Viator shore excursions?

[JustAGirl79]

Not looking for specific shore excursion feedback but rather, has anyone ever booked shore excursions through Viator, which apparently is a Trip Advisor company? Do they hire local guides? Their own staff?

 

We're exploring Viator options for thr Caribbean. ...

[LHT28]

The are a broker 3rd party

They usually hire local tours but not exclusive to Viator

[misty57]

We booked through them for tours in Las Vegas. They were reasonably priced and we were pretty satisfied with them. I too have been looking at booking excursions through them for our upcoming cruise.

[john watson]

I have used them in New York and Lisbon. They seem to use reliable third party operators and a payment on line using their website to obtain a self printed voucher which you use in conjunction with your passport for identification purposes on location. I thought they were excellent.

 

Regards John

Edited October 11, 2015 by john watson

[cbr663]

We used Viator for a tour in St. Maarten. The tour had been cancelled 2 days prior to us arriving in port. Being on the ship, we did not know this. So, we disembarked and waited and waited for the tour guide to arrive. Eventually, one of the agents in the port made some calls and told us that the tour had been cancelled. By this time, it was too late for us to arrange another tour and we felt like we had lost the day. The cost of the tour was refunded to us about a week after we returned home.

 

Lesson learned. We will never use them again.

[Keith1010]

The key on them and also others like tours by locals is to look carefully at reviews of the tour guide if you are doing private ones and also go searches on their tours.

 

Keith

[snowskier]

I have used Viator several times -- never when cruising. I have found them reliable. They communicate by email so if you aren't using email on the ship you would have a problem being notified if a change is made. They use local companies. I have used them for multi-day trips (5 days through Spain) and for day trips. I have also been on tours where I booked with the tour company and the majority of the group booked with Viator.

 

If there are multiple languages spoken by folks on the tour - there is a good chance everything will be stated in all languages which can be a pain if there are several languages.

 

Research the tour -- see what languages are included, look at reviews and then make your decision.

[cruisemom42]

Viator, being a middle-man, is only as good as the individual tour operators. I much prefer to deal directly with them (individuals) whenever possible. That way you can ask questions, read reviews, etc.

 

I have used Viator a few times and overall I was somewhat unsatisfied.

 

As mentioned above by someone else, they cancelled one of the tours I booked through them at the last minute and did not let me know. (I was not on a cruise but staying in Rome and I had both my cell phone and email....no notice was sent.) I wasted a precious couple of hours getting to the place where the tour was supposed to start, then being told it was a no-go. Worse, the company didn't want to refund me, but kept trying to sell me a different tour that I didn't want. Viator did eventually refund me.

 

I've also had the experience 2-3 times of having multiple languages on the same tour. The guide repeats everything 3 times which takes a lot of time.

 

Finally, once on a Viator tour, the guide completely skiipped one of the four main sites listed in the tour description. When it became clear we were not going to the skipped place, I showed the guide the tour description and she just shrugged and said "Viator got it wrong." Again, I got a 25% discount for the tour on my return -- but the point is I would MUCH rather have gotten to the place that was skipped.

 

All this is not to say you can't have a good experience with them. But IMHO, it's not worth taking a chance,

[Calgary North]

We booked a tour in Prague through Viator but they would not tell us who the tour operator was until after payment. We then discovered the operator had very poor reviews. We cancelled within the allowed time-frame and received a refund.

[JustAGirl79]

Thanks for all the feedback! I would much prefer booking direct with a local...just a matter of finding the exact tour I've seen on Viator. Thanks all!

[maryann ns]

I am looking at an event in Buenos Aires. With Viatour it would be something like $125, but booking direct it is $85. I found out the local operator through a review on Trip Advisor.

 

Booking direct means there is one less reason for a messed up reservation.

[whogo]

I would try to book through the tour operator instead of Viator. Usually you can Google the tour description to find the tour operator, the descriptions are apt to be identical word for word. Also, contact any such tour operator the day before to see that the tour is really running, many are cancelled if they don't have enough bookings.

[LHT28]

Go to the ports of call forums here & check the Islands you are going to

There are many good recommendations for good tour guides or join the roll call for your cruise some will have tours already booked & may have spaces open

 

Some ports are easy to DIY or just hire a taxi be sure to agree on the price before getting in