Solo travel can be a bit scary and intimidating, especially in countries you’ve never been — but with EF Ultimate Break, it’s seamless and stress-free.

Before deciding to travel with EF Ultimate Break, I did a lot of research — many of the searches I did included questions like is “Is EF ultimate break worth it?”and “Is EF ultimate break legit?” After months of deliberation, I decided to go ahead and book my first. Two trips later, I’m ready to report back with my review of the experience I had traveling with EF Ultimate Break.

I’ll start by saying, it was more than worth it — and if you’re hesitating on whether or not it’s right for you, I urge you to go (and if you do go forth with it, after reading my experience, please enjoy a discount with code UAKENDALLD100).

The Grand Tour of Ireland was the first trip I chose (read more about it here). Not only did I not need to do any planning, but I was able to see everything I wanted with a group of new friends my age. Everything about this trip was so easy, fun and stress-free. Here’s what to expect on your EF Ultimate Tour.

Communication. In the weeks leading up, you’ll join a Facebook group where you’ll get to meet your fellow travelers and Tour Director - this certainly eases the nerves. They also provide location specific packing tips (I strictly followed their packing guide, and it was the perfect amount).

The Facebook group continued to serve as a place to communicate throughout the trip. My Tour Directors have created a Facebook Messenger -and WhatsApp - group chats for more immediate responses, as well.

Tour Director: Your tour director will act as a guide, not a babysitter. My guide in Ireland was there for our daily activities, gave us an introductory tour of each new city and was available to answer any questions. During after hours, we were able to go off on our own time - much of what we did was recommended by him.

I’m not sure if every tour director does this, but something I found very helpful was that ours would post a schedule each night for the following day - this made it easier to plan ahead what to wear and when to eat.

Sleeping arrangements: As someone who’s a bit more reserved and has never done solo-travel before, this is what I was most concerned about before booking my trip. In fact, I almost paid extra just to have a room all to myself - and that would have been a huge mistake.

You may not stay in the nicest places, and you’ll probably be packed in tight - but I think that’s the fun in it. It’ll give you a few funny stories, and tighter bonds with new people. Plus, you’re not meant to spend much time in the room anyway.

Each place you stay at will have different amounts of beds per room, and luckily you won’t be assigned your roommates ahead of time. The girls I roomed with are the ones I became friends with right away, so we stuck together for the entirety of the trip.

I highly suggest rooming with others. It forces you to grow outside of your comfort zone - that’s what travel is all about, right? And who knows, you might make some new life-long friends (I sure did).

Airline accommodations: I had heard to book separately from EF, because they may give you a bad layover or two - and maybe a middle seat - but that actually wasn’t my experience at all. I had great seats on all of my flights (aisle every time, thankfully) and my longest layover was five hours on the way home. Everyone flew through different airlines, but if you have one in mind, I think you can speak with a representative ahead of time - they should be able to work with you.

Excursions. Excursions are extra and optional. We had the option to book a few pricier ones ahead of time. However, our tour director gave us a few extra options once he got a feel for the group. Everyone opted to do them, and each one was worth while. And if you’re tour director recommends you do something, I highly suggest you do it - they truly know what they’re talking about, so I urge you not to miss out on any opportunity!

Spending. It was recommended that we bring $80-$100 per day to cover meals and souvenirs. I did exactly that and spent, not all of it, but most. I hardly bought a souvenir, but I did enjoy meals and several drinks. I definitely could’ve done fine spending less; but, when in Ireland, one may drink from morning until night, and I didn’t want to skimp on meals I may never get the chance to enjoy again. With that said, plan accordingly.

As far as converting currency, I pulled out euros ahead of time, but some in my group only used their cards. If you’re going to use your card it must have the chip reader. Only a few times did I actually need to pay in cash, so you may be fine using your card for the better half of the trip. Though you should make sure to have some for tipping purposes, if you have a bus driver or daily tour guides in addition to your TD.

Booking a trip with EF Tours was the most seamless travel experience I’ve yet had. These were the things I was most curious about when booking my trip. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I will do my best to answer. If you plan on booking with EF Ultimate Break, use code UAKENDALLD100 for $100 off of your trip. Happy travels!

EF Ultimate Break Experiences