Meet Viator: Your Passport to Curated Travel Experiences Around the World

Our favorite part of any vacation is getting to explore a new culture and setting. From climbing millennia-old rock formations to trying out trendy, cutting-edge restaurants, Viator's travel experience platform can help you make the most of your trip. This TripAdvisor subsidiary is our go-to for vacation luxuries like skip-the-line tickets, cooking classes, and jungle excursions. We've found that it lets us book the most exciting and entertaining experiences at the most affordable prices—and honestly, who doesn't want that?

If you want to have a blast on your next trip, you're going to want to bookmark Rank & Style's guide to Viator. We've carefully researched the brand to collect insider tips on the best deals and experiences. Keep reading to discover great ways to save whether you’re dreaming of pristine natural settings, vibrant cities, or charming rural escapes.

What Is Viator?

Viator is a TripAdvisor-owned booking website that specializes in travel experiences. You can use it to reserve things like bus tours, whale-watching trips, or pottery classes at your vacation destination. Viator has been around since 1995, so it's had a lot of opportunities to expand its inventory. The platform currently has over 300,000 bookable experiences available at over 2,500 destinations worldwide. 

Here's what stands out about Viator: its focus on curated activities. We rely on it for booking things like tours of local distilleries or meet-and-greets at theme parks. In addition to handling practicalities like reservations and payment, the platform also helps match travelers with their perfect activities. Thanks to verified reviews and detailed activity descriptions, you can browse Viator to get ideas for what you want to do on your trip—kind of like inspiration and booking all in one place.

What Does Viator Sell?

Just about any vacation activity you can think of besides lying around on a beach is available on Viator, and we've seen some pretty great beach-lounging packages available there, too. As you might be able to tell from the name, Viator was initially all about booking tours. These days, it also offers adventurous excursions, cultural experiences, and day trips.

Viator's offerings are available in a lot of different sizes. Looking for a low-key activity just for you? Viator has that. Trying to keep a massive group of people busy on a trip? Viator can help you with that, too. The platform's vacation experiences come in multiple sizes and multiple lengths as well. We've seen vacation experiences that last just an hour or so, and we've found ones that can last for weeks. 

Viator also sells a better vacationing experience. Sure, a lot of the activities on Viator are also available for booking elsewhere. However, you'll often find that their sites are only in another language or that they require you to visit their location in person. So when you want quick, convenient bookings, Viator's website and app are the way to go.

Viator’s Bestselling & Top Experiences

To help you get an idea of what Viator has to offer, we've collected all its bestselling and top-rated experiences. Here are some of the main reasons travelers love Viator. 

European Icons

Travelers in Europe often love tours that take them to historic settings while still allowing time to unwind and relax. 

These are the top three activities for tourists in Europe:

1. Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica Guided Tour: This Roman tour lets you travel through the city's major religious icons. Check out world-famous frescoes, incredible architecture, and more.
2. Tuscany Day Trip from Florence: This trip starts in Florence and guides you through the Tuscan countryside. Highlights include Siena, Pisa, and a lunch at a winery.
3. Big Bus London Hop-On Hop-Off Tour with Optional River Cruise: See London at your own pace from a classic double-decker bus.

U.S. Favorites

You can find everything from cultural tours to natural hikes in the United States. 

These four experiences are especially popular with travelers:

1. Chicago River 90-Minute Architecture Tour: Go along the Chicago River and see the highlights of this city's architecture in less than two hours.
2. SUMMIT One Vanderbilt Experience Ticket (NYC): This multisensory art experience allows for stunning views of New York City while also letting you see incredible art exhibits.
3. Hoover Dam Tour from Las Vegas with Lunch: Take a day trip from Las Vegas to the Hoover Dam, and get both lunch and a guided tour.
4. San Francisco Bay Cruise (60 minutes) and California Sunset Cruises: This set of cruises lets you enjoy both beautiful sunsets over the waves and interesting facts about California's coastline.

Popular Everywhere

No matter where you go and no matter what's on your bucket list, you'll notice that a few experiences tend to stand out. 

Here are some of the most rave-worthy experiences we've encountered while curating our dream vacations:

• Classes and workshops:
  The fastest-growing category on Viator belongs to cooking classes, dance lessons, and crafting workshops. This is a great choice for people looking to learn on vacation.
• Outdoor adventures:
  From hot air balloon rides to Icelandic Northern Lights tours, these experiences let people enjoy natural beauty.
• Cultural tours:
  These tours skip tourist hot spots and instead focus on local favorites like food tastings.

The Viator Story

Viator's origins go back to the early '90s when founder Rod Cuthbert was planning a holiday to Greece. He wanted to book a boat ride but found that it was confusing and complicated to do so. He decided to use the unifying power of the brand-new internet to create a travel website that would make booking one-of-a-kind tours in faraway areas much simpler. 

This mission attracted a lot of customers, and in 2014, Viator became so popular that TripAdvisor decided to buy it. With TripAdvisor's customer base and reliable reputation, Viator was able to expand its offerings even further. Thanks to its thousands of tours and millions of reviews, Viator has become a leader in the business of helping travelers make memories. 

How Much Does Viator Cost?

When you shop on Viator, you'll see that each travel experience includes a small price tag at the bottom. This will let you know the lowest possible cost for the experience, but keep in mind that some activities may have pricing tiers with higher-priced options. How much you pay for an experience through Viator will depend on what you select. Some budget-friendly walking tours are just $20 or so while luxury, multiday excursions can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

No matter what you pick, Viator's pricing model is very transparent with no hidden fees or surcharges. We've discovered that Viator runs a lot of deals, and it even has a loyalty program that offers extra savings. For more information on how to save, check out our Viator promo code page with exclusive deals.  

How to Use Viator Best

We've found that there are a few steps you can take to ensure your Viator booking leads to a memorable, enjoyable trip:

1. Book early: If Viator mentions that a tour is likely to sell out, make sure to book ASAP. In-demand things, like Big Bus London tours, fill up fast. Viator has very flexible cancellation policies, so you can usually change your booking if your plans change later on.
2. Bundle your experiences: To make your trip as convenient and affordable as possible, we suggest looking for vacation bundles that include multiple activities.
3. Use filters to personalize plans: Take advantage of Viator's convenient filtering interface to find specific activities that suit your travel personality and your own interests.
4. Make sure to read reviews: Use the ratings and reviews on Viator to see what other travelers think of the experience.
5. Check for deals: Being able to browse so many offers on Viator also gives you the chance to find the best possible deals. Take the time to look for affiliate-linked deals, promotions, and seasonal discounts, so you can get premium vacation experiences without overpaying.

If You Love Viator, You’ll Also Love…

Try these travel brands if you enjoy Viator but would like to branch out a little bit:

• GetYourGuide:
  This site provides great connections with local travel guides. Its offerings aren't as extensive as Viator's, but it has some very exclusive experiences.
• Airbnb Experiences:
  This opportunity lets you pick travel experiences alongside your hotel or rental. It tends to focus on immersive, all-in-one trips where your host is also your guide.
• TripAdvisor:
  Though you can't book on TripAdvisor, it's still quite useful. This website lets you look up popular activities and see what other travelers think about them.
• Expedia:
  Expedia is useful when you want an even larger pool of booking options. It includes tours, hotels, flights, and rental cars, and we've found some great Expedia deals.
• Priceline:
  Priceline is another full-service travel company that focuses on hotels and cars. It doesn't have quite as many experiences, but you can get great prices with our Priceline promo codes.

Why We Love Viator

Viator is one of our must-visit sites whenever we're planning a vacation because it lets us craft truly one-of-a-kind trips. Not only does it have a very diverse selection of travel experiences, but it also provides a convenient, trustworthy way of reserving and paying for our trip activities. We love that we can do everything from booking a simple ferry ride across the English Channel to finding multiday tours of the entire Tuscan countryside. If you want to have a blast on your vacation instead of just sitting around at your hotel, Viator is worth checking out. The bottom line is this: Viator makes planning your next trip less stressful and way more exciting.