smarTours Reviews

Name: smarTours
Address: 500 7TH AVE, 8TH FL, NEW YORK, New York
Rating: 4.42

4.4 Rating 1,663 Reviews

86 %

of reviewers recommend smarTours

4.4

Based on 1,663 reviews

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

765

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

“Excellent tour guide (Suzy) who was the heart and soul of this tour. Not only was she organized and professional (and a great guide!) but she was authentic and genuine. I hope to make my way down the entire Smartours Catalogue and i wanted to believe that Smartours was top of its game at this price point. I do believe I should consider comparing future tours with Gate 1 only because I did research this trip and Gate 1's version has hotels which seem markedly of higher quality than we experienced on this tour at a comparable or slightly less cost overall. The three hotels in the middle of the tour were not of a quality that I expect on a group tour. The Topland was a disgrace-filthy, run down and frightening with an inedible breakfast. These hotels (and I know they are only for the evening but still...) were unacceptable. We do not require luxury but we do expect clean and of minimum standard. Please consider making the cooking class an optional activity. As a non-cook I must warn people like me that this is not a beginners class. You are expected to chop garlic, cook with a wok at high flame in a rapid fashion. Secondly please consider swapping out the elephant ride for an elephant sanctuary. I think many younger customers are not going to be comfortable with a show in which elephants perform tricks ( and we know how tricks are taught) and then are ridden by tourists. Wouldn't an elephant conservancy be a more moral and satisfying option? I hope I haven not offended with my review but I did wish to submit the most honest review possible. I was very pleased overall and would gladly do Smartours again. I do believe I have to consider Gate 1 alternatives, which I had hoped was unnecessary, because of the hotel issue”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Colorful Costa Rica was a tour that not only was a fine example of eco-tourism but it was tremendously enhanced by a fantastically knowledgeable tour guide who was also a qualified naturalist. The hotels not only were clean and well equipped with good quality and safe food but two of the four were gorgeous and exceeded all expectations. The trip covered much of the north of the country and we saw both coasts without an excessive time in the bus. The driver was superb and careful. This was a second wonderful experience with SmarTours and it has hit home runs for both!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Excellent tour from start to finish! Would definitely recommend SmarTours!!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Your guide was excellent.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Would have liked a block of rooms that kept the group more together in the hotels”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Hello - This would have been a great tour but for the experience at the outset. My husband and I are in the group of 8 travelers who due to a delay out of JFK, missed the connection to Saigon and lost a day of the tour. We were met in Shanghai by a China Eastern representative who handed us a slip of computer paper with our names on it, nothing much else. She did not speak English but we were able to figure out that the airline would provide a hotel for the night and that we should show up at the airport the next day for the flight to Saigon (they only have one flight a day in late evening). We were pointed toward immigration and had to figure out on our own that we had to apply for one-day visas to stay in Shanghai. After the ordeal with immigration, we assembled with all of the others who missed connections and put on buses to the hotel (absolutely no communications from anyone except that we should board the bus). My husband and I sent to a different hotel from the other 6 members of our SmarTours group (at this point, I did not know who the other members were). Turns out that we were put up in a hotel housing mostly Chinese visitors so I think that we were put there because of our ethnicity. At the free-for-all check-in, the hotel handed out boxes of Chinese take out food for dinner. We were probably lucky that they ran out before we checked in. I don't speak Chinese so we had a tough time there. It was also a dingy hotel located way out of city center. We tried to make use of the day and looked into possibly going into Shanghai but when we finally found someone who understood a little English, she told us that this was a bad idea because we were so far out of the city. Instead, we sat in the hotel room watching Chinese TV (no CNN or other English channels!) until check out and proceeded to the airport at around 2 pm because there was nothing to do near the hotel and the airport would be less depressing than the hotel for the next 8+ hours before our flight. When we got to the airport, I inquired at the China Eastern desk about something another delayed traveler told us about the night before. He said that the members of his group were each given a sum of yuan (close to $100) for the delayed flight. The China Eastern representative did not speak or understand much English but he said that he would look into it. After about an hour or so, we were told to follow another person who I thought was taking us to an office where the other traveler told us that the yuan was being dispersed. When we started to exit the airport, I stopped the person to ask where we were going. Mostly through hand gestures, he was able to communicate that he was taking us back to the hotel to get dinner. We were exasperated at this point so we got into the hotel shuttle bus to go back to the hotel. When we arrived he disappeared. We waited in the lobby and he returned a short time later with a bag of take-out food. He pointed us to the breakfast room and gave us the bag of food. He later came back with a room key where we were allowed to stay until the shuttle bus back to the airport. Relating this experience is funnier than when it was all happening but we lived through it. When we finally got to Saigon we learned that SmartTours arranged for us to get the guided city tour that we missed but the fact is that we missed going to the Mekong Delta which was one of the reasons why my husband and I picked this trip. Instead, we got to spend a day in a cheap hotel in Shanghai, a city I once loved but now can't bear the thought of visiting again. It was very disappointing that SmartTours did not set up communications with the eight of us who were in this situation so that we could at least communicate with each other and not feel so isolated and abandoned. We felt further deprived when our fellow travelers told us about how great the Mekong Delta trip was and showed us their pictures. The intrepid 8 all feel that at the very least, we should be reimbursed for the loss of one day of the tour. I hope that you will give this due consideration. Thank you.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“The closely scheduled flights resulted in us missing a flight and missing a full day and night of our tour. No one called from Smartours to walk us through what to do when this happened or even express concern. We each fended for ourselves in Shanghai. Given that we missed a day we had to choose between seeing the Mekong Delta or seeing the tunnels used by the North Vietnamese soldiers. Most of us wanted to do both so we were sorely disappointed. Our guide was very good (Tommy) so this rating in no way represents the work he did. The tour was good under his guidance. At the end of the trip we once again had problems. We were told that we could use an airport lounge at a discounted rate. Someone met us at the airport, but she was not able to communicate well with the people in charge. It took us over an hour of standing around arguing with the airport personnel before we were allowed to enter the lounge. They wanted one of us to put the whole bill on one credit card. They finally relented and let us each pay individually. I commend you for the lounge idea, but the poor communication and wait was unbearable in the middle of the night. I took out the trip insurance, and can submit my hotel bill to them. However, that does not make up for the lost day or the added stress of this poor handling of the flight arrangements. I am requesting reimbursement of the value of the missed day and the inconvenience caused me. I have taken nine trips with Smartours and have always raved about the company to my friends. In fact two friends joined me to make this their first Smartours experience. Lucky for them they made their own flight arrangements and had no problems with their air travel. Again, the land portion of the trip was great, and I would give our guide and drivers excellent marks. I am very dissatisfied, however, with the flight arrangements.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Overall we enjoyed our trip. The guide Dina was fantastic!! Here are our comments to improve the tour: 1. You must have at least one planned excursion each day. You can't give a free day in a small place like Luxor. Its better to have an extra day in Cairo. 2. There was too much free time in Cairo on the last day. The guide was rushing us out of the Museum to be back at the hotel by 12:30 with nothing to do rest of the day!!!. 3. you should add some visits to the top mosques and churches in Cairo. there is plenty of time for that. 4. You MUST include water with all your meals and stay at the boat. Its ridiculous to be paying for water in a country like Egypt where you cant drink tap water. That is a basic need. Even your welcome dinner didn't include water!!!! 5. Make Abu Simbel a bus trip from Aswan. That would be lot more fun and more people will sign for it. That is how other tours are doing it. We get to see the countryside and it becomes affordable to more people. Thanks”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Positive: The trip to Egypt was well planned and organized with an excellent tour guide for the excursions. Transportation and hotel accomdations were superb. Negative: An additional charge ($3.00) were added to our visa fee. We had to report through custom anyway. I would have preferred the option of doing it myself. There were too many stops for personal shopping that were planned by the tour guide.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“This was the first time we traveled with smarTours. I felt the information leading up to the actual trip was pretty minimal. The hotels were lovely but the tour director was mostly not around. In the seven days of 'tour' he actually was only there for three of them. He talked people out of the optional tours and we ended up on two full days on our own. This is good and not so good. Will we travel with smarTours again, I'm not sure.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Greetings - we're sorry the trip didn't live up to your expectations. There are two days of leisure built into the itinerary: one in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai. We appreciate the candid feedback - Mohamed normally receives very positive feedback. We do hope you'll consider traveling with us again in the future.

Posted 6 years ago

“I enjoyed my two previous tours with smarTours to Myanmar and Ukraine, but this Thailand & Cambodia trip is nowhere as remarkable or enjoyable. The return connection in Beijing was awful. I almost finished reading War & Peace. We did not get to see downtown Bangkok and the boat ride scenery as seen in most brochures. I wished more meals were included. The coach was comfortable, and our excellent guide Susie was knowledgeable and meticulous.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Mohammed and his driver were the best. Mohammed was very professional and kind along with being very knowledgeable. Kudos to Mohammed.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“We had a great guide Suzie in Thailand.Cambodia guide Narain was average, appeared disinterested to answer questions. Overall we enjoyed the tour. I suggest you should also arrange domestic flights for people who need. It helps to avoid carrying bags to international flights and avoid paying extra bag fees. Other tour companies do. China air is below arerage, less amenities and food very meager and poor quality. Vegetarians suffer. It’s my honest opinion. If domestic flights on same ticket will sign up for tours more I am sure. You should give some thought. Thanks.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Every one was great. The small number of people in our group, made it a very close nit bunch.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Beyond expectations. Well organized with a great local guide as has been our experience with Smartours on every occasion.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“We had an extremely successful trip with Smartours. The tour guides were extremely knowledgeable about Capetown and Johannesburg. I will definitely recommend this tour to anyone. Thanks again Smartours!!!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Very knowledgeable and helpful tour guide - Tommy. Well organized tour.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I would give a very good rating except for the problem of the JFK group who missed the first day of our tour due to a delayed flight to Shanghai. I cannot believe that Tommy the guide in Saigon did not reach out to us once he realized 8 people were absent. No one at smarTours contacted us until after we had to get hold of them. Very upsetting, particularly as I was traveling solo and knew nobody and did not speak Chinese.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“We enjoyed the trip but was a bit unorganized. No optional tour info was available until the last minute.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I recently enjoyed the India & Nepal. I cannot say enough good things about this experience. The tour was incredibly well organized with the perfect mix of sightseeing and relaxation. Our tour was enormously enhanced by our amazing tour guide Jasvir Saurana. Mr. Saurana displayed endless patience with our group members and displayed an enormous wealth of knowledge of the many beautiful sites in India and Nepal. Kimberly Wilson San Antonio Texas”

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Posted 6 years ago

smarTours is rated 4.4 based on 1,663 reviews