Definitely felt a little out of the loop when booking this through Viator, as others who booked directly with this tour received e-mail updates beforehand. This is a very chaotically organized trip, but I appreciate the convenience of the scheduling and driving. To be clear: the driver and tour guide themselves were nothing but professional! But the overall management leaves much to be desired. The description on this page is VERY vague and lacks information, but the posted amount is really just for the transportation TO the city of Niagara Falls and back to NYC and the one night hotel accommodation (they will still force you to pay extra even if you select an option that states "admission to Niagara State Park included" under the guise of "transportation"). Once you board a shuttle and are in too deep, they will explain the upcharges for every single activity (and every single activity has a price tag even state parks in which the bus in theory should be transporting you regardless) and insist on cash-only. Felt a little held hostage by this arrangement where you were told "you can either do this activity, stay in the bus, or be dropped off at the hotel." Most of the travelers on this are not native English-speakers, so you can tell they are being ripped off -- again, state parks are free and a lot of the ticket prices they give you (which should have a group discount) ARE more expensive than just buying it solo when you're there. Overall, they will ask you to pay ~$200+ in cash in upcharges.
I chose this tour for the convenience of the driving arrangement (if you have the bandwidth, planning your own trip is absolutely the way to go), but ultimately still felt limited by the tour's overpriced activities. I had a LOT of fun as Niagara Falls is beautiful, but I wasn't on a budget so while I was annoyed by the "hidden" charges, it didn't completely ruin the trip.
Відповідь від хоста
Jul 2022
Dear Customer,
Thanks for reaching us. We highly value any feedback from customers. Regarding this case, we have already highlighted it and flagged it as a high priority. On behalf of Quality Control Department, please allow us to make following explanations:
What's the tour fee Include and not include are both clearly listed on the website, you can see the detail information under “What's Included” . You can also see all the optional attractions ticket price when you book the tour as it is clearly listed on the website. If you do not choose it on the tour, the guide will also arrange you to have rest or free activities around the scenic spots. All of all our tour guides are bilingual and could speak certain levels of fluent English, they will firstly confirm with the customers of what optional attractions they want to attend and then charge for that, cash or other payment methods are permitted. About the State Park, as we are tour group and in order to make our customers have more better experience we optimize the itinerary of these attractions, so we have some extra cost than individual, meanwhile, all admission fee are open and transparent on the website, there is no “hidden” charges. We Hope the above explanations could help you and if there is anything we could assist with, please let us know.