Gran Canaria

  Simon is very cool, he has a lot of energy. You can feel by his vibes that he is really passionate. The visit was good and and we’ve learned a... read more lot of history.

There are no silent moments, the guide always have things to learn to you.

We’ve seen a lot of diferent wonderful landscapes.

We recommend

  I wholeheartedly recommend a trip with Mr. Szymon. Huge knowledge of the island and full professionalism. We took a trip entitled "Pearls of Gran Canaria". Super conditions and a very... read more intimate group Very attractive price for such a service ...

  Simon provides a never ending stream of information throughout the tour. Interesting stops and snack choices. Would thoroughly recommend this tour.

  The top ofthe mountain the view is amazing travels remember your junker or jacket you shall need it .Also within been a small group it was more personal. The... read more tour guide was just amazing .

  Very nice tour. Beautiful views of GC and Simon is a great tourguide. He knows so much about the island and loves to talk about it. If you want to... read more see something more than your hotel and the beach go around with Simon. I had a wonderful day.

  The top ofthe mountain the view is amazing travels remember your junker or jacket you shall need it .Also within been a small group it was more personal. The... read more tour guide was just amazing .

  I joined this tour with my friend. It was a small group of 4 people in total so it was more comfortable compared to big tours. We really enjoyed all... read more the stops, in particular Teror. Simon have a lot of interesting information about the culture and history of the island. A tip from me is to bring nausea medicine if you suspect you may have car sickness since the mountain roads have a lot of curves. I definitely recommend this tour if you want to see cute Canarian towns and try local food!

  We booked the "Sunset at Roque Nublo Tour" in mid-April as it comprised exactly the locations in the center of Gran Canaria that we wanted to visit. Booking, payment and... read more communication with Simon were easy and already gave us a good impression of Simon himself. That`s why we decided to spontaneously ask him for a second, customized tour to the west coast of the island which he was happy to offer. Both tours were absolutely amazing and a dream for us as photograhers. Simon was a great entertainer and told us a lot about the island, the people and culture. For the customized tour he simply took our wishes of locations we would like to visit, added few spots and created the tour. On top, he was flexible enough to make little changes during the tour itself. Just name a spot or show him a picture and he will find out how to make your explorer dream come true. Really fantastic and highly recommended! …

  Long story short: He canceled very last minute after confirming the tour and then started threatening and harrassing me via Whatsapp when I left a negative review on google. I... read more guess this is the reason he has a near perfect score. However: You should know that none of his threads hold any value as he already violates european law by harrassing or threatening you in a lot of different ways. I will elaborate in the full story.

Full story (please also check screenshots):
On 2 october we booked this tour for 2 people and paid 138 euros for it via Viator. Tour date was set to be on 22 october. Simon has his settings set to immediately confirm the booking - which is a setting he can choose himself as definitely not all tour operators do this. I booked several tours that had a conformation later, for example because a minumum number of guests are required. These companies communicate honestly about it.

During our holiday I even received a chat message - via Viator - that confirmed the hotel pickup time and what clothing to wear (the last pasrt you can also read in the tour description).

Unfortunately, Simon didn't get enough people for this "Small group" tour (usually small group is 8, which means we would already be 25% of the group) and decided to cancel his tour. He did so on the 20th of october on 21:49. Since we had a tiring tour that day, we already slept about that time. But even if we were still awake: It wouldn't matter. On such short notice it's impossible to find a proper (and affordable) other tour around Gran Canaria. So I left a negative review about it on Google.

In my review I made a mistake, writing that Simon canceled less than 24h before the tour. To that Simon immediately started threatening me and harrassing me via Whatsapp. He was calling me a lieer and threatened to report me to google and my employer.

So I checked about the 24 hours and corrected my mistake (fair is fair). However: you should notice a few other things about what he said:

1: "By using the anonimity of the internet": I was not posting anonymous, my name is right there at the review. He would not be able to find my whatsapp if it was anonymous. - Partially because of this, I think it's a habit of him to threaten people to keep his score high.
2: "Harm us by posting lies": I made a mistake, I did not post lies. And I happily corrected that. Yet he keeps insisting that I lie.
3: "We canceled 2 days before departure": Not quite so if it is at 21:49 in the evening.
4: "Private tour around the island for 96 euro per person": I never requested a private tour. But don't confirm a tour if you need a minimum and just be honest about it that a minimum is required. Since that is nowhere to be found in the tour description, nor in the confirmation: The risk is for the tour operator, not for me as a guest.
5: "Digital Slavery": First of all: It is not digital. As a tour is a fysiscal thing. Second: You offer this tour this way. If you cannot do it, it is YOU who put yourself into problems. It's not slavery.
6: "Your behavior will be reported to the management of Sforza and Google" Well, as long as it is a honest review (and it is), google really doesn't care. Reporting it to my employer would be a direct violation of GDPR law. Besides: in European law your employer is not allowed to act upon things you do in your spare time, unless you do them in the name of your employer (which I clearly didn't).
7: Saying something about me being able to afford a tour is just a very low thing to do.

So this shows just the tip of the iceberg on how agressive this guy is.

So I told him I would correct the 24h mistake, but that I still don't agree on his approach and will keep the 1-star as he threatened me.

Unfortunately he then starts to blame viator for confirming the tour. Like I explained before; Those are settings he can control himself, not Viator. And he even send me a chat message confirming the pickup time. So this was obviously a lie (not a mistake).

Confronting him with this he changes the subject about the amount of people and threatens again to inform my employer and google about it. So I decided to also rewrite that part.

To explain: I had to book for 2 people, since my travel buddy can't book himself. If you read the review well, you can see that I never stated that the tour would leave with only 2 people. However: I re-wrote that part to prevent confusion for others, as maybe other readers would mis-interpret it as well.

I told him that I would sue if he would inform my company about it (which he first said he already did, and then says he will do). I also warned him that he violated GDPR law, but finding my phone number in the booking and contacting me about a review. I never consented to that.

The rest is self explanatory. You can see the original review with his comment, the edited version and the whole whatsapp conversation in the added screenshots as proof that I am not somebody that lies.