Page 4 of 69 for smarTours Reviews

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Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	3.92 out of 5

About smarTours:

smarTours is a leading provider of direct-to-consumer, affordable travel experiences to exotic global destinations. The Company offers travelers curated, pre-packaged itineraries to over 40 destinations across the globe. By offering tours directly to consumers, the Company provides premium-quality experiences at value prices, and as a result, has cultivated a highly passionate and loyal community of repeat travelers. More than 200,000 travelers have taken a smarTours trip since the founding of the Company in 1996. smarTours is… the smarter way to see the world.

Phone:

800-337-7773

Email:

info@smartours.com

Location:

545 Eighth Ave. Suite 2250
New York, NY 10018

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smarTours 5 star review on 28th January 2020

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Anna

smarTours 5 star review on 20th January 2020

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Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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“Excellent tour, excellent tour director and guides, excellent hotels and air travel!!”

Posted 8 months ago

“Definitely an amazing adventure!”

Posted 8 months ago

“I've taken a number of trips with SmarTours. Overall, the experience has been fantastic. Hotels are always in a great location and it's nice handing over the responsibility of planning visits to all of the major sites to someone else.”

Posted 8 months ago

“In general it was a success. The local guide-tour director, Gagan Kalra, was perfect; knowledgeable and very attentive. the itinerary was good but I would prefer to see a little less of religious sites , particularly Swaminarayan Akshardham , and instead to visit Art Museum and Railroad museum.
Also it would be nice to include Udaipur or Johdpur.
Also as an extension, I would include Jaisamer -medieval trading center-12 c.”

Posted 8 months ago

“The tour was well planned with a good mix of Cape Town, Kruger Park, Johannesburg and other activities. There was ample free time and flexibility with choosing optional excursions. However the one negative was the 2 day plan at Kruger. We were told that the first day was through utilizing an inferior vehicle (being the big coach) where we wouldn't be able to go everywhere and the view would be through the glass windows. The second day was with an open air jeep with a ranger who knew the park and had a walkie talkie system with other rangers to find the animals. We could opt to have the first day with the jeep for an extra cost. This was not outlined in the itinerary and is underhanded.

The tour operator, Daryl Howes, was very knowledgeable about South Africa, particularly the history of Apartheid. He was impressive, like a walking encyclopedia. Many people enjoyed him, however I found him a bit old to be a guide leader. He was easily agitated when people were noisy or were not sitting down when he was counting to make sure everyone was present. Yes, this is important but there was only 18 in our group. Sometimes he would count 3 or more times up and down the coach, and he was not able to do so unless we were all in our seats. Standing still on the bus was not an option.

There were conflicts between a few people in our group (not with me) and I was told that he didn't hear both sides of the story. He insisted on making sure our group sat together at meals. There were people in the group that made loners felt welcome so no one was left apart so there was no need to insist on everyone sitting together. He gets flustered too easily.

Finally, Daryl explained the following morning's activities on the coach, including breakfast and check out times. This is easily forgotten, especially if some people may be sleeping on the coach. The itineary for the next day would be better conveyed by a sheet of paper in the lobby of the hotel or a paper passed around that everyone could photograph. This is better organized and was done on other tours I've experienced with Trafalgar and Globus.”

Posted 8 months ago

“My daughter and I loved every moment of our Moroccan adventure. It exceeded all our expectations. The tour guy was great and the excursions were terrific. The group was so compatible and the accommodations were better than expected. Thank you Smartours! Joan Abrams”

Posted 8 months ago

“We had a great trip in India & Nepal and we'd like to thank our tour guide Gagan for all his insight and guidance.
Future trips - remove some of the Hindu temples, particularly the new one in Delhi that's more like Disneyworld. Remove the carpet and scarf shopping spot in Delhi.
Add - some museums or other interesting sites in Dehli.
Add - a real Indian cooking experience
Add - something educational and interesting about Bollywood plus a Bollywood movie night (with English subtitles).
It would also be helpful to raise the price of the trip $20 or $30 pp to cover tips and other group incidentals. Give this money to the tour guide so he / she can handle these transactions. We had to collect a kitty of money to cover these small expenses..”

Posted 8 months ago

“Excellent tour guides, especially David and Gustavo.

Unfortunately, we had a jerk within our tour group who should be banned from taking any further smarTours trips--a classic "Ugly American." Dennis offended many throughout the trip and even personally threatened David. Dennis made the trip uncomfortable for everyone. We have traveled worldwide in more than 30 groups during our lifetimes and Dennis is by far the worst we have ever experienced.

David and Gustavo handled Dennis in the best manner possible. In general, they were very accommodating, professional, and knowledgeable.”

Posted 8 months ago

“The Tour Guide, Gagan, is a Real Keeper. He is a wise & gentle Tiger!”

Posted 8 months ago

“Good tour for the money. Tour guide at Capetown was poor.”

Posted 8 months ago

“We had a group of 10, so the bus was small and not that comfortable as the regular bus. The hotel in Dubai was good but the location was not great. Our tour director Muhamed was very good. Overall we had a good time.”

Posted 8 months ago

“Very organized. Great tour guide. Will travel again with Smart Tours”

Posted 8 months ago

“Our guides were wonderful. I would make one recommendation to improve this trip. Take a one hour flight from Medellin to Cartagena instead of a LONG bus ride.”

Posted 8 months ago

“Egypt was great. Great itinerary, great hotels. And really really really great tour guide”

Posted 8 months ago

“Fabulous trip with David, a very special guide and several excellent local guides.”

Posted 8 months ago

“The tour was sold as from 2/2 to 12/2 but in fact we left on 2/3& came back on 11/2 & because of this the schedule was jammed & very tiring . We flew in overnight & instead of getting straight to the hotel to relax & get used to the altitude we had to be on the bus the whole day visiting & travelling . Some of us came from the west coast & had already spent the day before departure traveling .. I think rearranging the schedule is a must”

Posted 8 months ago

“A well organized tour with an amazing guide.”

Posted 8 months ago

“The trip was okay at best. Not worth the money. Some of the sites were boring and unnecessary - La Terrazas, the park with the water pools. Meals were below average. And, most of the tour group became violently ill with food poisoning from ham/cheese sandwiches provided by smarTours on the last day of the trip. We are still waiting on answers from smarTours regarding this; they have been slow to respond. I'm a physician and had to cancel my clinics due to the illness which only improved after I took antibiotics. By far the worst tour I've ever taken. And I've done about twenty throughout the world.”

Posted 8 months ago

“Unbelievable value! Best group of people with whom I have EVER traveled!!! Wonderful guide!”

Posted 8 months ago

“Excellent leader, good size group (14), very good to excellent hotels, a real perspective of India and Nepal, could have fewer temples and a couple more museums on Indian culture, society and history.”

Posted 8 months ago

smarTours is rated 4.41 based on 1,366 reviews