I have done multiple tours with Viator and therefore had an impression of how this was going to be. Unfortuntaely, my past experiences misguided me. The itinerary, while hectic on paper, were even more extremely rushed in real life and, more often than not, I felt like I was on a school trip with an extremely harrassed teacher whose only job was to hustle us from place to place. The most used word by the guide has to have been 'fast'!!! On all my earlier trips, without exception, the knowledge of the guide and the passion that they had for the tour itself was very evident. This was sorely missed here as everything seemed to be very commerce driven. We had 3 guides - day 1 was kelvin - who was sweet. His awareness of history was minimal and he seemed more keen on telling us the real estate prices for the various areas of New York we visited. The 2nd day was Karen, whose awareness was a little more but still veered towards completing the duties than actually showing us/ talking to us about things. To add to it, I opted out of walking on one of the trips and the bus moved on without me. She claimed to have called me but I did not receive any calls. We were still within the city so I managed to cab it to the next location. For the rest of the tour was Cici. Nothing was personally wrong with any of these people. But they all were just about ticking the boxes and their knowledge of the places/ sights was about 1% of Wikipedia. I do feel that the tour provider, being of Chinese origin, caters more to the Chinese community - 95% people of our packed bus were from China. The 3 main food stops once we were outside New York therefore were all Chinese restaurants with 'eat as much as you can' buffets. Also, if 2 lines were spoken in English about a place, about 15 (sometimes more) were in Mandarin. Given that the awareness was minimal, perhaps this was a good thing! The hotels were fine but it was a different hotel every night so be ready to literally live out of a suitcase. The coaches were fine with good drivers. I wish I could say the Niagara falls made up for all of that but after a point, the realization that one has spent a considerable amount of money on what could have been so much more of an enriching experience hits you in the face... just like the water does on the Maid of the Mist...
Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed and constructive feedback about your recent multi-day tour. We sincerely appreciate your loyalty to Viator and are deeply sorry to hear that this experience fell far short of the standards you have come to expect.We take your comments very seriously and have shared them with our management and operations team for immediate review.1. We apologize that the pace of the tour felt excessively rushed and that the historical and cultural depth provided by the guides did not meet your expectations. While we are glad to hear you found them personally pleasant, we agree that a guide's primary role is to enrich the experience with knowledge and passion, not just to manage logistics. This is a core part of our service promise, and we will be reinforcing training focused on substantive commentary and guest engagement. 2. According to the guide's report, after arriving at the first stop, you indicated that you had visited before and chose to remain on the bus while the group proceeded. The guide communicated the next pickup point to the driver. However, when the group returned to the bus at the second stop, you were not onboard. The guide and other guests looked nearby but were unable to locate you immediately. As the itinerary needed to proceed, the group moved to the next nearby location, where you were quickly reunited with the group after contacting the guide. We appreciate your understanding in this situation, and we are glad that the matter was resolved promptly. We will continue to emphasize clear communication and safety protocols in our guide training to prevent similar situations.3. We appreciate your feedback regarding the cultural focus of the tour. We welcome guests from all over the world and are committed to ensuring a balanced and inclusive experience for everyone. We will reevaluate our food stops and language distribution to better serve a diverse group of travelers. 4. We understand that changing hotels nightly can be disruptive. The itinerary is designed to cover a wide geographic area, but we will review feedback on this structure for future tour planning. Your feedback is not just heard; it is being acted upon. We are conducting an internal review of this tour's execution, with a specific focus on guide training, itinerary pacing, and safety protocols. We truly value your past patronage and hope we can regain your trust in the future.
