16-Night Israel Jordan and Egypt Tour

Posted By : parisca
TRAVELERS BEWARE. SAFETY CONCERNS AND COMMUNICATION ARE NON-EXISTENT WITH THIS COMPANY. I have been to over 60 countries and Booking Tours is the absolutely worst company I have ever traveled with. We hired Booking Tours, because as two women traveling in the Middle East, we were concerned about safety. They took us off a bus from Petra to Wadi Rum and handed us off to two men with no identification in a minivan (that broke down) in the middle of the desert. Fortunately we made it to the campsite, but are confident most women would feel very uncomfortable in this situation. The following day, we were left at the camp with no information about when we would be picked up or who would pick us up other than “transfer”. You might be thinking, “why didn’t you ask”? Of course we did! However, they did not provide any contact information for the drivers and we were told that they don’t use What’s App and they don’t monitor chat boards outside regular business hours. Our hotel tried to call the generic number for us, no answer. When they finally responded on the chat board, all they said was “it is on your itinerary”. No, it was not or we wouldn’t be asking. We purchased a flight upgrade to replace a 10 hr drive. The flight upgrade did not, in fact, get us to our destination any earlier. In fact, we drove over 3 hours (when there was an actual airport at the border) and sat at the airport for 5 1/2 hours as we watched flight after flight depart for Cairo. The flight upgrade bought us the cheapest flight out that night that got us to the hotel AFTER when the 10 hour drive would have arrived. They gave us the incorrect flight info on the itinerary, and when we asked them about it, they said it was correct. It was not. When we inquired about how this was an upgrade they said they did not say we would get there any sooner with the flight, which is true. However, most people would assume a flight upgrade would also mean an earlier arrival. When we arrived at our hotel in Egypt at 1:30am, there were no towels and no toilet paper and no plugs that would work to charge our devices. In this case they did move us to a different hotel, but only because we walked out and refused to go back. However, their response was that the pictures of the hotel online showed outlets. Seriously? And these are just a few of the issues we had with them. Time after time, they refused to acknowledge any problems with any of their reservations, itinerary, or inability to contact anyone for help.

If you choose to book with them, I hope everything goes exactly as planned for you. Should you have a question, be sure you ask during business hours. If you use What’s App, just know they do not. If you run into any problems at all, know they WILL NOT believe you or acknowledge fault or wrong doing for anything and WILL NOT work with you to resolve any issues. Before we wrote this review, we have been going back and forth with them for 5 weeks to give them the opportunity to make this right. Their response? They did nothing wrong. Their customer service is truly the worst I have ever experienced. Booking tours is not available to help you. Booking Tours does not care about your experience. Booking Tours does not believe you when you have a concern. Booking Tours does not care about your SAFETY.

*I could not find that exact tour we did on the drop down menu, but included Israel, Jordan and Egypt, June 2023
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Posted On : 2023-08-08 16:42:17

Posted By : I5928BPdebbies
Beautiful experience although a lot of time spent on bus and hotels could be improved on. They weren’t maintained. The guides were very knowledgeable. Jerusalem was an experience of a life time.
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Posted On : 2023-05-19 10:45:00

Posted By : Judith R
Great trip…but lots of time spent in bus. Guides were great and knowledgeable. Some hotels lacked 4 stars though. Took tour with AIT 4 years ago and some hotels have not been maintained, even had mold in one bathroom.
Overall great trip.
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Posted On : 2023-05-19 10:29:06

Posted By : Donna_W
The transition from Jordan to Egypt was awful. Don't book it!
We checked out of the hotel in Jordan, hiked Petra all day, and then were taken to the Egyptian border and driven to Mt. Sinai. We were the only 2 people on the tour. We were expected to hike up Mt. Sinai in the dark to get there for the sunrise. The weather was freezing. We walked some and realized it was crazy so we refused to continue.
We were left in the van with the driver and a security guard who did not speak English for 4 hours.
There were no facilities of ANY kind anywhere around.
The guide and his guide hiked up the mountain alone.
They would not turn on the van to warm it up. We literally put on all our extra clothes from our luggage to stay worm.
We complained until they called the guide to interpret. We told the guide to come back immediately.
He said he would be back soon. He arrived 4 hours later!!!!
It had SNOWED on them coming down the mountain and he was almost frozen.
The tour service was just concerned that was our decision not to go up the mountain and instead of waiting around to do things in the area that we requested to go to our hotel in CAI, 3 hours away!
No apologies. No, we were wrong to put you in this position. Just documenting it was our decision not to climb/walk up a mountain at night in the freezing weather without a flashlight.
Viator needs to do a better job of ensuring transitions are better for the customers.
I will be messaging Viator also.
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Posted On : 2023-02-22 17:29:27

Posted By : Djon72
On this trip I really enjoyed visiting the dead sea. The water is so salty that it just pushes it to the surface. Very useful for skin and respiratory diseases. Jerusalem is just gorgeous, the city of dreams! Streets, temples, everything brings back memories of God. Holy places, great trip, thanks to the organizers!
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Posted On : 2019-04-29 12:56:26