“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 services I contracted for? I have also requested information regarding travel insurance for the 2021 trip and, no surprise, no response.”

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Posted 3 years ago

Hello, As mentioned in our responses to your other posts, we'd like to thank you for sharing your feedback and we're sorry for the frustration you experienced. Like many businesses, we lost much of our staff during the early and toughest days of the pandemic, and struggled to keep up with our customers' needs. Due to the extraordinary circumstances that the pandemic 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 cancelation policy and offer affected customers a future tour credit in place of a monetary refund. After our Chapter 11 restructuring, our court-approved plan allows us to offer 100% credit for any payments made on tours that were impacted by COVID with no expiration date. We hope you'll consider using your credit on a future trip. We understand the frustrations caused to our travelers by this outcome, and as we work hard to rebuild our business, we are also working to restore the levels of service you expect so that we can continue to offer the once-in-a-lifetime tours we have offered for the last 25 years well into the future. Thank you, The smarTours Team

Posted 2 years ago

“Fabulous Greek Tour with Granville and Nina. Granville was passionate about Greek history and it rubbed off on all of our tour participants. Nina's education and background also provided an excellent perspective on Ancient Greece. I thought the whole experience was very enjoyable, Granville was very skilled at bringing the group together and I would love to take another smartour with him. This was our second trip with smartours and we have another smartour to South Africa booked for April-May of 2020 and look forward to it knowing everything will go smoothly.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“I recently returned from a trip of a lifetime - Smartours Spectacular Greece and Greek Island Cruise! This was my first trip with Smartours and I couldn't have been happier. With everything included, the planning and trip were hassle free! I got to see all the history, culture and beauty of Greece. The tour guides were incredible! Granville Lee-Warner, our ultimate Tour Director, welcomed us upon arrival in Athens. His incredible spirit, warm heartedness and knowledge guided us through our cruise portion of the trip. He pulled us together as one big family! At various ports of call, he was assisted by guides who displayed prodigious local knowledge. I would love to travel under his guidance again!!! Upon our return to Piraeus and mainland Greece, for the land portion of our trip, we were guided by the very knowledgeable Nina Pentogaluo. These two are remarkable assets to your company!!!! I look forward to planning another adventure with Smartours in the future!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I recently returned from a trip of a lifetime - Smartours Spectacular Greece and Greek Island Cruise! This was my first trip with Smartours and I couldn't have been happier. With everything included, the planning and trip were hassle free! I got to see all the history, culture and beauty of Greece. The tour guides were incredible! Granville Lee-Warner, our ultimate Tour Director, welcomed us upon arrival in Athens. His incredible spirit, warm heartedness and knowledge guided us through our cruise portion of the trip. He pulled us together as one big family! At various ports of call, he was assisted by guides who displayed prodigious local knowledge. I would love to travel under his guidance again!!! Upon our return to Piraeus and mainland Greece, for the land portion of our trip, we were guided by the very knowledgeable Nina Pentogaluo. These two are remarkable assets to your company!!!! I look forward to planning another adventure with Smartours in the future!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“With dear friends and veteran travelers, Sue and Pete, and following a long flight over the Atlantic and most of the Mediterranean, our adventure in Greece began in Athens. We spent our first afternoon and night there before boarding a Celestyal Cruise ship the next morning at Piraeus (near Athens) for a four-night Greek island cruise. Our cruise included visits to Mykonos, Kusadasi, Ephesus (Turkey), Patmos, Rhodes, Crete, and beautiful Santorini. We were guided by the ultimate Tour Director, Granville Lee-Warner, who was assisted at various ports of call by local guides who displayed a prodigious local knowledge. Upon our return to Piraeus and mainland Greece, our tour group of 28 boarded a bus for the land portion of our adventure. For the remainder of our adventure, we were led by a very knowledgeable tour guide, Nina Pentogaluo, as we journeyed to Delphi, Olympia, and Mycenae. We completed our adventure with several more days in Athens before flying home via Emerates Airline (an interesting experience all by itself, the story of which is more suitable for another time). The food was awesomely delicious everywhere we dined (I could not get enough of those remarkable Greek salads). The various hotels where we stayed exceeded our expectations, especially in Delphi and Athens. The hotel in Athens included a roof-top open air restaurant with a view of the Acropolis and Parthenon. We made friends with fellow adventurers who came from all parts of the U.S. (including our home state of Florida) and exchanged email addresses so we can keep in touch. Along we way, we were coddled, educated, fed well, and entertained by our intrepid SmarTour guides, Granville and Nina. While some of us had concerns about the unusual behavior of a few tourists we ran into from time to time (not a part of our group), the people in Greece were always friendly and helpful. We learned that English is mandatory in all Greek schools so communicating was never a problem. The Euro was easy to manage and most places also took US dollars. Unlike our previous experiences in Egypt, there were very few places where we had to pay to use the bathrooms (W.C. in Greece, which, as was pointed out to us is strange because there is no 'W" in the Greek language). See my photos here: www.deano.zenfolio.com/greece2019”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“With dear friends and veteran travelers, Sue and Pete, and following a long flight over the Atlantic and most of the Mediterranean, our adventure in Greece began in Athens. We spent our first afternoon and night there before boarding a Celestyal Cruise ship the next morning at Piraeus (near Athens) for a four-night Greek island cruise. Our cruise included visits to Mykonos, Kusadasi, Ephesus (Turkey), Patmos, Rhodes, Crete, and beautiful Santorini. We were guided by the ultimate Tour Director, Granville Lee-Warner, who was assisted at various ports of call by local guides who displayed a prodigious local knowledge. Upon our return to Piraeus and mainland Greece, our tour group of 28 boarded a bus for the land portion of our adventure. For the remainder of our adventure, we were led by a very knowledgeable tour guide, Nina Pentogaluo, as we journeyed to Delphi, Olympia, and Mycenae. We completed our adventure with several more days in Athens before flying home via Emerates Airline (an interesting experience all by itself, the story of which is more suitable for another time). The food was awesomely delicious everywhere we dined (I could not get enough of those remarkable Greek salads). The various hotels where we stayed exceeded our expectations, especially in Delphi and Athens. The hotel in Athens included a roof-top open air restaurant with a view of the Acropolis and Parthenon. We made friends with fellow adventurers who came from all parts of the U.S. (including our home state of Florida) and exchanged email addresses so we can keep in touch. Along we way, we were coddled, educated, fed well, and entertained by our intrepid SmarTour guides, Granville and Nina. While some of us had concerns about the unusual behavior of a few tourists we ran into from time to time (not a part of our group), the people in Greece were always friendly and helpful. We learned that English is mandatory in all Greek schools so communicating was never a problem. The Euro was easy to manage and most places also took US dollars. Unlike our previous experiences in Egypt, there were very few places where we had to pay to use the bathrooms (W.C. in Greece, which, as was pointed out to us is strange because there is no 'W" in the Greek language).”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Customers be aware... I have an upcoming trip scheduled and wanted to change the departure date. This company CHARGES A FEE of $450 per person to make changes to your reservation. Totally insane.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Our Spectacular Greece trip with Smartours was fabulous. Our guide for the Island Cruise portion of the trip was Granville Lee-Warner and he was phenomenal! His knowledge and love of his country together with his enthusiasm made our trip extra special. Each day was a well organized and orchestrated excursion to different islands and historic sites. The Celestyal Olympia cruise ship was wonderful and the staff provided excellent service in the restaurants and bars as well as cabin service. The land portion of our tour was also special. Our guide for that portion was Kassandraa Porioti and she was competent and knowledgeable in both the history and culture of the many places we visited. Our group consisted of 27 people and they were excited to be on the tour. The tour covered a large portion of Greece and the Greek Islands and was a great value for the money. We were not able to spend a great deal of time in any one area or island because the tour was so extensive, covering as many areas as possible in 11 days. The food was good, especially in the small, authentic Greek tavernas and cafes. Hotel accommodations were first class in locations that provide great access to the sites and sounds of the cities. This was our seventh tour with Smartours and we were completley satified.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Spectacular Greece Reviews