Best of Holy Land Israel & Jordan and Egypt Tour with Nile Cruise - 17 Days

Traveler Reviews

• V

  Val

  September 28th, 2023
  4.0
  My wife and I went on a 17-day tour of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. The tour was well orchestrated. All the details of...
  My wife and I went on a 17-day tour of Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. The tour was well orchestrated. All the details of getting into and out of countries were handled professionally and with little cause of concern to us. Hand-offs between countries went well. We were guided by knowledgable people who had our best interests at heart (with possibly one exception).The only real complaint I have is that TourRadar turned out to be more of a facilitator than a tour agency with its own guides. I was confused when we got to Israel and found that neither TourRadar nor Click Tours (which answered my online questions) was the agency actually leading the tours. Not knowing that we would be connecting with Consolidated Tour Operators (CTO) led to some initial confusion in the Tel Aviv airport. Expecting to be linked up with Click Tours and knowing nothing about CTO, we missed connecting with the airport facilitator in Tel Aviv for nearly an hour while each of tried to find the other. If I had been told to look for a CTO representative, our stressful introduction to the tour would have gone much more smoothly. In Israel and Jordan, CTO handled our tour. In Egypt, the agency was Sylvia. I had expected to be part of a group that held together for the entire 17 days, but that wasn't the case. Groups formed and disbanded based on what individuals planned to visit. In Israel there were 11 of us, and we bonded quickly. In Jordan I was surprised that our group dwindled to five. And in Egypt there was only my wife and me. That left us vulnerable in Egypt to the care of our guide, who, because there was just the two of us, managed to fleece us of $150. I would never have signed up with TourRadar if I had understood that my wife and I would be left alone at one point without the safety of a group and unprepared to deal with a guide we didn't fully trust.Show more
  Traveled in September 2023
• J

  Jessie

  July 14th, 2023
  3.0
  The pace of this tour was WAY too much. We were constantly on the move with zero down time. There were so many...
  The pace of this tour was WAY too much. We were constantly on the move with zero down time. There were so many moving parts to the tours with trying to navigate different countries and different guides. There was not a lot of information about how to navigate and information was often passed along at the last minute making it difficult to truly plan or organize. Further more, you are not really with one tour company. The entire trip is chopped up and farmed out to several different tour companies and guides. The meal plan left much to be desired. Jordan was my favorite tour spot and was the one country I was the most worried about. The people of Jordan were incredible and kind and hospitable. Egypt was dirty and everyone is trying to take advantage of you, including our tour guides. It was very disappointing. While I would say this was undeniably "the trip of a lifetime", the good news is that you only have to do the trip once in your lifetime. I would not return and I would seriously caution those considering this tour to have a true understanding of the nature of how these tours work.Show more
  Traveled in June 2023
• D

  Dora

  May 11th, 2023
  5.0
  The best of Holly Land resulted the best of our family trips. Highly recommended, the agency deserve a big...
  The best of Holly Land resulted the best of our family trips. Highly recommended, the agency deserve a big COBGRATULATIONSShow more
  Traveled in April 2023
• M

  MATTIE

  February 3rd, 2023
  1.0
  I am extremely disappointed; out of the eighteen days we were there I enjoyed two of those days. The time we spent in...
  I am extremely disappointed; out of the eighteen days we were there I enjoyed two of those days. The time we spent in Israel it felt like we were in a church service, most days I didn't care if we left the hotel or not. Our time spent in Jordan could have been much better laid out, Petra was amazing and we would have gladly spent two days there, but the last day in Jordan we spent most of the morning seeing a mountain and then got dropped off at the airport at 1:30PM when our flight was not until 8:30PM. Upon arriving to Egypt, we got in very late, we had to be ready by 8:00AM to be dropped back off at 1PM; we were rushed through the museum and the other attractions that day. I have never been made as uncomfortable as the guide on our Nile Cruise made us. When we were taken to sites, he would insist on us listening to his explanation prior to letting you walk around; and if you attempted to walk away he would come and find you or wave his arms in attempt to get your attention. I felt like a child on an unconsensual field trip. Even to the point that he would wake me up in the back of the van to listen to his stories. When we were on the actual cruise he would never leave us alone, we just wanted time alone and no matter where we were he would find us to discuss something. For instance, we were drinking at the bar, and the couple that was also grouped in with us on the tour came into the bar and he insisted that we all sit together. While I understand their is a tipping system present in this country, this guide would take us to events or activities and not warn us ahead of time about the hidden costs. For instance, he offered optional activities, one was Abu Simbel for which he charged us $135, the other was this Nubian Village for which he charged us $50. Both felt like a rip off. The Nubian Village was just a place he took us to an attempt to buy stuff from vendors; we went to have a cultural experience and it was a scam. For the high-dollar price of each experience I feel that everything should have been covered, but no he still insisted we tip and when we didn't tip the driver for one experience, he followed us and kept insisting we need to pay, and if we didn't tip or tipped lower then he thought he would say, "as you please" but continue to insist the money be paid. The night before our last day he gave us three envelopes, one for the tip of the crew, the other two for his tips with a blank, white piece of paper to write his review on. He insisted that we give him all of this the night before; we forgot to bring them to dinner, he asked us to go get them after dinner, when we were walking out of the dining room he was sitting waiting on us, and asked again. When we went to the room, we spent maybe five minutes in there as we both had to go to the bathroom, we exit our room to find him waiting at the end of the hall where our room is. The next day the guide waits until he drops off the other couple, get into the back seat with us and says, "I think you guys are confused about the currency exchange" and states he opened the envelope and states we didn't pay him enough. When we told him we weren't paying him more he acted like he was going to argue with us. The process was extremely predatory. I told him we had no more money to give, and he would say, "we can go to an ATM, no problem", even when I continued to tell him it wasn't about the physical money, that there wasn't any more in the account he would still insist we could go to an ATM. He would continue to say, "you are on a private tour you have to pay private tour prices" when we never booked a private tour, but a group one. We also opted out of two tours because we were tired, and he wrote up a "contract" stating we were just tired not unhappy with our experience and made us sign it. He also made us write a review on the blank piece of paper before leaving. I was so looking forward to the nile cruise portion and it was terrible.Show more
  Traveled in January 2023
• M

  Michaela

  January 30th, 2023
  1.0
  I was so excited for this trip based off the many positive reviews. Overall the trip was not what was expected. In...
  I was so excited for this trip based off the many positive reviews. Overall the trip was not what was expected. In the 17 days my travel partner and I had 2 days that were good, not excellent. There were many things that were suppose to be included that were not. Almost all the travel guides seemed bored and burnt out. At nearly every turn on the tour in the cruise portion we were cornered in the back of the car or our room for money and made to feel like we had to shell out money or we would be left. While I was thrilled to see 2 wonders of the world I would never return even if I was paid to go back . This entire trip felt like a scam and was not worth the amount of money spent.Show more
  Traveled in January 2023
• C

  Chin-Aik

  January 15th, 2023
  4.0
  Overall it was a great experience. Minor hiccups like terrible hotel like Seanet and we had a blood sucking tour...
  Overall it was a great experience. Minor hiccups like terrible hotel like Seanet and we had a blood sucking tour guide during the cruise on the river nile. All he wanted was to try to rush through the itenaries as quickly as possible and wanted us to do other optional tours so he can make more money. Some of the itenaries were missed because he said they were extras and we needed to pay for them. He even asked at the beginning of the cruise whether we were responsible to pay for the entry fees for the sites we were visiting. Not impressed with him. However, from tel aviv to Jordan to Cairo Egypt the guides were great and professional and courteous. Airport transfers and pick-ups were great. Overall it was a wonderful trip. No regret. Thank you!Show more
  Traveled in December 2022
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  Casey

  December 17th, 2022
  4.0
  some of the hotels are not to the standard what was promised for
  Traveled in November 2022
• K

  KA

  December 11th, 2022
  3.0
  Poor arrangement on the cruise ship, we were separated in another boat from the tourist on the last few days....
  Poor arrangement on the cruise ship, we were separated in another boat from the tourist on the last few days. Thankyou for upgrade as "Private tour".Show more
  Traveled in November 2022
• 

  Annie

  December 1st, 2022
  2.0
  We enjoyed our guides during this tour but it stops there. The upgraded hotels were tattered and generally awful,...
  We enjoyed our guides during this tour but it stops there. The upgraded hotels were tattered and generally awful, and the cruise ship was roach infested. The buses and vans were too small for the number of people in the group. Many times our luggage was loaded and unloaded through the van windows and piled on the seats - so when the vans were moving, luggage fell on us. We were captives for lunches, with no choices other than the places where the guides took us. The tour felt disorganized as we never were given advance information on where and when we’d be picked up/dropped off. At the end we had to wait in the ship’s lounge for 6 hours between the end of the tour and pickup to go to the airport. Why was our flight scheduled at 10:30 pm when the tour ended before 2 pm? Our advice is to spend the extra money and travel with Tauck or Abercrombie and Kent. This was combat travel.Show more
  Traveled in November 2022
• 

  Sally

  December 1st, 2022
  4.0
  The tour was good. The tour guides Uri, Saar, Arkman and Zach were really knowledgable and very helpful. The hotels...
  The tour was good. The tour guides Uri, Saar, Arkman and Zach were really knowledgable and very helpful. The hotels are nice and clean. The need to pick up members of the goup in different hotels cuts down on our tour time. The long gaps between each domestic flights are less admirable. We had to idle and wait for 7-8 hours for our flight to Cairo and to Aswan and back to Cairo. The flight back to Cairo from Luxor should be on the mid afternoon flight. We didn't arrive back to Cairo till after midnight and had to take an early am flight back to London. This left us no time to rest and have a proper sleep which was badly needed since the whole group got infected and sick from the couple Kurtiss and Christy Sandhoff of California. We are extremely upset that the couple knew ahead of the trip that they had been infected with RSV. Yet, they knowingly boarded the plane, got on the bus and joined the tour without wearing any masks! Mr Sandhoff had been hacking and coughing continuously with productive phlegm from day 1 of the tour and he didn't even put on a mask. They have zero regard for the other members of the group. They were very selfish had the ill intent of infecting everyone in the group. They complained about every little thing and were extremely rude. The whole group finally got infected at different stages of the tour. Some of us got very sick and had to miss part of the tour in Egypt. At this moment, 2 of the members of the group tested positive for COVID! We do not know for sure if the Sandhoff's only had RSV, maybe they had Covid too when they joined the tour. This makes me very upset and mad about the whole situation. We started the tour happy and healthy and we ended up sick and upset. I strongly urge your company to implement stronger measures to prevent this from happening again. That couple, Sandhoff's should be held responsible for causing the spread of their infection to the group. They should be reported to the CDC. And who knows how many other people on the planes got infected too?Show more
  Traveled in November 2022