EF College Break (EF Ultimate Break)

Newly rebranded as ‘EF Ultimate Break’, EF College Break has been a leader in educational tours, language services, and study abroad experiences since 1965.

What Makes EF Ultimate Break Stand Out?

• A strong sense of fun, with an educational twist
• Affordable travel for college aged adults
• Strong emphasis on social activities, meeting locals and making new friends
• Flights included in the price of the trip
• Generous payment plans

EF stands for “Education First”, and they have been offering educational travel experiences, exchange programs, work and teach abroad assistance, and language courses for over 50 years. They focus on making sure the often daunting and complicated process of planning an abroad experience, whether for pleasure or a career change, remains as simple as possible.

Their travel experiences were named EF College Break, however they rebranded in 2017 becoming EF Ultimate Break, reflecting a fresher more youth driven outlook, and placing less emphasis on the education aspect and more on the fun aspect.

Their tours are about being completely immersed in your destination and appreciating all it has to offer with your tour group who are guaranteed to become your good friends by the end. This is like a study abroad journey with all the fun and none of the schoolwork.

Who Will Enjoy Traveling With EF Ultimate Break?

• 18-29 Year Olds
• Social Travelers
• Travelers looking to enjoy the nightlife, but also get up early for sightseeing
• College students
• Budget travelers
• Single and Solo travelers

This is the kind of trip that active outgoing, social college aged adults interested in learning and having fun will enjoy. If you have a “work hard play hard” kind of mentality you will fit in well with their approach to traveling.

EF Ultimate Break specifically caters to 18-29 year olds, and their pretty strict about this (though the broader spectrum of their educational programs are open to adults and working professionals).

Their main target being 18-29, tours are designed to not be price prohibitive, itineraries include a lot of social activities, and the emphasis is on having fun and staying active, with a sprinkling of educational value thrown in for good measure. Enough for you to maybe convince a parent to put up some of the cost.

Incredibly studious types who gravitate to history tours, archaeological sites, and long moments in each stop learning from a guide may want to check around first before choosing to travel with EF Ultimate Break. One of their mantras is “we don’t do boring” and let’s face it museums often fall under that category. 

The emphasis is on being active, seeing and doing a lot - both on the historically significant side as well as the locally immersive side (which in this case might mean your bunkmates are frequently sampling the nightlife).

Top Destinations

EF Ultimate Break covers destinations all over the world

• Europe
• Central America
• South America
• Asia
• Australia / New Zealand

There is a strong emphasis on Europe for EF Ultimate Break, though they do offer group travel experiences around the world. In Europe they cover many popular countries in Western and Central Europe, including Italy, Iceland, and the UK.

In Central America, you can find trips in Cuba, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama, and in South America they have departures to Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina.

In Asia, EF Ultimate Break has tours in China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Lastly you can also find tours in South Africa, and Australia and New Zealand.

EF Ultimate Break Travel Style

Tours are designed to be easy to pay for using installments; and they have a few different payment plans to choose from. You can choose from 1-2 week, 2-4 week, and 4+ week durations, and filter by a variety of trip type.

While on your tour: Accommodations are standard and basic. Think multi-bed hostel rooms with randomly selected roommates from your tour group, more than hotels. A variety of transportation modes will be used, from private motor coach to train to bicycle.

Your Tour Director is a local, ready to introduce you and welcome you to their home - acting as a tour guide and friend.

Why Choose a Tour With EF Ultimate Break?

If you’re a college aged adult looking for a stress free and adventurous tour experience, EF Ultimate Break could be the perfect choice. This is for the type of traveler for whom backpacking through Europe sounds fun, but you’d rather do it with a little less stress, a little more companionship, and the guarantee of a hot meal and drinks with friends. But the adventurous backpacker spirit remains.

Not only that, but they provide generous payment plans, and almost everything is included making it really hard for you to make the excuse that an awesome travel experience is out of reach financially. They want you to see the world, have fun, and provide many ways to make it happen.

They also have a number of other brands with similiar outlooks on education and travel including "EF College Study Tours", "EF Explore America", "EF Tours Girls Trips", "EF Educational Tours Canada", "EF Go Ahead Tours", and "EF Gap Year".