We just came back from our trip to Peru and our trip experience was an interesting one. This was our first time traveling as members of a tour and we had an interesting experience with SmarTours. We decided to book the “Enchanting Peru” tour with Smartours because a friend of my significant other talked wonders about this tour.

To be honest with you, my first impression about SmarTours was awful. Their customer support in New York is very bad. The ladies, who answered the phone, were very rude and they had an attitude. Every time that I called them with questions I got the feeling that I was bothering them and they did not provide the information that I was looking for. It appears that they just want your money and that’s all, you are not allowed to ask any questions.

I think that they should take some training in customer service and also take some of the trips that they offer so they can provide the right information. Per example, when I asked why the tour to Machu Pichu was only half day, the woman who took my call said “well, you have two extra days in Cusco, therefore you can go back to Machu Pichu” she made it sound like if it was as easy as take a bus and show up at the entrance of the park. In fact, is not that easy, first the train ride from Cusco to Aguas Calientes is about 4 hours, you have to take a van to go to the entrance of the park plus and more important you must have purchased your entrance tickets before you arrive to Machu Pichu.” when I mentioned her answer to our Tour Director, he laughed. He agreed with me, you can’t just show up in Machu Pichu and expect to be let in.

Even though, I had a bad first experience with smartours’ customer service, we decided to take a leap of faith and send the $600 deposit check which is not refundable. After that, we received the bill for the balance which included the fee for the travel insurance. We sent the checks with the final payment with all the forms that we had to fill and 10 days before our departure day, the travel package arrived in our house. One thing that called my attention is that they don’t follow up. I was the one who called them to verify that everything was in proper order. They are not good with their business communications.

As soon as we arrived in Peru, the situation changed a 100% (for better). The local company that smartours used in Peru was the opposite. Our Tour Director was excellent, the whole trip in Peru was amazing, and the hotels were we stayed, were top notch hotels. We had a couple of issues, but our Tour Director was on top of everything as a result everything went very smooth. My significant other and I agree saying that our trip to Peru is one of the best ones that we had had.

After this trip to Peru, we are thinking in taking another tour with smartours, even though their customer service in their New York office is really bad, at the end of the day the local tour company and their local tour director are the ones who made the trip a good one or a bad one.