Imperial Grandeur: Vienna to Budapest Private Day Tour

It was a great tour. We enjoyed it from start to finish. The driver Jozef was very friendly, knew the history and answered our questions. He picked us up right at our hotel. The ride was comfortable and Jozef drove safely.

This operator is charging significantly above average prices for comparable activities, but the value of their services is below similar operators I have taken in the past for exactly the same tour. I was expecting a tour of the city of Budapest, but what I got instead was being dumped on a cold and foggy day in the middle of the city and left to explore it on our own on foot. A tour implies being driven around to the major attractions, potentially accompanied by a guide, as is mentioned in the description of the activity. Admittedly, I asked the tour operator not to hire an extra guide as we are fine just being driven around by the driver, since I thought this would streamline the tour and make it more lucrative for the operator. However, I never expected to just be dumped in the middle of the city and be left to our own devices. Due to the very cold and foggy weather, we spent most of the time indoors and decided to cut the trip short and return to Vienna. When I brought this up to the operator and requested a reasonable partial refund for services not rendered, I was flat out rejected. On top of everything, I was accused of blackmailing because I mentioned that I was going to leave a review reflecting our experience. To be fair, the driver we got was excellent and pleasant to ride with, and the vehicle we rode in was quite comfortable, hence the three stars rating instead of one star. But given the overall experience and price I paid for this tour, I would not recommend hiring this operator unless all aspects of the activity are clearly spelled out in advance and agreed upon. When I was told that I was just going to be dumped at the destination with no actual tour, it was too late to cancel, otherwise I would have just cancelled the tour. I took the same tour last year with a different operator and got the service I was expecting this time, so lesson learned not to assume anything in the future.

Excellent Excellent Excellent. Our driver, Robert and our guide, Michael were superb. Budapest is such a beautiful city. Wish we could have spent more time there.