smarTours

In March 2023 we took a SmarTours package to Morocco. I was a little afraid to travel there, but my husband was super excited to go. Now I look back at my fear as naivety, because I absolutely fell in love with Morocco and its people. Our guide was named Madani and he shared so much about the lives of his people and their rich history. We traveled in comfort and stayed in amazing hotels in six different cities. We went on daily adventures that I never knew were possible. This was not what I call a "vacation", but rather "educational traveling". Every day I learned...every day I experienced this exciting country and culture...and best of all...every day I smiled. Our first adventure with SmarTours was to Peru. That adventure got us hooked on this company, because we realized how much of the world, we knew nothing of, but could learn about with SmarTours. Live for today...because tomorrow is not promised

The agent wasn’t interested in giving me more information about the tour. All he kept saying was Ok ok ok. Then he blocked me from talking to anyone else. Hung up on him. Called back 3x and got the same person. All he wanted was my credit card which I did give. I called back the next day and the other person said he’ll send me a receipt and I’m still waiting. Had I seen the reviews before I’d never use Smartours.

Unauthorized removal of over 3,000$ from my bank account and I cannot get an answer to get my money back. I made a payment of 1,000 and they took 3200.00. Unauthorized. I have called many times all without resolve. There is no one to speak to. Only a customer service person. This is absolutely awful and I will never ever book another trip.

BEWARE of Smartours. On August 4 of 2022, Smartours ruined our Tanzania Safari experience by downgrading and changing our accommodations without any notification to a camp site where we felt unsafe, vulnerable and restless. After not sleeping much that night we moved to a lodge related to the same company they used and on top of that we ended up paying an extra $600 USD to get what we paid for in the first place. Seems like a bait and switch to add additional profit as turns out there were lodges in the area just not as cheap as the camp surely. We told the guide we would sleep in the jeep before returning to the camp.

At least that way we had safety.

Customer Service is horrible. Call six times and you will either get no answer or all different answers. They cheated me out of $349 and gave me the run around. DO Not use them, Spoke with many people on the tour and most said they are done with SmarTours.

We booked the Magical Ireland Tour. It had to be cancelled and rebooked twice, due to covid. I received an email from Smartours saying I have a $150 credit. When I called to use it for the payment due on the trip we are finally taking, I was told I can't use it, even though it's a COVID credit, because I have another small credit I'm using from the original deposit I paid. I can only use it by booking a 2nd trip to a different destination. I consider this misleading advertising and don't understand why, if the credit is mine, I can't use it for the trip I've been trying to take for over 2 years. I was told to "read the fine print" at the bottom of the page.

Here's my experience with the Smart Tour agency: 1) I had one reservation for 2021 (i.e., Germany Christmas Market), This trip was cancelled due to the rise of COVID by the trade agency. And this Tavel agency provided options to either receive credit for future travels or getting refund. I requested refund and I did receive two different emails from their payroll management (Mr Chis ** & Tyrell **) that I will be receiving my refund by 1/19/2022, not only I did not receive my refund they are not responding to my emails anymore. I would suggest to anyone be really careful if you are planning to book a travel with this agency because they are not reliable plus they have lots a bad reviews with YELP.

We were sold a "land only" South Africa tour in June, 2020. Smartours reversed the schedule on us shortly before we were to leave Aug, 2021. They informed us they would reimburse us the cost of fees incurred to rearrange hotels, flights that we had to change in order to accommodate their change in schedule. This amount was $796.64. We have not received anything in spite of their manager telling us that we would be reimbursed.

I was never refunded for my trip to Vietnam and lost $2552.00 I cancelled my February 4th trip on January 27th due to my Covid concerns. Our trip was on Air China with a very long layover in Shanghai. I had insurance but of course they said it did not cover a Pandemic. I had travel solely with Smartours for years and had brought many other travelers with me. To me it was disgraceful as this was a huge decision to make. I was not unaware enough to think I could travel through China and not be exposed to the Corona Virus. I was truly disappointed with them and realized that I did not count as a human trying not to bring this awful thing back to the USA. Obviously my life and the life of others was less important then the money they kept.

Booked a tour to Ireland along with 4 other people in my party. The tour scheduled for May 2020 was cancelled. Operator refused to refund our money ($4900 for myself and my husband) and gave us a credit for a future tour in May 2021. Now they have filed for bankruptcy so it is unlikely that we'll ever see the money. Fortunately, we had booked our airfare separately with Delta and they did refund our money as they are trustworthy. We had a positive experience with SmarTours on 2019, which is why we had booked again. I agree that a class action suit is in order and if anyone knows how to proceed, please post. There are thousands of us in this situation and as retirees on a fixed income we cannot afford to write off nearly $5000.