Great Cities of Eastern Europe Reviews

4.8 Rating 45 Reviews

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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.

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800-337-7773

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500 7TH AVE, 8TH FL,
NEW YORK
New York
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“Very interesting tour of Poland-Hungary-Austria-Czech Republic-Finland.. Tour guide Ms Renata Mikulowska was extremely informative & available for questions.. Hotels in Warsaw-Vienna & Helsinki outstanding ---Krakow Hotel-fair--Budapest & Prague good..”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Outstanding historical visit to six amazing cities. We traveled with delightful people who were interested in being inclusive and gaining from rich cultural experiences. The tour went exceedingly smooth with transitions between all cities and sites to be seen. The value of the trip was a splendid deal.”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Just returned from the first tour of the season. Very busy, packed schedule to 5 amazing cities. Hotels were consistently good to great, breakfasts also excellent. Renata was a wonderful guide. Very experienced and full of knowledge and humor. Local tours were better than expected. The cities are all unique and worth a visit. Very new bus for comfortable travel. Only complaint was too much of a hard sell for optional tours. We were a small group and it was difficult to get the minimum number for many of them. Would recommend this tour, but best if you are able to walk a few miles over various surfaces without difficulty. Hope you get Renata as she adds so much to this trip!”

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Posted 9 years ago

“Our cruise on the Danube was the best! Rather a no frills boat but wonderful food and everyone treated us like royalty. So interesting to go through the less than popular countries. I would do it again in a heartbeat!”

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Posted 9 years ago

“We just returned from this tour (Helsinki, Warsaw, Auschwitz, Birkenau, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Helsinki). Our main tour guide (with us for almost all of the trip), Renata, was terrific. She was knowledgeable, friendly, very helpful and accommodating, energetic....just great!). In each city we had expert guides and each was absolutely wonderful! Overall it was an excellent tour, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a thorough overview of the history and culture of the cities visited. The food, entertainment, optional tours, tour guides in each city, bus drivers were all wonderful. Cant say enough about the breakfasts!!!! And, some of the scheduled dinner meals included wine or beer - I definitely did NOT feel "nickeled and dimed" on this tour. However, there are two itinerary issues that should be addressed as they detract from the overall comfort for individual travelers: 1. The website has an error: you do NOT arrive in Warsaw late morning; travelers arrive in Helsinki at 9 am (Helsinki time) after the overnight flight from NYC (7.5 hour flight), and must wait with an 8 hr layover until the connecting plane to Warsaw leaves (5pm Helsinki time) That means, that travelers from NYC arrive in Warsaw 16+ hours later and then are taken to the hotel. (the website itinerary states 'warsaw late morning' - not true). Smarttours solution was to offer a bus from Helsinki airport to downtown Helsinki and drop us all in front of a University building so we could aimlessly wander about for 6 of the 8 hours. - this was a waste of a day! A better use of our time would have been to schedule a bus tour with a guide on that day (of course the BEST solution would be to find a direct flight to Warsaw from some other airline). We could have seen the Hard Rock church, Sibelius statue, and a general tour that day. Lunch in the city should have been arranged and introductions to our travel mates might have been a nice touch. I must mention here, that I called Smart Tours office twice about this issue a week before the trip when I noticed the inconsistencies between my flight time info and the website - I was not impressed with the cold, unfriendly, and unsympathetic response I received from the corporate office person I spoke with - the answer was "well, others have done it and no complaints were expressed" - WELL -HERE IS YOUR WELL EARNED COMPLAINT! I am not mentioning a name here, but am not at all satisfied with that person's phone manner (I spoke with that person more than once). As this was our first Smart Tour trip it left me feeling uncertain (what other "surprises" should I expect?) - fortunately, no other difficulties were experienced. 2. Although it was clean and relatively convenient, the hotel in Budapest (NH Budapest Hotel) was not on the level of the other hotels we stayed in. It was a definite "eh" compared to the others. By the way, all our travel companions were very nice, friendly, and fun to be with. We really enjoyed this trip and despite this critique, we would go with Smart Tours again (many of the people on our tour had been on several Smart Tours, and felt they were well taken care of). Hoping Smart Tours takes this critique in the spirit in which it is offered.”

Helpful Report

Posted 10 years ago