14 Apr 2024
We booked the Private Liwa Overnight Desert Safari and our experience with this company was poor from start to finish. Here is why:
Booking: On booking the trip, the payment link they sent through was higher than as indicated on their website. We pushed back on this and they fortunately honoured the advertised price, however it was still a bit of a try on...
Pre-Trip: As with other tour companies we have booked with in the UAE, we expected some messages from the company beforehand with practical information (for example, what to pack, name of the guide, car details etc). We ended up reaching out to them a couple of days before to make sure we were all good and then on the day of we got a message saying they were running 30 mins late.
Guide: The guide spoke little English and spent most of the drive taking personal phone calls so we did not get to learn anything about the surroundings/country. The drive from the road through the dunes to the campsite was really fun (and he was a good driver!), but once at the camp site, he spent most of the time playing on his phone. We entertained ourselves exploring the area near the camp site (which was amazing), but we had expected some sort of structure from him - i.e. downtime now and then at X time we will do this, and Y. time we will do that, especially as the trip advertised a list of activities but nothing was communicated. He also littered which we found bizarre as most tours we go on adopt the mantra of "leave no mark".
Trip: After sunset, some poor weather rolled in (wind/rain) meaning that camping overnight was no longer feasible. We totally understood but were disappointed to find out there was no back up plan, especially given the weather in the desert can be unpredictable and change quickly. We were driven back to the main road and the guide asked us what to do as he did not know what to do with us (bit unprofessional). He said he could take us back to our hotel and as that was the only viable option, we took him up on it. This cut our trip short and meant we missed out on the majority of the activities advertised (dune night walking, tal moreeb dune view, liwa oasis visit, fort and castle visits, shisha and breakfast). In light of that, we expected that the company would give us a partial refund but the company is so far refusing. We essentially paid 2400 AED for a drive to and from the desert and for the BBQ dinner (which was very average).