Recently, I boarded a plane to Egypt to meet 30 strangers who loved the same books as me. Ten days later, I left with 30 new friends.
Booklovers are increasingly looking for new opportunities to get off of BookTok and find community in person. EF Ultimate Break is just one company looking to provide those adventures, now with a new line of BookTok-inspired international tours.
Its inaugural season of bookish tours for 18-35 year olds offers trips inspired by “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” Emily Henry’s “People We Meet on Vacation,” Harry Potter and “Fourth Wing.” I chose a 10-day trip to Cairo, Athens and Rome inspired by Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series.
After reading “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” as a child, I was fairly convinced that I was a demigod. I’d make my friends “play” Greek gods with me at recess. This EF Ultimate Break trip promised a chance to live out the books by touring the real ancient wonders and mythology that inspired Riordan’s entire “Camp Half-Blood Chronicles.” It was transformative in many ways.
Percy Jackson fans wear their Camp Half-Blood shirts at the Temple of Poseidon on EF Ultimate Break’s book-themed tour.
EF Ultimate Break’s new BookTok line is paradise for literary nerds
This first season of bookish EF tours are helmed by book influencers to connect the book to the destinations. They also help market the tour to their followers. Zoë Mahler, of the book club and account @nycbookhoe, was our trusty book liaison.
This worried me at first. In New York City, I go to many book events aimed at getting influencers to film content. Would this journey just feel like a brand trip? Or would the attendees be acolytes hungry for an influencer’s attention?
I was pleasantly surprised it was neither. From day one, it was clear that we were just all just a bunch of Percy Jackson nerds – Mahler included – excited to experience the real sites from the books together. Most attendees hadn’t heard of Mahler until a viral video of hers about the tour came across their feed. The 30-person trip filled within three days, faster than a typical tour and especially impressive for a new one, according to Clara Tuttle, communications specialist at EF. The company has already added another tour for this fall.
Percy Jackson fans take a selfie in Cairo, Egypt, on day one of EF Ultimate Break’s book-inspired tour.
After sleeping off the long travel day into Cairo, the Egypt leg of the tour started with a packed itinerary. In two days, we saw the pyramids, the Sphinx, went to the Grand Egyptian Museum, visited local vendors like a papyrus maker, toured mosques and danced on a Nile river cruise.
While the sightseeing in Egypt was stunning, it was less connected to Riordan’s Kane Chronicles than I was expecting. It would have been cool to see the Red Pyramid, also the title of the series’ first book. But Mahler kept us focused by sending Camp Half-Blood Chronicles trivia in our WhatsApp group every morning. I loved learning about the Egyptian mythology that inspired Carter and Sadie’s adventures.
Later, when we got to Greece and Italy, the Percy Jackson references kicked up. Our tour guide Mayia hosted a “claiming ceremony” and split us into cabins based on our godly parents. Alongside my fellow children of Artemis, I completed quests at the Acropolis and in the streets of Rome. On our final night, the cabins battled by performing hilarious sketch renditions of mythological stories and sudden-death trivia.
There were other moments when our tour directors went above and beyond to get us to places referenced in the book. The Temple of Poseidon was not on our original itinerary, but Mayia made it happen. The pure joy of watching 30 fans – many donning their orange Camp Half Blood T-shirts – pull up to the worship site of Percy’s father was unmatched.
Each cabin must complete the day’s quest, this time to find landmarks and signs of Roman mythology in the streets of Rome, Italy.
‘Percy Jackson’ book tour was healing to the inner child
In Athens, before we headed up to the Acropolis, our tour guide for the day started by reminding us that what we’ve learned from Riordan’s books are “modern fictions of mythology.” Today, we’d be learning both the Greek mythology and the actual history of the ruins we were about to see.
This sticks with me even now that I’m home. When we read Riordan’s books at a young age, they spurred an interest in ancient history and mythology that led us to a trip like this. Several of my travel companions studied archeology or classics in college because of Percy Jackson. Even during the many times we weren’t talking about Percy Jackson, we got the once-in-a-lifetime experience to learn about the history that inspired it. Here, our childhood historical hyper fixations came to life.
For many on this trip, loving books or mythology was what made them feel different or weird compared to their peers growing up. But there was no such thing as nerding out too hard on this trip. There was no shame in shedding a few tears at ancient ruins. There was always someone who wanted to go to a bookstore with you to hunt down a copy of Percy Jackson in Greek.
Hunting for proof of the gods amid ancient ruins was as close as we’ll get to living out Percy Jackson in real life, and for that, my inner child is bursting with pride.
But nothing sums it up better than this – almost half of the group got Percy Jackson tattoos while in Rome, many designed by one of our travelers. Ansley Bowman, 22, spent her flight from Cairo to Athens drawing an amphora with the pegasus Blackjack in the center, also adorned with the squiggle used under every chapter in the book.
Trip-goers got matching Percy Jackson tattoos in Rome, designed by one of the attendees.
Is EF Ultimate Break worth it? I’d say yes.
Base cost for the trip is about $3,500 and includes accommodations, country-to-country travel while on the tour and some meals. Having EF book your tour arrival and departure flights could add up to an additional $1,400. Excursions like boat cruises and pasta-making classes can run $65-$175 each. Additional costs include meals on your own, souvenirs and tipping your tour guides.
I’m an extrovert, but on the first day of this trip I felt nervous to spend 10 days with 30 people I had never met. I’ve never traveled to any of these places before. I’ve hardly ever traveled solo. I’ve never been on a guided tour. By the end of the trip, I was tearing up over the thought of leaving such a special group of people who love the same things I do.
More than age as a common denominator, knowing I was with a group of readers felt immediately disarming. We just got each other. When words failed, we could always go back to books.
There were imperfect parts of the trip, of course. That amount of time with a packed itinerary tested both my social battery and energy. The hotels in Athens and Rome were nothing to write home about. The country-to-country flights were a hassle – EF Ultimate Break books these internally for ease, but having one director in charge of 30 boarding passes was about as overstimulating as travel can get.
But above all, traveling with a group like EF Ultimate Break is an accessible entry into many of the places I’ve dreamed of visiting. Even with long, full days, I got to turn my brain off and focus on sightseeing rather than logistics. I felt immersed in the local culture thanks to our guides. I learned and learned and learned.
And there’s no one else I would’ve wanted to do that with than a group of booklovers.
The reporter on this story received access from EF Ultimate Break. USA TODAY maintains editorial control of content.
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at cmulroy@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I traveled on a Percy Jackson tour with 30 strangers. It was magic.
