West Bank Tour from Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv - Bethlehem & Hebron

Posted By : david20817
Very good tour would use this agency again. You can feel comfortable booking that it is safe, reliable, and you will have no problems going to/from the West Bank

The good/great

-We booked and had communications on whatsapp in advance to coordinate our pickup in Jerusalem.
-The drivers and guides were very friendly / professional
-We were able to customize the tour a little we had the Bethlehem tour with Hebron and asked to spend a little less time in Bethlehem and add in Herodian which was a good fun place to see
-They had pleasant provisions of water, snacks along the way including some sweets, falafel sandwiches, sodas, and few nice gifts to take along all included
-The guide in Bethlehem managed to have us skip a multi-hour line to see the key spot in the Church of Nativity. I think this is typical when you book a private guide, but he definitely got that taken care of for us.
-Also the guide Mohamad in Hebron did a nice job getting us to see both sides of the cave of the Patriarchs, both Muslim and Jewish sides. It can be a bit delicate of a maneuver to see both sides, I won't go into more than that, but he was a pro. He has multiple degrees and studied all religions, very knowledgeable.
-All guides were local / authentic. A Palestinian muslim shows you the Hebron area and a Palestinian Christian shows you Bethlehem, very nice.

The only items worth noting that caused 4 vs 5 stars:
1) The communications in advance were fine via online Whatsapp, but it wasn't to the 100% most professional level. We signed up and then got a whatsapp message a bit after to confirm and coordinate, great. But we never got an email confirmation from the web site booking so we were never 100% sure it got booked until the whatsapp note. (Which did come pretty soon the next day). We were also planning several day trips and so when the whatsapp came through it wasn't 100% clear to me which tour guide was reaching out to me for which day trip was being messaged about and was a little embarrassing for me to have to be like what trip is this for. In general I'd prefer getting a formal email confirmation with the tour info, price and date booked so we can file with all our records to ensure we're all set with the calendar and all tours booked. Perhaps minor but I expected a bit more formal communications.

2) There were several handoffs that went smoothly. However it would have been good to know in advance all the handoffs and game plan for the day. The day went smoothly as follows 1) driver in a taxi - (all taken care of by tour agency we didn't pay for the taxi) met us reliably to get us at train station - communicated well on whatsapp ) driver took us through checkpoint into West bank where we transferred cars to a local Palestinian driver and car and guide on the other side of the checkpoint. Experience was smooth - no waiting, everyone was good/professional. 3) We saw Hebron, Herodian, then around 1pm the guide told us we were going to get another guide for Bethlehem and we dropped off the first guide (tipped him) then drove to pick up 2nd guide. 4) After the 2nd guide was done with Bethlehem we dropped him off (tipping him) and the driver took us back to the checkpoint where we met the driver who took us back over the checkpoint (in an Israeli taxi with israel vs west bank plates) and dropped us back at the train station. We tipped both drivers as well. It was honestly very well coordinated and everyone was great. I just think it would be a little more professional to get an email in advance with how the day would go. Being in the west bank can be a little tense at times and just being handed off to folks without much advance warking can raise anxiety.

Would I use them again? Yes, without hesitation. My comments above are not meant to discourage anyone, it was good value, great guides, and drivers. Just some relatively minor feedback to improve things to a higher level. Also I hope it helps you in booking to fully understand the logistics.
Rating :
Posted On : 2023-04-27 15:04:23

Posted By : gsm1121
Well worth the cost. Boaz is the best. He explained everything and made it so interesting. Bought bread and snacks for us to eat. Even got us lunch. Trip to Jericho and Hebron was very interesting and informative.
Rating :
Posted On : 2019-12-15 08:17:49

Posted By : 134wendyj
The tour guide was incredible. Knowledgeable and friendly. The trip went much later than expected so he got me a car back to Tel Aviv to make an appointment. Above and beyond.
Rating :
Posted On : 2019-06-19 03:41:47