City Wonders Reviews 

I had a terrible experience with City Wonders during my recent trip to France. I booked a half-day tour of the Louvre Museum with a scheduled entry time of 10:30 AM. I arrived at the designated meeting point at 10:11 AM, but no guide was in sight.

I immediately called customer service for help, and to my shock, the representative yelled at me and kept repeating I should "look for someone in a blue jacket." That was completely useless, especially since it was raining heavily, and everyone was wearing raincoats or holding umbrellas—many in blue. I asked for the guide’s phone number or WhatsApp, and they refused to provide it.

Because of this chaos, I missed the tour. When I requested to join a later time slot, they outright refused. They just blamed me for a so-called "no-show", which is completely unfair and dishonest.

I honestly believe this company sets up situations like this to cheat tourists out of their money. They make no real attempt to help, and then hide behind “policy” to avoid refunds or rebooking.

This is a scammy operation. Avoid at all costs. They should be investigated and held accountable.

Private Tour
Tower of London Fully Guided Private Tour. I am contacting you to inform you about the behavior of one of your guides toward tourists who are not part of his group. The incident occurred last Friday, June 27th, at approximately 1:50 PM at the Tower of London, as I have photos and videos of what happened.
I don't know if this is the image they want to portray with their tour, but this guide insulted me and made me look ridiculous for posing for a photo. He arrived, yelled, and immediately kicked me out, telling me to go to hell while his group laughed. Both my daughter and I understand English. My daughter wanted to answer him out of indignation and embarrassment, but we are more polite than the gentleman who represents you.
For this reason, I will provide several references online and, logically, I wouldn't even consider hiring his services for any of my future trips.

Had a tour to Monet Gardens and paid extra for the second half of the tour to Versailles. After calling City Eonders, the representative told us that since we missed the Garden we could catch the second part of the tour to Versailles at 330pm in front of Louis 14. So we got their at 3pm. At 330pm we called the representative back and a different woman was very rude and told us it was not possible to meet the tour be cause they were at Versailles at 155pm. We told her thrn why were we told 330pm and we paid out of pocket to Uber. She did not care about their lack of communication and was so rude. Basically City Wonders kept all our money and we had to pay extra for a ticket to Versailles. Horrible company and will never use them again. I will let family and friends know how they do business.

We had a very poor experience with City Wonders and would not recommend their tours based on how they handle unforeseen circumstances. We were excited for our trip to Mont St. Michel. However, due to transportation issues caused by our private driver—completely out of our control—we were running late and reached out to City Wonders as soon as possible to inform them of the situation.

Despite contacting them ahead of time and explaining the delay, they offered no assistance, flexibility, or alternatives. We were told that there was simply nothing they could do. No partial reimbursement, or credit toward a future tour. It was essentially “too bad, your loss,” even though we made a sincere effort to communicate.

Given how much we paid and the fact that we never received the service, this kind of rigid, unaccommodating customer service is unacceptable. We are in the process of filing a formal dispute with our credit card company to recover the money for a tour we never got to experience.

Travelers, beware—if anything goes wrong, City Wonders will not work with you. Book elsewhere.

We were very interested in joining the Deluxe Harry Potter Tour with City Wonders and contacted the company in advance to explain that our teenage son uses a wheelchair. Since the provided transportation was not accessible for him, we asked if we could meet the group directly at the studios. We were flexible, willing to arrive early, and ready to coordinate in any way necessary to avoid disruption to the group.

Unfortunately, the operator declined our request and the tone of the communication was, frankly, disappointing. In explaining their decision, they stated that the tour “would not be able to slow down or take extra breaks” for wheelchair users. This was upsetting to hear — not only because we hadn’t asked for any special pacing or accommodations, but because it assumed that our son would need those things. He wouldn’t. The assumption felt ableist and dismissive of his actual capabilities, and the unwillingness to engage in any kind of collaborative problem-solving was frustrating.

While we recognize that some logistical limitations may exist, service providers in the UK are expected under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled guests. We did not feel that obligation was taken seriously in this case.

This may be a wonderful tour for many, but travelers with accessibility needs should be aware that accommodations may not be offered — and that the company’s tone and approach to disability-related requests may leave you feeling excluded rather than welcomed.

We booked through Viator and the description wasn't exactly accurate. I checked today though and it is now updated. Regardless we had an amazing time.

This is a loooong day, plan for about 15 hours. The drive back is a bit brutal and took 4.5 hours. The drive into and out of Positano is winding and some people got motion sick.

Pompeii was very cool. Tour guide was knowledgeable. You need to be a confident walker to really enjoy and don't forget your water. We saw some in our group really struggling.

Positano and the rest of the Amalfi was gorgeous. We had about 1.5 hours of free time there. Its a lot of shopping and just experiencing the culture. We got to visit the beach and touch the sea.

Along the way we stopped for lunch ($18 for 13" pizza, soda and dessert pastry) a restroom rest stop 2x and a limoncello factory.

Our tour guide, Flavio, was our favorite Italian of the trip. He was charismatic and energetic. He shared information about Rome with us, gave us safety tips and even recipes and recommendations.

I'd recommend this ambitious trip. We did sleep in the next day too!

Normandy Day Tour

This company has absolutely horrendous service. We showed up for the tour on time only to find out they left early. The only reason we didn’t inquire earlier about why they left was because they had a city adventures flag up at the meeting point and were just yelling at people to get in line, not answering any questions. I was going to ask if that was the line for the correct tour but I just got shouted at to get in line if I’m with city adventures. When they began scanning our tickets they said that our tour had already left. I asked how that was possible since we were there 10 minutes early and why they didn’t tell us that when I asked. All she said was it left early. So no tour, no refund. Just told us to kick rocks. It seems they try to get a head start with the tour so they can finish earlier even if they leave people behind. There is no accountability and they know it.

Fraudulent advertising on Vatican Breakfast Tour. Not exclusive or early to beat the crowd. Congested and dangerously crowded. Breakfast service was worst ever experienced

City Wonders has some of the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. Do yourself a favor and book with a different company—even if it costs more. It’s worth it for your peace of mind.

They directed us to a sketchy part of Paris for the tour meet-up. I took an Uber and we drove in circles with GPS saying “you’ve arrived” over and over—but no one was there. There was no City Wonders representative holding a flag as promised. Total confusion.

When I called their 1-800 number for help and asked to speak to a manager, I was told “there’s nothing we can do.” No help. No accountability.

Now I’m disputing the charge with my credit card company. This was a complete waste of time and ruined my day in Paris. Don’t make the same mistake.

DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE YOUR MONEY - they ruined the first day of my trip and their customer service was that appalling it left me in tears.

We booked the crypts and catacombs tour - which cost me over £90 for two of us and it really was supposed to be the highlight of my trip.

We arrived at the meeting point only to find they’d gone without us. I was gutted. Desperate to try and catch them up I went over to another tour group from a different company that were meeting at the same location to ask which direction ,y tour had gone in - only to be told that my group had a ctually left prior to the 5pm start time.

This was then confirmed by some other tourists who were sat by the fountain when the tour had left.

The worst part about this was the rude customer service team. I explained the situation and that I had been told the tour left prior to the start time on the tickets, whilst they initially told me it wasn’t their problem they refused to tell me the location of the group so we could join and enjoy the 2.5hr tour.
We said we would get a can to the first location which would mean we would definitely arrive their before the group were due to but they said no they would not allow this (despite our entry to the crypts and catacombs being included in the tour price). They refused to give us the number of the person leading the tour (one customer service rep said it was a lady and the other rep said it was a man so shows how much they known about their own tours.)

We were then offered a reschedule but would have to pay another £50 which I was more than willing to do they said their next available date was the 19th May (we are leaving Rome before so that wasn’t an option. I have later been back on their get your guide page and they had availability on the 13th but this wasn’t offered.

My father tried to speak to them and got no where at which point I was in floods of tears asking for at least a voucher I could use towards on of their other tours as I’ve saved for ages to do this trip. I have a masters in early Christian history so this was on my bucket list. I do not earn much money as I work for the emergency services and very rarely get an opportunity such as this. However, by this point they then became extremely dismissive and were gloating that it was my problem not theirs. The lady from customer service I was speaking to was then speaking to me in the most patronising way like I was a child which got frustrated and so finally I gave up and asked her for her name as I would hate for anyone else to have the experience that I did (unfortunately looking at recent reviews it seems that I am one of many to have this awful experience with this company) ultimately she flat out refused to give me her name saying she didn’t have too - this just goes to show that she clearly knew her handling of the situation did not meet the professional standards this company claims to have.

I will be formally requesting a refund, at least in part and will take it further if needs be but I feel they’ve robbed me of an amazing experience and wasted the first part of my trip which is something I won’t get back so I’d advise you think very carefully about using this company.

They are not the only ones to offer this tour and there are many more reputable companies which offer the same but that are guest focused.

DO NOT BOOK WITH CITY WONDERS! It’s a scam. The company promised a lot of stops in their viator itinerary but did not deliver. I even confirmed through chat what is covered, but they again over promised / under delivered.

We had the Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and Vatican Museums tour (with stops at sphere of spheres, etc) but they only delivered on part of the Vatican Museums tour.

Sphere of Spheres were not included, a walk and introduction to St Peter’s Basilica was not included (but they specifically mentioned this in their “updated itinerary”).

Do not book with them, you can get the same guided tour as they delivered at half the price.

When you plan a vacation and decide on a location, especially if you have not been a frequent traveller, selecting a company for local tours is not the easiest thing to do. There are a lot of them out there. Three months before my trip to Rome, I began looking to see what tours were available. A breakfast at the Vatican tour seemed interesting. It was offered by City Wonders, a tour group, frankly, that was not known to me. I did some checking, they seemed dependable with good reviews, the price seemed right, so I booked the tour for early April. It was a seamless process. A numbered voucher was emailed to me immediately, and I could cancel my tour up to twenty-four hours before it started. I was so pleased with the process that I booked a Roman Colosseum, Palatine Hil and Roman Forum tour, as well as a half day excursion to Ostia Antica. I am so glad that I booked these tours with City Wonders. The instructions as to where to meet were flawless as was the check-in. The tours started on time. Best of all were the tour guides. Marina for the Vatican, Scott for the Colosseum and Catarina for Ostia Antica. All were experienced, very personable, highly skilled and knowledgeable, and each one shared a great deal of pertinent and remarkably interesting information at every opportunity. All their comments were put in context, and they made the sites I was visiting come alive. I couldn’t have been more pleased. I would book a tour with City Wonders again, and I have no hesitancy in giving them my highest recommendation. Five big stars from Canada.

Sean guided us through Domitila Catacombs, Cappuccinos cript, ..in Spanish with a sutile sense of humor. We enjoyed greatly and definitely recommend it. Only downside during this tour we were informed Pope had died.

Guide was great. System of voucher vs ticket and exactly where to meet could be better.

Shitty Company and shitty service! They just cancelled our booking with 1,5 day warning! and now we have no option of rebooking!

Thanks for shit! and thanks for making our trip to Rome an awfull experience!

We took a trip to Pompeii, Positano on 14th April 2025
Our guide on the bus was Kler - she is very good and provided us with great information and we loved the way she interacted with every one on the bus.
We give her 5 stars.
Our bus driver Enrico was wonderful
Our guide at Pompeii, Enzo was great too
Would give everyone 5 stars

City Wonders Limited were fined by Italian authorities for using software robots (bots) to buy tickets in bulk to the Colosseum, contributing to their rapid disappearance from CoopCulture's website and ripping off tourists and their customers.
AVOID THIS SCAM COMPANY.

Website quoted me $401 and the receipt confirmation says $401 but my card ws charged $648! They will not honor that price and basically said I can get a refund or pay the higher unauthorized amount already charged. No supervisor to speak with. Terrible customer service. Not sure how that is even legal.

Ankita coordinator was a great guide very friendly and helpful, had a great expirience would highly recommend.