Premium Jordan, Israel & the Palestinian Territories Reviews

Usually independent travellers, this was our first experience of small group travel. First leg of tour group was through Jordan. Great group of 11 people who were led by well organised tour leader. Had plenty of time to see the sights. Border crossing to Israel was unorganized. No representative from Intrepid arrived to do the formalities of the crossing ...read more as promised. Second part of tour through Israel was with a different group of people and a different tour leader. Not as well organised. Food options and accommodation was not of premium level. The quality of tour leader can make a huge difference to your experience. There was a fair amount of walking in this tour and whilst we are over 55, some older members of the group struggled to keep up and be on time at sights which caused frustration for the group. If you’re not up to walking varied terrains and keeping on time then reconsider your ability for small group travel. Overall it was a good trip with plenty to see. Communication provided by your leaders is critical to enjoying the experiences of small group travel.

We were so looking forward to these two tours by Intrepid, "Premium Jordan" and "Israel & The Palestinian Territories".
The first tour "Premium Jordan" was all as expected we had a great Tour Director, great crew of tourists and amazing sites. There were 3 main highlights in this tour, Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. There were also many other attractions ...read more but we thought these 3 were the pick. Petra was amazing, unbelievable on just how the tombs were actually constructed. The trek up to the Monastery is well worth the effort. Spending the night in luxury accommodation in the desert (Wadi Rum) was also memorable and floating in the Dead Sea is a memory that will last forever.

Only negative was the land crossing from Jordan to Israel for the "Israel & The Palestinian Territories". We were not provided with any documentation to confirm that we had paid for a VIP service. This led to much angst and confusion. This process will need to be reviewed and better explained on just how this process should work.

The "Israel & The Palestinian Territories" was well below expectations, while the sites we visited were amazing and the religious aspect of Jerusalem and Bethlehem were also very enlightening the Tour Director was not very good. I felt that he was complacent in his guiding (I have done this more than 20 times). In my opinion the Tour Director will either make or break the tour. Get a good guide and you will have a great tour. If the guide is not up to standard then the tour will be less enjoyable. Our guide was below standard. He did not provide us with any details to contact him if things went wrong. He did not stay in the same hotels as the members on tour, but elected to travel some distance back to his home.

We booked a Premium tour expecting the service to be above the standard tour but this was not the case. In one case we had been booked into a different hotel than was normally used but the Driver was not told of the change and we actually got lost and after driving around for more than an hour had to wait for someone from the hotel to find us and direct us to the hotel. This hotel did not have a kitchen and breakfast had to be brought in. Both these tours were Intrepid tours but the difference between the two was huge. I would recommend the Jordan Tour but would not recommend Intrepid for the "Israel & The Palestinian Territories". If you want to tour Israel look for another company.

Met my expectations on my spiritual and historic journey through the world's greatest monotheistic religions all in one package. Visiting many UNESCO world heritage sites was a bonus. Tour guides were well informed and encouraged comradeship among our group and left no questions unanswered. As a result, we made many friends in the group and home visits ...read more in Amman, Jerusalem and Palestine gave us many FB friends going forward.
Michael Virant.