Booking Tours Reviews 213

The driver Mr Rami was excellent and professional. Unfortunately that is the only positive about my experience with the host. First, Booking Tours changed the departure time from Amman from 6:00 to 7:30 AM, and this reduced time on site to enjoy the natural and historical wonders of Petra. Second, the guide at the entrance did not arrive on time, so I had to purchase my own ticket. Third, to save time for exploring the site, I forfeited lunch. Overall, Petra was beautiful as I had expected, but this was the worst host visit to Petra I have experienced.

Israel - amazing! Tours of about 14 people that covered the most essential things. The guides were all excellent! Some days were conducted in 2 languages which was a bit tiring by the end of the day, but nothing was lacking.
Jordan - great! Petra was incredible and staying in the Wadi Rum desert was definitely a highlight.
Egypt - absolutely incredible!! A private tour the whole way with incredible knowledgeable guides. Both Radwan and Bakr were amazing and showed next level hospitality. Accommodation was fantastic. Ramadan (tour coordinator) made sure we felt comfortable the entire time. We saw everything we wanted to with ample free time to explore. It's definitely worth adding the hot air balloon and Abu Simbel, these were 2 of our favourite things.

Tip - get all your visas through the booking company. Some people faced issues in Jordan and had to pay even more!

What an amazing trip. We did not have to worry about anything, we were picked up from the hotel and guided through the whole day. Petra is absolutely beautiful. We would recommend this company. The only reason we did not give 5 stars was maybe our guide could have been a little more knowledgeable on Petra. Also was not overly impressed with the restaurant we stopped at. Still this is a trip we will never forget

I was very disappointed with many aspects of this tour. I booked with a company called Tour Radar and understood that the tour was operated by Booking Tours. I thought it was a complete tour - i.e. same group of people each day, same tour guide or the days of the tour connected. I did get an itinerary some time before the tour however because of some of the interactions with Tour Radar I had expected to get some more information before the tour. This was not the case. The tour groups were also too large especially on Day 1 although I can now see on the Tour Radar website that it says up to 50 people. On Day 1 of the tour I was extremely surprised with a person from BeninHarim Tours arrived to pick my partner and I up. We were not expecting that. There was no mention of Booking Tours or Tour Radar. In effect we had been booked on 4 individual day tours that were similar but not exactly the same to that in the itinerary I had been given. There was no connection between the days of the tour. There were different people on the tour each day and the guide was different each day. Also it was the Jewish New Year and a lot of businesses were closed which we did not know and had thought our tour company might have told us. Day 1 of the tour to Jerusalem was Ok although there were far too many people on the tour. There was a lot of confusion in the morning as we were picked up and then reallocated to a variety of buses. It was extremely crowded and it was hard to hear information provided by the Tour Guide and we kept losing him. The tour group to such crowded places needs to be far less than 50 for it to be of any value. Day 2 was to Caesarea and other places. This was OK and the tour guide was good, however the driver was not. He was very angry and his driving was not safe on our way back to Tel Aviv. At one point he was nodding off at the wheel. He also was going off the main road to over passes and then coming back to the main road to beat the traffic. Also he was coming up very close to other vehicles and flashing his lights and blaring the horn on the open highway. He should not be driving tourist buses. We didn't go to the 3rd day of the tour as it was to the Dead Sea and we'd been there already as part of a tour in Jordan. We tried to inform BeninHarim by e-mail, on-line and by on-line chat and got no response. On the last day when we arrived at the place where we swapped buses we were told to go on the bus to the Dead Sea. That was not what we had booked for Day 4 - it was Nazareth and Gallilee. After some conversation with the people from BeinHarim we were able to change to the correct bus. The last day of the tour was good - both the guide and bus driver were good. I have just been on Tours with other companies in Turkey, Egypt and Jordan and your tour was way short of the standard of those tours in comparison. Yours was a very expensive tour but I just felt we were on a series of day activities and I could have booked them for ourselves. I am very disappointed and could not recommend either Tour Radar or Booking Tours.

Update - after reading Booking Tours response to my constructive feedback I am even more disapppointed - they have taken no responsibility for my experience and have batted off every one of my concerns. DO NOT BOOK A TOUR WITH THEM I will be telling as many people as I can about my experience with them.

I actually booked through Tour Radar who must have gone through Booking-Tours.com. In turn, Booking-Tours.com then contracted with other local tour providers. There was poor communication and with so many individuals and agencies involved something is likely to go wrong. For instance, Booking-Tours.com insisted I was not scheduled for one of the tours, even though I had it in writing from them. My pick-up didn't arrive and I had to call and argue with the agent. The quality of guides and transportation was lacking and I felt like I was on a "cheap" tour. There were even times I was concerned about my safety.

I also feel that I paid 2-3 times as much as I would have paid if I had made arrangements myself/ Everything is available online and if willing to invest the time, you can do way better.

Every vacation is perfect when I book my place to stay with you

We had a fantastic trip to Jordan and particularly enjoyed visiting Petra and Wadi Rum. Our driver Abdullah was very kind and patient. The tour company could improve this tour by providing more details to the driver and tour participants about inclusions, meals, and specific timing around departures, etc, as our experience did not necessarily match what was written in the itinerary, especially the amount of time dedicated to Petra. We loved the meals provided in Wadi Rum and thoroughly enjoyed this overnight experience. The Dead Sea hotel was pleasant and staff were friendly however we were surprised to see that the Dead Sea swimming area was quite dirty. Overall, a highly enjoyable trip.

Good organisation of our trip from Eilat to Petra. Friendly staff which tries to make the trip perfect.

We had many problems.
The transport was old and uncomfortable.
Petra by night much worst tan 2 years ago.
We had a problem with an upgrade that cost us $ 90 (so that the room had a bathroom, since they assured us that it did not have one), and then all the rooms in the group had a bathroom. We claimed the return of the upgrade but they told us it was a camp thing. However, in the reservation (of which I have photos) I did not indicate the existence of my upgrade, but all the standard rooms. When claiming it, they only make excuses to justify the payment of $ 90, although it is clear from the reservation that all rooms were the same.
At the Ramada Death Sea Hotel they hadn't even cleaned the room when they gave it to us. The amenities were open, cigarette butts in the room, and dirty in general.
Only the guide (Omar) and the driver were good. Of rest we would never repeat. This was the second time I made the route with them, and it will be the last. Not recommended here and on tripadvisor.

Très utile, je valide

The tour guide was very knowledgeable but had to explain everything on both English and Russian which made everything drag at 40+ degree weather. Would only recommend if only on 1 language.

I was deeply dissatisfied with the service, woudl never book again.

We did a tour of Petra which included guide and accomodation

The guide that was provided was actively trying to scam us and lie to us, including pushing us into a souvenir shop as a "halfway break" to our destination, which turned out to be literally on the outskirts of the destination, ten minutes away. This wasted half an hour of everyone's precious time, while we already had only 3 hours at the ruins that day, but we were instead forced to stand around for half an hour extra in a shop on a pointless break. (The visitor center, ten minutes away, had excellent toilets)

The accomodation was repeatedly promised to be "somewhere within walking distance of the visitor center", and turned out to be on top of a mountain a fifteen minute car ride away. The owner of the accomodation tried to scam us into taking a taxi service for about 70 USD, to "another entrance" which "requires a 4x4, that he would have to specially rent". After we declined this, he turned up in a 4x4 anyway next morning, because he happened to own one...

The buffer lunch included in the trip did not include water. In a desert country in 35 degrees, drinking water is apparently not part of a buffet meal. The meal itself was horrible and looked like it was standing there all morning and afternoon.

Also "lunch" is apparently at 4 PM. There are multiple buffet options in town, very cheap, which all looked better, when we looked around the next day.

The apartment even exceeded our expectations. It had two separate rooms with queen beds and living room/kitchen. The kitchen was well equipped. The host meet us and entrance and showed around. Would recommend!

Tour was great. Three guides stood out from the five guides we had although all were good.
Itinerary was excelllent and I think our highlight was Masada and the Dead Sea although walking through history in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and all the other destinations was delightful as well.
Dislikes - didn’t like the miserable tour buses. Cramped narrow seats, very hard to get in and out of, no pockets for storing water or other small items. I lost a hat and glasses which apparently slipped down beside the seat.
Also, we weren’t given enough information. We’re not told that almost everything closed down for the Sabbath, which meant all public transport etc., so we had to get a very expensive transfer to the airport at 3.45am, an hour earlier than necessary because of the reduced service.
Would like transfers to have been included. Also, the standard of hotel, which was okay, could have been better.
Overall though, I would recommend the tour and the booking process.

We booked our tour to Israel & Egypt through TourRadar which i guess used Booking Tours. We spent 7 days in Israel and visited all the sights promised though we were really rushed by the tour guides. The buses were clean with A/C but some of the guides have a very strong accent. Sometimes we were booked with Spanish groups so the guide would have to translate to Spanish and English. The accommodations in Israel were adequate but not to be considered 5 Star like we paid. Hotels are out of the way and nowhere to eat other than hotel. In Tel-Aviv they put us at the West Hotel while it is in close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea which was beautiful the room left a lot to be desired. Why would you put us in a room with a kitchen; like I’m going to cook? There are not groceries or anywhere you can walk to (besides the water). Most transfers went ok except for one which we were left in a parking lot in Eilat, we were able to take a taxi to the hotel and they did reimburse the cost of the taxi.
The Egypt part of the tour except for the driver Mohammed and the tour guide Ahmed was a disaster. We drove all night through Egypt to get to Cairo; don’t understand why we didn’t fly. The road was peppered with check points with armed guards. For the most part the road is in very bad condition. After traveling all night in a van we get to Cairo for a full day of tours which included the Museum and the pyramids. Exhausting to say the least. We paid for a 5 star hotel and I would have been happier in a Motel 6. The Mercure Sphinx does have a beautiful view of the pyramids from certain places; that is only the nice thing we can say. It is old, smelly and dirty. Our room was deplorable. I’m sorry that I cannot attach the photos I took. The refrigerator did not work; the door has a huge crack on the top I guess it’s not level; there is only one electrical outlet; I tried calling front desk and the phone was broken, the wire and light were hanging out of one lamp socket; the carpet was filthy and stained; mold and mildew in the bathroom and the walls are filthy. WiFi is only available in the lobby. Our cell phones were not working even in the lobby and requested help from the front desk employee who did not offer to help and told us to use the computers at the business center; need I tell you the 2 computers are missing parts and of course do not work. We booked 2 rooms and paid for 5 star accommodations and feel we were really taking advantage of. By the way before the trip I kept asking for information as to our tour and hotel in Egypt and that info was not forwarded until the last minute. I did see bad reviews for the Mercure Sphinx and hoped for the best since the information was provided at the last minute.

We just came back from our 13 day travel with my husband and parents to celebrate my dad's 80th Birthday. I would not hesitate in recommending Booking Tours because the trip went smoothly. I wanted to write this review to help people. We booked our own flights and we arrived early in Tel Aviv at 10 am. We got lucky and arrived on May 8th which was Irael's independence day so we got free time on our own to go to Jaffa Port and Clock Tower and went to the park in the evening for their live show and fireworks.

At the Airport, the taxi driver was waiting for us with our name and transferred us to our hotel. The hotel was a 3-star and was adequate for our needs. It had an elevator and good breakfast. If you are a light sleeper, you might want to upgrade your hotel because the streets are very busy and it is very loud. Location was near Tel Aviv Port which was two blocks from the beach and walking distance to lots of restaurants for our daily dinner. Our tours were contracted to Ren A Guide and it went smoothly. We were picked up from our hotel on time at 7:30 am and transported to a park where we got on the right bus to the tour we had that day. We were in a small tour group (Sprinter Mini-Van) and we probably had an average to 10-15 people at a time. We did the following tours:
Nazareth and Sea of Galilee-Good
Ceasarea, Acre and Haifa-Good
Jerusalem and Bethlemem-Busy, and there were two guides because you had to transfer accross the Palestinian side to cover Bethlehem and there was a different van and guide there. Only issue with this day that it was a little frustrating since we started in Tel Aviv and we had to pick up people at Jerusalem Hotel before we started the tour and then return them again.
Masada and Dead Sea-Good except I thought the stop at Ahava, the mineral costmetic factory was a waste of time and did not leave us a lot of time to enjoy the beach at the Dead Sea.

We flew to Eliat after five days to go to Jordan. I would recommend flying to all the destinations including Egypt. You don't want to be in a bus for 10 hours. We met with our Israel Representative in Eliat who helped us cross the border and accross the border, we met our Jordanian Representative. Petra was good but a lot of walking. I can tell you now this trip was not good for people with limited mobility. The highlight was staying the night in a tent at Wadi Rum (Rum Plantet Camp). The tent was really not a tent, it had a bed and a full bathroom. The area was beautiful. Our guide, Najy Almarayeh was terrific and took us on jeep tour of the area. This area was where the Movie (Martians-Matt Damon) and Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. It is beautiful and one of the hightlights of our trip.

After the Jordan part, we were picked by the same person and helped us cross the border again to Eliat and our same representative drove us to the Eqyptian Border in Taba. We flew in to Cairo and were met by Muhamid who introduce us to private guide in Cairo and then picked us up again for our flight to Aswan where we started our tour. Our private guide is Aswan was David and he was terrific. He actually stayed in the river boat with us and coordinated all our tours and excursions with a driver. the boat was old and could not compare with the new Viking Cruises but it was adequate. The fact that we had a private guide was better than the the group excursions provided by the other cruises. My mom had knee issues and David catered to our needs. Again, we had an excellent time and I would not hesitate recommending Booking Tours.

Online booking and the online support was great, also the pick up in Eilat and our driver from the border to petra and back.
The tourguide knew a lot, but was rather rude and stuck in his routine.
I’d recommend visiting Petra anyhow! It’s worth the money and driving for sure!

Overall a fun tour, driver was unsociable, host was a good laugh sone nice facts learnt on the way.

The most relaxing way to book your holiday with the minimum of hassle.

I booked a 3 night tour for Petra in Jordan. This is the worst booking experience I’ve ever had. The tour was relatively decent but it was operated by a local company. Booking tours upcharges a huge sum of money from you and pays the local company half the cost. In 2 of the nights, i was downgraded in hotel because it was overbooked. The hotel ended up sending me to the only available hotel in petra which smelled horribly of cigerettes and was basically a roof over a broken and dirty bed. Booking tours was not apologetic and did not make any effort to make concessions. They charge a LOT, they screw over local tour companies, and they will not help you if things go south. Do your self a favor and search a little harder and book with local companies that charge you the correct amount and not through booking tours. If anybody would like, I can show you the conversation with this company. They are harsh, unforgiving, and downright all about the money.

Reply: My name is not Jon. My name is Al and the booking number is 277952-DBKDN through tourradar. (Operator Booking Number: 055-472). You completely have the wrong person. I was put in a 1 Star hotel. I wish your company would have CARED enough to address my concerns when i brought them up. Your company specifically stated that it does not care if i shared my terrible experience with other travelers. If you continue to accuse me of being Jon instead of Al and deflect responsibility, I will copy and paste the conversation I had with Booking Tours staff so that everybody knows exactly how unprofessional Booking tours operate. All I asked was for my single supplement fee be refunded because i was NOT actually given single room. I had to share with 2 other travelers as well as being downgraded in Petra.