smarTours Reviews

Name: smarTours
Address: 500 7TH AVE, 8TH FL, NEW YORK, New York
Rating: 4.43

4.4 Rating 1,658 Reviews

86 %

of reviewers recommend smarTours

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 21st April 2024

714

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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

“Heart of france smartours review Up beat, friendly Annie, our guide, was exceptional. She even made revisions to the tour to accomodate the needs of each and every traveler. She planned games and even taught us songs (even sang to us with her remarkable operatic voice) on the long drives between cities. The problem was with the tour company. Lower end hotels rarely close to city centers made it almost impossible to go out for dinners or explore city sites. The hotels rooms were musty and not the cleanest. One of our rooms had a very dirty toilet. We asked to have it cleaned but they never did so. We tried to clean it ourselves, but the poop was so caked on it did little good. We’ve traveled with smartours many times in the past and we’re pleased with their better than average hotels. Unfortunately this was not the case this time The dinners provided were inedible by most guests. The sausage for dinner # 1 was even almost raw for some. If you dont care for duck you were out of luck. It didn’t improve as time went on. I wouldn’t advise anyone to use smartours We were so disappointed”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“Just returned one week ago from SmarTours Best of Italy with Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. This was our seventh tour with SmarTours and honestly one of the worst tours we have taken. In the previous six Tours with them we have had excellent tour guides with us. Our tour guide in Italy was Ida Ceruti. Ida spoke very poor English and communicated with our group very little. There was no group meeting on arrival at our first hotel. After the first couple of days Ida stopped posting a sheet listing the days activities. Our return flight from Naples was cancelled due to a nationwide strike by luggage handlers. The strike was well publicized by the union and neither SmarTours nor their Italy subcontractor Michelangelo Tours was aware of the situation and took no action. Ida asked us to call SmarTours emergency number in the U S. Turns out the emergency number in the US is only a message center and just passes information to SmarTours when the office is open. We spent 7 hours at the Naples airport waiting for resolution. We have a trip with SmarTours scheduled for September and are thinking about cancelling. We are no longer happy SmarTours customers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 10 months ago

“Poorly planned, with an island cruise on a past its prime ship, with island stops lasting only a few hours. Trip needs to be longer to allow for less exhausting days. Some situations were inexcusable, such as having us haul our luggage from the ship to the port, a quarter mile, in a cold, howling wind. To top it off, many in our group, including my husband and I, came home with covid. That was my last trip with Smartours”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hi Lee. We are disappointed to hear your feedback. We strive to provide wonderful experiences and it sounds as if this tour did not live up to expectations. We will be investigating further regarding the condition of the trip, and we are currently working on updating our pacing.

Posted 1 year ago

“I recently returned from the Best of Spain tour, 10/1 -10/12. I have travelled with Smartours for many years, as well as made several referrals. I was very disappointed with the quality of care and service given on this last trip. This is the first time water was not available on the bus, and when asked about it only then was water made available for sale. As much as the trip costs why should the customers have to pay for water. In addition, 2 of the hotels were experiencing renovations Why would this fact not be known ahead of time so that alternative arrangements could have been made. My roommate is a pescatarian and no provisions were made for her although she filled out the form before the trip indicating her food requirements. I am very disappointed with Smartours. As far as I am concerned this will be my last trip with them.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Thank you for your feedback Maritza. We do apologize that this trip was not up to standard and did not reflect the quality you have came to expect from our tours. Our team is investigating the issues mentioned regarding the hotels. We were alerted of your roommate's dietary preferences upon arrival in destination and had our team on ground ensure that all meals following had options for them. Again, we are sorry to hear that your experience was sub par. We are always looking for ways to improve and thank you for your comments provided.

Posted 1 year ago

“I’ve already sent a review but you asked for another. Although the trip was beautiful, your ability to replace a tour guide was lacking. Thank goodness we’re we’re a group of 12 vs. 40. Once Andrew got Covid things went down hill. Our bus driver Olaf was great.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hi Jill. We are disheartened to receive your review regarding your trip. Our team worked tirelessly to try and mitigate them including finding new guides for each phase of the tour. However, we know that there are some details that should have been addressed in order to create a less stressful experience for our guests. We have opened an investigation into how our team on the ground could have handled the situation better. Unfortunately, COVID has caused an enormous impact on our industry and we are still dealing with its ramifications. We are truly sorry for your experience.

Posted 1 year ago

“Our tour director got Covid and I know you had to scramble to find subs. However, you could not do the simple thing of assigning spouses to the same cabin on the Copenhagen ferry and our tour guide had no idea where to get boarding passes for the Stockholm ferry. He had a meltdown and got into a verbal altercation with a bystander. We felt we didn't have the information we needed for that trip e.g. not knowing our dinner reservations times etc.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Hi Arvid. We are disheartened to receive your review regarding your trip. As noted per our emails, there were some issues that occurred outside of our control and we readily acknowledge those. Our team worked tirelessly to try and mitigate them including finding new guides for each phase of the tour. However, we know that there are some details that should have been addressed in order to create a less stressful experience for our guests. We have opened an investigation into how our team on the ground could have handled the situation better. Unfortunately, COVID has caused an enormous impact on our industry and we are still dealing with its ramifications. We are truly sorry for your experience.

Posted 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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 1 year 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.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year 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 1 year 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 2 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 1 year ago

“I had gone on 2 SmarTours to South America and China and they were middle of the road tours that covered most of the sites in good accommodations.However, I had a credit with the company and booked Iceland as it was 1 week and close to NY. But I was not strong enough to do the tour and cancelled 3 weeks before and the policy was to subtract $1500 and refund the rest. They did not honor their policy-they cancelled the tour afterwards. They ignored my requests to honor their policy-they refused to respond.They said I had to have a credit but I am unable to take another tour.I filed a Trip Mate insurance claim which was denied with documentation,medical statement which I submitted. It took 3 months to deny my claim. This company is a nightmare of non communication and ignoring their own policies. Buyer beware.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Hello Lois, We're sorry for the frustration you experienced and would like to thank you for your feedback. Due to the extraordinary circumstances that COVID-19 brought upon the travel industry, we were forced to make very difficult and unprecedented decisions as a business. One of those decisions was to update our cancellation policy and offer customers a future tour credit in place of a monetary refund. We understand the frustration caused by this outcome but are happy that you were able to use your credits on another tour. We'd like to thank you for sharing your thoughts both on this experience and on your most recent tour and we look forward to using our customers' feedback to restore the levels of service you expect and enhance future tour experiences. Thank you, The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Iceland was cold, but breathtaking. It would have been a very enjoyable trip if it had not been for the indifference and lack of caring of our guide, Helga She did only the essentials and never offered even the slightest information or interests to our safety and comfort. I was in a walker and when I asked her for the handicap facilities of the different locations she never gave me any type of information..in fact, she told me, "You can't expect us to worry about your problems" We received more information from the hotel staff then she ever bothered to give to us. The beauty of Iceland is the only positive part of this trip Ann”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Ann, Thank you for sharing your experience in Iceland with us. Helga normally receives positive reviews from our travelers, and we're sorry to hear you didn't have a positive experience. Additionally, we'll be sure to follow up with our partners regarding accessibility on our trips and making sure we take care of travelers with mobility challenges. Thank you, The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years 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.”

Helpful Report

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”

Helpful Report

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

“After spending a considerable amount of money & a lot of energy here are my comments for your Thailand & Cambodia tour. My guide Nok seemed like a caring person, devoted to her Buddhist faith, but this DOES NOT MAKE FOR A GOOD TOUR GUIDE. She told us Smartours gives her free reign to plan & arrange her Thailand tours. Not good, just about all we did was about Buddhism... several temples every day, donating money to the temples & the Monks. All the Hotels were far away from the city centers, making us dependent on Nok & our bus. We were captive to go only to where Nok arranged & took us. She arranged massages for us, restaurants, a visit for fine jewelry, silk, & bootleg handbags- she knew everything we spent at her friends stores & restaurants. Our hotels were not good, besides terrible locations. One of the hotels had no working telephones in our rooms, which did not make us feel safe. Many of us had electrical & plumbing issues. We also had many one night stays, having to deal with packing too often. Our Air Travel was the most grueling arrangements known to mankind. Whoever arranged these flights would never have arranged it for themselves. My return from Cambodia involved 4 flights with 5 hour layovers at crazy hours like a 1:55 am flight from Shanghai. We also had to be out of our rooms in Siem Reap at 2 pm for a 7:30 pm flight, not considerate to your travelers. We spent a full day traveling from Thailand to Cambodia, not far, but terrible planning... was this just to cut back on Smartours expenses? THE ENTIRE TOUR SHOULD HAVE BEEN ARRANGED FOR THE COMFORT AND QUALITY OF YOUR GUESTS. Motor coaching the entire country of Thailand, staying in undesirable hotels, near nothing but sometimes a mediocre mall, was not what we want to do & see when touring a fascinating country. Our time in Cambodia was somewhat better, but still our hotel was out of the downtown area. I travel a great deal but this first tour with Smartours, does not compare to my experiences with other companies. I must say I am terribly disappointed with Smartours. .”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello AnnDee, Thank you for sharing your feedback with us and we're sorry you were disappointed by your tour of Thailand. Nok normally receives high praise and we're sorry that you didn't have that experience. When we look to plan our next departures, we will keep your comments in mind from the itinerary to the accommodations to the flights. Please know we're also expanding our tour-only programs so travelers can book their own international flights with their preferred airlines and on their preferred schedule. We'd like to thank you again for your honest feedback and please know we'll use your comments to help us improve our Thailand and Cambodia tours moving forward. We hope you'll consider traveling with us again. The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Our guide was inexperienced & uninformed causing missed opportunities to experience sites to their fullest potential. Most of the participants were frustrated & disappointed by this.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

We're sorry for your experience, Benjamin, and we've updated our tour itinerary and noted your comments about the guide's inexperience. Thank you for your feedback, and we hope you'll consider traveling with us in the future. The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“We thought that the tour was minimalistic. We enjoyed the provided free time but the tour guide provided very little information at destination, especially Barcelona and Madrid. He only provided a very cheap and poor map of the city. We used the metro and figured out how to get around on foot using our own tour book but expected much better guidance, direction and insight while in Barcelona from our "guide". He basically dropped us off in the city and not much more. We have traveled to Barcelona in the past and understand how pick pockets work the streets and hotel lobbies. I warned others in our group, especially about the later. Out guide didn't warn about the lobby and of course, one person lost their wallet, passport, credit cards and all money on the departure day. The tour guide should have been far more outspoken and watchful. We thought the guide overall was inexperienced, and while friendly was of very little help for people like us that like to roam and explore on our own. The trip spent too much time in the bus; less travel time with more time at destinations would greatly improve this tour. Location of the hotels, excluding Madrid should be more centrally located. Many local guides, especially the woman in Madrid, spoke very poor English. We believe that several tours that we took with SmarTours in the past (around the late 1900s and early 2000s) were of much better quality. By contrast, we would not recommend this tour to others: a very poor value/dollar experience. We will be reluctant to take another SmarTour in the future because of this tour experience. Perhaps other tours offered by this company provide a better quality experience.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hello Robert, Thank you for your detailed feedback. We rely on feedback from our travelers to help us continuously improve and curate our tours. We are looking to ensure we provide travelers with recommendations for how to spend their time at leisure and ensure helpful information is provided either prior to the tour departure or upon arrival. We hope you'll consider traveling with us again. The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“As a first time Smart Tour traveler you failed to meet our standards. Two of the hotel you put us in were not up to what should be your minimum standard. The Phowadow Resort at Chiangrai was just adequate. Several member on our tour had to move rooms due to various problems. The Novotel Resort gave us rooms on the first floor the faced another building and had odors that were so bad that 8 of us had to refuse to stay in the rooms. It took your representative efforts to get us move to a decent rooms. If this is your normal way to treat your customers we will not be traveling with your company again. I rate your tour at 2 stars out of 5. Do better or forget about us. Eight of your customers are very unhappy including one that had been on 12 of your trips.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I have taken approx 5 SmarTours trips over the years, however, the recent SmarTours trip my wife & I took to Iceland was a disappointment. The communication was poor and we did not meet our guide until Day 3 of the trip. We have already sent in a review to Smartours and are waiting for a reply.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I have NEVER had a worse guide on a land tour than Sigrun Eiriksdottir. She did not meet us at the Reykjavik airport (5 a.m.)--instead another guide took care of us in the dark & wind & rain, & showed us various attractions for several hours until our hotel rooms were ready, around 12:30-1 p.m., on Friday, Nov. 8. THEN, she decided not to meet us for a possible Northern Lights tour that evening--a notice was posted at the reception desk instead. Saturday was a "free day" anyway, so again she didn't appear. It was rainy, so on Sunday, Nov. 10 she took us to the Blue Lagoon during the morning, & that was it for the rest of the day. Similarly, when she actually DID show up, she never was early--often 5 min. or so late. She seemed to think she was charming enough to ignore the basics of "guiding." No one is. Then on the night of the last dinner, she never thanked us for coming to Iceland, nor did she EVER have us introduce ourselves in her presence (the sub. guide did do that after the 1st breakfast, but that was not a normal way to handle that). I have taken 3 smarTours, I believe, & this was the worst guide ever. On any extended tour, anywhere. With any company. What a shame, given that the country of Iceland is such a fascinating one. Also, on the last afternoon, she vanished from the airport before several of us had the chance to give her a tip (obviously it was going to be a modest one, since she barely spent any time with us). I sincerely hope you will give serious thought to eliminating Sigrun Eiriksdottir from your group of Icelandic guides, as she obviously doesn't care to put in the time to do her job correctly. Furthermore, I shall never bother to take a smarTours trip again--there's no point in wasting my money on your company. For your information, I have traveled to nearly 150 countries, both singly, with land tours & cruises--I hope I can put this unpleasant experience out of my mind soon. And of course will never recommend smarTours to anyone, anywhere.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

smarTours is rated 4.4 based on 1,658 reviews