The picture above was taken by me :) on a plane to California back in July.
My dream of traveling used to be such a far fetched idea, and I never thought it would happen..ever. mainly because of financial reasons and putting other things before travel. My dreams were answered because of EF College Break and it's wonderful payment plan options. I cannot speak highly enough of the customer service of this company, and I have never had an issue getting ahold of someone whenever I had questions-- and I have had quite a few before holding my spot on the trip I had chosen. I knew I wanted a semi longer trip, without going for the extreme 35 day Ultimate Europe trip so I decided on a 16 day European Road Trip reaching 7 cities in June. Which is exciting in itself and also completely daunting at the same time, making EF absolutely appealing since I don't have to lift a finger in planning my first European adventure. Because I am a worrier, it took me a little bit to convince myself of booking my trip through EF but after countless hours of researching and watching videos, reading blog posts, etc. I knew I had to book through them. The most appealing feature was being able to hold my spot for the trip by only putting a $150 deposit and from that point forward starting a payment plan. Being a college student it's extremely difficult to pull 4k out your butt (hence, why I never did study abroad in the 4 years I've been in school); EF made it affordable for me. They also have an awesome referral program as well, that makes it possible for your trip price to go down once someone books a trip or the same trip as you!
The awesome perks of booking through EF was that it took the stressful planning phase out of the whole ordeal, and I could spend the majority of my time just being excited about the trip. While the price of a trip may be daunting; it does include flights and these other wonderful things:
- Accommodations
- All your city transfers are taken care of
- Once, you're two months away from your trip they even create a private FB group so you can meet others going! ( most excited for this!)
- Metro Pass is included in most major cities
- Attraction passes to popular sights is also included ( the Lourve, Sistine Chapel, etc)
- Free breakfast
I don't know about you but that saves me a whole lot of money knowing I don't have to worry about getting to and from destinations, the metro pass and attraction passes is completely awesome because those could've added up in the 16 days I'll be on the trip with EF. EF also has the option for you to extend your trip by either coming before your trip starts or staying longer for your trip ( hell, or even adding another one of their trips on!). A friend and I added Rome for an extra 6 days which is going to be handled all on our own, minus the flight back home. So if you do plan on doing either, you are held responsible to getting to the country of choice and taking care of accommodations amongst other things you would like to do. We plan on staying in AirBnB while we are in Rome ( haven't made concrete plans yet). I think it cost me an extra $25 to extend it and change my flight back from Rome to the US.
This is only part one of my EF college trip, Part two will be a detailed breakdown of what I plan on doing and what my itinerary through EF is like, plus the Rome extension on my own. I'll be back to review the trip and company as a whole along with a bunch of other posts about the trip once I get back as well!
If you're worried about taking a leap, I say go for it! traveling is good for the soul <3
