Places we visited were excellent. Hotels were good. Guide was knowledgeable. However problems arose since there was no requirement to change seats on bus. It created a lot of friction between tour participants that wasn't necessary. Tour guide only requested it but it didn't happen. We had a large group of related people or friends, over 20 and they would not change seats. Tour manager did little about it. Suggest Smartours does what Gate1 does which is have a list everyday where bus seating is rotated and you eliminate this problem. A little more work for tour manager but a lot more pleasant for tour participants. Also lunch stop restaurants were not very good. Also way too much time allocated to shopping during the bus rides, which was a waste of time. We didn't travel thousands of miles to go to prearranged shopping. There was a lot of free time which was available to do shopping so during tour portion was not appropriate. Our rating is really between Acceptable and Good. We have used Smartours in the past a few times and our now wondering whether we shall use it in the future due to this experience.