This tour was amazing!

We paid extra for a Prague city tour including the changing of the guard. Our group was added to an all day tour with a different agenda. We did get an hour bus ride city tour, but no detail. The guide simply pointed out by name the various buildings and sights. We did not have a stop for coffee at Lobkowicz Palace as advertised. When we got to Prague Castle our guide made several disparaging remarks about the changing of the guard ceremony and proceeded to take us into the castle for a brief tour of the buildings. By the time she took us back to the gate, we were unable to see the changing of the guard at 12 noon because of the crowds and she wanted us to return to the inside of the gate by ten past noon so the rest of the group could go to lunch. Then she took us back to a shuttle bus to the drop of point. It was not even 12:30 when we were dropped off. That said, the tour was less than 2 1/2 hours and not 3 hours. And we did not see the changing of the guard.

Tour Option: Tour and Changing of the Guard T10AM on 19 June 2016 Optional Changing of the Guard 2224PRGT12
Date: 19 June 2016

This is what happened during my trip.
1 Called at 08:35 on the day of the tour to confirm my reservation. A lady staff confirmed my booking and told us to wait at the hotel at 09:45 for the hotel pick-up.
2 Waited at the hotel at the designated time but no one arrived to pick us up.
3 After several calls and many excuses by them, we were told to wait for the pick-up and was told that we would not miss anything even though the tour was supposed to start at 10:00
4 At 10:35, the big tour bus finally arrived at our hotel. We discovered that the tour had already started at 10:00 and the bus was diverted to pick us up.
5 We then followed the tour from there. It seems that we were the only ones that booked this tour and it does not include the lunch.
6 The guide then told us that she had to accompany the group that had lunch and that we will be transported to the town centre where we will be left on our own.
7 She said that if we wanted a tour of the town centre, we had to join the tour with the lunch and pay the extra charges. We did not want to take the lunch and pay the extra costs.
8 So the bus driver, picked us up and threw us off at the town square where were expected to continue the tour on our own.
9 The tour description clearly states Old Town Square with its historical marketplace and the Astronomical Clock, and then bid your guide farewell as your tour finishes.
10 This did not happen for us.
11 When I called up to complain, all the staff said was Thank you for your feedback.
This was really a very bad experience.
We booked this tour through Viator

Short and crisp tour of Prague in a nutshell with a guided tour.The trip is good and will make you see all the important places in a short span of time.

The reservation included hotel pick up but when I contacted the local tour operator directly, they directed me to their ticket counter, which thankfully was just a 10 minute walk away. Nevertheless, if hotel pick up is not available or limited, it should not be advertised as so. There was a lot of confusion on the tour. Everyone had a different tour booked but we were all bunched together in the same van. I booked this specific tour 3 hour with changing of the guard and I was the only one, a few others had a city pass, so a full day tour including lunch, another three people had another type of tour, 1 hour only, and were dropped off after the bus tour, and another couple had a Spanish-speaking tour, so the guide was repeating everything in Spanish and in English. The first hour of the tour is definitely not worth doing, we drove around the city in a bus but you don't really see anything. The visit at the Castle was the highlight, definitely worth doing with a guide for all the historical information provided, and our particular guide, Tatiana, was a very interesting woman with a breadth of knowledge and multilingual. In the end we had fun and bonded with the other participants. At the end of the castle tour, the people with the city pass stayed for lunch, whereas I had only the three hour tour with no lunch, so a bus came to pick me up and dropped me off at the square in old town. It was convenient for me because that's where I wanted to go sightseeing next, but for people expecting to return from the start of the tour at the local tour operator's ticket office, it is not convenient at all. I wouldn't recommend booking this specific tour, but opting for a different one, better organized perhaps but with a tour of the castle for sure.