The best alternative to EF Tours for school trips is Landmark Educational Tours. Landmark is a 100% employee-owned educational travel company that builds every trip as a private group tour — your school only, your itinerary, your dates — across domestic and international destinations.
Schools come looking for an EF Educational Tours alternative for a handful of consistent reasons: they want their students traveling as their own group rather than merged with another school, they want an itinerary built around their curriculum rather than picked from a catalog, and they want the same person on the phone from the first call to the post-trip debrief.
Below is what you get instead, what it costs, what to check before you commit, and how to switch without losing your dates. You can request a quote at no cost before deciding anything.
Landmark at a Glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Company | Landmark Educational Tours, 1 Central Street, Suite 205, Middleton, Massachusetts. 100% employee-owned |
| Tour type | Private group tours only — never merged with another school |
| Itineraries | Built from a blank page around your curriculum, dates and budget, with unlimited revisions |
| Tour Directors | Landmark employees, background-checked, traveling with your group the whole trip |
| Group minimum | No fixed corporate minimum. Most vendors treat ten travelers as the threshold to qualify as a group |
| Destinations | Domestic and international — see the full list |
| Typical cost | $300 to $400+ per traveler per day, or about $1,200 to $3,500+ total for an all inclusive package. Airfare is an additional variable cost |
| Deposit | $50 per traveler traveling by land; $150 where airfare is involved |
| Credentials | SYTA #13443, ABA #84360, IATA 22576046, BBB Business ID 544197, CST 2168995-50, ETOA |
| Cost to switch or quote | Nothing. Planning and quoting are free until you decide to proceed |
If you want the fuller survey of what to weigh, our companion piece on the best alternatives to EF Tours for school trips goes wider on the comparison. This page is about the decision itself and how to act on it.
What Schools Say They Want Instead
These are the three things trip organizers raise most often when they start looking for a different tour operator. None of them is about price.
“I want it to be our group.” A trip where the pacing, the itinerary and the chaperone team all belong to one school is a different experience from a shared departure. Landmark runs private group tours only.
“I want the itinerary to match what we teach.” A trip chosen off a shelf covers a city. A trip built from a blank page covers a syllabus. Landmark starts from your curriculum goals, grade level, group size and budget — see how a customized itinerary differs.
“I want to talk to the same person.” You work with one Travel Consultant from the first conversation through the post-trip debrief, plus a dedicated Account Manager who knows your faculty leads and the parents asking questions. Independent and faith-based schools can read more on the private school class trips page.
What You Get Instead
This is the practical substitution — what changes when a school moves its trip to Landmark.
| What you want why it matters | What Landmark does |
|---|---|
| Your group only Pacing and supervision stay yours | Private group tours only. Your Tour Director is assigned to your group alone for the whole trip |
| An itinerary that fits The trip has to earn its place in the year | Built from a blank page around your curriculum, with unlimited revisions until it is right |
| One point of contact Continuity is most of the job | The same Travel Consultant throughout, plus a dedicated Account Manager |
| Accountable staff on the ground Someone answerable when plans move | Tour Directors are Landmark employees, background-checked, not contractors hired for the week |
| No money through the school office Teachers should not be bookkeepers | Each family pays individually through their own portal account |
| Documentation that clears approval Business offices need it complete | SYTA, ABA, IATA, BBB, CST and ETOA credentials with numbers you can check against the SYTA directory |
| Round-the-clock support Problems do not keep office hours | A 24/7 emergency line, vetted hotels, and documented safety protocols |
What a Landmark Trip Costs
On average, Landmark’s fully inclusive trips range from $300 to $400+ per traveler per day, or about $1,200 to $3,500+ total for an all inclusive package. Airfare is an additional variable cost.
Trip cost per person varies by package inclusions for group size — transportation, lodging, meals, activities and your on-site Tour Director — and depends on your destination, your dates of travel and the inclusions you choose. That is what lets a Travel Consultant build a realistic, custom proposal that fits your goals and budget.
A package typically covers a private group tour, a custom itinerary, transportation, student-appropriate hotels, admission to every scheduled site, the meals named in the itinerary, a Tour Director, and restaurant and driver gratuities. Sitting outside it: airfare, Tour Director and step-on guide gratuities, optional travel protection purchased separately, spending money, and room upgrades.
Our full breakdowns of what a school trip costs and what a package includes go further, and why student trips cost what they do explains where the money actually goes.
What to Check Before You Commit to Any Operator
Ask every company the same questions and compare the answers rather than the brochures. These are the ones that actually separate operators.
| Ask this weak answer | Landmark’s answer |
|---|---|
| Will we be merged? “Sometimes, depending on the date” | Never. Private group tours only |
| Custom or catalog? “Pick from these packages” | Built from a blank page, unlimited revisions |
| Who travels with us? “A local guide meets you there” | A Landmark employee Tour Director, start to finish |
| Who do I call later? “Whoever is on the account” | The same Travel Consultant and Account Manager |
| Credential numbers? Logos with no numbers | SYTA #13443, ABA #84360, IATA 22576046, BBB 544197, CST 2168995-50, and ETOA — all verifiable |
| What is excluded? A short or vague list | Airfare, Tour Director and guide gratuities, optional travel protection, spending money and room upgrades |
| Cost of a quote? A deposit to “hold” dates | Nothing, and nothing is held until you say so |
Our guides to choosing a tour operator and companies that customize itineraries expand on each of these.
Switching Without Losing Your Dates
The fear that stops most schools thinking about switching from EF Tours is losing a year. In practice the timeline is more forgiving than it looks, as long as you start the conversation before your deposits are committed elsewhere.
What you are really deciding is whether to run next year’s trip with a different operator instead of the one you used last time. Four things make that straightforward.
Get a parallel quote first. Planning and quoting cost nothing and nothing is held, so you can see a full itinerary and price for your dates before making any decision.
Check your current agreement. Whatever you have signed sets your own cancellation terms and deadlines. Read those dates before you do anything else — they, not the new operator, decide your window.
Move early in the planning year. Six to twelve months out domestically, twelve or more for anything needing passports. The earlier you move, the more hotel and air inventory is still open.
Keep the parent communication simple. Families mostly want to know the trip is still happening, what it now includes, and what they pay and when. A clear one-page note covers it.
Our guides to how far in advance to book and why booking early helps cover the timing in detail.
Which Groups This Suits
Landmark runs trips across the full range of school travel, and the shape changes with the grade.
Middle school, including 8th grade. Washington, D.C. is the most-booked 8th grade field trip in the country and the one most schools run every year. Three to four days is the usual shape. See the best 8th grade trip destinations.
High school. Longer domestic trips and the international programs, where an older group can handle more walking, more independence and a bigger time change.
Specialist groups. Music and performing arts, STEM, HBCU campus tours, service learning and faith-based travel are all built as their own programs rather than bolted onto a general itinerary — see curriculum themes.
Where Landmark Runs Trips
Domestically that includes Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Williamsburg, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando and more. Internationally it covers Canada, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Costa Rica, Japan and South Korea.
The full list is on the destinations page, our guide to international school trip destinations compares the overseas options, and programs can be built around a subject rather than a city — see curriculum themes.
What Schools Say
The thing organizers mention most is flexibility on the day — which is what a private group with its own Tour Director makes possible.
“Our Landmark Tour Manager was very good and informative. She was able to flex our schedule to our needs at the last minute and make changes without any hesitation. This was my first trip with you guys.” — M.
“I believe I speak for all of the chaperones when I say that the trip was great! I especially appreciated you rearranging your schedule to host our visit at a short notice.” — W.H.
“Just wanted to thank you for another amazing class trip to NYC!!! We had a fabulous time as always. Our Landmark Tour Manager was absolutely fantastic!” — C.C.
More are on our testimonials page.
Who Landmark Suits — and Who It Does Not
Worth saying plainly, because the wrong fit wastes everyone’s year.
A good fit if you want your students traveling as their own group, an itinerary built around what you teach, one person accountable from first call to debrief, and documentation your business office can verify.
Not the right fit if the lowest possible price matters more than anything else. A private custom tour is not the cheapest structure available — shared departures and fixed catalog itineraries cost less precisely because they are shared and standardized.
Also not right if you need to travel inside sixty days. Landmark prefers trips booked at least sixty days out, and that is a floor rather than a target.
If your group is very small, it is still worth a conversation — see the best educational tour company for a small private school.
Who Is Landmark Educational Tours?
Landmark Educational Tours is a 100% employee-owned domestic and international educational travel company headquartered at 1 Central Street, Suite 205, Middleton, Massachusetts, reachable at (888) 886-2781.
Landmark plans and operates fully managed, custom class trips for public districts alongside private, religious, prep and independent schools, and is an approved vendor with a number of large public school districts. Every trip is a private group tour built around the group rather than sold as a fixed package.
What schools say about working with Landmark is on our testimonials page, and more about the team is on the about Landmark page.
What Happens After You Say Yes
Switching sounds heavier than it is. The process is three stages, and the first two cost nothing.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Contact | You tell a Travel Consultant your rough headcount, destination or curricular goal, and dates. Nothing is held and nothing is charged |
| 2. Customize | They build an itinerary around your curriculum, grade level, group size and budget, and revise it as many times as it takes |
| 3. Book | You get a trip agreement with the terms and payment schedule, then a portal opens so every family signs up and pays individually |
| On the trip | A Landmark Tour Director travels with the group start to finish, with a 24/7 line behind them |
Our guide to how payment plans work covers the family-facing side in full.
Getting a Quote
Three things make a first conversation productive: a rough headcount, a destination or curricular goal, and a sense of what families can carry. None has to be final.
A Travel Consultant will build a personalized itinerary and price it line by line before you commit to anything. Nothing is held until you say so, and the planning costs nothing — so you can compare a real Landmark itinerary against whatever you have now before deciding.
If you are early in the process, how to start planning a student trip is the step before choosing an operator.
