Masada, Ein Gedi, and The Dead Sea from Tel Aviv

Our guide was excellent and the coach was very nice. Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would book with Tourist Israel again!

It was a full day and enjoyable. The communication was not great however. We did not know if the trip would still occur in light of the fact that it was a Holiday. We didn’t hear back from the contracted tour company that Viatr uses. When we called the number the person answering did not provide good customer service at all. Also it was advertised as 9 hours but was 12 hours. We called in fact the day before and was told 9 hours as advertised in print. The hike at Ein Gedi was not described ahead of time and it was rigorous. It was beautiful and was worth it, but we should have been informed and better communication would have helped. There was only one pick up location. We were almost two miles away and because of the holiday, car services were limited. Had we not gotten a car we would have had to walk in an unfamiliar area in the dark. Masada was so fascinating!! More time at Dead Sea was needed. The driver was great..safe driving and nice when I spilled my coffee. The windows needed cleaning for better views. The bus didn’t have phone charging capabilities but the driver was very accommodating and offered his. The guide was not with us until an hour into the drive. It would be preferable to have the guide there the whole time so we could hear more about what we were seeing on the drive. He was dropped off earlier too. Overall an amazing day!! Ein Gedi was absolutely beautiful! Breathtaking! Masada was spectacular!! The views and history were fascinating! We were too rushed at Dead Sea. That was a very cool experience though.

Let’s start this review at a meeting point. Everyone had been given different coloured bracelets for different tours. I sat at the front of the bus and was told later to move because the space was for the tour guide. They were trying to relocate me but the bus was fully booked and there was no other space left except the “tour guide’s chair”. We then stopped at the cafe, which at the end of the trip I’ve realised that was only a few moments away from the Dead Sea. I would have asked to be dropped at the Dead Sea straight from the Cafe had I known this beforehand because of the following reasons: 1. Masada was a hike to see some waterfalls and views that were nice but this trip took a while because some people in the group weren’t as fast as the others but we all had to wait-that took so much time. 2. Ein Gedi is interesting, it showed a lot of Israel’s history and the cable card ride was amazing but again, this tour took ao long. Over 4 hours. THERE WAS NO ORGANISATION, this is where lunch was served for an extra fee of 70 Shekels with the choice of 2 meat and vegetables, drink and a fruit. The lunch was substantial but not special. This is where a great deal of time was wasted. Finally, we got to the Dead Sea where we were given 40 minutes. YES, ONLY 40 MINUTES TO BUY A TICKET TO ENTER, CHANGE FOR SWIMSUIT AND WALK DOWN (took me 5minutes with all the stairs). If your main purpose like me is to see Dead Sea, DO NOT BOOK THIS TOUR. There’s a lot of messing about and quite expensive for what it was. Not even a free bottle of water. And on top of that, our bus didn’t have an air conditioning, broken microphone and broken wi-fi. The driver was good, the tour guide was a hit and miss but to sum it all up I have never seen such a disorganised tour in my life!