EF Gap Semester in Europe (The Pathfinder)

The TLDR of my review is it was ultimately worth it because of the experience I had and how much I grew. It opened me up to the possibilities that I hadn't realized were within my grasp.

However, the financial cost was somewhat unexpected as we were encouraged to pay for multiple activities in addition to the trip. I hope in future programs they will be more transparent with this in the future.

While I was with a host family in France, my initial first experience with the family was disheartening to say the least. With my second host family, I really was able to enjoy myself. I was not the only student who had a negative initial experience with the host family.

As for my internship, I was so grateful for what I got. I still keep in contact with my boss and made some great memories while in Stockholm. This is not necessarily something that I thing EF needs to do, but I wish that I had been told that there were so many career opportunities while in Stockholm because I feel some regret after for not having taken advantage of that while there.

I traveled Europe because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. While I was in Europe I found myself and who I wanted to become. I shed my ego and my worries and became someone who wanted to embrace change and help others along this crazy journey we call life. EF gave me that opportunity and also gave me the opportunity to make friends for life. I will be forever grateful for being naive because I am now the person I am to today because of it. I will always be grateful to EF, for ever.

I was so worried about college and my next steps in life after I graduated high school in 2022. I decided I wanted to take a gap year and see where life takes me. In the fall of my gap year, I found EF’s website and fell in love. I decided on the European discovery since I always wanted to go to Europe especially France and Italy! I worked and saved the next few months and in April of 2023, I finally flew to London and met my fellow travelers. And I can’t put into words how amazing it was. I had a great group and tour leaders who made the experience so much better! I felt supported 24/7. It was affordable with insurance plans, a phone bill plan and great hotel/hostel accommodations! I felt safe at all times. We had amazing dinner reservations, wonderful tour guides in the cities we were at and special activities such a cheese factory, a cooking class and more!
I will be returning to EF on my next trip!

I attended the EF Gap finder as a fresh college graduate and this program was everything I could've wished it could be. Although many of my fellow travelers were recent high school graduates, we all came from many different walks of life. This program was perfectly structured to ensure we saw the many highlights that the various European cities had to offer. From seeing the Northern Lights, to taking a cruise along the Seine river overlooking the Eiffel Tower, to tasting authentic Parmesan cheese in the Parma Region of Italy it was perfect. Not only did I learn so much about all of these amazing places, I made incredible lifelong friends who I continue to keep in touch with and am making plans to see again very soon. EF took care of everything so I could sit back and enjoy my trip knowing that everything would be taken care of. The trip was a perfect combination of structured activities and free days, in which you can spend how you choose, which included for me a trip to Stonehenge and a day trip to Dresden in Germany. I would absolutely recommend this trip to anyone wanting to travel, even if they had no real prior travel experience. I would relive my gap semester again in a heartbeat.

Overall pretty good! Not the best choices with food, not a lot of variety, but other than that, everything was pretty good! Loved being able to actually go out drinking and have fun with friends, the tours were amazing, loved walking around the cities and learning about the history. The hostels we were in were pretty decent, of course theyre hostels so they're not going to be five star, but they got the job done. Great chance to make friends cus you'll be rooming with different people, its all really fun.