Tour Provider disappoints

Booked with the tour company smartcruisetours for a trip to Cinque Terre, Italy. We ended up having a very good time, despite the tour company. They basically ended up being a glorified taxi cab. The driver was a very nice young man, so I blame the problem on the tour company. The driver was supposed to have knowledge of the area and give us a general orientation of what to see and do on our way to the drop off point. Our driver told us he had been there once a long time ago and basically knew how to get to the ferry and that was it. There was very little conversation on the way there unless we tried to ask a question, most of the timew he didn't know the answer. I have kept their e-mail correspondence and very little of what they said they would do was done. I will never use this company again. Lesson learned.

Hi Rockedge, i'm sorry for what happened. I seen the website of smartcruisetours, as I can see they are a company based in Georgia,USA and probably they have partner in Cinque Terre providing the tour services. As I had similar experience I learned the lesson too! I always look for a local company that in your case should be located in Italy or better in Tuscany area, for sure there will be more control on who and how they provide the service. I really hope you will have a better experience for your next vacation :)

From what EuroMark says, it sounds as though they are like Viator and cruisexcursions.com ie a tour agent, not a tour operator. The quality of the tours is therefore always going to depend on which company is actually operating them. It is always best to book tours with a well reviewed local operator who you can discuss your requirements direct with before you actually book. Glad to hear you still had a good time anyway.

From what EuroMark says, it sounds as though they are like Viator and cruisexcursions.com ie a tour agent, not a tour operator. The quality of the tours is therefore always going to depend on which company is actually operating them. It is always best to book tours with a well reviewed local operator who you can discuss your requirements direct with before you actually book. Glad to hear you still had a good time anyway.

The company they used is smartcruisetours, not cruiseexcursions.com

To the original poster: This isn't the first negative review of them that's been posted here. However, it's against CC rules to start a post specifically to review a private agency and yours will probably be removed for that reason. I would suggest you use the search tool to locate other threads discussing this company and post your experience there so it will help others.

(By the way, despite what many companies promise, most of them are providing you with a driver. Unless you pay extra, you are not getting a guide. The degree of knowledge and helpfulness of that driver isn't guaranteed.)

Even though we were told the driver would be knowledgable, you are probably right. But unfortunately he was also late and met us in the wrong spot.

Thank you for warning us. I'm glad your post has not been removed so far.

Thank you for warning us. I'm glad your post has not been removed so far.

No reason it should be. It's starting a thread to recommend a tour company that's not allowed. You can start a thread to complain about one.

Thanks for the post.

Never heard of them.

keith

No reason it should be. It's starting a thread to recommend a tour company that's not allowed. You can start a thread to complain about one.

Actually, the rule is "do not start a new thread about a tour guide or company" as posted in the stickies at the top of the Italy board:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1480215

If they allowed people to start threads complaining about tours, we would be swamped with unscrupulous tour providers "complaining" about their competitors.

While I agree OP has some legitimate issues, I still think the best route is to find other posts discussing the provider (in response to a query) and posting the info there.

Actually, the rule is "do not start a new thread about a tour guide or company" as posted in the stickies at the top of the Italy board:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1480215

 

You're quite right. I hadn't noticed that sticky, I read further up the page above the list of Italy ports,where it has Notices and just refers to recommendations.

I still feel that if a company makes claims and they are either not followed through on or inaccurate , then someone needs to let others know about it so they do better due diligence than I did at the time. Why do others have to experience the same problems because someone stays quiet. I didn't even give all the other details, just what bothered us the most.

No reason it should be. It's starting a thread to recommend a tour company that's not allowed. You can start a thread to complain about one.

No, you can't, as cruisemom 42 pointed out to you. That's why I was saying I was glad the post was not removed ( I thought it would be too). We are travelling to Italy soon and might have used that tour company. It's too bad people can't warn others about less than stellar tour companies.