Where to even begin? I'll start here: DO NOT TRAVEL WITH E.O. The prices may be attractive. Trust me, you get what you pay for. Wait. Strike that. Even that's not true. I paid for Travel Insurance. I'm still waiting for my reimbursement for "Travel Interruption." It's been five months. I've given this lots of thought. I'm not sure where the problem lies. Do they not have enough staff to keep things well organized? Do they have poor leadership? is the profit margin either too low or too high for them to care? Do they focus on mediocrity b/c many of their tours are run by pastors with low self-esteem issues so they are easily manipulated? Do they count on the travelers being just "good church folk" who have never traveled before and don't know how to judge the level of services? Do they count on the "headiness" of the experiences of actually being in a foreign country to "cover a multitude of sins"? Do they count on people like me who did not even think to check YELP or Better Business Bureau for reviews because, well, after all, it's a "Christian" organization? Dunno. Maybe all of the above. (I hate how cynical this makes me sound.) I've traveled twice with EO. My first experience was in Egypt which was one of the first trips after COVID. I was willing to look the other way on a lot of the issues b/c, well, I figured everyone was getting reorganized after being out of commission for three years. Maybe. My second trip proved me wrong. My second trip was 5 months ago in Greece. The land portion of the trip was a solid B. The air transport was AWFUL - I was not allowed to upgrade much less book my own transportation - but the tour guide was knowledgeable, articulate, and well-organized. It was the "island extension" that was a total and complete nightmare. They had overbooked. Again. We were later told this had been happening "all summer and EO knew". So, we were placed on an inferior ... "tub". We learned that it had been used by W.H.O. several times to house refugees after major disasters. And, it looked it. It was old and smelled/reeked of petrol. There was mold in the shower and toilet. The carpeting was terribly water-stained. The food was nicely presented but tasted bland. The coffee was dishwater. The staff were, for the most part, surly and rude and, I think, weary of all the complaints which they knew were true and there was nothing they could do to help or change things. We missed visiting two islands because . . . well, who knows? We were given at least four different explanations. Check that: "excuses". I documented everything with pictures and submitted them to EO. FINALLY, after four or five exchanges, it was agreed that I qualified for "trip interruption" insurance. Filing for that has been a complete nightmare. Absolutely NO help or coordination from EO. It's been five months. Still no reimbursement. I'm not holding my breath. But, also not. recommending EO to anyone. My church just posted an EO advert in our national newsletter. I wrote IMMEDIATELY. They are investigating. I'm quite certain that the advertising account will be pulled. I could say more, but I'll stop here. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I am a Christian. I am ordained. This company is an embarrassment to everything good and true and noble about my religion. read more

I had the privilege to travel on pilgrimage with Educational Opportunities. Amazing experience. Grew deeper in the faith and with relationship with those in my church. Plan to travel again with Educational Opportunities. read more

I did a 10 day holy land tour in Israel. The biggest problem I had was the food and I finally complained on day five because it was just so bad. I was actually losing weight every day. I lost 5 pounds in five days because I was refused to eat the horrible food it was buffet in the morning buffet for dinner and then they would take you to lunch during tour. Some places were just OK but others were just horrible and the problem is there's like no decision made it is you are served what you are served and that is that. And then it's 8 to 10 hours on a bus every single day. Way too long at sites and so most of the time you're just sitting on the bus waiting for everybody else 0 luxuries in anyway I booked this through my Travel Agent. She knows I'm super bougie. I just couldn't even believe that I was even on this tour and then they take you to places that are Christian and you've got people begging you to buy their souvenirs and stuff and then they take you to a place that does like wood carving And they pretty much shut the door on you and sit there and stare at you like why are you not buying all of our stuff we need your money. I wanted to go on a tour of where Jesus was not go into shops and be forced to stay there for an hour and a half pressured into buying. Knowing what I know now I would've gotten all private tours and I could've done the 10 day tour in probably five days and eaten good food or at least had an option to place an order of what I want instead of being told this is my only option I have traveled a ton. This was the worst experience I've ever had in my life for food And just felt like torture on the bus all day. I finally said to them on like day three I was like I can't do this 8 to 10 hours a day on the bus. Can I just get a taxi and go back to the hotel like halfway through and he's like well no we're too far away. It would be like an hour and a half back 8 to 10 hours a day on vacation. It's just too much they need to give you better time in between more resting time I would come back to the room at the end of the day starving overheated miserable, and they would say OK you have to eat in the next hour or they're gonna shut it down and so I wouldn't even eat not that I even wanted to because the food was so bad but because I was so tired and exhausted and hungry I had to shower before I would even go eat because you're sitting on that bus all day. read more

I just returned from Journeys of Paul in Greece tour. It was packeted full with sites at least 2 a day with a 3 day cruise to the islands as well. The tour guides and bus drivers were awesome. If they had a problem we were unaware of it as they worked around and through it. So many buses and tours going on at the same time. One site we saw over 20 buses loading and unloading tours. The people of Greece are so gracious. I would have given 5 stars but some lunch stops had over 15 buses and one we were there for 2 hours and the food was cold. Maybe they could find a family lunch stops for just our bus, it would be make the experience more memorable. read more

Booked a tour to Israel earlier this year for January 2024 (March timeframe). Paid in full. Then the war broke out in Israel. My group decided to postpone the trip until next year. I decided to just cancel, and rebook later. I requested a refund on November 1st. According to EO, it takes "6 to 8 weeks" to process the refund. Contacted the one email address they provided multiple times to request the status of my refund to hear the same thing "6 to 8 weeks." Which, really, is unbelievable considering there is a war on and they (EO) were going to be forced to cancel trips to Israel anyway. So here I am on week 7 of waiting (while EO has had my full payment since April or May) and EO says "It looks like our accounting department has started working on it" and it would be 1-2 more weeks..... I hope EO put my money to good use while they had it, goodness knows I sure could have used it back quicker than this. They may provide a good tour, I don't know. But their customer service and accounting departments leave a lot to be desired. Will NEVER consider travelling with them. read more

TERRIBLE TOUR COMPANY. Disorganized and unresponsive when to dissatisfied customers. They blamed people on "the other end". Isn't that why you have a travel agent.. so they can watch out for you during the entire trip? The return flight time was horrendous. Our flight for the U.S. left France at 6:30 a.m. Our hotel was 2.5 hours from the airport. This meant that there was no point in going to sleep the night before, because we had to leave our hotel at 1:00 a.m. This just made our already long flight home a lot longer! More than once, flight delays caused short connection times. and we had to run to our gates. I was with a group of 21. Most of us our senior citizens. This was a holy pilgrimage but our tour guide told us she didn't know much about our religion??!! I'll never use them again. read more

Due to the situation in Israel our church group tour to the HolyLands was first postponed one year then cancelled. EO held $215 per person as a cancellation fee ( rather than $100 which is what we were originally told). Additionally the refund will take 4-6 weeks! EO was not cooperative and their representatives apparently not well trained in dealing with the details of the situation. I won't travel with them again. read more

Bad Tour Company. Avoid at all cost. We went to a Marian Pilgrimage this Oct 2024 and had a horrible experience with the group of young tour guides who handled our tour from portugal, spain and france. From Day 1 from the airport we waited almost 2hrs for the bus to arrive. The Main tour guide girl was also late to arrive. Another main point I have to emphasize is when we were dropped off at Fatima, it rained so hard and we had to walk 20mins to go our hotel. Not sure why the bus did not even drop us off to a closer distance. This event had led to one elderly to catch pneumonia! Horrible planning i think for whoever is in charge. The tour guides did not take accountability when discussed their lack of but instead blamed EO itinerary for being "unrealistic". Our point, if it was unrealistic why take the contract? Or why not tell EO that this itinerary is impossible? Not to mention the Hotel issues and not being able to follow the schedule due to delays. Bottomline: Bad planning or no planning at all and poor communication within tour guides and bus drivers. No accountability. Disorganized tour guides. read more

Most recent trip was terrible. Very disappointing as I had invested quite a bit and although I know the owner of this company did not have anything to do with the planning of this trip, the person who was involved dropped the ball so badly I don't think we can ever go back. Waiting to hear what the owner plans to do to make up for our terrible experience. read more

We were often left without our tour guide who was not familiar with the areas we visited. Definitely not organized. Did not have meal times until late! Wrong check-in numbers for flights. Over priced and would like refund. Do NOT recommend EO Tours. The guide would tell us "see the mountains over there and cows over there". Nothing we couldn't figure out. And talked incessantly about nothing informative on the bus for hours. read more

This company is only good for church groups. please don't book as individuals. any positive review you see will be from a pastor or someone directly connected with one. after purchasing insurance, we were denied any refund when my elderly father fell I'll. we even had doctor's notes. in addition, one in our party (the other elderly) has since passed away. we were issued vouchers but no refund or transfer of voucher for the person who passed. SO, my father and I used our vouchers so that at least $22,000 of the $42,0000 that we had spent would not go to waste. To say that the trip was a disaster is an understatement. the speaker cancelled, we were never notified and my father was not up to the trip. we had to disembark in Quebec because he kept falling. it is impossible to get in touch with anyone at EO and they will ignore your e mails. only the preachers like this company...their trips are free. please do NOT book with this company read more

Booked a tour to Israel with them and of course had to cancel. They then changed the trip completly and WILL NOT REFUND the entire amount of the trip. I wish I had never heard of this company DO NOT use them you will be scammed out of money. read more

I would give zero stars if I could! I gave E0 an opportunity for feedback and after several days of no response, I will di it here. This soon after/during Covid(it is STILL WITH US) is not the time to crowd a bus with 45 people when the assumption of the travelers was that the group would be 17 ! nothing in the documents said this many people would be on the trip. To make matters worse a second bus with 45 people followed us around so when we disembarked from said bus it was a total of 85+ people. If you think you're going to be catered to with this many people, think again! There was no adequate way to create safe space between any of us and we drove six hours from Austria to Italy in a bus with no windows open. You can imagine what happened next. Within 48 hours everyone was coughing. One elderly gentleman ) Was hospitalized in Italy for 48 hours with Covid. Upon return to the US several people tested positive and one had to miss work for a week. That's the short story. Our guide was in a word terrible. We had several handicapped people in our group and by handicapped I mean walked a lot slower than everyone else, for various reasons that I don't need to get into here. Said People started to complain about the amount of walking, and her response was this is a tour there's going to be walking. I do happen to side with her on that one. If you can't get around in a normal fashion you need to pick a tour that is extremely small and accommodating for handicapped persons. Instead this small group of people held everyone back. However that did not give her the right to shame them for their slowness which she did several times. In every area the tour guides discussion on the area was anecdotal at best and not helpful in the least and not informative. This is an educational tour and we did not get educated. The best tour guides were the local ones . Unfortunately one would think that with 40+ people that our guide would stay with us at least to help bring up the rear. For the local guyThis did not happen. She dumped us off at every spot. She was late picking us up at every spot. It was a red flag the very first day when we missed the glockenspiel in Munich without an apology she said 'oh well we missed it 'many of us really wanted to see that and probably won't get to Munich again . We arrived in the Munich airport at a little after 10 - the glockenspiel goes off at noon that gave us about two hours but since she was so late and spent so much time cramming the bus full of people that we had no idea were going to be on there we missed it. She then dumped us off in Munich and went her Merry way and told us to have fun. No apology for us missing it. This pretty much happened in every place we went. While in Venice she was once again late picking us up -we rushed through the town and half of the group got left behind because she refused to carry an umbrella or a flag or something so we could see her. So she lost us, But blamed us for getting lost. Not once did she ever stop or turn around and make sure that her group was following her in crowded areas. So we missed our gondola ride. I think she could tell that there was going to be an uprising so she begged the gondola man to take us an hour later. I could continue on this vein but let me get onto some other things. The food, was relatively good in a few places like Germany and Austria. However once we got to Italy I guess they thought Americans like to eat Thanksgiving dinner every night -we had several nights what looked to be like TV dinners chicken and mashed potatoes, turkey and some vegetables. I would think and I had hoped that we would Get good Italian food but the only good Italian food was at restaurants that we had to pay for. DO NOT BOOK with THIS company!!!! Once you have been on your tour, they will NOT answer emails, OR allow you to evaluate. How will they improve?? They DON't Care!! read more

Update from a previous review. EO Tours made an adjustment and refunded the majority of our extension that got cancelled due to COVID, which I appreciate very much. We are thankful for EO tours for working on this and giving us this refund. read more

Don't know where to begin. Can one leave "negative" stars? Every poor review you read here is accurate. Better yet, visit the Better Business Bureau posts---those will also give you a very accurate snapshot-- every complaint there receives not an apologetic response, but a defensive and at times, completely unsympathetic response from EO. Signing up is great--but once you have paid, "ghosting" is common business practice here. Unorganized, unsympathetic, non-communative, defensive and aside from one or two staff-- quite unprofessional. Do all of these traits align with a company that promotes itself as a "Christian" tour operator? Traveled with a few friends, and we basically all agreed we would never use EO again. If they do not turn their ship around, I suspect they will be out of business within a year.... read more

if you are looking for a tour company that helps when things go wrong, this is not the one. they are good at taking your money but not customer service. be sure to book your own flight. they wait until 8 days out to book flights. no opportunity for seat upgrades at that point. we asked months ahead about seat upgrades and assured we would have them if requested. I followed up weekly. no response until after the seats were booked and then no response from EO after that. they also will not help with lost bags or rebooking of flights. read more

This company urges clients to buy travel insurance from,TripMate My trip was delayed due to s severe snowstorm. They only refunded half my money, stating they were not responsible for airfare, even though EO sells you on their insurance. EO would not return my calls, stated they were not the insurance company. Wouldn't help at all. Once they get your money, watch out. A bunch of wolves in sheep clothing!So disappointed with the level of help. Never will use again!!! read more

Horrible customer service. My in laws used this agency to travel from the US to Holy Land, and their flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues. Not the agencies fault but of course their flight route was changed and their luggage was lost for a week. They were sent to Jerusalem via Germany and had NO luggage other than what they were wearing. It was SNOWING on the ground in Germany, and while there overnight, my MIL only had FLIP FLOPS and a cardigan! Fast forward, they finally arrive to Jerusalem and the luggage comes a week later. ALL my in laws need from EO Tours is a simple statement proving when they delivered the luggage for their insurance claim and EO won't provide that to them. All of the agents and customer service reps ignore their requests, and some even go as far to deny them by saying no! What kind of nonsense is that?! Your responsibility to paying customers doesn't end once they return if something like this happens. They paid for a hassle-free service and your company has RUINED this unique, Holy, and beautiful experience and turned it into a headache and a nightmare. Please do better and provide them with the statement they need to close this chapter. You know, people work really HARD for their money and when paying for a service it'd be nice to receive kindness and professionalism. However, Educational Opportunities has done none of that. Stop with the hassle! I will never approve my senior in-laws, or anyone for that matter, to use you all again. -1 out of 5 stars. BEWARE of this agency! If something where to go wrong, out of your hands, they will literally leave you stranded, alone, and without the resources you need to make things right and be comfortable! A legit shame. UPDATE: they made it right. And gave us the letter. read more

I took a Holy Land Tour with an extension to Petra Nov 2022. The ONLY good part of the trip was our excellent guide in Israel - he was extremely knowledgeable, kind, organized, and always let us know what to expect each day. The EO travel arrangements were horrible! It should NOT have taken 2 full days to get from Tampa to Tel-Aviv. After flying with not much sleep, we had a 5:30 am wake-up-call, 6:30 breakfast and 7:30 on the bus every day for two weeks - we were all exhausted and several people got sick with COVID and Influenza B. Only one person was able to get help from EO to get a nurse who charged $50 for a COVID test. I was told by the local EO agent NOT to take a home test and just to keep on going. I paid for a test anyway against EO advise. At least I was negative. All the hotels (except for the first night which was excellent, but we had NO time there) were middle of the road - all had various problems with showers, AC, doors that wouldn't stay closed, lots of tour buses, bland food that was the same every day. Although the brochure said we were "on our own" for lunch each day, that only meant we had to pay extra for lunch, but the places we ate at were selected by EO and catered to tour buses. Not great food overall. For the group going on the Petra extension, once our wonderful tour guide left us to take the rest of the tour back to the airport, we were left on our own with little to no instructions on what to do. The trip into Jordan went fine with our driver helping to handle the border crossing. The extension was billed as a "Petra" trip, but we were rushed down into Petra - walking down the hill to the Treasury, given 20 minutes to "ride a camel" then herded onto a golf cart to return to the top. We never got to see any of the other Petra sights! We were taken to other sights in Jordan, but the main attraction was to be Petra where we only got a few hours. At the end of our Jordan visit, our guide left us and luggage at the border crossing with no instructions as to what to do! We were totally on our own in pushing crowds and guards speaking a foreign language. Our guide had watched me purchase 3 letter openers at his "cousin's" store (one of the places he took us to shop) and never warned me that it would cause problems at the border. I and my luggage were detained at the border for 2 hours with no help from EO - they never even answered their emergency phone number! After finally making it through there was a bus waiting for us on the other side, and he brought us back to Jerusalem for dinner, then on to a hotel in Tel-Aviv for a few hours sleep. The hotel in Tel-Aviv was attached to a hospital (not at the airport, but not far) and our driver had no further instructions. We were on our own to check into the hotel, get up, find something for breakfast (coffee only available at hotel) and get to the airport. Thank goodness the hotel had an airport shuttle that ran every hour. We were also never given any instructions or advise on getting around the airports or going through customs. On one leg of our international journey we had only 1.5 hours between flights on two different airlines that used two different terminals! I will NEVER take another EO tour again. read more

Went on a tour with EO with in a group to the Holy Land. Accommodations were good, but the tour guide was not knowledgeable about sites or history of locations we were visiting. He could not answer basic questions about the area. We were suppose to go to Rome on an extension trip with others. When this was cancelled because of COVID-19 we were given the option of going to Greece for a day or going straight home. We opted to go straight home. Out of $2,000 paid for the extension for two people, only $300 was given back - even though those who went to Greece (who needed hotel accommodations, tour guide, meals, and an additional flight) were given back close to $1,000 (which is about we would have expected to get back, given the circumstances). read more

Our group received the final itinerary 2 calendar says before departure. One group missed their initial flight because of mechanical problems and they could not re-arrange the schedule to minimize the loss of tours and activities. The final itinerary was incorrect and was only after personally checking with the airline that found out my itinerary had changed. Was never notified by the agency and neither did the other 26 persons in the group. Tours and activities were good but travel was not good. read more

We went on a church sponsored trip to the Holy Lands and Egypt. We had some serious problems with the tour and generally poor customer service. Wrote a letter to the president of the company asking for a response after emailing customer service. Got no response from the president or anyone else. I then filed a formal complaint with the Florida Department of Consumer Services that handles travel agency complaints. Just heard from the State office. They have indicated that they have formally written the company now twice with no response. Bottom line be very careful giving your money to these folks. They present a wonderful story...Church based... but don't deliver what they say...even worse they don't stand behind their work. read more

Best group travel company. They take good care of you. They dot every "I" and cross every "T" to be sure you have the trip of a lifetime.

BEWARE with this Travel company. We were scheduled to travel and had most trip paired off. We only owed the last and final payment. Unfortunately , my husband and I had a last minute emergency so we had to cancel a Month 1/2 before the trip. They said they would charge us a 40% penalty. So we figured they would keep $1200 total. But no , they tricked us to believe it was 40% of what we had already paid but iNo it was 40% of the cost of the entire trip. So they basically kept $2750. !!!!!! and only returned $125.each for me and my husband , UNBELIEVABLE !!!! BAD company . Will not travel with this company ever ! read more

Unfortunately, the amount of space allocated for this review is too small to copy the entirety of the 4-page letter that I sent to EO CEO James Ridgway yesterday. The themes explored in the letter included: - False advertising - Substandard accommodations - Invasive and inappropriate behavior from the tour guide and one of the ministers - Lack of integrity by one of the ministers I am posting this online to protect others from this sort of experience with EO. read more

Folks. Please look at the recent comments below. 100% agree that EO has the worst customer service and this has been by far the worst experience of any company I have ever dealt with. Don't let their misinformation about wanting you to have a Christian experience fool you in thinking they are a Christian organization. They are not. They will not return phone calls or emails or refunds. The CEO or any of the senior staff will not reach out to you. In fact, they do not even list their contact information on their website to reach them. Another testament to their lack of caring and their lack of ethics. Since most companies care about their reputation, they usually respond to negative comments on sites like Yelp or Facebook. Do you see any rebuttals to the comments made earlier?? Nope. They don't care. USE ANOTHER TRAVEL AGENCY!!! BUYERS BEWARE!!! read more

Received call from Xavier 5 days ago promising refund of $436. Have not received refund............... read more

Have taken two tours with EOT - one to Holy Land (February 2016), and one on Mediterranean cruise including Italy, Greece, Malta, etc. (October 2017). Management of all aspects of trip by EOT was outstanding in spite of the large numbers on each tour. Customer service also exceptional. Craig L. read more

I have travelled with EO many times since the late 1980's. This organization has made a difference in our personal lives and in the life of our church. On trips to the Holy Land, cruises with Lands of the Bible and Travels of Paul, church members returned with renewed commitment to the local church. Guides were outstanding. read more

I would not recommend this tour to anyone. First of all, they couldn't keep it straight that we were a mother and daughter traveling together -- kept getting called Mr. and Mrs. (uh, no). Then: We were told that we could get upgraded seating. The first attempt to get first class seating resulted in a price of $6,000 PER PERSON and did not include the trip to New York. A second attempt at a downgraded seating policy via Premium Economy was quoted to us at a price of $1600. This did not include the trip to New York. At the group tour meeting, we also heard from others that they were initially told different price estimates for upgrades (with prices ranging from $600 to $1450 for seating upgrades) but in the end, all of us were given the $1600 option. Another member of the group was told that upgrading would mean that the tour would revoke the reduced cost of the flight to New York. (Neither of us were told this information when we inquired into upgrades). Checking El Al's website for estimated cost increments, which I did both before and after we asked for the seat upgrades, shows the chart above, which can be found here: https://www.elal.com/en/PassengersInfo/Uniqe-Services/Pages/Upgrade-to-Premiun-Classes.aspx Poor customer service from EO also resulted in delayed inquiries to flight information. To date, we still do not have the dates and times of the flights. Those given at last night's meeting, and cited as tentative information, indicated a total travel time of 25 - 27 hours to get from Tampa to Israel (a 10 a.m. flight to New York, layover, a flight leaving New York at 6:45 and arriving in Israel at noon [calculating that Israel is 7 hours ahead of us, that would equate to 7 PM Florida time]). The return flight is scheduled to leave Israel at 1 a.m. and would return us to Tampa at 3:30 PM. Financial costs continued to fluctuate. The company attempted to revoke our discounted flights due to a $1 difference in a paid cost (credit card versus check). It took three phone calls to settle this as we had no idea why we were getting an additional bill after we had paid the account. It was eventually settled via the accounting department. Uneven distribution of information -- My mother got more emails than I did on this trip. She saw details and had emails that I never got. All of this is extremely unsatisfactory. This poor customer service is truly appalling. In doing some research, I discovered that Educational Opportunities is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, has an F rating from them, and has a rating of 1.3 of 5 stars. Though there are five entries, 4 are customer complaints similar to our own. Yelp.com also showed 4 complaint reviews involving poor customer service and questions about cost and refunds, with a rating of 2 of 5 stars. There was one complaint listed on Peopleclaim.com. Of the Facebook review page there are 55 reviews, 15 of which are 4 stars or less. Of those with the poorer ratings, they also cited lack of customer service. By the time all of this was revealed, we were at the 40% deadline. We lost considerable amounts of money -- and I have no idea how they came up with the refund amount. Do NOT bother with the travel insurance. It's a scam. You can only put in to get vouchers to travel within the next year -- otherwise, you'd best be in the hospital with long term issues. AND they don't tell you that they take fees out of the initial payments, either. On top of that, the tour doesn't cover items that should already be in place -- tips to the tour bus driver and tour guide. Additionally, any events (such as dinner with a Palestinian family) request additional gifts of cash per person. This just seemed to be a trip for our money, not a spiritual journey. read more

I book the tour to the Holy Land with Adriatic Pilgrimages, which at that point was merged with EO Tours, and it has been a nightmare since then. First, since, we were extending our tour for two extra days, (requested from the beginning), no one notified us if this was done, and only after repeated phone calls. The wait time for the phone to be answered is between 20 to 30 minutes. We were passed on to one agent after another. I did not get my trip confirmation until a week before departure, and only after, again, making phone calls. They had mailed my documents to the host of the pilgrimage without notifying me, and since I do not see that lady at all, I would not have gotten my documents until the actual departure. I would have been ignorant of the details of my trip. Needless to say, I DO NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE BOOKING ANY TRIP WITH THIS COMPANY. It is not worth the aggravation. read more

My 77 year-old mother and I were on a trip to Jordan. We asked for upgraded air travel. At first they said it was not available. When I said I was finding all kinds of first and business class seating, low and behold, they stumbled onto some. We paid. When we received our tickets, they had only upgraded us on 3 of the six flights. Thinking maybe these other flights didn't have upgraded cabins, I called the airlines. There were upgraded seat available, but the agency had not upgraded us after we paid. Our return flight was cancelled and when I called EO they said, "it's the airlines responsibility to get you home. We can't rebook you on another airline." There service was beyond poor but worst of all I found them to be dishonest and rude. These are not trustworthy people. Do not put yourself or your loved ones in a position to be abandoned in a foreign country because EO certainly won't help get you home. read more

I just returned from a trip to the Holy Land. After much thought I cannot think of any portion of the administrative side that EO did correct. Their billing was incorrect each time. On numerous occasions I would get a bill one day and a corrected bill the next, and most of the time the corrected bill was still wrong. When I would call their main number, I would get a different answer every time I called. When I would ask about flights, I couldn't get a straight answer on when they would be purchased. On two occasions they had me leaving from a different city and I had to correct them. When they finally did purchase tickets, it cost me more than double what I could have found online and since it took them so long to book the flights, I had no choice but to accept the price. They also wanted payment immediately so that they wouldn't lose the seat. When I say immediate, I mean on the phone right then, I don't know what I would have done if I wouldn't have had a PayPal account already set up because I would not have trusted them with my credit card information. In terms of the flight themselves, the amount of time they had between flights was unrealistic. There was no way I would make those connections - and I didn't. My final packet had me leaving a day AFTER everyone else. When I called them in a state of panic, they had no idea what I was talking about. I truly think that they thought I was leaving on a different day. When my flight to Newark was cancelled, they had no idea that it happened and was not able to assist me. I just called the airlines group department myself. When that airline department stated that more flights were going to be cancelled and to get to the airport quickly to get on an earlier flight, EO stated that their information didn't match that. It turns out that more flights were cancelled and/or delayed. On our return flight the EO representative left the airport before we even got checked in. Lastly, I learned while we were there that EO was having a company meeting in Jerusalem. I got to meet one of their Area Directors. She explained that they were experiencing tremendous growth and that they have a lot of new people. I explained all of the errors that occurred. She wrote my name down and said that she would follow up. She never did. I also filled out their survey and stated that they could reach me to get more detail and no one followed up. The tour guide and bus drive on the other hand were phenomenal. The bus driver was more skilled than anyone I have ever seen. The tour guide was awesome beyond words. He was full of joy at every moment of every day. His love for Jesus was evident in every part of him. His knowledge of the area, the sites and their history were incredible. I wish I would have thought of recording everything so that I could go back and listen to it later. It was evident that he was doing God's will in his work. There were over 50 people on the bus and that is a big responsibility. He handled everything beautifully. Word of caution - even those that were fit were tired at the end of the day. There is a lot of uneven walking and a lot of stairs. A lot of the stairs were uneven and around curves as well. I averaged 10,000 steps a day and typically 6 flights of stairs. There is a lot of standing as well. Before I left, I was doing that much without any issues. I can't explain what is different, just that it is. Someone on the tour had a cane that had a seat. If you have any doubt, you may want to bring one of those as well. The hotels were fair. They didn't like giving you washcloths and we had to request them at both hotels on numerous occasions. The food was fair. I never did get sick, which was something that I feared, so the food was safely prepared. I only drank bottled water. They were $1/each. Lunches (unless you do the Masada tour) were extra. Every place was fun to go to. The restaurant on the Sea of Galilee was my favorite. Definitely do the fish! It's worth it. I always felt safe, even in Bethlehem. I did fall when I was there. A representative from EO took me and my roommate to the drug store to get supplies. He handled the situation well and really went above and beyond for me. Overall it was a trip of a lifetime that was on my bucket list for many decades. The reality of where I was is still sinking in. However, even with all of these positives, I will NEVER travel with EO again. Their processes and knowledge that their team has is the poorest I have seen at any business. The stress that incurred due to their stupidity was more than can be expressed in this review. Nothing could make up for it. The fact that the company knew about the issues and did little, if anything to intervene, only made the errors that much worse in my mind. Reading other reviews, I can see that I am not alone in my complaints. For anyone thinking about doing a tour with EO, I would really think about that. read more

I have gone on two tours with EO. One cruise+land tour of Paul's second missionary journey, and one Israel only land tour. It went pretty well. Nothing went wrong and I saw and learned what I wanted, more than I thought even, and am going on a third EO tour later this year. I went on an ITT tour to Israel and it was about the same as EO, even a little more expensive than EO. I recommended EO to my family without any mental reservation. read more

I just returned from a 10-day tour of the Holy Land with a group of 39 people from the Central IL area. EO was in charge of all travel arrangements and it was truly outstanding. I have 20 years of group travel leadership and it is refreshing to find a company who 100% stands behind what they promise. This was even after a 4-day delay due to the blizzard in Newark, and they even made all the new arrangements! read more

Horrible customer service experience! Warning all churches - Do not use them! Haven't even gone on the trip yet, but can't cancel our trips due to huge penalties! This was going to be a wonderful Holy Land trip with our church, but it's starting out terribly. No Christian compassion here and bad business practices. #unhappychristianseniors read more