Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland Trip

+ my EF Ultimate Break Review

I kicked off summer with a 10-day trip to Europe with three of my college friends. It was the perfect way to celebrate being halfway done with college, and such a fun way to check some countries off my list. We traveled through the company EF Ultimate Break, and we knew nothing about this company before booking. I figured I’d take one for the team on this, and now that I’m back, I will give my honest review on this company.

EF is a huge company, but Ultimate Break, is a sub-company catered to 18-29 year olds. Their focus is on making travel affordable and accessible for young people, and they truly do offer an expansive array of destinations. I’ve been a pretty pampered traveler, so I was a wee bit nervous about the overall quality of this trip, but the website seemed legitimate and I heard of the larger brand EF, so I had faith that it wasn’t going to be super sketchy. My friend Maddie and I were looking for a trip for the summer, and it all just kind of fell together. Four of us were headed to Europe!

The trip was 10 days, but that included travel days, so it was really 8 full days. We saw so much in such a short period of time; I feel like I was gone for an entire month!!! (My family just got back from a 3-week trip, so this ended up being a warmup 😂… I had a week to recover in between! )

Pre-Trip

The pre-trip process is the reason I’d recommend EF Ultimate Break over the other travel companies we considered going through. Why? It’s a one-stop shop! All of their trips include airfare – they book airfare and accommodations for you and literally send you the confirmation number. This process was so pain-free… it made it so easy traveling with others too because they ensure we were all on the same flights and in the same rooms.

A quick note about the rooming: we didn’t know what we didn’t know on this trip, but if we ever did it again, we would pay to upgrade rooming. We didn’t do that on this trip because honestly, we didn’t know it was an option. It’s only around $250 per person and I think it’s a no-brainer… this guarantees you are in double rooms the entire trip and not in rooms with 4-6 beds (that was a little much for me to be honest)... I know this doesn’t bother some people and some people even prefer high occupancy rooms and bunk beds – that’s just not me haha!

Arrival + Transfer

If you’re young and a little naive (like us) or if you’re a solo traveler, arriving on an EF trip should bring you and your parents peace of mind. We had a group WhatsApp and had a meeting point where we met our guide and were transferred to our bus for the trip. It was a nice bus, and we had the same bus and driver with us the whole trip which was nice.

Side note on this: I’d definitely recommend getting a phone/data plan for the trip… all four of us had one, but some people in our group didn’t… you definitely do not need one as all the hotels have wifi, but there is a lot of free time where I felt safer having it plus I’m quite accustomed to the luxury of checking instagram and texting 😉

Venice, Italy

So we didn’t actually stay in Venice during our time here, which we weren’t made aware of until our arrival. We stayed in Jeselo, which pretty much seemed like a deserted beach town… it probably would’ve been more fun during season, but literally, it felt like a ghost town ?? For the four of us, morale was very low for this portion of the trip and we got stuck in a really crappy room (my bed was actually broken and we were in VERY tight quarters… it was character building though, and the rest of the trip got much better!) I think this was a bit of bad luck, but these were the only accommodations that were not decent.

It also poured down rain the entire time we were in Venice, and we were the only ones in our group to bring rainboots… I’ve never been so grateful to be an overpacker! Definitely pack some sort of rainboot if you’re going to central Europe this time of year – we would’ve been miserable without them!

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Venice, but I’ve heard it said that if you like Rome you won’t like Venice and vice-versa and I LOVED Rome! Venice was basically a giant corn maze of buildings, and I thought it was dirty – no offense if you’re a Venice fan though — I got to cross gondola ride off my bucket list so all is well! 🙂

The highlight from Venice might surprise you – it wasn’t the gondola ride (which I was really looking forward to!). It was actually an add-on excursion offered by our guide to a local vineyard. None of us were big drinkers but it was SO MUCH FUN getting to experience the entire wine-making process as well as learning so much about different wines. I even brought home a bottle as a souvenir. I definitely recommend this excursion if you do this trip!

Salzburg, Austria

The hills were most definitely alive here! We left our group here and went on our own to do the Sound of Music tour — I’d recommend this tour even if you’re not a hardcore Sound of Music fan because it’s a high energy tour where you mostly sit (much needed after all the walking we did prior) and you have some truly breathtaking views.

Munich, Germany

I had no expectations for Munich, and I was blown away. The vibe was most comfortable here and there was so much to do! MUNICH IS AMAZING! Rich and vibrant city life, full of beautiful architecture and amazing shopping!

On our way from Germany to Switzerland, we also stopped at Neuschwanstein Castle, which was a favorite for me!

Lucerne, Switzerland

There are no words to describe this part of our trip! We stayed in a super quaint ski-town, Engelberg, at this adorable ski lodge… it was super walkable and in the foothills of the alps! It was so insanely breathtaking and photos cannot do it justice! I would even stay at this particular hotel again because it was just so quaint and charming!

The four of us all can say that the best was saved for last – Switzerland, I will be back!

Reflection

We picked this specific trip for a variety of reasons, but ultimately the dates worked for everyone’s summer schedules and the duration seemed like a really good fit for our first time with the tour company. I loved the places we went, and these destinations are truly some of the world’s most beautiful places. Definitely bucket list places!!!

Also, I must add… we booked this trip end of February/beginning of March, and our trip was in May — there were no issues booking so late! However, most of the people we met booked a year in advance!

This style trip is a great way to see a lot in a short amount of time, but we all needed vacations from our vacation.

All-in-all, I am really glad that we did this trip. We had some not so glamorous moments, but that’s what character building is all about… right? I think traveling is the greatest gift you can give yourself, and this style trip is something I truly believe every young person should do in his/her life… it is a great way to meet new people and grow in your independence.

Ultimately, I think it’s worth giving EF Ultimate Break a shot… especially if you’re with a group of friends, you’ll make lifelong memories without the headaches of having to plan and coordinate a trip, find corresponding flights, and book tours and accommodations.

If you are interested in booking an EF tour, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask me questions! I’m sure there are things I forgot to include in this post, so please just reach out – I’d love to give first-hand tips and answers!

Tips:

• Upgrade rooming to double room (if this seems like it’d be a good choice for you !!)… if you want the true “traveling while young experience” maybe don’t do this! ha!
• International phone and data plan (probably a luxury, but it made the trip more comfortable!)
• Do all the optional excursions – they’re a lot of fun who knows when you’ll be back — for our trip, we did Dachau and Trip Up Swiss Alps (these were featured on the website) but while on the trip, they also offered us: gondola ride in Venice, wine tasting at Italian vineyard (we did both of these and LOVED!!)… they also offered a Mozart musical dining and experience in Salzburg and a bike ride in Munich that we didn’t do, but I regret — honestly, you made it this far to these locations… DO IT ALL! — and they were super reasonably priced, so no-brainer!
• Have an open mind and a positive attitude – whether or not you have a good trip is truly up to you! Traveling is hectic (so is life), so you have to learn how to roll with the punches and chill!

And there’s my first post, I plan to post a formal welcome and introduction soon, but I wanted to share my EF experience while it was still fresh on my mind! Thank you so much for reading, and I look forward to sharing more future travels!