as well as radical feminism and the fight against the androcentric social structure of Russia.”

Mr. Silantyev is known as the founder of a controversial discipline called “destructology” that has been dismissed by leading Russian experts as “pseudoscience.”

After a lawyer for the defense asked the Russian Ministry of Justice to review Mr. Silantyev’s analysis of the play, the ministry stated that his statement could not be considered expert testimony, because “destructology” cannot be considered a scientific discipline.

But another expert was assigned from the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., who found that the play “romanticized the image of terrorism.”

Another witness is a person who has not been identified publicly and has been testifying from an undisclosed location; the witness’s face has been hidden and the voice disguised. Reports from the trial by independent Russian media outlets indicate that the person has been unable to answer basic questions about the play and its performances.

Once the prosecution finished presenting its evidence earlier this month, it asked that the trial be closed to the public, which the judge agreed to.

Ms. Berkovich, the director, comes from a family of advocates — her mother is a human-rights activist, as was her grandmother, and her father is a poet. On the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ms. Berkovich was arrested and jailed for 11 days after holding a poster with the inscription “No to War,” and allegedly disobeying the police officers who demanded she accompany them to the station. She has also written antiwar poetry.

The playwright, Ms. Petriychuk, became well-known in the Moscow theater world in 2018, when she had her first reading at the Lyubimovka theater festival and began winning recognition and awards.

Both women have repeatedly asked that their detention be changed to house arrest. Ms. Petriychuk has scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, and Ms. Berkovich is mother to two adopted teenage daughters. She met them at a summer camp for orphans, where she and some friends were helping young campers put on plays for potential adoptive families.

“ It’s awful, it’s very hard for them,” Ksenia Sorokina, a friend of Ms. Berkovich, said of the two daughters. “This is a terrible trigger for them, to repeatedly lose their parents.”

In April, just before the trial began, both women were added to Russia’s official list of “terrorists and extremists,” freezing their bank accounts. The list includes the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban, political opposition figures such as the late Aleksei A. Navalny, the “international L.G.B.T movement” and Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

Mr. Dyurenkov, the former art director of the Moscow festival, said he expected more prosecutions of this kind. “Once this door opens, it doesn’t close anymore,” he said. “This is how the repressive system works.”

@Anastasia Kharchenko contributed reporting.

Valerie Hopkins covers the war in Ukraine and how the conflict is changing Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the United States. She is based in Moscow. More about Valerie Hopkins

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Putin signs deals with Vietnam in bid to shore up ties in Asia to offset Moscow's growing isolation

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a series of deals with his Vietnamese counterpart during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its military actions in Ukraine

HANOI, Vietnam — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed at least a dozen deals with his Vietnamese counterpart on Thursday and offered to supply fossil fuels, including natural gas, to Vietnam during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its war in Ukraine .

Putin and President To Lam agreed to further cooperate in education, science and technology, oil and gas exploration and clean energy. The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.

Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none overtly pertained to defense but Lam said there were other deals that were not made public.

Putin said the two countries share an interest in “developing a reliable security architecture” in the Asia-Pacific region with no room for “closed military-political blocs.” Lam added that both Russia and Vietnam wanted to “further cooperate in defense and security to cope with non-traditional security challenges.”

The agreements between Russia and Vietnam were not as substantial as the pact Putin signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Wednesday, which pledged mutual aid in the event of invasion, said Nigel Gould-Davies, a senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and a former British ambassador to Belarus.

Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break the international isolation,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, an analyst at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

Giang said Russia is important to Vietnam for two reasons: It is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain Vietnam’s sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.

Vietnam also has licensed Russian state-controlled oil company Zarubezhneft to develop an offshore block of its southeastern coast.

On the South China Sea, Lam said that both sides would “support and ensure security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation” and the resolution of disputes peacefully and in accordance to international law without the use of force, according to official Vietnamese media.

Putin arrived in Hanoi on Thursday morning from North Korea after signing the strategic pact , which comes as both countries face escalating standoffs with the West and could mark their strongest connection since the end of the Cold War.

In Hanoi, Putin also met Vietnam’s most powerful politician, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.

Putin drove to Vietnam’s Presidential Palace on Thursday afternoon, where he was greeted by school children waving Russian and Vietnamese flags.

Much has changed since Putin’s last visit to Vietnam in 2017. Russia now faces a raft of U.S.-led sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the International Criminal Court in Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes, making it difficult for the Russian leader to travel internationally. The Kremlin rejected the warrant as “null and void,” stressing that Moscow doesn’t recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

Putin’s trip resulted in a sharp rebuke from the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, which said that “no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.” If Putin is allowed to travel freely it “could normalize Russia’s blatant violations of international law,” it said in a statement.

The U.S. and its allies have expressed growing concerns over a possible arms arrangement in which North Korea provides Russia with badly needed munitions for use in Ukraine in exchange for Russian economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Both countries deny accusations of weapons transfers, which would violate multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions that Russia previously endorsed.

It is unlikely that Vietnam would supply significant quantities of weapons to Russia and risk the progress that it has made with NATO members on military equipment, particularly the U.S., said Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defense intelligence company Janes.

“I would imagine Vietnam wouldn’t want to take a risk, inviting the wrath of Western countries by supplying the Russians,” Rahmat said.

Hanoi and Moscow have had diplomatic relations since 1950, and this year marks 30 years of a treaty establishing “friendly relations” between Vietnam and Russia. Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, said Vietnam is “reinforcing” that relationship even while it diversifies with newer partners.

Evidence of the long relationship and its influence can be seen in Vietnamese cities like the capital, where many Soviet-style apartment blocks are now dwarfed by skyscrapers. A statue of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union , stands in a park where kids skateboard every evening. Many in the Communist Party’s top leadership in Vietnam studied in Soviet universities, including party chief Trong.

In an article written for Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Putin thanked “Vietnamese friends for their balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis” and hailed the country as a “strong supporter of a fair world order” based on international law, equality and geopolitical non-interference.

Vietnam’s pragmatic policy of “bamboo diplomacy” — a phrase coined by Trong referring to the plant’s flexibility, bending but not breaking in the shifting headwinds of global geopolitics — is being increasingly tested.

A manufacturing powerhouse and an increasingly important player in global supply chains, Vietnam hosted both U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2023.

Putin’s visit is important for Hanoi on a diplomatic level, said Gould-Davies, the former ambassador.

“Perhaps for Vietnam it’s a matter of just showing that it’s able to maintain this very agile balance of its bamboo diplomacy,” he said. “Already in the course of a year they’ve hosted visits by the heads of state of the three most powerful countries in the world, which is pretty impressive.”

For Russia, the visit seems to have been more about optics than anything else, he said, as Moscow seeks to engage and influence other countries, particularly in the so-called Global South.

“Since the war began, Putin has not been able to travel much or very far, and he’s made very few trips beyond the countries of the former Soviet space,” he said.

Vietnam has remained neutral on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But neutrality is getting trickier,

Vietnam needs support from the U.S. to advance its economic ambitions and diversify its defense ties, Parameswaran said. “It has to carefully calibrate what it does with Russia in an environment of rising tensions between Washington and Moscow.”

Bilateral trade between Russia and Vietnam totaled $3.6 billion in 2023, compared to $171 billion with China and $111 billion with America.

Since the early 2000s, Russia has accounted for around 80% of Vietnam’s arms imports. This has been declining over the years due to Vietnamese attempts to diversify its supplies. But to entirely wean itself off Russia will take time, Giang said.

Given Putin’s international isolation, Vietnam is doing the Russian leader a “huge favor and may expect favors in return,” Andrew Goledzinowski, the Australian ambassador to Vietnam, wrote on social media platform X.

“Vietnam will always act in Vietnam’s interests and not anyone else’s,” he wrote.

AP writer David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Fire kills 8 in office building near Moscow

At least eight people died Monday in a fire in an office building near Moscow, including two who jumped from the building to escape the flames, authorities said.

State news agency Tass said the fire in Fryazino, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of the Russian capital, was caused by a malfunctioning electrical system. Videos shared on social media show thick plumes of smoke rising from windows throughout the multistory office building.

The regional governor Andrei Vorobyev said in a post on the social platform Telegram that oxygen tanks stored in the building exploded, causing some ceilings to collapse. Two people died when they jumped from the building and six more died inside, Vorobyev said.

He said offices in the building were rented by 30 different companies, including the Platan Research Institute, which produces electronics.

The Platan Research Institute is among several Russian companies sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for meddling in foreign elections, carrying out malicious cyber operations and undermining security abroad. The Treasury listing said the Platan Research Institute is based at the same address as the building that caught fire.

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The website for the town of Fryazino — which touts itself as a center of scientific excellence — said the Platan Research Institute is the “leader, sole developer and manufacturer,” in Russia of a number of “unique devices,” including lasers, flat liquid crystal screens, video modules and white-emitting LED lighting.

Russian newspaper Kommersant was more descriptive, saying the Institute develops equipment used by Russia’s military, including in fighter jets, bombers and helicopters, as well as in missiles, “all types of nuclear submarine missile carriers,” long-range radar and anti-aircraft missile systems.

Kommersant said the company was created to develop electron beam devices for radar and space technology, mainly for defense purposes.

Ruselectronics, the Platan Research Institute's parent company, denied that the company was affected by Monday's blaze. In a statement published by Tass, state-owned Ruselectronics insisted the building had passed to private ownership in the 1990s and that the Institute was no longer a tenant.

Independent Russian media suggested the company had recently moved to a neighboring building.

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