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smarTours Reviews

4.4 Rating 1,658 Reviews

86 %

of reviewers recommend smarTours

Company Reviews

Product Reviews

4.4

Based on 1,658 reviews


Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	3.7 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 50 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:

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

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smarTours 5 star review on 13th June 2024

smarTours 5 star review on 8th June 2024

smarTours 5 star review on 3rd June 2024

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smarTours 5 star review on 1st June 2024

smarTours 5 star review on 23rd May 2024

smarTours 5 star review on 19th May 2024

379

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

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

Posted 4 years ago

We're so thrilled you enjoyed your trip! Thanks for your kind words and we hope to see you again soon!

Posted 2 years 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 4 years ago

Hello George, Thank you for your feedback and we'll keep your comments in mind regarding the visited sites. We're so pleased you had a great trip to India and Nepal and we hope you'll join us again soon! Ths smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Loved our tour of Colombia. Excellent tour director and local guides. Accommodations were all 4 or 5 star. Colombian people were very welcoming. Daily itineraries were well thought out and very informative. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone interested in learning the history of Colombia.”

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you for your feedback! We're so pleased to hear you enjoyed your tour of Colombia and we hope you'll travel with us again soon!

Posted 2 years ago

“Trip was well paced and great knowledgeable tour guides. Only issue we had is our returning flight was cancelled on the last day causing us to miss our connecting flight so we had to buy an expensive last minute flight and were not reimbursed.”

Posted 4 years ago

“This review is 4 stars rather than five due to the overall rating of Colombia rather than the tour. This was an invitation tour run by Betty Levin. As usual, having Betty as the overall tour director was excellent. Her ability to work with groups, keep us informed, and provide insights throughout the trip was superb. The tour director, Alejandro Garcia, was truly great. Local guides were also very good, especially in Medellin. Hotels, overall, were very good and well-located in areas that were comfortable, close to stores and restaurants (The one exception was in the Coffee Triangle where the resort was some distance from anything and all dinners were had there). Note that hotels were not in the historical centers of cities as those areas are not yet developed for handling foreign tourists and are not as comfortable for meandering around on your own. That said, Colombia is unfortunately ready for prime time traveling. Bogota was disappointing in many ways. The visit to Zipaquira and the underground salt cathedral was time consuming and not very special. A visit to the city's botanical gardens would have been more worthwhile. Equally disappointing was the trip to the top of Guadalupe, where the views were partially blocked by electrical wires and the church (the only other thing there) was closed. The Paloquenao market was fun to visit, and the Botero Museum was great. The rest of La Candelaria area was somewhat interesting, but much of the area has been stripped of its Spanish architecture. The Coffee Triangle was superb, a full-day of coffee-related activities. The drive from the Triangle to Medellin was UNBEARABLE. 11 hours on a bus over bad roads. UNACCEPTABLE. Commercial rates for a flight between the 2 places was $100 per person the day before the drive (I checked online) and entailed about 3+ hours. A much better way to get to Medellin when this drive was a full 10% of the entire tour. Medellin's Comuna 13, the Metro Cable, and Metro were are outstanding. Downtown Medellin had little Spanish influence left, leaving only the city's Botero collections were of interest. We left the tour after Medellin but did go to Cartagena on our own: the highlight of Colombia! Great city, great people, great food, great sights.”

Posted 4 years ago

“I was on the tour of Thailand and Ankor Wat from January 13-30,2020. Our guide, Nok, shared her wonderful country with us and made sure we saw and experienced everything. She took care of every detail. We sampled snacks she brought on the bus and besides sharing interesting facts with us, she had a wonderful sense of humor. All hotels and breakfast buffets were were very good to excellent. Some highlights were the Elephant reserve and cooking school. Our three days with Sochearn in Cambodia were also filled with interesting sights and information. The hotel and staff there are excellent as is the buffet breakfast and other meals at the Rice Kitchen. I also want to thank SmarTours for rerouting us for the trip home on the 30th. Our group had contacted the travel department because of the Coronovirus. We didn't want to have a seven hour layover in Shanghai, so we were rerouted through Qatar just before we checked in at the airport. Nok and Kesara stayed with us to help with the last minute change until all of us went to the gate. They both, along with SmarTours went above and beyond to make sure we got home safely! Thank you for a wonderful trip and experience.!!!”

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Terri, Thank you for your detailed feedback! We're so pleased you enjoyed your Thailand and Cambodia tour and that the elephant reserve and cooking school were highlights! We hope to see you again soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“An outstanding experience! Had the tour finished after the New Zealand leg, we still would have felt as though we had gotten our money's worth. Adrian in NZ and Mark in Australia were wonderful. Very knowledgeable and helpful in organizing optional tours, transportation and in some instances tours not even offered by SmarTours. We were with a great group and we really felt like a team! One suggestion might be to offer a round of golf (Queenstown in NZ and/or Cairns in Australia) as a possible option. Very reasonably priced and relatively easy access. We were fortunate enough to do this on our own but a lot of folks said they would have enjoyed the opportunity as well. So, great job SmarTours! This was our second tour with you and we'll be back!”

smarTours 5 star review on 17th February 2020

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Brian, Thank you for your feedback! We're glad you enjoyed your trip and had a great experience with Adrian and Mark. Thank you for your suggestion about offering golf to future travelers on this tour. We'll be sure to keep this recommendation in mind as we look to our future departures! We hope to see you again soon, The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“The Customer Service was not very responsive to our questions, particularly as we had taken a Land Tour only. In Cambodia, we had multiple visits to different temples the first day & was very tiring. Some visits could have been done on the second day. The tour director in Thailand was very good.”

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you for your feedback! We're happy to hear that your experience in Thailand was very good but we're sorry for any frustration with our customer service team's response times. As we look to rebuild our business and expand our team, we hope to restore the levels of service you've come to expect from smarTours! We hope you'll consider traveling with us again in the future. The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Extremely enjoyable and very well run. We have been on trips that were much more expensive but not run as well as this trip. Special thanks to our guide Fernando who was exceptional. He was organized, informative and delightful to be with. He was also extremely attentive to the needs of the individuals on the trip. Alice Bock”

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you for your kind words, Alice! We're so pleased that Fernando was an exceptional tour director and that everything went smoothly on your trip. We hope you'll join us on another once-in-a-lifetime adventure soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“It would be nicer to have other attractions included in the iternery rather than just mostly buddhist temples in Bangkok. Should include more attractions in Bali.”

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you for sharing your feedback, Chai-Yan. We rely on traveler feedback like yours to help us continuously curate and refine our tours. We hope you'll join us on another adventure soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Although our tour guide in Iceland was extraordinarily good, we will never use SmarTours again. We are telling all of our family and friends about this. SmarTours used to be a good travel company, but something has happened since we used them five years ago. They have devolved into nothing more than an unprofessional, clueless call center. SmarTours lures you in with a $100/per person discount if you pay your deposit by e-check. Six months later, when the balance is due, if you pay with a credit card, you will get an unpleasant surprise: your invoice will have a line that says "Forfeiture of eCheck Discount" and $100/person is added to the balance. You CANNOT pay by phone. The online system DOES NOT ALERT YOU of this "forfeiture." When I saw the invoice, the payment was still Pending on my credit card. THREE SmarTours call center representatives, including a supervisor, said it was no problem to fix this. I just needed to notify my credit card company and call them back, which I did. When I called back, the call center representative said there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a manager. She would not connect me but said she would have someone call me back. They never did. I have been BETRAYED, RIPPED OFF, and will NEVER use SmarTours again. You have been warned about this cheapskate, underhanded, chintzy company. BEWARE.”

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Kathryn, Thank you for sharing your experience with us and we're sorry for the frustration. We've tried to make the requirements for the eCheck discount clear in the payment portal, but we understand that there is room for improvement and have been working diligently to explore additional ways to further call this out. Please know we take your feedback seriously and are using your comments to improve our online booking and payment experiences. Thank you, The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“This was my first trip with Smartours. I felt it was a good value for the money. Our tour guide, Jeremy Poole, was excellent. Very knowledgeable, very patient and kind. I highly recommend him. My mom got sick and we ended up off the tour for a few days. That was scary but I was able to keep in touch with Jeremy's colleague Ron McGregor (Jeremy was in an area with minimal cell coverage) and that was very comforting. Ron was a huge help. One thing I would recommend changing about this tour, leaving Capetown and flying to Durban, we had a very early morning flight that required a 3:30am wakeup to get to the airport in time. I understand schedules need to be set but that one was unacceptable. It was a very long day with less than adequate sleep and with most travelers between 65-85 years old, it was very difficult. it adds to the exhaustion that already comes with this kind of trip (long plane travel, jet lag, on and off buses, on a very fixed schedule). I recommend you adjust this and find a more appropriate flight schedule from Capetown to Durban.”

Posted 4 years ago

Hello JoAnn, Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We understand that early morning wake-ups are difficult and as we look to our future departures we will try to minimize any early flights. We're glad you enjoyed your first smarTours trip with Jeremy and that Ron was able to step in and help when your mother wasn't feeling well. We hope you'll join us on another once-in-a-lifetime trip soon! Thank you, The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“The trip to South Africa proved to be even more than I expected. The country is amazing and our guide, Jeremy Poole, was excellent. Can't praise him enough. Unfortunately I became ill and had to spend one night in a hospital. I am now hoping that your insurance company does the right thing. One suggestion.....do tell all future travelers to this country that they read a book called KAFFIR BOY....AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY MARK MATHABANE.”

Posted 4 years ago

Hi Lola, We're so happy to hear that your trip exceeded your expectations and thank you for your reading recommendation! We're sorry to hear you became ill and hope you had a swift recovery. As the world opens up, we hope you'll join us on another bucket list adventure! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“My wife and I had a very good time in Thailand and Cambodia. We were there January 13-30, 2020. Both tour guides in each country were excellent! A nd very accommodating. MANY THANKS to Smartours and much gratitude for getting our group re-routed home to avoid getting near the corona virus outbreak in China! I will recommend Smartours to all our friends and will also plan another trip with you in the future!! Yay SMARTOURS!!!”

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Paul, Thank you for your feedback. We're so happy that you enjoyed your tour of Thailand and Cambodia and that you had such excellent guides! We hope to see you again soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Carlos was the best guide!!! Itinerary was excellent..hotels ok except Cartagena hotel...very unsatisfactory..staff did not speak English...location terrible.. breakfast unappealing...day bus trip to Medellin very long and uncomfortable... We did enjoy the trip despite the above...PS we booked boat trip to Rosario islands through concierge at Cartagena hotel...Trip was terrible...Boat broke down twice...once going to islands and then again on return...very frightening as we had to transfer to new boat both times on water...we asked hotel to request refund and have emailed three times for a response...no answer... Thank you for asking for our opinion.”

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you, Marian, for your feedback. We're thrilled you had a great time with Carlos and enjoyed the itinerary. We've noted your feedback about the hotels including the services booked through the Cartagena hotel and have made updates to our Colombia program! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“The actual tour was fine. The two guides were excellent - very knowledgeable and accommodating. The hotels were lovely and well located. The problem was the trip was misrepresented. The trip was advertised as January 10 -19. In reality we left January 11 and left on Jan. 18 to arrive back on Jan 19. The flights were awful and showed very little regard for the traveler. We left Miami at 1:00am arriving in Lima 6:00am then had a six hour lay over before finally arriving in Quito about 5:30pm. The trip back was equally cumbersome. Clearly these were the cheapest flights available. No thought was given to how it would effect the travel experience. I have taken several trips with Smartours from 2003-2010 and was generally very satisfied. I can only think that there was a change in management. Recently, I have been traveling with OAT and Road Scholar and was very satisfied. I will never travel with Smartours again and will warn anyone who indicates they are interested in Smartours to review the travel arrangements before booking the trip.”

Posted 4 years ago

“I have traveled to all continents and I found China Eastern Air to be a terrible air line because of narrow isles and little space in the rear of the plane, and the airline's food was terrible. The hotels were good and breakfast was the best meal of the day. Most of the tours were too long for my wife and me who are 77 and 79 years old Some days began at 7:30 and ended at 5:00 We did not go tours the last two days. A more concise itinerary would be appreciated”

Posted 4 years ago

Thanks for your feedback, George! We rely on feedback from travelers like you to continuously curate and update our tours. We'll keep your feedback regarding the length of the tour days in mind as we plan our future tours. We'll also revisit airline and flight schedules, but please know we're looking to expand our tour-only offerings so that travelers can book their own flights that work best for their schedule. We hope to see you again soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Except for the return flight on a 767 Latam flight, this was a wonderful trip in all ways.”

smarTours 5 star review on 13th February 2020

Posted 4 years ago

Hi Esther, Thank you for the feedback about your trip and the return flight. We're glad you had a great tour experience and will revisit our options for the return flight on future departures. We hope you'll join us on another adventure soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Our guides, Chaiyan Saisin (Thailand) and Sokly (Cambodia) made our trip with SmarTours amazingly informative and personal. They introduced us to their cultures with pride. We were taken care of every moment as we traveled in their countries. The hotels were excellent, the buses clean and cool, and the breakfast buffets were a delight to the eyes and stomach. The daily tours were very interesting. We feel we learned a lot on this trip with SmarTours.”

smarTours 5 star review on 13th February 2020

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you for your kind words and feedback, Dennis! We're so pleased you had a great experience in Thailand and Cambodia with your guides. We hope to see you again on another once-in-a-lifetime journey! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Tour to Egypt was excellent”

Posted 4 years ago

Thank you, Carol! We're so happy you had a great time and we hope to see you again soon! The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

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smarTours is rated 4.4 based on 1,658 reviews