exp1.com Reviews 7

Eiffel guided tour - experience first - I spent £272 and no guide tour, was scammed. I had to buy new tickets.

After looking at the other reviews, I see a pattern. No show guide for a tour i booked way in advance. I signed up for a walking architecture tour in Barcelona through the GoCity pass with Experience First. It was supposed to be yesterday 9/29 at 4 pm. I was early to show but their guide never showed up. I immediately chatted with them through their app they make you download to get updates and notifications for tours. They claim they messaged me through the app, and emailed me that the tour was canceled, but I did NOT receive a cancelation in any form. What i did receive were two emails and several app notifications to remind me it was almost time for my tour the day of. This messed up my late afternoon and evening as I spent an hour and a half killing time waiting for that tour instead of doing something else with my pass. You also have to book these in advance so I invested a lot of faith this would happen - planning other things around it. Experience First's customer service was not helpful and did not offer to make anything right and all they would say is we sent a cancelation. If they sent it, i did not get it and why wouldn't they cancel the event through the app so I wouldn't continue to get reminders it was happening. Very frustrating. Obviously I could have booked something else during that time so I missed out on something else. The only thing they did offered was to let me reschedule the tour for 5 days later on October 4th. I don't many people who would be around five days later when traveling. I had two days to work with after the promised tour I could have rescheduled. Beware and at least call the day of to make sure your event is happening. Or better yet, don't use them.

We booked a New York walking tour with exp1, and on the day, Mindi turned up as our guide for the day. What a lovely, caring, knowledgeable guide she turned out to be. Besides the touristy bits about New York Mindi gave all sorts of information only a person who loves her job and loves giving her knowledge to people on her tour. If we go back to New York we would hope that we have Mindi again.
Rob&Ellie

Please don't use this company....SCAM!

We were a group of 9,Four adults and five children. Our tour was booked for 12noon and we arrived at 11:30am and met up with our tour guide just outside the Eiffletower. There was about 25 in our overall group. We went through the 1st security check just after 12:15pm anx we then joined a very long queue. I asked the tour guide what the queue was for and how long it would take and she replied it was the queue for her to buy our tickets and it would be around a 2 hour wait. I was shocked and disappointed as I was under the impression that the tour guide would already have the tickets before we arrived. Our children got very bored as did the adults. She had a picture book so hardly a tour. We didn't get up to the Eiffletower till 14:45. We paid €54 for over 12s and €44 for under 12s. I could of queued for the tickets myself for half the price and Googled the photos for free. It was a waste of money and a complete scam. Please don't use this company.

I booked the Real Madrid Stadium tour with ExperienceFirst on March 2nd for April 19th, more than 1.5 months in advance. I carefully planned my entire Madrid trip around this tour, as visiting the Santiago Bernabéu was one of my biggest dreams.

To my shock, I received a cancellation email at 1 AM on April 19th – just 11 hours before the scheduled tour. No proper explanation, no real alternative. I immediately contacted their customer service, only to be told that they had no available tours on the 19th, 20th, or 21st, and that the only option was April 22nd — the day I was leaving Madrid.

Their “solution”? They coldly told me to just go to the stadium and buy the tickets myself. I followed their ridiculous suggestion and went all the way to the stadium, only to find that tickets were completely sold out for both April 19 and 20.

This was a devastating experience. Because of ExperienceFirst’s last-minute cancellation and total lack of responsibility, I missed the one thing I came to Madrid for. They ruined my carefully planned trip and caused enormous disappointment and emotional distress. This is not just poor service — this is completely unprofessional, unacceptable, and disrespectful to customers.

Avoid ExperienceFirst at all costs.
They are unreliable, disorganized, and clearly do not care about your travel plans or well-being.
They took my money, gave me false promises, and left me standing outside a sold-out stadium.

Do not trust them. Do not book anything with them.

Turned up at the eiffel tower and waited for our guide (who also had our tickets) as per instructions on location (checked with the eiffel tower security who said we were in the right place) and time. No show, messaged and called and left messages and nothing then 5 mins before tour was to start message to say we hadn't showed. Will be requesting a refund, if you go to Paris I'd suggest getting your tickets directly or at the tower. Won't use these again nor viator who we booked through

Total rip-off. We were charged hundreds of dollars for a private tour and the guide never showed up. Be careful with this business - you might be next.