Review Insights · App Store
SmartGuide travel guide & map
SmartGuide s.r.o. · 904 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
904 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 36 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"free"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam app, false 3 day free trial ad. Scam app, false 3 day free trial ad. When I click to do the free 3 day trial, I am immediately charged $20 for a year subscription. Scam app. Apple needs to take this garbage down." - AMDT25
2
"trip"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Weak, AI-generated content. I got this app for a trip to Mycenae in Greece. The content was short, superficial, limited to just a few features of the site, and delivered by an irritating computer voice. No added value compared to the placards already there. First and …" - Rider0027
3
"voice"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI robotic reading. This is no better than Wikipedia or one of the better AI tools. It’s just a mechanical voice reading stuff you can easily find online." - Dcbhsh
4
"guide"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Smart Guide NOT so smart. I got this for Dubrovnik, Croatia and wasted a day in the Old City on this stupid tour that attempts kitschy analogies with the listener instead of providing historical facts in detail. Very surface level, I don't feel the research team or …" - gorgeartist
5
"find"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI robotic reading. This is no better than Wikipedia or one of the better AI tools. It’s just a mechanical voice reading stuff you can easily find online." - Dcbhsh
6
"doesn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A.I. feature doesn’t work. I asked the A.I. in the app to build a walking tour of up to 4 miles in a loop to see the sights on Crete, Greece. It plotted part of the walking tour as an 8 mile walk to a museum in another town. Not too intelligent." - Bidniz Guy
7
"work"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A.I. feature doesn’t work. I asked the A.I. in the app to build a walking tour of up to 4 miles in a loop to see the sights on Crete, Greece. It plotted part of the walking tour as an 8 mile walk to a museum in another town. Not too intelligent." - Bidniz Guy
8
"tour"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A.I. feature doesn’t work. I asked the A.I. in the app to build a walking tour of up to 4 miles in a loop to see the sights on Crete, Greece. It plotted part of the walking tour as an 8 mile walk to a museum in another town. Not too intelligent." - Bidniz Guy
9
"downloaded"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not work on iPad. I downloaded a second copy onto my iPad, but it does not launch. Get stuck at the first page. It does work fine on my iPhone." - Mapreviewer
10
"city"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Smart Guide NOT so smart. I got this for Dubrovnik, Croatia and wasted a day in the Old City on this stupid tour that attempts kitschy analogies with the listener instead of providing historical facts in detail. Very surface level, I don't feel the research team or …" - gorgeartist
11
"didn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Meh.. I really wanted to like this app - the concept is great. But the product is boring and underwhelming. I tried two different tours in Norway - both looked promising with the included stops. Neither delivered with any depth of detail for t…" - Shaytini
12
"info"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Audio cuts in and out. The app looks like it has good information, but it is too annoying to have the sound cutting in and out continually. Not good communication by the app about how to operate. I’m annoying interruptions for ads" - windyrec
📋 All 36 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
AI robotic reading
This is no better than Wikipedia or one of the better AI tools. It’s just a mechanical voice reading stuff you can easily find online.
Scam app, false 3 day free trial ad
Scam app, false 3 day free trial ad. When I click to do the free 3 day trial, I am immediately charged $20 for a year subscription. Scam app. Apple needs to take this garbage down.
Audio cuts in and out
The app looks like it has good information, but it is too annoying to have the sound cutting in and out continually. Not good communication by the app about how to operate. I’m annoying interruptions for ads
A.I. feature doesn’t work
I asked the A.I. in the app to build a walking tour of up to 4 miles in a loop to see the sights on Crete, Greece. It plotted part of the walking tour as an 8 mile walk to a museum in another town. Not too intelligent.
Does not work on iPad
I downloaded a second copy onto my iPad, but it does not launch. Get stuck at the first page. It does work fine on my iPhone.
Advertises a three day trial but charges you for a year immediately :((
…although it says cancel anytime. I cancelled within the three days but still the charge for a full year. Very misleading.
AI Narrator Open Mic Comedy
They use an AI script and voice to narrate each landmark. The result is a cringy, edgy, open-mic comedy try-hard slop. I had to turn it off after the 5th landmark it was making me gag. You won’t be hearing about the landmarks, just a corny joke set.
A Map With Audio Notes
If you only want a map that generates brief audio about the sight you are touring, why bother? I was expecting at least something like AI generate history sessions, not a bite sized summary of where I am standing.
Not worth $$
Sounded like an AI generated voice and information not shared in an interesting/engaging way. Little detail, most times there was more information offered on a small plaque at the site than offered with this app.
Smart Guide NOT so smart
I got this for Dubrovnik, Croatia and wasted a day in the Old City on this stupid tour that attempts kitschy analogies with the listener instead of providing historical facts in detail. Very surface level, I don't feel the research team or designers put any time into making the tours truly educational or useful. Also, you have to be on your phone the whole time and select each tour. It doesn’t seem to know your GPS or where you’re located except for on the walking map. Tours do not play automatically. I’m switching to another guide before they charge my card.
Delete
Did not offer audioguides for museum as promised.
Terrible
Terrible AI narration that was useless.
Prague tour
It was the first tour ever. The smart guide head systems do not work well at all. So you essentially are seeing monuments that you gave e no clue what they are. I’ve taken over 20 of these hours. By far horrible.
Pretty, But Seems Scammy
I purchased a lifetime subscription to TripWolf, which, surprise surprise, shut down and directed me to Smart Guide, with nothing to show for my purchase. And instead of offering some kind of unlimited subscription, SG is apparently asking users to become investors or crowd-funders for their operation selling us as targets for advertisers. So, it’s like paying for HBO and getting bombarded with ads like on network TV? Why not just use Google where we already know we’re the sheep?
At least the app looks pretty, although I’m reluctant to buy a guide for fear of the spam I might get buried with.
At least the app looks pretty, although I’m reluctant to buy a guide for fear of the spam I might get buried with.
Took my money
I purchased and downloaded a $9.99 package offered by Tripwolf last year which was supposed to contain European city guides. I accessed it one time and now the app can’t find the guides and has no functionality but upgrade offers. You don’t need this.
Betrug
Habe eine Werbeaktion nutzen wollen, habe auf den Button „Gratis“ gedrückt, 4,99 bezahlt.
Betrug. Ich hatte von dem Verein noch nichts positives um persönlichen Umfeld gehört. Hat sich bestätigt.
Betrug. Ich hatte von dem Verein noch nichts positives um persönlichen Umfeld gehört. Hat sich bestätigt.
Stupid
What a bad app. Navigation and handling is just plain stupid and makes no sense.
Maybe free but too many in app purchases
You need to buy the in app purchase to see anything of value.
Can’t use on iPhone X
Interface is broken on iPhone X. Can’t tap buttons to search or navigate.
Won't stop nagging
Constantly uses th notifications screen to get you try to purchase stuff. Even AFTER you've purchased the content for the country you are in. Very annoying and also against App Store rules.
Took away my money
I bought the Moscow guide. From my account removed $6, but the guide was not downloaded. Please, return my money!
Not much help
I thought this would help me plan a trip to Los Angeles but it mainly is a teaser to buy the premium app. No thanks.
Won't launch
This might be a great app but because it doesn't launch, I'll never know.
Waste of my space and data
Going to Dallas at the end of the month. It literally gives me 2 places to eat, and 1 place to shop. Good thing I'm going with a native. Otherwise if I relied on this app, I'd be pretty bored, and go hungry fast.
Crap
Not very helpful. Basically just prepackaged trips, brief descriptions and hotels.
No luck
Came with a pre-installed city I didn't want but charged me for, then wouldn't download a city I did want and charged me for that one too. I've cut my losses and deleted the app.
Useless
I had everything set up before I left for my trip to Mexico, and I had downloaded the map and checked that it worked off-line. As soon as I got there, the map said I had to go online to download it. I had no Internet, so I was out of luck. App is very glitchy, and rather unpleasant to use as well. I would not recommend this.
Weak, AI-generated content
I got this app for a trip to Mycenae in Greece. The content was short, superficial, limited to just a few features of the site, and delivered by an irritating computer voice. No added value compared to the placards already there. First and last time I’ll use this app.
Meh.
I really wanted to like this app - the concept is great. But the product is boring and underwhelming. I tried two different tours in Norway - both looked promising with the included stops. Neither delivered with any depth of detail for the individual sites. It was essentially 2 factual historical sentences read by an AI voice with no story, humor or anything to make it interesting. No walking directions either, although the map was helpful but it means you have to keep the phone out & looking at it the whole time. Didn’t even finish the trial period.
More about buying tickets than helping me plan
I was hoping for more info and more photos. I was also looking to plan my trip schedule, but this didn’t help. To build your schedule you have to choose specific tickets and attractions from their list. Specific tours. Rather than giving a bunch of pictures for a site, they show one, list some info, and offer to sell you a ticket. I ended up browsing it casually and using google sheets to make my schedule with exact reservations and links. The purchasing options were insanely confusing, as well. Would I rather pay one price for one location or the same price for unlimited locations? Huh?
Not impressed
On a recent trip to SouthAfrica I found the app utterly useless. Just standard info that is readily available from many free sources.
Good idea but poor execution
I bought the Unlimited version (unlimited guide downloads for $19.99). The initial impression I got was that this will be THE travel planner. But after using it for 10 minutes trying to plan my Italy trip, all the flaws became apparent.
Pros: nice layout and it's very innovative for integrating Fodor's destination info (attraction info + some historical background) with pictures, maps, and tour booking.
Cons: You can create a "trip" and save all the things you want to check out to this trip. However, these "trips" are limited to each guide so if I create a "My Italy Trip" in the Italy country guide, I won't be able to add anything to this "My Italy Trip" from a Sicily Regional Guide. So, maybe the App developer will argue that everything in Sicily is already included in the Italy Guide...but then WHY have separate guides at all?? And this also means that you can't create a multi-country trip. Also, you are not able to view the places you saved on a map...so it kind of defeats the purpose if you want an "aerial view" of the things you want to check out to optimize route planning, etc.
Conclusion: this app is only good as a guide when you're already in the country and you're trying to find things to check out. Be aware though that the activities they suggest seem to be either the typical tourist sites and the accommodation/restaurant recommendations seem a bit subjective. Definitely doesn't work as a trip planner tool.
Pros: nice layout and it's very innovative for integrating Fodor's destination info (attraction info + some historical background) with pictures, maps, and tour booking.
Cons: You can create a "trip" and save all the things you want to check out to this trip. However, these "trips" are limited to each guide so if I create a "My Italy Trip" in the Italy country guide, I won't be able to add anything to this "My Italy Trip" from a Sicily Regional Guide. So, maybe the App developer will argue that everything in Sicily is already included in the Italy Guide...but then WHY have separate guides at all?? And this also means that you can't create a multi-country trip. Also, you are not able to view the places you saved on a map...so it kind of defeats the purpose if you want an "aerial view" of the things you want to check out to optimize route planning, etc.
Conclusion: this app is only good as a guide when you're already in the country and you're trying to find things to check out. Be aware though that the activities they suggest seem to be either the typical tourist sites and the accommodation/restaurant recommendations seem a bit subjective. Definitely doesn't work as a trip planner tool.
Not useful in free version
I could see the benefit of you paid the premiums, but not useful as a free app. I wanted to connect my cities and make notes along the way, but didn't find a straightforward way to do this. Too much off limits to the free clientele.
Bummer
Nice guides but their giveaways don't transfer to a new device. They can't be restored. Not thrilled with paying for any guides after this. They give away "free" guides and then take them back!
Crashes Frequently
The idea is rather good and the UI is pretty good but the problem is that it continually crashes. Navigating back to the main page...crashes. Clicking on a collection...crashes. Crash, crash, crash. And when it comes back on, it starts all over again from the main page without returning you to the city you were researching. Annoying to the point of being unusable.
Very buggy on iPhone 6
There is not much info for free, you have to pay for everything.
Sentiment summary
94%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
5%
Negative (1-2★)