Contiki or EF Ultimate Break
I'm from the US and planning my summer vacation to Europe for summer 2025. My friend recommended Contiki for European tours but I've read some reviews online staying that Contiki is was the the worst tour they ever did and that EF Ultimate Break is better? I don't want to waste my money on a horrible tour, especially as it is my first time in Europe what does everyone think.
Well I don't know where you were reading but if you read the posts on this forum / Facebook you will see that majority of people have the time of their lives with Contiki. I have done two trips in Europe and they was sooo much fun. I'm about to go on another to Asia and I'm really excited.
I can understand in a way though it's true that Contiki tours are not for everyone. You have to do your own research and decide for yourself..after all, you're the one spending the thousands of dollars on a trip, you want to make sure you'll have a good time.
I've enjoyed all my trips with them but there have been some negative things about them, but nothing that I wasn't expecting. No trip will be perfect, you take the good with the bad, and your trip will be exactly what you make it into. If you go into it expecting the worst, expecting to hate everyone, and assuming it will be the worst time of your life..well then why bother going at all?
You do have to spend a lot of time traveling on the bus driving to each city..sometimes you don't get as much free time in places as you were expecting/hoping. The food is not great..some excursions are overpriced and not worth it. These are things you have to take into consideration, and figure out what you want out of your trip. For myself, before my trip, I would figure out exactly what I wanted to see in each city, where it was located and how I could get there. So when we arrived, i could figure out what I wanted to do without feeling like I was wasting any time, and I ended up seeing everything I had hoped.
Read the reviews on trips you are interested in, and decide if the extra excursions are worth the price. Sometimes it's better to skip them and go off into the city by yourself, eat at a local restaurant and experience the culture that way. If you're an experience traveler who is used to running on your own time, doing things at your own pace, then probably a contiki trip wouldn't be for you..because there is a schedule, and you have to accept that it's impossible to see every single thing in a city in one day, so you'll have to pick what's most important to see and move on.
Contiki tours (and most tours) are designed to see the most amount of things in the shortest amount of time, which obviously is not an ideal situation for everyone..nobody can tell you if you're going to be wasting your money, but be open minded about it.
As for EF, I have never heard of them so can't comment sorry.