Ya'lla Tours USAReviews of yallatours.com

We were overall very happy with our tour of Israel. Our guide did an outstanding job of guiding a very diverse group (multiple countries, ages, and faith) of people through an incredibly complex country. We were very happy with the wide range of experiences that we were able to see in Israel. The hotels, transportation arrangements and other logistics worked very well. We are very glad we made the journey!

The guide was superb. Really knew her stuff. Excellent English. Patient with Questions. She was (in fact) working with government the next day as a direct interpreter to Prince Charles. The Bus was clean and well maintained. The restaurant selections were great. The classic cars were top notch with great drivers. Going to Tropicana was incredible. Yalla insured that we had GREAT SEATS. Yalla clearly did their homework and has found some of the best folks in Havana. Overall the tour was a full day and a great immersion of what is happening in Havana. The price was very good considering all that was included. Definitely a better deal and higher quality than those tours offered by the cruise line. A couple of ways that this could be better. - Our humanitarian out-reach was to see young kids perform in a circus. They were extremely talented kids and impressive to see. However, these were young children performing extremely dangerous stunts with no safety equipment (not event a cushion on the concrete floor or spotters for stunts performed well over 10 feet in the air.) While we understand these may be normal risks in Cuba, most in our small group were very uncomfortable with young children putting themselves at extremely high risk for our enjoyment. It felt unseemly. - The pre-trip communications should have provided us with specific humanitarian gifts for these kids (for instance shoes and leotards.) Pre-trip suggestion were way to general (crayons, etc.) Also... security at the port does not generally let that stuff be brought into the country. We should have been informed that it is possible to bring a small gift or two through security (as one couple in our group was able to do) but a large bag of dollar store goodies is a no go. We ended up taking three bags of stuff back to the US with us and donated to a charity back home. - We needed the bus at the start of the tour in order to store things that we did get through security and personal items. We had to walk around for several hours carrying a bunch of stuff. - Needed to be more clear on who was and was not being tipped in our tour itinerary. For instance... tipping at restaurants was included. Tipping the classic car drivers was not. Would not have known except one person asked and our tour guide told us that Yalla had not provided gratuity for those driver. They were EXCELLENT drivers by the way. Overall great tour by Yalla and would have been perfect but for the couple of issues noted above. All in our group would highly recommend.

The thing we hadn't thought about beforehand was the physical abilities of our fellow travelers on the tour. We would have preferred more walking and climbing to ruins, etc. but had to stick with the group. I guess I just assumed since there is so much walking on a tour to Israel everyone would be in decent shape.

choice of hotels in Havana particularly the Melia Havana was too far out for anybody who was interested in the history and culture of the city and country. A resort hotel where the emphasis is on the swimming pool left something to be desired and it was too far from the center

Overall the trip was very awe inspiring. The archeology is something you will never see again in a lifetime. First for the pros: All the hotels were wonderful. The Carlton in Tel Aviv, the U Boutique Kinneret in Tiberias, the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, and the Movenpick in Petra were all exceptional hotels. The guide in Israel, Jacob and in Jordan the driver Vasam and the guide Dawud "David" were the best. Very patient and full of knowledge. I don't believe that Yalla missed a thing. We saw just about everything. And then the cons: A lot of walking. We did know about the walking in Petra but most everywhere else also included much walking especially in Jerusalem when visiting the Via Dolorosa, Way of the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Would be a good idea to let the client know about how much walking is required. The trip to Bethlehem was not what we expected or were told about. Our driver could not go into the West Bank(we were not aware that we were going to an area of "political tension") so he drove us to the border, another driver picked us up and took us through the heavily guarded border crossing to another guide who gave us the tour of Bethlehem. He then took us back to the driver who in turn took us back to the guarded border and to our original driver. No one could understand, both guides, why we crossed into Jordan so far north. It took about 2 hours for the Israeli driver to get us there and then it took almost another 6-7 hours to drive south in Jordan to get to Petra only to drive the same distance to get back north on our return. We did stop in Madaba and Mt. Nebo which could have been accomplished on our return, which was another 6- hours. By this I mean we could have crossed further south and then returned at the north. Instead we did a lot of driving. Perhaps better planning. A couple of suggestions: When making the itinerary plan for the client to not be rested after a more than 15 hour flight and make the first day a day on their own instead of "jumping" right into an 8:30am pickup to start the tour. Also, there seems to have been a mix-up on where the driver was to meet us on our arrival at the Ben Gurion airport. As it turned out he was in baggage claim not out at the Welcome area. Since we did not have any checked baggage we did not see him nor would we have expected to see him there. It took some phone calls to straighten this all out. Not what you want after a very long flight. All-in-all I would use Yalla again now that we know what to look for. So I hope both future clients and Yalla can use some of these suggestions to their advantage. Thanks Yalla for a trip of a lifetime.

Spoke to client when he arrived and he said Albert was there right on time, he had great time on the tours, Hotel was Great.....

We had no footing or mobility issues but a few people did. We feel that the various legs of the trip could have been pre- rated according to how strenuous they were and what the specific hazards were to be expected. The lunch at the Druze home should have been reviewed prior to our visit to identify the required strenuous walk up a hill at midday. This was a possible near tragedy. The walk up the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem was too strenuous for some and had lots of irregular footing. The Nazareth village had similar issues. U S National parks have trail rating systems and cruise ship excursions are rated as well in order to warn participants of the expectations and hazards. The accommodations and food at the hotels were very good. The lunch in old Jerusalem was over priced and basic. The overall handling of our group was very good. Water was always available at a reasonable price.

Tracy was able to accommodate my sitting request