LVIV TOUR REVIEWS
It's no secret that modern travellers rely on reviews before booking a tour, a ticket or a hotel. Indeed, we all make purchases online, and product / delivery reviews matter to all of us.
The tours and activities sector online is a rather unique space in the sense that reviews can make or break the reputation of any tour operator, new or established.
It is said that one negative review is enough to negate dozens of positive reviews in the mind of a booker.
Travellers who review tours are a very special group. Most of them spill reputation-destroying vitriol if they miss their train, cannot find the meeting point, or fail to follow instructions set out in their booking confirmation e-mail. Yes, such people do exist.
Some of them clearly enjoy writing online and publish long-winded reviews that praise the tour operator or tour guide with whom they booked.
The stupid ones review the OTAs, usually GetYourGuide or Viator, believing they provided the activity, when in fact it was the local tour operator from whom the OTAs take 30% commission.
On one occasion, some time summertime 2023, we were sent a selfie on WhatsApp of clients sat on a bench, some 10 metres away from the meeting point for their tour that was scheduled to depart in about 10 minutes. The destination was Pompeii, Italy.
They refused point blank to move themselves and check in, stating that the guide "must come to them", the weather was "too hot", and that we hadn't provided them with enough water.
Several weeks later, our tour company in Rome was awarded a libellous one star review on Tripadvisor, who refused to remove it. A few months later, we closed our Tripadvisor account. Permanently. In Lviv Tours does not need Tripadvisor and they know it.
To be blunt, people who write a lot of tour reviews online are generally bored beyond belief and have nothing better to do. Perhaps it's a way for them to store memories of their travel experiences in places they log in to often, such as Google. On the other hand they could be independent and publish a blog, just like this one. Laziness, and the opportunity to troll others.
It's clear to see that the business of tour reviews online is a very mixed bag and should be taken with a generous pinch of salt.
My advice is never judge a tour or tour operator on the back of reviews. Most of them are written by unhinged travellers or fake review writers. And then there'll be the genuine review writers, but by that point does it really matter? Hopefully not.
Fake reviews are everywhere, all it takes is one Indian or some shipwrecked soul in The Philippines with a VPN to confuse everyone, tour operators and travellers alike.
With all of this confusion, it's natural that we don't have a presence on Tripadvisor, Google, or anywhere else where fake reviews can be published. While many travellers may well rely on reviews, we rely on reality.
Using Rome as an example, it's full of ticketed venues, and that fact alone provokes travellers to write negative reviews. Every ticket has a face value and someone out there won't like the tour operator mark up.
Similarly, venue tickets in Rome have time slots, and it's easy to miss them when public transport in Rome is factored in. The result? One missed museum or gallery entrance that can potentially earn a bad review.
Lviv does not suffer such woes, simply because we don't have and will likely never have online ticket portals for our museums and galleries.
Why? Because they are small and don't even come close to ever being busy. In most cases, they are in need of repairs and renovation. I'm not denigrating what we have, more rather stating that our historical institutions are not worth reviewing.
You will only find Lviv tour reviews about In Lviv Tours here on our website, and that's if we decide to publish them. Reviews anywhere else are likely to be fake or a mistake, ergo penned by someone intent on reviewing another tour operator in Lviv, believing them to be us. Thanks, but no thanks.
We get plenty of lovely comments on WhatsApp after we have delivered tours to our clients. In most cases, they stay there.
Reviews of tours in Lviv tend to focus on the guide experience rather than places visited, and they can be personal. It's well known that Ukrainians are pleasing on the eye, indeed, without spelling it out, Lviv had a big problem with male Turkish tourists (search for "Turkish" in the article) before the 2020 pandemic.
It got to a point where local men were getting so angry that they created fake profiles on dating sites to snare the Turks. Meetings were arranged and "discussions" took place.
No one likes this type of "tourist", especially in Ukraine, where most of our men fight to defend their country from invaders without having to worry about Turks trespassing on their land, and their women.
Thankfully, the days of being invaded by Turks are gone and the clubs that entertained them, disappeared.
I don't believe for a second that Ottoman wars in Europe will return, what with the current geopolitical mess with russia at full tilt and showing no signs of letting up.
There is a very odd Ukrainian tours website that goes something like this: "the tour guide will be beautiful and there's a real chance of romance". Is this where tourism meets the dating industry?
Reviews of such shenanigans would most certainly raise eyebrows so let's hope it doesn't happen, and let's hope too that the website ends up in the same place as where the Turks came from.
Lviv tour reviews should not dictate who you book tours with. Always visit local tour operator websites first to gauge what they offer
If you have any questions, reach out on WhatsApp or another messenger service before passing judgement.
AI-generated reviews is another spanner in the works above and beyond "real" reviews fabricated in India by characters who have never set foot in Ukraine.
Influencers such as Arival keep telling us that digital tourism is a reviews-based industry. With all of the above in mind, I disagree.
✍ by ICON on October 21st, 2025.