From Tel Aviv: Masada, Ein Gedi and Dead Sea

Posted By : Cathy_B
Our guide was amazing, the best of the 5 tours I had while in Israel.
The pick up point was very easy to find, within walking distance from my hotel. The tour moved smoothly with the exception of a couple of guest missing the meeting time while at Ed Gedi.
I really enjoyed the Dead Sea , we had ample time to mud bath and float. As we were in the desert for the entire day, be sure to take sun protection as it was extremely hot with little shade while at Masada and En Gedi.

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Posted On : 2023-09-10 04:00:06

Posted By : Monique_K
I was looking forward to seeing Masada, however my tour guide didn’t arrive. Thanks to Amir, another tour guide- I went on a wonderful tour… I recommend him highly!! He and his bus driver Sammy we’re keeping us amused the whole time.
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Posted On : 2022-08-07 08:29:25

Posted By : ayia_u
Tour guide was knowledgeable but it was unorganized and ran late which in turn penalized the travelers because we were rushed and our tour was cut short at each stop. Specifically Dead Sea.
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Posted On : 2022-05-25 02:41:33

Posted By : Clara_L
En Gedi was beautiful and it was nice to be given the time to walk around the whole reserve. The views from Massada were extraordinary and our guide provided a very interesting overview of its history. The Dead Sea experience was one of a kind. The whole trip was very well organised, although perhaps it would be better to buy the entry tickets beforehand and include it in the tour price to avoid queuing.
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Posted On : 2022-04-16 04:29:37

Posted By : Nicole_R
Our driver, Mustaf, did a great job. Pick up worked well, he offered to answer our questions and pointed out a few interesting spots to tell us about. As we were the only ones on the trip we were able to choose how long we wanted to stay at the sights. The sights were really beautiful and we therefore spend a great day. Furthermore the communication with the company was really fast and helpful.
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Posted On : 2020-02-20 02:17:35

Posted By : Tom K
Four of us went on shabbat. Had our own small van since no one else had signed up. Masada is incredible, not to be missed. Also enjoyed En Gedi - good hike with several waterfalls. Would recommend a tour with 2 hrs at En Gedi since you need that to do a decent hike.
Our driver spoke limited English and there was some confusion about the "included at no charge" visit to the Dead Sea after En Gedi. We were first taken to a shopping area which wanted to charge us about $25 each and apparently if we listened to the sales pitch we'd get our money back. We told them we didn't want to do this, showed the itinerary that said "Dead Sea visit - no charge". Eventually, after a lot of phone calls presumably back to the main office, we were taken to another entrance to the Dead Sea beach and were not charged. Strange and confusing.
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Posted On : 2020-02-16 17:10:04

Posted By : NathAssan
Beautiful, wild desert landscape overlooking the Dead sea, which is sadly disappearing. The archeological remains of the city are quite impressive.
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Posted On : 2020-02-03 11:56:01

Posted By : FamilyFromNewYork
There was no "Tour Guide For All The Tour" as advertised on Viator materials.

There was only a "Driver", who was more concerned about his frequent cigarette breaks and constantly on his smartphone, even when driving at high speeds. Very scary drive the whole torturous day with this driver, who emphasized he was not a "tour guide".

No friendly greeting, get in the van and wait - way past the scheduled start time. Driver belatedly said two more guests were coming and were delayed on highway. So he held up the whole group for that - which was unreasonable.

Worse of all during this long, unexplained wait the driver disappeared for big stretches of time. At one point the tour bus behind us needed to get out (on time) and could not move because the Eliaatours van was blocking - with our driver nowhere to be found. The keys were in the ignition and the door unlocked, so finally an angry person from the tour behind us jumped into the Eliaatours van and just moved it, with all of us inside.

This was very dangerous - we had no idea who this mad guy was or what he was going to do.

The Eliaatours driver finally wandered back about 10 minutes later and had no clue - or concern.

We left about one hour late from the advertised start time. The driver adjusted his schedule by chopping off an hour of our visit at Ein Gedi - very unfair and disappointing.

Dead Sea stop at the end was very worth experiencing - but the actual location on this tour is a run down tourist trap of an old beachside bar and mostly a store pushing Dead Sea off-brand products.

The bit that was enjoyable was completely ruined by the Eliaatours driver advising, again belatedly, that the "van" was now broke down and he was waiting for a replacement vehicle to arrive.

This did not seem to ring true to anybody on our tour as the vehicle was parked and running just fine when everybody got off. The driver continued to make up excuses and stories as it got later and later - it seemed to the group that probably the van was sent out on some other job while we had our two hours at the beach and it got delayed - but driver insisted it was beyond his control or knowledge.

Finally a bus arrived from another company, almost full, with many other obvioulsy unhappy tourists, which took us back to Jerusalem very, very late. This late substitute bus delivered us several blocks from the original pick up spot, instead of where advertised, which was very unhelpful. We saw several people near tears by the end of this unpleasant drive back.

We followed up with Eliaatours and they offered the same excuses as their unfriendly driver and finally a begrudging 10% refund. They ruined an entire day of our limited time in Israel.

Visitors should definitely visit Masada, Ein Gedi and the Dead Sea - but avoid Eliaa Tours and Viator - who both had no concern for the safety or comfort of their paying customers.
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Posted On : 2020-01-21 22:24:51

Posted By : Sherri_M
I thought the young man who was our driver/guide did a great job, however, the amount of time given at each destination was not enough to appreciate the sites fully. If there had been an added 1/2 hour at each stop, it would have been much less rushed and more enjoyable.
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Posted On : 2019-12-19 19:31:38

Posted By : Alwaysfreshpolo
I have to be honest I was a bit leary of purchasing after some of the reviews, but after experiencing it myself I really enjoyed this trip and is surely my best of over 40 states visited in my life. My wife and i are both active duty military so we both travel out of the country regularly. We would recommend Fun times because of a few factors their driver (Rifat) was so knowledgeable and if you're from the states will appreciate his nature. Also their van wasnt a tour bus which was also amazing because we only had to worry about and wait on a total of 8 people so we could see things and make it to checkpoints in enough time to enjoy the stations attractions. We were able to spend 2 hrs at Masada, 1 hr at Eni Gedi and 2 hrs at the Dead sea which is plenty trust me. Starting with Masada we recommend taking the cable cart up the mountain, but hiking back down Masada gives yourself an hr you will only need about 35-45 minutes but pictures and rest breaks are recommended. Eni Gedi was also lovely with small waterfalls throughout the reserve and animals throughout as well although there was a kid field trip and they were everywhere being kids. The pinnacle of the entire trip surely was the dead sea which in December the air was about 70 degrees farenheit but I could not resist getting inside and I am so glad that I did. Here are a few pictures.
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Posted On : 2019-12-18 05:24:56