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
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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

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Amazing experience, meticulously planned and executed...not possible without Eiman Fikry,”

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Posted 6 years ago

“The whole experience was 25% Better than I expected. Our tour escort was the best anyone could be on this tour. I opted for most of the optional excursions and found all to be very good except the golden triangle excursion because the boat ride was nothing special. The floating markets and hill village small boat rides were more fun and interesting. My negative was the flights/layovers coming home. More than 9 hours layover in the Beijing Airport was disappointing.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“The tour guide was excellent. The hotels were nice. The return travel arrangements were terrible. We wasted a whole day just sitting in airports. Totally unacceptable. The golden triangle tours could have been omitted it wasn’t much of a tour.”

smarTours 4 star review on 19th November 2018

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Posted 6 years ago

“Guide was excellent-informative, knowledgeable, well organised Hotels were great except for hotel in Swaziland-it was rundown and shabby Touring stops were great. I think the jeep tour in Kruger Park should be included in the price of the trip as no one seems to take bus ride through the park and its an added expense. Tour in Zululand was hokey, staged and everyone had their hand out for money.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“have taken 4 or 5 trips with smart ours ,all have been positive or i would not have continued to book.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Reservation and information provided was excellent.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“This was our tenth Smartours trip and as usual, the guide, organization and accommodations were superb. I would recommend more time in Cairo. The tour group was there for one day only--the Cairo Museum and the bazaar--and is not enough for this wonderful city. We stayed five extra days and saw many other things that could be included if the tour were longer. We do not like the shopping/sales stops, but I have heard that all tour companies include them. Even so, including three of them, (cotton, alabaster and papyrus) seems like too many for six busy days of activities. (Of course saying on the bus is an option, and I did that for two of them.) Besides the time difference (jet lag), the schedule was grueling, in that our wake-up calls were at 3, 4, or 5 o'clock most every day (even on non-travel days). I realize this may be unavoidable, but it caused perpetual fatigue. However, we would recommend this trip with those caveats. I so appreciate that Smartours goes to Egypt now. Nice job!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“a wonderful guide that made our tour very special. The only negative was the 8 hr. layoverbin Shanghai. The $37 you negotiated for the lounge turned out to be $37 every 2 hrs which was ridiculous.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Randy and Martha were wonderful guides. Their organizational skills and their attention to details, along with Hubert, who got us safely to all destinations (and helped us on and off the bus as well as handled all our luggage without problems), made our SmarTours trip a superb educational, culturally enriching, and fun-filled adventure!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“We were very happy with the hotels and tours. You keep us busy, so I feel my money was well-spent. My only problem was the food. I realize the lazy susan dinners were an easy way to feed everyone quickly, but the food became monotonous. A buffet would have been much more to my liking at least for a couple meals. I hated eating my meal in bits and pieces on the small plate.”

smarTours 5 star review on 19th November 2018

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Posted 6 years ago

“Just completed the 10/31 Thailand tour that was a great tour until time to return home. It took nearly two days to get home and it was the worst travel experience ever!!! The trip home was a killer and the reason I will never travel with smarTours again unless these two questions below are answered to my satisfaction: This is the travel breakdown: 19 hours - flight time for our three legs to get home 14 hours - sitting in airports 5 hours - sitting at Empress Hotel NEARLY TWO DAYS including a drive from LAX to Las Vegas..... 1. The last day, we checked out of the hotel at noon but did not start return home till 5pm, or five hours later. Why could we not check out mid-morning and immediately start the return trip home from Chiang Mai and fly to Beijing? It makes no sense to sit in the hotel for 5 hours, fly south Bangkok only to back track to Beijing!!! Why was the flight necessary? This step kills nearly 10 hours and adds another flight to the trip home!!!!! 2. Sitting in the Beijing airport for 8 hours were the longest and worst part of the trip. This is the longest lay-over ever and must be improved. The airport was cold (they don't turn on heat till end of Nov.), uncomfortable, few good restaurants, no good resting places and wi-fi did not work. Does it make any sense to sit in a airport for 8 hours to you? If you have a contact person regarding these issues, please provide name and phone number and would love to talk with that person. Looking forward to a plausible explanation for this travel plan of two days to get home. If I knew the return trip was that long/bad, I would not have booked. This return process is horrible and must be improved. On the positive side, great tour and Nok was a great tour guide...... THANKS - Roy Oxenrider”

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Posted 6 years ago

“The places were wonderful, people great. Did not really like our guide RON. He was very knowledgeable but ran on his schedule. We were on vacation and when we wanted to take more pictures..not permitted. No water on the bus, refrig was locked. Went ahead of the group and 6 lost him. It is his job but it was my vacation. Victoria Falls Guild cared. Took his time and not question was treated as it came from a 3rd grader and could be repeated.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“The trip was fantastic and very informative. I had,studied South Africa geography, history and politics in college but seeing the country 1st hand was phenomenal. The guide (Charles) was fantastic and my wife and I sat in the front of the bus as he told us so much about South Africa. The trip to Kruger National Park was an experience that should not be missed. I was amazed at the animals and how close they got to us. I will remember and cherish this trip forever.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“It was very rushed, we had 9 days, really only 7 cause of flights and 2 of those 7 were wasted on driving. Maybe less time spent at the airport would help. We had a 3+ hours of time to kill between arriving in Jburg and transferring to Cape Town, it would have been nice to arrive in Cape Town sooner.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Our Tour Director Khalid Lamdira was the very best. He was well organized and very well versed about his country. Prepared us all for every day, thoughful of everyones needs and very helpful. Barack, the assistant was always there heping people as needed with a smile and hand. Miss him already. Aziz,our driver was amazing. He had safety as his prime concern. Each morning greeted us with a smile and greeting. Also helpful to all who needed extra help at hotel..”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Overall 3 stars. The guide was very good. 5 stars The hotels were comfortable. 4 stars The attractions were well chosen. 5 stars. 1 star for the following: There was too much time spent on the bus. It was uncomfortable to be seated for so long (two days!) The return air trip was AWFUL. The trip took 31 hours from Chiang Mai to LAX due to poor connections and long layovers arranged by Smartours! The long layovers in Bangkok and Beijing were simply not acceptable. They were excessive and stressful. Leaving Bangkok at 1:05am was very bad planning by ST. We arrived from Chiang Mai at @6pm and left for Beijing after a 7 hour layover! It is almost a week after the return flight and I am still exhausted due to the bad flight planning. The NY office staff was disorganized and non-communicative for long periods of time. I had to contact them for information that should have been sent but wasn't. They seemed unaware of problems even when explanation was given repeatedly. They required a doctor's letter for a seat request which Air China repeatedly told me they did not receive or require. The ST staff refused any other help with the matter, not even supplying a contact number at Air China, which was extremely difficult to contact. Help finally came from another airline giving a number at AC that was actually answered. This trip's travel plans were in stark contrast to the wonderful previous trip I made to Africa with ST.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Overall, the trip was great & affordable. However, a few recommendations to consider. — group check-in is a time suck, book people on their own itineraries, especially when flying so much in a 3-week window. — a local guide is imperative (living in Perth, a city we don’t even travel to, doesn’t not a guide make). This should be a given. — itinerary should be shifted to focus on key areas - as an example, spending more time in Dunedin, New Zealand, than in Sydney, Australia, is absurd. — accommodations could stand to be reviewed / assessed - some of the hotels were a outdated and unclean.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Fantastic!!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Excellent tour director in Egypt, great hotels and meals, saw everything we wanted to visit Have already booked Sicily June 2019”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I had a lovely trip to the Galapagos! However, I think it is unfortunate that one can't get a seat until the day of the flight at the airport. It was also hard to schedule my flight home because we did not know until very close to the trip what our return time would be to Miami.”

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Posted 6 years ago

smarTours is rated 4.4 based on 1,665 reviews