Everything You Need to Know BEFORE Traveling with EF Ultimate Break
Buckle up, because when I say everything, I mean everything — this is gonna be a long one!
EF Ultimate Break: Germany, Italy, & Switzerland August 2023
EF Ultimate Break — if you don’t know, you may be asking: What is it? It is a travel company specializing in group travel for young adults, age 18 – 35. Whether you want to get into traveling, but you don’t know where to start or you’ve already traveled before, but you’d like to take a trip with a break from the stress of planning, they’ve got you! I’ve been following EF Ultimate Break since I was in high school, and back then they were called EF College Break, and it had always been a dream of mine to travel with them, 1) because I had barely been outside the U.S. at that point, and 2) because they always seemed like so. Much. fun! Now that I’m an adult and I’ve traveled some on my own, and on 4 trips with EF Ultimate Break, plus 1 with their sister company, EF Go Ahead Tours, I want to give you my full, unsolicited advice on how to make the most of your first trip!
First off, in case you’ve just come here to be convinced to book your first trip, we’ll start with “Why?” I’ve seen a good bit of discourse online over whether or not Ultimate Break is worth it, and while you probably could do some of their trips cheaper on your own, with them you’re paying for an almost all-inclusive service, which obviously has an associated cost. The main perk that makes me the biggest advocate for Ultimate Break is their interest free payment plan, no credit score required! Most travel is considered expensive to the average person, but Ultimate Break makes it so much more attainable! Hotels and flights are usually the bulkiest travel expenses, so I find it much less daunting to have them broken down into smaller payments that can be monthly or bi-weekly. They have soooo many trips to choose from – if it’s on your bucket list, they probably have a trip for it! If you long to travel but are feeling hesitant about getting out there for any reason at all, whether you’re afraid to go alone, you’re overwhelmed by the planning, or you’re worried about safety, Ultimate Break really does well with covering all the bases. I’ve gone on trips alone and booked with friends and either way, I have a blast with everyone I meet, I’ve even had a few reunion trips! They’re super transparent with their itineraries and everything is shown on their website, so you can know what you’re getting into before you commit to booking!
Booking
Speaking of, let’s talk about it! What are the best times to book and how do you save the most money possible? Ultimate Break is almost always having some sort of sale, so obviously this is one way to cut costs, but not every sale is created equal. Most often, the semi-annual sales around January and August, and the Black Friday sale in November will have the highest discounts! Trip prices will also fluctuate based on season, and for most, trips from the end of May to early August are going to be priced the highest - so even on sale, they may be more expensive than another fully price date in the off season. If you can be flexible with your dates, you’ll save a lot without really having to do anything! If you do have a specific date in mind, trip prices usually hit their sweet spot about one year before the set departure date. So, if you wanted to travel in July of 2026, it would be best to try to book during the semi-annual sale in August of 2025. Of course, the further in advance that you book, the lower your payments will be. Ultimate Break usually has dates available to book as early as 2 years before, but if you pay attention to the prices, they’re usually more expensive than the closer dates, so if you can afford slightly higher payments, you may save more overall if you wait to book. On the contrary, if you’re more of a spontaneous traveler and booking a whole year in advance sounds torturous to you, don’t worry because they also run a lot of “last minute” sales on trips departing within a few months, so if you’re eyeing a trip that leaves next week, go for it!
Get this — they also have a 60-day price match guarantee, so if your trip price decreases for any reason within 60 days of booking, they’ll match the lower price! I love to remind people of this one because on every trip I’ve booked, with the exception of during the Black Friday sale, I’ve gotten credited for a price decrease! It may sound anal, but I’d recommend marking your calendar for 60 days after you book your trip and check every few weeks for a discount, because it is up to you to request it if there is a change, and hey money is money! Finally, while you’re here, the absolute easiest way to save an additional $100 on top of any other sale, any time you book is just by using my link to book your trip: https://www.efultimatebreak.com/?ba=UATessa100 and boom, it should automatically apply my promo code UATessa100 to any trip!
Accommodations
Hostel in Venice, Italy August 2023 — 6 girls per room
A newer booking option Ultimate Break has added is their three different trip types: essential, standard, and plus. I have done both essential and standard, with pretty much the same experience for both – you’ll stay in a mix of hotels and hostels with minimum 3-6 people sharing a room. Breakfast is usually included but beware it probably won’t be the breakfast style you may be used to in America. I realize some people get nervous when hostels are mentioned, but the nice thing about staying in them with Ultimate Break is that you’ll only be sharing a room with other travelers from your tour group, so it’s not like you’re sharing with complete strangers on different schedules and having to lock up your things each day. In my opinion, you still get the hotel vibes, just with more roommates. Sometimes the accommodations can be considered cramped, but I’m not traveling for the hotel and I’ve never been bothered by where I’ve stayed on an Ultimate Break trip. On these trips, you do have the option to pay extra for a 2 person or single room upgrade — they’ll be in the same hostels, but you won’t have to share. However, if you prefer staying in 4 & 5 star hotels, the plus trip type is probably a better fit for you. With the plus option, you pay a little more overall to stay in “nicer” hotel style accommodations and have only 2 people share a room throughout the entire trip. While I personally wouldn’t choose the plus option when given the choice, some trips are only available as plus, and I happen to have one of these booked for 2024, so I’ll update with my plus experience then.
Ultimate Break has over 120 trip options, so if you’re just looking to get out there for the first time without a specific destination in mind, it can be a bit overwhelming! So, how do you decide which trip is the best fit for you? First read the reviews, this sounds obvious, but I have been so enticed by a trip’s itinerary before that I just impulse booked it and was disappointed by some things that I could’ve avoided had I read the reviews. The most popular trips being advertised right on the home page are always going to have a larger travel group, like 40-50+ people. If you’re hoping for a more intimate group, try searching a little deeper for a more underrated destination - if it doesn’t have as many date offerings it’s usually less popular, but I guarantee it’ll be just as amazing! Certain trips also have more of a “party” theme to them, so be aware of this when booking if that’s not your travel style, because it could affect your travel experience. (This is specifically the kind of thing I look at reviews for) Summer trips are going to be more popular with college kids closer to the 18-year-old end of the age range, so if you are closer to 35 and would prefer traveling with a generally older, already-legal-in-America group, book your trip during spring or fall, while college would still be in session. Also note, some trips will have more free time than others – city trips, like London or Paris, are usually more open whereas others, like the Greek Islands or Costa Rica, have more activities pre-planned for you, I think mostly due to transportation options. Speaking of, if you do want to venture out on your own, and you’re visiting somewhere with public transportation, Ultimate Break will usually utilize it and cover your ticket for the entire length of your stay, so you can easily get around on your own at no extra cost, which I love! However, if you are visiting a more “off the grid” location, be prepared to pay extra for your own transportation outside of the group. I recently learned that each trip is marked with an “activity level” on the Ultimate Break website, and I have never once paid attention to these, but on my last trip some others complained that it was advertised as low activity, when it was in fact, not. I’d say you can expect almost every Ultimate Break trip to be at least somewhat high activity, while you may not be scaling a mountain, you will be walking. a lot. Rather than focus on what the badge may say, just read over the itinerary to determine what activity level you’d consider it to be.
Flights
As mentioned, you can include your flight purchase in the total cost of your trip, you’ll select the airport you want to depart from, and Ultimate Break will cover all the planning for you while the price is broken up into the automatic payment plan. I have personally had pretty good experiences with Ultimate Break booking my flights in the past, but some complaints others have had to be aware of are 1) too long layovers 2) too short layovers 3) unnecessary stops at additional airports 4) inconvenient seat assignments. Ultimate Break does not require that you book flights through them, so it’s completely up to you to make that choice. Despite this, I only opt to book my own flights if I have the chance to use my airline miles to cut the flight cost out altogether, and it will take off about $1,000-$1,200 of the Ultimate Break total, but otherwise I just prefer all of my expenses to be combined. When you do have Ultimate Break book your flight for you, you won’t get your flight itinerary until around 30 days before your departure date. The day that you get your confirmation number, go to that airline’s website, and make sure you have a rewards account with them, sign up for free if you don’t, and link that flight to your account so you can get earn the miles you’ll be flying! This way, you can also see the seat map and change your seats or even upgrade for an extra cost if you want to. Also, while it’s not guaranteed, airlines usually tend to be a bit more accommodating to their own rewards members. Although on the website Ultimate Break states that you’re responsible for your own hotel transfers if you book your own flights, you can usually contact your Tour Director (TD) and arrange to transfer with the rest of the group if you’re arriving around the same time as everyone else. With the Ultimate Break arranged group transfers, it is their policy that you may be waiting in the airport for up to 2 hours after you land, and in most of my experiences it has been at least this long. So just be aware of this, because after hours of travel and overnight flights, the waiting can be pretty brutal! Hopefully you'll be able to use this time to get acquainted with some of your tour-mates — first impressions are fun when everyone’s sleep deprived, hungry, and a little loopy!
Insurance
Quarantining in Athens, Greece May 2022
Ultimate Break offers travel protection you can add to any trip for $179, and while I’m normally someone who never pays for this, I highly recommend it in this case! 1) If you want to change your tour date or destination for any reason after booking, you can change it up to 3 times with travel protection, as long as you’re more than 60 days away from your departure date, otherwise you’ll have to pay an additional $50 fee for each change. I’ll admit, I’ve fallen victim to an impulse sale purchase before, and then been able to delay said trip after realizing that wasn’t the smartest decision a few days later. 2) Flights. Especially if you choose to book your flights through Ultimate Break, please add travel protection! I’ve personally known people who had their flights canceled on the day of with and without travel protection — for the friend who did purchase it, Ultimate Break handled her rebooking onto another flight while she was en route to the airport, and she only ended up being delayed a few hours. For the friend who didn’t purchase it, she had to rebook her own flight AND pay the difference + that flight was much later, so she missed the whole first day of the trip with no reimbursement. 3) Anything can happen while you’re abroad, if you happen to get sick or have a family emergency that causes you to change your trip, Ultimate Break will cover it. I’ve actually experienced this one firsthand while on the Greek Islands tour in 2022. At the time the U.S. was still requiring a negative Covid test to return home, so on our last day of tour the professionals came to take our official tests, and despite being asymptomatic, mine came back positive, meaning I wasn’t allowed to return home. I was pretty much devastated at the time and didn’t know what to do, but Ultimate Break booked me a new room to move to for the following 5 days, covered room service for all my meals, paid for the secondary Covid test, and then changed my flight. And for everything, what did I pay? $9 for the one alcoholic beverage I ordered, because Ultimate Break didn’t cover that lol (but they did cover the ice cream I ordered every day!) And 4) with travel protection, Ultimate Break will cover you if your luggage is delayed or lost by the airline or stolen while on tour.
Excursions
EF Ultimate Break Alpine Slide Excursion — $45
When you’re looking at the itineraries on Ultimate Break’s website, you’ll see optional excursions for an extra cost — Should you book these? Well, not right away at least! If it seems amazing to you, then yes you should book it! However, if you’re only feeling like booking because the option is there, then WAIT! These excursions are non-refundable once you add them to your trip, so you can’t change your mind and remove it later, but you CAN change your mind and add it if you didn’t book it initially. Most of the excursions, unless stated otherwise in the description, can be added even once you’ve already started your trip! On possibly every Ultimate Break trip I’ve been on, some people chose to add the excursions once meeting and seeing what everyone had booked. In addition to these excursions offered online pre-booking, once you’re on tour the TD will usually plan 3-4 excursions of their own that you can pay to participate in after the trip has started. These will never clash time wise with the pre-planned excursions, since the TD will be accompanying you on all of them, but sometimes these are the ones that are the most fun! On my past trips, these extra excursions have ranged from around $40 to $250, depending on how many you choose to do, so this is an extra cost to keep in mind when budgeting for your trip!
I am a planner by nature, and I know some people like booking with Ultimate Break because it means they don’t have to plan a thing, and that is true – if you have no interest in making your own plans, you can totally just show up and have a great time! BUT for the girlies like me, if you’re worried that booking with Ultimate Break won’t allow you enough of your own free time, here’s what I do: let them cover the boring stuff like flights, hotels, blah, blah, blah and then you can still plan out the fun stuff! Keep in mind that everyone on these trips is an adult, so don’t be afraid to make your own decisions! You’re never required to do anything planned by Ultimate Break or the TD, except probably just don’t miss the bus! I personally love things like the included walking tours, but if you’ve had it with the steps one day, you’re welcome to skip it, just let your TD know beforehand. I’ve also been on several trips where people end up opting out of a day’s activities, due to previous late nights. Just be aware that if you do skip something after you’ve already paid for your spot, you won’t be refunded.
Get Your Guide Neuschwanstein & Linderhof Castle Day Trip from Munich — $109.55
My #1 most important tip is that every trip is unique, so something you see an influencer post about online may not be guaranteed to be part of your trip if you leave all the planning to the TD… So, if you already know of or find something online that you absolutely want to do, make sure it’s on the Ultimate Break itinerary, and if not, plan your own excursions during your free day, so you don’t miss out on something that might’ve been the whole reason why you booked the trip! On nearly every EF trip (including Go Ahead) that I’ve done, I choose to book my own excursions in addition to a handful of those offered, so I can still make it my own trip! (I’m also an introvert, so it helps to have a few days to break away from the group and recharge with less people)
Budgeting
Girl Math is paying for your trip with the automatic payment plan, so by the time it comes around it’s actually free! But how much do you need for day to day on tour? Ultimate Break recommends $80-$100 per day to cover your expenses, and to that I say, you do you – you know your own spending habits. I’ve personally averaged much closer to $50 a day for food and the occasional souvenir on most of my trips, but I also know people who’ve spent thousands at Cartier in one day on an Ultimate Break tour, so to each their own! It is customary to tip your TD at the end of tour, and this is not included in the price you pay Ultimate Break up front, the standard is about $6 per day, depending on the length of your trip, paid in the local currency, but I’ve had several TDs accept PayPal as well. On my last few trips to Europe, I’ve been able to use my American Airlines travel credit card, since it has no foreign transaction fees, for a majority of my purchases and when necessary, I’d just pull some euros from an ATM. This way you can avoid fees for exchanging money beforehand or at the airport, just make sure that when you do need it, you’re only using bank ATMs for the most secure transaction. I know some people prefer to budget based on the amount of cash they physically have on them, so do what works best for you! I just think it’s a common first-time travel misconception that if you don’t bring enough cash from home that you’ll end up stuck with no way to access money if you run out, so don’t worry. I personally find using my card much more convenient, and I don’t feel the need to spend all my money just because I have it, I feel more thoughtful with my purchases this way!
Finally! I think this is the most comprehensive list possible of everything I wish I had known before my first trip with EF Ultimate Break! I really do love traveling with them, but I want to be as honest as possible, so you can have a realistic expectation of the company and of international travel in general. I hope these tips have helped you to prepare for your first trip or maybe even convinced you to book with Ultimate Break through my link! https://www.efultimatebreak.com/?ba=UATessa100 :) I love answering questions, so if you have any additional that I didn’t address in this post, I’d be happy to answer in the comments below!