using Viator for excursions

[wolfatlga]

Greetings,

 

We are going on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean and would normally book the the cruise line for excursions. It appears the prices have doubled since our last experience and found a booking company thru TripAdvisor's reviews called Viator and hoping someone might have experience if they are reliable to book excursions.

 

We are going going to zip line in St. Lucia and the ships excursion does not go to the Treetop Adventure Park.

 

Thanks,

Roy

[subtchr]

We just book directly with the excursion companies.

 

 

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[CruzR887]

We've used Viator a lot, mostly in Europe, and have had excellent tours. Never a problem. I believe Viator is a wholesaler and books with private companies.

[Ms Jo UK]

We have used Viator regularly all over the world and have encountered a problem

[phillygirl2400]

We also have used Viator for many tours. We've always been satisfied. As a matter of fact, I was just on the website this morning and found that there is a sale for 10%, 15%, or 20% off (based on the cost of the tours booked). [emoji1]

 

 

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[billybob57]

Viator mostly don't pick up and drop off at ports

Try cruising excursions. Com

 

 

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[stickyshocker]

We have used Viator regularly all over the world and have encountered a problem

 

have you used this on Singapore? and in Greece?

[stickyshocker]

Really interested on this Viator thing, so how does it work, buy the excursion then meet up with an agent onshore or go straight to the where it's gonna take place? Thanks.

[billsgal]

Used Viator in New Orleans, also in Iceland. In New Orleans picked up at hotel, in Iceland picked up directly at pier. Very nice tours and prices very competitive. Would not hesitate to use them again.

 

 

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[cl.klink]

Viator is consistently a reliable option. Can sometimes find cheaper or better options elsewhere (e.g. TripAdvisor), but more catch as catch can.

- Joel

[emilygrace]

We used Viator in New Zealand when none of the ship tours appealed to us. If you go to their site you can click on "shore excursions" and then put in your port (I think that's the order it was). These tours are tailored for the hours that the ship is in port. Our tour in Tauranga picked us up right outside the port area, a very short walk from the ship.

[phillygirl2400]

Viator Site-wide sale today.

 

 

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[Buccaneergirl]

Used Viator in Brussels and Prague last May and they were great. We did on pub crawl in Prague and there were only 4 of us on the tour. We would definitely use them again.

[tatt2ed]

Tripadvisor owns viator. Its just a excursion booking site. Most prices are more expensive than booking directly with the excursion company directly.

[KiwiGal117]

We used them in Italy this summer, both for tours while on the land portion of our vacation, and the ship portion. We were very pleased. While they are sort of a consolidator/wholesaler, we did find it difficult to locate specific tours outside of Viator online, so we were fine with using them. We did also find non-Viator tours for some portions, which were also good.

[cdwh1902]

Like others we have used Viator all over the world - Sweden, Italy, Spain, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, NZ and UK. I love the convenience of being able to book and pay in our own currency before departure. Highly recommend - and have never had any issues!

[thinfool]

Viator mostly don't pick up and drop off at ports

Try cruising excursions. Com

 

 

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They are picking us up at the ship. Very common.

 

 

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[BNL62]

Same here, we haven't used Viator for excursions but we have used them for tours in Europe and have never had a problem.

[cruisemom42]

I will add a note of caution to the chorus of "yeahs". I have used Viator both in the US and in several foreign countries. I find the quality of the tours I've taken with them has been very average, and I HAVE experienced some issues with them:

 

-- One tour (in Rome) was cancelled due to lack of participation. They did not notify me until I showed up at the tour location. Then they (the local company) did not want to refund me but wanted to sell me a different tour, that I didn't want. This left me with a big hole in my morning with no easy way of filling it.

 

-- On a different Rome tour and also on a tour in Lisbon, the tours had participants from three different countries. The guide had to repeat everything three times (in three different languages) which took a while, and the other groups were not courteous about being quiet while the guide was speaking in other languages, making it sometimes difficult to hear.

 

-- On a separate Lisbon tour, the tour skipped one out of four major sites that were supposed to be included with no explanation offered when I asked the guide. Viator did later give me a partial refund, but I wanted to see the place, not have money back in my pocket...

 

 

Sure, I took a few other Viator tours that were okay, but only one of them (in Japan) was better than "average". I will no longer take Viator tours because I think the local agencies who participate are probably the ones who don't get recommendations by word of mouth (because they are nothing great).

 

If the only thing that matters to you is cost and reliability, then Viator should be fine. If you are picky about the quality of your tours, I do not recommend them.

[fabnfortysomething]

viator are a third party booking agency so the quality of the tours depends on the local operators which as previously mentioned can be booked directly sometimes cheaper

 

however the special offers viator sometimes offer such as book 3 tours and get third at a discount can make it worthwhile

 

However will nearly always work out cheaper than the ships tours

[sweetlove13]

I'm looking to use Viator next year in Florence, Rome, Lisbon & Ponta Delgada. If anyone has used them there & has comments on tours I would really like to hear them. Thank you!!

 

 

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[cruisemom42]

I'm looking to use Viator next year in Florence, Rome, Lisbon & Ponta Delgada. If anyone has used them there & has comments on tours I would really like to hear them. Thank you!!

 

 

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See my comment above (#19) for my two experiences using them in Rome. Cannot really recommend them...

[Melovescruising]

VIATORS SERVICE IS THE PITS!!!

 

I just had the 2 worst cruise experiences trying to book 2 different catamaran/snorkel tours with Viators. As some of you know, booking a tour off a cruise ship on your own requires you to have complete faith that the vendor you choose will produce as promised. A year ago I found the Cat/snorkel tour my wife and I wanted to take in St. Kitts/Nevis using Viator as our booking agent. We prepaid for the tour, watched others on our ship sail off on their tours, but smiled thinking about how much of a savings we'd have by using Viators instead of the ship's higher priced tours. Just a few weeks before I received 2 or 3 reminders from Viators about where to meet the tour. We showed up on time after wasting much of our vacation day being prepared for this timely departure, met at the exact location that we were told, but was then told by the manager of Blue Water Safaris (the catamaran's service that we had booked using Viators) that they couldn't take us because they were already committed to another cruise line's passengers on the tour! Oh, they apologized and claimed they didn't know about us. Meanwhile the day in St. Kitts was ruined. All the tours we wanted to take had been already taken and/or in progress. What did Viators do about it? We got the usual sorry BS letter, they refunded our payment and gave us each a $50 certificate for another excursion with them.

The only thing that remedy did was ruin another vacation day a year later in Punta Cana! On March 23rd, 2017, we again used Viator's catamaran/snorkel vendor, El Gringo Excursions. Again we had multiple communications between Viator's, the vendor and us about the exact time and meeting place for our pick up. We blew off the ship's breakfast that morning so we could get the first tender to town, waited a 1/2 hour for a shuttle bus to take us to the meeting spot, and again no show from this other vendor...and for the same excuse! They had prior commitments with another cruise ship passengers and didn't know how to reach us, even though we communicated at least 3 times the last few weeks via the same email address.

This time I asked Viators for not only a refund, but they could forget their worthless coupons and to come up with a way to reimburse us at least $200 in cash for the 2 wasted days we counted on them. I even suggested they tell these vendors to pay this fee if they wanted to keep the Viator's relationship.They said they wouldn't do that, and still haven't sent us the replacement coupons we used in Punta Cana. I want them so I can use graphics to explain to other cruise passengers what a waste of time and money you'd be experiencing using Viators. I have been on 77 cruises in my life and have usually booked all my shore excursions with local companies by myself. Not only have I never had a problem this way, I find their rates to be much less than Viators who adds on a healthy profit to all their bookings. And, as you can see, for no reason at all.

YOU WOULD BE CRAZY TO EVER DEAL WITH VIATORS. BOOK YOURSELF THRU LOCAL COMPANIES.

[whogo]

viator are a third party booking agency so the quality of the tours depends on the local operators which as previously mentioned can be booked directly sometimes cheaper...

You can sometimes find the actual tour provider by using the tour description as a google search term. Skip the third party and book directly and pay when service is rendered.

 

 

Or, if you want to make things more complicated, you can book a Viator tour through TripAdvisor and make it a fourth party booking

[WVU_Neal]

As has already been mentioned, ViaTour is a tour wholesaler, just like the cruise line, booking tours from local companies.

 

When we cruise, we rarely take cruise line excursions. We've been on some fine tours both in the Caribbean and in Europe offered by local tour companies, which we then book by email or on their website. We find these companies through Trip Advisor, using the Ports of Call forums here, as well as the Roll Call for the cruise we are sailing.