smarTours Reviews - Read 1,494 Genuine Customer Reviews

Merchant Metrics


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 21st May 2020

smarTours 5 star review on 19th March 2020

296

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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

“Called multiple times to no avail.their email does not work for me.Trying to advise I may not be able to attend Cruise of the czars,still no info if still cancelled
First experience with this company.Not surprised they had to file for bankruptcy”

Posted 2 weeks ago

“i was going to sign up with them for a trip in 2022 but looking at these reviews i'm glad i didn't. just putting in this 1 star review to remind myself not to use them”

Posted 1 month ago

“smarTours would not refund our deposit after they cancelled our September 2020 trip to Spain because of Covid-19. We will never recommend this travel agency to anyone, and travelers should be aware they do not refund anything because of Covid-19. Do they refund money for any other situation, it is not known.

We will never use this travel agency, and we will never recommend smarTours to anyone.”

Posted 5 months ago

“Despicable company and despicable company policy. Obviously they canceled my May 2020 trip to Greece and have forced me to accept rebooking next May. Woe to anyone in my group because I will be very unhappy to have to travel with this company next year or ever. I called, I emailed, I wrote the president a letter asking for a refund. How dare they continue to have the use of my money – full payment – when they fail to provide the services I contracted for?I also requested information regarding travel insurance for the 2021 trip and, no surprise, no response at all! Horrible company, horrible customer service. You are warned. I suspect they are keeping my money because they are close to going bankrupt - Why else would they be so afraid to return what is rightly mine and hope that I will reschedule all on my own?”

Posted 11 months 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 1 year ago

“The tour was very poorly planned the tips were exhausting the tour guide was terrible I will be very hesitant to do another tour with you”

Posted 1 year ago

“I have informed smarTours that I did not feel safe on my tour due to another passenger. He was physically intimidating and verbally abusive toward me during the entire trip. I have asked for a refund of $300 for the cost of meals and tours I was advised to skip in order to avoid this man.”

Posted 1 year ago

“Our guide was GREAT!!! The itinerary was GREAT!!!! The Thai people were lovely! Elephant Nature Park was an amazing experience! I wouldn’t change a thing! Best trip ever!”

Posted 1 year ago

“The worst tour company ever. I spoke to Ms McKeon of your office who was dismissive and rude. When I spoke to her about an insurance claim she hung up on me in mid sentence
I wrote to the CEO and never got a response.”

Posted 1 year ago

“I was very dissatisfied with my SmarTours experience. I had been looking forward to the trip to Ireland for years, Ireland had been on the top of my bucket list for quite some time and I was fortunate enough to make it happen and take the trip so early in life. My aunt whom I traveled with, had used SmarTours before and had nothing but great things to say about her trips with the company.
Before getting to Ireland, the problems already started...we booked land only as we were flying from Los Angeles, California and Miami, FL and flying direct was a cheaper option for us. Nowhere on the site or in any information prior to receiving our itinerary did anything state that our tour ended in Limerick and that everyone flying back would be flying from Shannon Airport therefore we hit our first of many hiccups on the trip. We had to extend our trip, pay to change our flights, get a rental car and an additional hotel night in order to make it back to Dublin as we thought, if we fly into Dublin we're leaving from Dublin and booked roundtrip air to and from Dublin. Fine we dealt with that and made the best out of crumby situation.
Now fast forward to the start of our trip where we didn't meet our Tour Director/Guide until the second or third day of the trip. We were given very little guidance as to what to do or see outside of the scheduled activities. Our tour director treated us like children calling restroom breaks "Pee Pee stops" and was very rude regarding specific interests that we had. If someone was interested in seeing churches, he should have pointed out the churches, if someone was interested in Game of Thrones locations, he should of made mention of a few. He said from day one that he had never seen an episode of Game of Thrones and said he didn't understand why people were so interested in it. I saw more on the time on my own than I did with our tour guide. To the point that other parties on our tour would ask me, hey what should we do on our free time. One of the days of the tour, Storm Lorenzo came in. Our tour director cancelled all plans for the day and told us to stay under our duvets. The "storm" didn't hit until the evening and it would've been a wasted day, had I not done additional research and booked a day tour out to Kylemore Abbey myself. Our tour guide didn't offer us things to do that day, he didn't offer to bus us to the city center at certain times seeing as our hotel there was far from the city center...Overall we weren't given guidance and I think as our guide, he should have been more insightful. I learned more about the famine on my day tour the day of the storm than I did in the almost two weeks with our tour guide.
The meals that were provided were sub par. Breakfast was the same at all locations and in some places we had between 30-45 minutes to get breakfast. The dinner menus were all the same, a salad or vegetable soup for appetize, and irish ham, chicken or some type of fish with potatoes for dinner. There was no variety and the food had no flavor. At the Fitzwilliam hotel, we sat at the dinner table for an hour and a half without any food or appetizer having been brought out to us. I would have prefered to have paid less for the hotel and have had meals on my own to be perfectly honest. At least that way, I would have been able to try more things.”

Posted 1 year ago

“3rd tour but guide spoke poor English bedbugs in one room”

Posted 1 year ago

“Hotels were dives. Couldn't tell if staff was there to help us or just to get tips. Very disappointing trip. Phone support was unhelpful. STAY AWAY from this company.”

Posted 1 year ago

“If I could give smartour zero stars I would. I have been in a dispute with smartours for four months now. Smartours made a mistake on my last name and never fixed it! Luckily, the day before the trip I called to ensure my name was correct on my ticket. It wasnt! The day of the trip I was calling back and forth with smartours until they came to the conclusion that they needed mw to pay 150$ to fix a mistake they made or I can chose to not go on the cruise and wastes thousands! With months of calling and filing complaints on the BBB they promised me a refund and lied to my credit card company saying they did give me a check. They never did. They never call you back when they say they will. The customer service here is the WORST EVER. The stress smartours has given me the day of my trip really set a horrible mood for my trip I was planning for a year. When putting so much money into a trip like I did you want to make sure you have good customer service and a fast response in case there are problems. Go to a different company and be stress free!”

Posted 1 year ago

“Trip to Greece was very well organized
but I would like to comment on certain issues:-
1) Trip to Santorini should have been at least for 10-12 hrs at the island . We got hardly 3-4 hrs at the Oía village which is world famous.
2) There should be provisions of Coffee machines in the Hotels . It was not there in most of the Hotels —- Hotel Royal Olympic in Athens is one example.
Everything else was fine .”

smarTours 1 star review on 22nd September 2019

Posted 1 year ago

“Firstly , I should have paid attention to the fact that there was too much ‘leisure’ time. This tour was just about for hotels and local transport only.
Secondly , the tour guide failed us miserably. This was his second tour only. I have sent email and called Ritu in your office .
I will leave it at that !
Very dissatisfied”

Posted 1 year ago

“Have traveled with Smartours in the past and this was the worst experience. Trip was not presented as advertised. Entire city visits removed.. course was changed .. riverboat cabins were small and cramped.. we spent a total of 3 hours in Amsterdam for touring. I do not recommend this tour and will not be traveling with Smartours in the future..”

Posted 1 year ago

“Tour director was not organized, unable to communicate and control of the tour in general. I would not recommend Smart Tours to anyone do to the fact it was very poorly organized from the air ports, the daily programs and the un ability of the tour director to communicate to us in a precise manner. Mass confusion daily.”

Posted 1 year ago

“Not good experience at all”

Posted 1 year ago

“Egypt tour. Just returned on the 28th. First off on the plane no vegetarian meal ordered as I had requested the man who booked my tour. I went 10 hours with no food but a couple pieces of bread. First day in Egypt-I let my tour guide know I was vegetarian-what did they serve me that very night at the 'welcome dinner'? A meal of meat. Once again I went hungry. What is so hard to understand about a common meal request?
I saw many wonderful sights in Egypt which was why I went. But the total filth, flies, and constant harrassment from the locals for money basically ruined the trip. And why no bathroom on the bus? We were at the site of the 3 large pyramids and there was only a small row of port-a-potty things, gaurded over by a local who would not let anyone use them without paying him first!! Really?!!! Horrible bathroom situations everywhere we went except in the hotels. Always with someone there with their handout for 'tips'.
Mistreatment of animals there. Several of us complained to the tour guide who explained, 'we beat our animals and children here, it does not mean we don't like them, its how we discipline them'. Its a wonder I did not end up in an Egyptian jail.
First trip with SmarTours-now my last. This was not worth the money or level of harrassment we endured. Will not recommend this company to anyone.
Donna Skinner”

Posted 2 years ago

“no”

Posted 2 years ago

smarTours is rated 4.45 based on 1,494 reviews