I'm so glad Amsterdam has joined the Yelp family because I've been saving this review since June. Please note, my review pertains to the Keytours Panoramic Circle Tour which takes you on a bus tour of the city, a "tour" in the Coster Diamond Mill on Potterstraat, followed by some photo ops at one of Amsterdams oldest windmills.
It started off great. We boarded a large, air-conditioned bus that took us through all of Amsterdam. The bus did not stop, but I still got some great photos from the bus. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. The bus tour lasted approximately an hour.
The second part of the tour, however, was a totally different story. We were taken to the Coster Diamond Mill. We were given a 5-minute overview on the diamond polishing and cutting process. Then our tour group was brought upstairs to a locked room....
In the locked room, three salespeople presented our group with "examples" of the diamonds produced at the factory. At first I thought this was just an intro to another diamond history lesson. But nope. It was a sales pitch. Those "examples" were for sale.
The sales pitch continued for about 45 minutes. At that point, my husband and I asked to leave. Not only was I pissed off that I was being held captive in a locked room with an endless sales pitch, but I was also missing out on getting a REAL tour. The tour I PAID for.
What the hell. I paid 130 euros for a bus tour and a 1-hour sales pitch on diamonds? What a huge disappointment. It's completely unfair for them to lure people in under the facade of a "tour", only to lock people in a room and try to sell them diamonds. Seriously??
We left and headed back to our hotel. I was SO disappointed.
If you book a tour through Keytours, do NOT choose the Panoramic Circle Tour or any tour that involves a tour of the diamond mill. It's all a setup. It's fishy because Keytours is located next door to the diamond mill, so my guess is that EVERY tour involves the diamond mill. So beware. read more