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

“From the time we hit the ground in Portugal, everything was wonderful. Mina was a great tour guide, the itinerary was just right for us and we enjoyed the beautiful country and its people. BUT we did not get the proper preparation from Smart tours. The information we were sent said after checking in and before arrival in Portugal, we needed to fill out a Portugal locator form. NOT TRUE! this form is needed AT checkin and is very difficult to fill out on your phone at the airport! This was very stressful and added over an hour to our checkin because of the problems doing this form on your phone. We are thankful for the help of the airline personnel who helped us. Without them, we may not have made our flight! All this stress could have been avoided if Smart Tours had given us the correct information before we left out house!”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback, Joan! We’re very sorry for the frustration you experienced and have updated our documents based on the most up-to-date information we have. We appreciate your candid comments as we rely on travelers like you to continually improve the travel experiences we offer. We’re so happy to hear the rest of your tour in Portugal went well and that Mina was a wonderful tour director! We hope you’ll consider traveling with us again in the future!

Posted 3 years ago

“We were disappointed with the organization of the walking and motorcoach tours. One guide made us walk nearly 8 miles, with no comfort breaks or rests. Most of the participants were retired, older folks and their needs were not noticed. Several guests needed taxi rides back, at my request. Several participants got lost trying to find their way back to the bus, and boat. Walking times were much longer than the guides explained. One group of four adults demanded to turn back, because they were exhausted. I walked the whole time, but my body is paying for it now and I needed a cane by the end of the trip. We got lost at Kuchen Hof gardens, and barely made it to the bus on time. No one told us that there were two parking areas. We should have had the starting point marked on our map. The sights were great, but the walking tours should have included going inside historic places, not just walking past them. One tour guide was supposed to show us the exterior of the Anne Frank House, but never did that...which was the main attraction for me to go on the tour. Overall, directions back to the boat should have been more specific. Public transit did not end up close to the boat location. We took wrong turns and had to backtrack to get across the canal. I had high expectations, and this trip was no where near meeting them.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Hi Robyn, thank you for taking time to provide feedback. We are sorry to hear that the shore excursions did not meet your expectations and were too fast-paced. With a short amount of time and a lot to see, sometimes the guides get carried away trying to cover as much as possible. We have also addressed with our team how we can do better with this and provide clear directions for returning to the boat, and navigating the city in general, which can be stressful. We truly appreciate your feedback and please know we take comments from our travelers very seriously as we rely on feedback like yours to help us plan our future tours and update our internal processes and procedures to ensure a wonderful travel experience. We hope you’ll consider traveling with us in the future!

Posted 3 years ago

“When I called Stephanie 2 weeks before departure to ask about the Travel locator form for the Azores, she said she would get back to me.(The link did not work!) She did. While we were driving, in traffic, on our way to the airport. Too late!! The transportation was wonderful. Drives were adept and punctual! Tour guides provided lots of useful information.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback! It was a pleasure to host you!

Posted 3 years ago

“I've never joined an organized tour. But my wonderful experience has opened my eyes. The tour was packed with activities every day. Their accommodations were top-notch. The choice of restaurants and eating venues was impeccable. Tour guides were very educated and knowledgeable about practically all subjects on the tour. Most of all, connections, transfers and road trips from one town to another were seamlessly organized. All I had to do was show up. What a breeze!! Thank you smarTours and most especially to our very calm and organized tour director Claudia!”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback! It was a pleasure to host you!

Posted 3 years ago

“After 2+ years waiting and 5 different bookings we finally went on the Spectacular Greece trip. We really enjoyed the history and amazing sites that Greece and the islands have to offer. If you are an archeologist at heart this is the trip for you. Emirates airline was certainly a step above other airlines as far as service and amenities, especially in the economy cabin. At the airport we were greeted by Mama Gina our tour director for the first half of the tour. She was amazing. She made sure we knew where to be and at what time. She also made a point to know all our names. The only part that was disappointing to us was the cruise. The food was not what I would have expected. Secondly, going to 6 islands in 4 days was too much. We would have rather arrived in the morning at an island, spend quality time there...do a tour, shop, eat..or how about relax!!! The rest of the tour was fantastic and we are planning a trip back to Greece for our 30th anniversary in a few years. And I do want to say that Gina is the G.O.A.T... Greatest Of All Tour directors. Thank you Gina for a great time.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback, Scott! We’re sorry to hear that the food on your cruise was not as expected and we have addressed this issue with the cruiselline. We understand that the pacing for the cruise is quite fast and have added a new version of the tour that includes three nights in Crete allowing for that slower pace in the Mediterranean Sea that you’ve mentioned here. We’re so glad to hear the rest of your experience in Greece and with your tour director, Gina, was amazing! We hope you’ll join us again soon!

Posted 3 years ago

“After traveling to Spain in 2017 with Smart tours I came away from that experience highly satisfied. I recommended smart tours to many people. The Greece tour was not what I had expected. I did not enjoy the Greece cruise although the staff and crew were excellent the food was mediocre. Gina our tour guide in Greece the first half was wonderful. Very concerned and always made sure that everyone was happy. I feel we spent too many hours on buses traveling from site to site. I was hoping for more downtime and time by the Mediterranean which did not happen. Mykonos was a total bust spending two hours at the most at night in Mykonos. Our tour guide for the second half of Greece was extremely knowledgeable and knew his material inside and out but not very engaging with the 13 tour people. The most disturbing part of the trip was when two of our Tourmates tested positive for Covid and could not leave Greece. Smart chores did not step up to the plate to help them at all which was extremely disturbing. Not sure if I’ll be traveling with Smartours again”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback, Nadine! We appreciate your concern for your fellow travelers and are happy that you were able to return home on schedule. As soon as we were advised of any positive COVID cases on your trip our partners at Tour Greece and our team in the US reached out to the affected travelers as we worked to extend their hotel stays, and change their return flights. We rely heavily on our destination partners to assist our quarantined passengers because they are there in destination with you and have much more direct access to the resources that travelers need. Any travelers testing positive for COVID-19 must be cleared for travel before they can enter the U.S. and while these requirements can be frustrating, we are required to follow the protocol set by the U.S. government and CDC. We’ve also noted your feedback about the cruise portion of the tour and have already addressed the food issue you mentioned with the cruise lines, as well as the 2nd guide not being as engaging. We take this type of feedback to heart and will be looking to make improvements. We have created a new tour that follows the same itinerary but adds three nights in Crete at the end, which we hope will appeal to travelers like you hoping to spend more time in the Mediterranean at a more relaxing pace. We truly appreciate your feedback and please know we take comments from our travelers very seriously as we rely on feedback like yours to help us plan our future tours and update our internal processes and procedures to ensure a wonderful travel experience. We hope you’ll consider traveling with us in the future!

Posted 3 years ago

“Aside from the activity of the Greece tour being a little more aggressive activity wise than outlined in the description, it was a pretty good tour. Until I contracted covid the day before departure, the greecetours side did a great job in negotiating the hotel, providing a few meals and transportation to the airport. The smartours us side gave us the run around for 5 days and would not rebook our plane tickets. Most of the agents were pretty uncaring. We felt abandoned by your team and let our tour mates know of the poor treatment. The day before we are supposed to leave based on our quarantine ending, negative covid test and hotel stay ending we book our own ticket. 1am the day of our travel we receive info for new tickets. Now we are going through the refund process with emirates, which could take 30 days. Bad customer service.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Meredith, thanks for taking the time to provide us this feedback. We’re glad to hear that your tour experience was good, up until you tested positive for COVID-19. We rely heavily on our partners in destination to assist our quarantined passengers because they are there in destination with you and have much more direct access to the resources you need. We’re glad to hear Tour Greece was able to help. We are sorry that on our side, our customer service did not live up to your expectations and came off as uncaring. We are following up with our team and working to improve our service through additional training and feedback to our representatives. While we do our best to rebook passenger flights as quickly as possible, we are subject to the terms of the airline group contract, and must abide by their change fees and return documentation policies when a passenger tests positive for COVID-19, as well as seat availability for booking a return flight. We are also constrained by the business hours of Emirates’ group air support desk, which is only during business hours Mon-Fri. This limits how quickly we can turn things around, often resulting in delays of a day or more before we can respond with material updates. We are working with our air partners to improve this, but all are constrained by staffing shortages, so expect some challenges to persist for some time. The recovery of travel from COVID has been rocky at best, and we acknowledge that we have some ways to go in restoring our service to the level we want it to be. We truly appreciate your feedback and please know we take comments from our travelers very seriously as we rely on feedback like yours to help us plan our future tours and update our internal processes and procedures to ensure a wonderful travel experience. We hope you’ll consider traveling with us in the future!

Posted 3 years ago

“Just finished our second smarTours trip, this one to Ireland. It was fabulous. Previously we did the Thailand trip, which is an incredible value and an unforgettable trip. For both tours, the tour guides were outstanding! They really made the trips great. If you're looking for a relaxing vacation, these tours may not be for you. You're pretty much on the go the whole time. But it's so worth it and I wouldn't have missed a minute of it. Sleep when you get home. Already booked the next one: Vietnam and Cambodia.”

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Posted 3 years ago

We are so excited to host you in Vietnam and Cambodia Jeff!

Posted 3 years ago

“4 stars, great , knowledgable , caring and wonderful tour guide. unnecessary tour of olive oil and carpet factories, would have appreciated more turkish and authenthic food.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your feedback!

Posted 3 years ago

“Overall the tour was excellent, but the tour guide was beyond terrible. He mocked people on our tour and acted like a schoolteacher with unruly students, which was not the case. Please see my email for details”

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Posted 3 years ago

Hi nancy! Thanks so much for your feedback. Your email was passed to our tour operations team.

Posted 3 years ago

“Smartours sent us emails to inform us that the company would arrange to have COVID rapid test lab techs on our boat the day before we were to have returned to the US. They failed to do this; the Smartours rep, Dusan, knew nothing about the email or about us getting tested; Dusan told the 25 Americans to just tell the airline reps at the AMS Airport that we had lost our test results and that they'd let us board the planes. We worried for the entire cruise that we'd not be able to get home. This caused unnecessary anxiety, stress and was uncalled for. It was difficult communicating with Smartours because they didn't accept emails and they were open only M-F from 8-5:00 EST. If you did call, you often had to wait for over an hour before speaking to an agent. In fact, this was the way I found out that after our initial cruise was canceled, I was told that they had booked only my wife on another date but they did not have space for me on the boat. Mind you, we had made reservations and paid for 2 people, not just one. I spoke to several Smartours people and not one could tell me why only my wife was assigned to a cruise by herself. Life is much too short to deal with such an inept, unprofessional, incompetent, thoughtless company that obviously does not care about its customers and which is not honest with its customers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Walter, thank you for sharing your candid feedback, and we are so sorry that this trip of a lifetime turned out to be such a stressful experience. We have followed up with our guide and partners in destination regarding testing and the messaging provided to your group, and have improved our future departures with better documentation and testing information. As you can imagine, there have been changes to both our team and our internal processes as COVID has impacted what travel looks like moving forward, and we apologize for how this may have affected your experience with us from locating your reservation to your customer service experience. We did experience some issues with our emergency number which have now been addressed, and we have additionally added email support for our customers. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, and please know we take comments from our travelers very seriously as we rely on feedback like yours to help us plan our future tours and update our internal processes and procedures to ensure a wonderful travel experience. We hope that you will consider traveling with us again.

Posted 3 years ago

“SmarTours riverboat trip through the Netherlands during Tulip season was THE best! I’ve never been disappointed with the boats, guides, accommodations/meals, or destinations on SmarTours land or riverboat tours.”

smarTours 5 star review on 22nd April 2022

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Posted 3 years ago

We love to hear this! Thank you for sharing your photos!

Posted 3 years ago

“SmarTours takes care of transportations, tickets and many things. Everything is well organized”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for your review!

Posted 3 years ago

“A dream of a trip turned into a nightmare dealing with Smartours' horrendous customer service. Smartours emailed all US passengers that lab techs would be coming to the boat in Dordrecht to give us COVID rapid tests the day prior to our flights home. Smartours lied and no plans were made. Our Smartours guide was clueless about this and told us to tell airline personnel that we had lost our test results. He was very flippant and we worried about getting home for the entire duration of this nightmare trip. Other than this minor issue, the boat's crew, food, and walking tours were surprisingly better than expected...no thanks to Smartours.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Walter, thank you for sharing your candid feedback, and we are so sorry that this trip of a lifetime turned out to be such a stressful experience. We have followed up with our guide and partners in destination regarding testing and the messaging provided to your group, and have improved our future departures with better documentation and testing information. As you can imagine, there have been changes to both our team and our internal processes as COVID has impacted what travel looks like moving forward, and we apologize for how this may have affected your experience with us from locating your reservation to your customer service experience. We did experience some issues with our emergency number which have now been addressed, and we have additionally added email support for our customers. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts, and please know we take comments from our travelers very seriously as we rely on feedback like yours to help us plan our future tours and update our internal processes and procedures to ensure a wonderful travel experience. We hope that you will consider traveling with us again.

Posted 3 years ago

“SmarTours gives consistent good value and excellent performance for its tours. The tour guides are always local and extremely knowledgeable. On all the tours I've taken the participants come away very happy with the experience. I plan to continue traveling with SmarTours.”

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Posted 3 years ago

We are so happy to hear this! We look forward to hosting you again soon!

Posted 3 years ago

“The tour guide makes all the difference. Mohammed made the difference.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you so much! We're happy to hear Mohammed was a great tour guide!

Posted 3 years ago

“Wonderful experience! The perfect trip to educate oneself on the culture and natural beauty of 6 countries.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Thank you for sharing Carol!

Posted 3 years ago

“Even though United Airline was late in arriving in South Africa, making us miss our connecting flight and leaving us at the airport, the staff took us to hotel and caught the next flight out! Everything was spectacular!”

smarTours 5 star review on 5th April 2022

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Posted 3 years ago

We love to hear this! Thank you for traveling with us!

Posted 3 years ago

“This was our third SmarTours adventure. They tend to detail at every turn. Competitive pricing, great hotels and transportation. Very knowledgeable Tour guides. Can’t wait for our next adventure.”

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Posted 3 years ago

We can't wait to host you again!

Posted 3 years ago

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

smarTours Reviews