I read the mixed reviews, but went ahead and bought this tour anyway. What a mistake! What we received was a total rip-off, worth much less than we paid, and vastly different from the description used to sell it on Viator. Austin, the professional guide on the Houston leg provided a continuous commentary, but when he told us that little Saigon is named after the Chinese immigrants we had doubts about his professionalism. Then one hour into the 90 minute city tour, at the museum, we were shunted onto another vehicle for our trip to Galveston because we were running late. It was 11am. Denise introduced herself as our driver and guide. She drove us to and from Galveston, but apart from giving us a page of printed info with an itinerary that didn't match ours, saying welcome to Galveston, and pointing out some of the mansions she was certainly not a guide. We asked two questions, that she was unable to answer. I bought this tour on the basis of there being a professional guide and a driver all day, ie 2 people providing the service, as clearly stated on the sales page, and feel cheated by what we received. The tour we received was not up to the standard of other Viator services I have bought.
We were very pleased the staff and tour guides were so friendly the trip was great I give it a 5
Houston part of the tour would be OK if our double-decker bus was not so dirty. The woman guide was thorough and interesting. After that, just the two of us were taken to Galveston and on the way there one guy was dropped off at the Space Center. Few problems:16-passenger bus was very old and uncomfortable, its windows rattled loudly. Our driver did not tell us anything about Galveston, we made 2 stops: at the Seawall and on the Strand. By pure luck, we ourselves found a very good restaurant - Fisherman's Wharf, where we had lunch. The dolphin watching tour was a highlight of our trip, but we did not have to come all the way to Galveston to watch dolphins. After the boat tour I asked our driver if we're going to see the Bishop's Palace and tree sculptures,and she said that because we have to pick the guy from the Space Center and the traffic is bad, we did not have time for this. And the worst part of this tour was that our driver was driving like a maniac, very carelessly, was weaving from one lane to another, making other drivers honk at her. Sometimes It looked like she was falling asleep at the wheel.
We used Viator tours last year in Spain and Prague and had no problems there.
We think that Viator had not properly check the Houston travel agency it uses for this tour.