smarTours Reviews

Name: smarTours
Address: 500 7TH AVE, 8TH FL, NEW YORK, New York
Rating: 4.41

4.4 Rating 1,665 Reviews

86 %

of reviewers recommend smarTours

4.4

Based on 1,665 reviews

Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	3.8 out of 5

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Phone:

800-337-7773

Email:

info@smartours.com

Location:

500 7TH AVE, 8TH FL,
NEW YORK
New York
10018

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smarTours 1 star review on 27th May 2025

Dominion

smarTours 5 star review on 14th December 2024

Diana Potts

smarTours 5 star review on 20th November 2024

Michael And

smarTours 5 star review on 12th October 2024

Michael And Bedelia Sachelari

766

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 4 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“We had a great time on our Amazing Thailand tour! Our guides, Ketsara and Noc were both truly amazing, patient, helpful, and informative. The tour was well organized and went very smoothly. The only negative was a few of the hotels could have been a little better, but even so, they were acceptable. Highly recommend!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Beautiful county. Too bad our guide was too busy talking on his cell phone to explain what we were seeing. Fortunately we had a great bus driver. he was always there to help us on and off. Our guide again was very very busy talking on his cell phone.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Excellent guides. Great accommodations in Egypt. I’ve been on 2 Smartours. Both needed a little more relaxing time. 2 forced marches a day is not a vacation; it’s a fact finding mission. I was disappointed in the tipping scheme in Egypt. Our guide, Hepa, in Abu Simbel insisted we tip the “travel agent”. It appeared to me that he was a man who owned his own business, and therefore should not require a tip. He provided a product, and no service except leading us to the bus, which Hepa should have done. It felt like Hepa was shaking us down for her colleague, especially because it wasn’t mentioned in your tip guide. Dina was very good about explaining tipping the government paid security agent, if he provided a special service. I contributed significantly to the economy, by purchasing gold jewelry and I am happy to tip appropriately. I am not happy to be hustled no matter how small the amount.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“What a great trip! Loved the guide, Jacob made the trip very pleasant and enjoyable. He was thorough and very knowledgeable. Could have done without 2 nights at Lavi, one was enough. Bus was very comfortable and we experienced everything we could in the time permitted. Hotels were comfortable and clean.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Itenarary ie well organized and we have a good tour guide”

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Posted 6 years ago

“My trip to Israel was very good. I really enjoyed the places visited. However, vacation should not be exhausting but exhilarating. There was too much walking for seniors, waking up early every morning was ridiculous. The return trip home could have been on the previous day because checking out of the hotel at noon and just left to wander around all day waiting for midnight departure was unbearable.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“The South America Odyssey tour would have been rated very good IF the Porto Varas and Rio de Janeiro stages would have been longer. A few hours in the late afternoon in the picturesque Porto Varas was far too short and surely Rio deserves at least one more day. Both cities felt rushed. The rest of the trip was exceptionally well run. The guides and the hotels were outstanding. It offers some of the most picturesque locations on the planet and it’s a photographic tour de force. Ms. Levin’s skill as a tour guide is unmatched as she shepherded is thru all the venues. Extend the two afore mentioned stops and you have a fabulous itinerary.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“This was our first trip with Smartoursand it was definitely great value. The trip was packed with wonderful sights to see everyday, and everyday better than the one before. Our tour leader, Urban Soban was excellent, very knowledgeable and personable. The downside for me was that the tour had 38 people.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“This tour to Japan was my 6th with smarTours. I choose you because of your moderate prices, interesting itineraries, excellent accommodations, good tour guides and efficient organization in general. My tour to Japan was everything above with one exception: tour guide. Ms. Yuko Takagi, our tour guide, was a nice person, but very mediocre as a tour guide. She did good from the organizational point of view, head count, making sure that everybody was on time, etc., but very poor as a guide whose responsibility, I believe, is to introduce tourists, who came to his/her country for the first time, at least briefly and in general to the country's geography, history, art and culture, politics, education, health care, statistics, etc. In every city we expect from a tour guide to point the interesting sights, museums, theatres, to recommend which sights to visit in our leisure time, where it is good to eat. We also expect to understand guide's English without difficulty. To my regret Ms. Yuko Takagi didn't meet this requirement. Although her English vocabulary was satisfactory, it was very accentuated, not always coherent, repetitive. We spent 10 days together, part of the time on the bus which could give a good opportunity to talk about Japan or a city that we were about to see. This was not done. Yes, there were bits and pieces of information necessary, but not sufficient, to understand the temples we're about to see. I believe that smarTours should maintain certain, high enough level of professional tour guiding adequate to smarTours reputation and itineraries. From my experience people who buy your tours are highly motivated, intelligent, educated capable to appreciate a coherent, knowledgeable introduction to the country they are visiting. I still cannot forget excellent guides in Israel, Jewel of Adriatic, Cambodja, China, or my friends' account about an unforgettable professional guide in South Africa. I think that smarTours should select the tour guides so that they will maintain its reputation the same way as you select excellent accommodations. But comfortable hotels and buses are not enough. For tourists a tour guide is a representative of a country we visit, its face. And we want to fall in love with him/her the same way as we fall in love with a country that we see for the first time.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Toured Egypt with Rhonda who was wonderful! The trip was a bit too fast paced, leaving little down time, that is, if we wanted to do all excursions, which we did, because we didn't want to miss a thing. We still missed Rhonda's lectures where she talked about the history of Egypt plus Muslim/Islam philosophy. I'm sorry to have missed them but was exhausted.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Tour was delightful. Accommodations were as good as advertised. Good food. Travel on planes and bus easy. Excellent tour guide and assistants. Negative would be too many early early wake up calls.”

smarTours 4 star review on 15th April 2019

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Posted 6 years ago

“I enjoyed the trip and found it very interesting. The guides were very knowledgeable. I would not recommend this trip for folks who have problems in walking or climbing.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I went to Japan with Smartour. I enjoyed it . Couple of things that I like to mention is that our group was too big, 40 people. I think that the group should be smaller. Another problem that we had is that our guide ‘s English was difficult to understand. She was a wonderful person, she was trying hard, but a lot of things we did not understand. In general we loved our tour. Thank you Smartour!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“It is one of the best travel agencies we have encountered. Their tours are very complete include most of the attractions , their hotels are very good and have excellent guides. We have taken 12 tours with this company.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Tour venues (except for Mount Fuji day)hotels and general organisation were very good. Free time at venues much appreciated. Guide was knowledgeable and very pleasant. 40 participants were way too many. We would all benefit from more careful vetting of participants. .....”need a wheelchair at the airport this is not for you.” Also severe hearing issues. This is from a second traveler on that Japan trip. I was not sent this opportunity to review the trip. My name is Maura Payne. The Mount Fuji day needs to be re-planned. Good to go near, but not worth a whole frustrating day in a bus. Re wheel chair needs- can you try to politely discourage this?people need to be fit enough to walk and not sit outside the sights because they are so short of breath. 40 participants too many to herd at one time. Severe hearing issues are also a problem. Tour leader Yuko was patient a nd throrough- very well done! MP”

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Posted 6 years ago

“After 2 pleasant trips with SmarTours, I decided to go with them again to Iceland in January 2019 instead of their competitors. After a good start, our tour guide Gudney was wonderful, and the airport pick up as described, I was looking for a good trip. Then things began to unraveled. The first two nights, the weather was uncooperative, it snowed and windy, so waiting for Northern Light is a no-gamer. The third night we were in Vik, it's raining and cloudy, and our hope for Northern Light sighting was again crushed. But coming back to Rekjavik on the fourth night, the sky started to clear, and everyone in the group were hoping to see the Northern Light, that's when we were told that the tour operator would no longer take us out for sighting because they had already tried 3 times. WHAT? My friend and I ended up booking with Gray Line on the side, and we were able to see the Northern Light on the Fifth night! SmarTours should negotiate with the "Tour Provider" to assure next group has the opportunity to try and see the Northern Light at all time during their visit ! To make my trip worse, the trip was arranged on Iceland Air, despite my paying extra legroom and choosing the aisle seat for me. The airline changed plane on the way back to Seattle, and put me in the middle seat of the middle row!!! For more than 7 hours, despite complaints, all I got was avoidance and a refund for my extra legroom pay, no formal nor courteous apology! Please, SmarTours no more Iceland Air, too many complaints on the review.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“China Eastern Air poor service , trip itself very good”

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Posted 6 years ago

“As always, accommodations were good. I did find that a room with a sleeping loft at El Establo hotel in Monte Verde was strange. There were glitches due to scheduling that were unavoidable and that the tour leader handled very well.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“GReat accommodations and you see the treasures of a foreign country with knowledgeable tour leaders.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Great sights and history of Egypt but nothing about the Egypt of today! The schedule created too many very early mornings, leaving us very tired. Frequently seemed unorganized.”

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Posted 6 years ago

smarTours is rated 4.4 based on 1,665 reviews