<p>I forgot to add that these companies often contact middle school and high school teachers and offer them a free trip if they can get enough students/parents,etc to sign up. You can probably ask just about any high school teacher about this and they will most likely confirm it. The problem this created for us is that our teacher was put in a compromising position and he would not stand up for us when we were complaining about the breakfast and no heat, and neither would our Polish guy. They both were more concerned about making Explorica happy than our health or safety.
Our school did a tour several years ago with EF, and it is interesting that Explorica was started by former EF employees and they compete directly with them. I did not hear good things about EF either. Lousy hotels, hardly any food. Some of the kids were on limited budgets and all of them told me they just went hungry as they had very little money or availability to buy any food on their own.
I am waiting until my D graduates in a couple of weeks and then plan on meeting with our headmaster about these practices by these companies and how our children’s safety and health were compromised over and over again. It will do no good to complain to the disreputable company, but if I can prevent other families from being treated this badly in the future at our school then I will be very happy.</p>