Wir lieben die Tour, die wir mit Ali hatten, er ist ein professioneller netter Kerl.
Wir haben an allen Orten genug Zeit, um Fotos zu machen und einzukaufen.
DO NOT TAKE THIS TOUR - IT WAS UNSAFE AND VIOLATED UAE LAW! The tour operator and tour guide were unresponsive, unprofessional, and unsafe. As a result, we had to stop the tour, call Viator, and request to be returned our hotel.
First, the tour operator had extremely poor communication - we didn't receive any notification of when we would be picked up or what we should bring. We had to contact the operator and didn't receive a response until after 12:00 am at which time they told us pickup would be 8 am the next day (i.e. we were already asleep and would've otherwise missed our pickup had we not fortuitously woken up early).
Second, when we were picked up, the car was dirty, there was no water, and the windshield of the car had a crack in it. The tour guide was disheveled and rude - his car was honked at by a tour bus behind him, and the tour guide actually got out of his car leaving us and started to get into a yelling match with the tour bus.
Third, in the car, the tour guide was a distracted driver. We tried to make the situation better by asking how he was, if he was having a hard day, and he responded, "I didn't get much sleep because I was at a club." The tour guide proceeded to tell us he was at a club the night before until 4:30 am, and had only 1 hour of sleep before starting work at 5:30 am. We were unsettled by the fact the guide was operating our vehicle on 1 hour of sleep for the driving tour. During the ride to Abu Dhabi, the tour guide kept texting while driving (a violation of Article 32 of the UAE Federal Traffic Law) and swerved his car two or three times on the road because of his texting while driving. We did not feel safe, but because he had already been rude and aggressive, we kept quiet and simply hoped to reach our first destination unscathed.
Fourth, our "tour guide" knew nothing. We asked him questions about buildings we passed and he said he didn't know what they were. We asked him about The Palm in Jumierah and he said he didn't know what The Palm was. When we arrived at the Grand Mosque, we asked him when it was built, and he said he thought it was built in "2004 or 2005" but that we should ask the people at the mosque when we got there. (When at the mosque we saw signs that said the mosque was constructed in 1995.)
Fifth, our "tour guide" did not give us any guidance or tour whatsoever. Instead, the tour guide dropped us off in the parking lot and told us to walk through a mall that would eventually bring us to the mosque. We asked the guide if he was going to go with us to the mosque. The guide said no, he would wait for us and sleep in the car. We asked if our clothing was appropriate and if could wear a shawl over our heads. The guide said, no, we would have to go to the mall to buy a black abeya - even though the tour advertisement specifically stated "For Womens Black Abaya will provide from company to go inside The Mosque." When I told the guide they were supposed to provide the abeya, he again said no we had to go to the mall to buy our own abeyas. My friend and I tried to have the guide confirm whether we really needed abeyas since the mosque website had a dress code graph that appeared to allow shawls as long as you're fully covered, and the tour guide again told us we were wrong and proceeded to "shoo" us away. When we entered the mall, we saw other tour groups with their guides and asked their guide whether we needed abeyas or could wear our own shawls. It was only at that time that the other tour guide gave us correct information and told us our attire was appropriate. For the remainder of our visit to the mosque we walked with another guide from a different tour while our "tour guide" slept in the car.
Sixth, when we were left on our own in the mosque, we got lost and couldn't find our way back to our guide and car (because the mosque is connected to a mall and we couldn't remember our way back). We attempted to contact our guide and the tour operator to seek assistance. No one responded to us. We were lost for over an hour. Eventually we had to seek help from the mall security to bring us back to our guide who we found sleeping in his car. The guide did not say anything, did not apologize, did not speak to us or explain why he didn't respond to our request for him to find us.
Seventh, we attempted to contact the tour operator again to request the operator replace our guide as the guide was completely incompetent and unsafe when driving us. We texted the tour operator several times for assistance, told the operator that the guide was texting while driving and swerving and that we wanted to stop the tour because of the unsafe conditions. The tour operator did not respond. We also contacted Viator who could not help us. We simply told to the guide to stop the tour and bring us back to the hotel as we did not have any other way of returning to Dubai, did not speak the language, and were two women in an unknown location. We were forced to ride back with the same guide who continued to text and drive and we were left to feel completely abandoned and unsafe. We have videos of the tour guide texting and driving and yelling at us (when we told him it was unsafe to text and drive), and we even asked our hotel to help us file a complaint with the local police as these are conditions that tourists should never have to experience.
No one should ever be put in this position, let alone two women traveling in a foreign country. Viator should never partner or promote this tour operator. Please do not take this tour from this tour operator.