Christmas Eve in Bethlehem Tour from Tel Aviv & Herzliya

I've been on three tours with this company and each time, they have not delivered what was advertised for their tours. For the Christmas Eve tour, I had specifically sent an email to confirm that the tour includes guided tours to Milk Grotto and Shepherd's Field and they responded saying these two places are included, which was why I decided to go with them. As others had mentioned, we were just dropped off at the Manger Square without any guided tour of the area at all. That is blatant misrepresentation and false advertising. I went to the Nazareth tour with them and although they had indicated that a visit to Mt Precipice would only be included if time permits, I can't see how it could have been fitted into the schedule after the guide explained that it would take an hour to visit the place. The bus was late for all three tours. Their prices tend to be lower than others but it's not good value for money as they do not cover all the places as advertised and they are usually late in the pick-up.

The tour was poorly organized and a waste of time. The itinerary that was advertised on the website AND handed to us via paper copy at the start of the tour was not followed at all, and we did not get a tour of Bethlehem as promised. Also, going to midnight Mass in Bethlehem is a waste of time in itself because there are no speakers to hear what is going on at the mass. Here is everything that went wrong with this tour: First, Tourist Israel made all 150+ people meet at a hotel outside of Old City. We waited about 40 minutes to board 4 different charter buses to take a 5 minute ride to Jaffa Gate. Once we arrived at Jaffa Gate we had a guided tour of Old City. The guide was excellent, but the group had 45 people with one guide, which is very large. It was difficult to navigate the narrow streets and hear what the guide was saying with so many people. Next, we boarded the buses again and were dropped off at a large banquet hall for dinner. The hall was freezing, and in the center of the room, there were people smoking and setting up lights for a different event. We sat in the seedy banquet for 2 hours even though the itinerary said dinner was supposed to last an hour. It took an hour and a half for the main course to come. We all thought that the appetizers were the main course. There was also not enough food for everyone seated at our table. A table of 12 was given one basket of french fries. After dinner, we were dropped off in Downtown Bethlehem about an hour before mass was scheduled to start. When we asked a guide what happened to the guided tour of Bethlehem that was promised both online AND on the printed itinerary we were given, he said it must have been a misprint. He also said that the square would be full of people, but when mass started, the square was barely a quarter full. Watching the mass from Manger Square was not a good experience. There was only one screen that you couldn't see well unless you were right up front. There were no speakers, so we could neither see nor hear the mass. We decided to leave about 15 minutes after midnight. The entire experience was extremely disappointing, and the only reason this review didn't get a 1 star, is because our guide of Old City was great and the staff overall seemed nice.

Avoid this tour company for Christmas Even in Bethlehem. That simple. ANY other tour company would be better. I was on my 11th trip to Israel, so I know it well. And this was a solo trip there. I know what to expect, I drive myself around, etc. So my review is not one of someone who has false expectations. Simply, I knew cabs and other means of going to Bethlehem would be unreliable since it was Christmas Eve, so the idea to join an evening tour made sense. And since I was a solo traveler, thought it would be fun to be around others on the tour. Tourist Israel could not have done a worse job. They blamed it on the holiday, but the worst bits about the "tour" had nothing to do with the holiday. I was already prepare for crowds and delays. A crowd of people were informed to met at hotels throughout Jerusalem. I joined the crowd at the David Citadel to wait for the start of the tour. The LOW points - 1 - Comparing to other tour companies that pulled up to the David Citadel, Tourist Israel didn't even plan for BASIC logistical matters. Other tour companies pulled up in buses to get their guests first. As one would expect, someone from the company got off the bus and called out guest names. They then got on the bus and left to start their tour. The "guide" from Tourist Israel however walked by briskly, caring to only find half his crowd, leaving half of them at the hotel, and completely uncaring that he did so when we caught up to him to tell him about leaving us and others behind. 2 - The "guide" walked us to the Jaffa Gate to go to the Sepulcher. Frankly, this is a stupid thing to do anyway for this tour. Bad planning. No one cares on Christmas Eve, simply looking to get to Bethlehem and virtually everyone noted they already saw the Sepulcher or were planning to see it another day, during the daytime. This is poor planning on the part of the people in the office. I personally would have skipped this portion and waited for the bus transfer to Bethlehem, but the guide didn't care who he had with him or not, and would not explain where the buses would be once this part of the "tour" was over. So I followed. 3 - Lucky for others, I did go to the Sepulcher, since the "guide" lost half his people walking through the Old City without breaking a stride. I can't stress enough how little a care he had for knowing whether he had lost people. I ended up playing tour guide to a handful of guests from Quebec and South Africa at the Sepulcher, and making sure they knew how to get back to the Jaffa Gate. 4 - The buses picked up crowds of Tourist Israel guests at the intersection in front of the Jaffa Gate. Still again, there was NO EFFORT on the part of Tourist Israel to ensure they had the right guests (seriously, if you want free transport to Bethlehem and don't care about the risk they would leave you, just go to the Jaffa Gate and jump on a bus marked "Tourist Israel"). We were informed to get on one bus, that was already full. Then off and onto another bus. Let's just say our confidence in Tourist Israel was already shot, but this just elevated it to knowing the night was just going to be about ensuring we got on a bus, not what we signed up for --- to experience Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. 5 - The tour took us to the top of the Mount of Olives. Again, a worthless stop. The tour "guide" just rambled on the intercom long before we got there about what we would see when we got there. Then gave us only 5 mins to get out and take pics. Again, who cares about this stop on Christmas Eve? And even if you did, the execution of it was the worst I've ever experienced. Again, I played tour guide to my fellow travelers since it was my 11th trip. 6 - We finally went to Bethlehem, first stop was a souvenir shop. This of course is expected. Knowing Tourist Israel didn't care at all whether they had all their guests, we took a picture of the bus's license plate to make sure we got on the right bus from here on out. (Skipping to the end of the story, at least one traveler lost all his souvenirs since the swapped buses on us at the end of the night to return to Jerusalem.) 7 - Next stop was dinner. At this point, the whole ordeal was comical. Dinner was fine. The food was good. We had to wait after dinner a while outside trying to figure out buses, but again, I was expecting issues like traffic and such. But we finally found our bus by matching our picture of the license plate... only to find it was already full of other desperate travelers wondering what bus they should be on. We were informed by some lady that we hadn't seen before, apparently with Tourist Israel, to get on another bus... that was already half full. So half the people on the bus had to stand while it made its way through Bethlehem to Manger Square. Not a long ride, bud again, this left everyone wondering at this point whether we could even get back to Jerusalem. 8 - There was little instruction when we arrived at the bus station for Manger Square. The only instruction was be at the bus promptly at 1 am or we would be left behind. Literally... 9 - We decided not to linger in Manger Square after midnight, for fear it would take a long time to figure out what bus (or even if there was a bus) to take back to Jerusalem. So we walked back to the station at 12:20 to wait 40 minutes by the bus we had taken a picture of (matching the license plate... the same bus we were on from Jerusalem). A few minutes past 1 am, the driver showed up and informed us that bus was headed to Eilat. 10 - Again, the random lady with Tourist Israel showed up and seemed completely clueless what to tell anyone about getting on buses to get back to their destinations. Literally just walked around the station pointing scores of people to "try that bus, try the other bus". When I told her how bad the whole thing was, she blamed it on the holiday. It doesn't take a genius to know this was NOT a matter of the crowds for the holiday, but SIMPLE LOGISTICS (like the other tour companies that pulled up and checked names off the list to start their tours). They should know at least how many signed up long before the evening and assign groups of 40 to a particular bus (tah - dah!!! simple!!!). AVOID TOURIST ISRAEL!!! Literally, if I was faced with the choice of taking them or skipping Bethlehem for Christmas Eve, I would EASILY do the latter and simply spend Christmas Eve in the Christian Quarter of the Old City... easily... What happened was they figured out a way to get people's money up front and blame their mistakes on "the holiday", when clearly their poor planning and complete disregard for their "guests" had nothing to do with the crowds or traffic. They already had your money, so they didn't care. I wouldn't even consider them on any other tour for that matter, since the issues I am pointing out again, have nothing to do with the holiday but the extremely poor ability to plan simple logistical steps.

We are extremely disappointed in the Christmas Eve Bethlehem Tour. The bus was almost 2 hours late and we were given the option to walk to Old City, but we had 2 elderly persons with limited walking ability. Because the bus was late, we only saw the Mt. Of Olives from the overlook and Visited the Old City for an hour. The Tour Guide left us after Old City, and we were dropped.off for dinner. Our bus left us, and we waited over 30 minutes outside for the bus to return, with no explanation for why we were abandoned. There was no security, because people entered the bus without tickets and some were ejected. There was no head count or check in for security and to account for ticketed passengers. We were dropped off at the bus terminal in Bethlehem with no Tour Guide and advised to return by 1am. We were refused access to the Church of the Nativity and told it was not included in our tour because it required the purchase of a Ticket, but the tour description included access to the church. We were escorted by the armed Palestinian Authority away from the church to the square which was crowded and there was a festival atmosphere. We expected to see and hear the mass service on the big screen outside, but there was no sound and the people were loud and irreverent. When we returned to the bus in which we arrived, we were told to take another bus, because this bus was for Eilat only. Then the drivers kept directing us to other buses based on our destination to Jerusalem. There were not enough buses for everyone, and some had to stand. There was no leadership and no safety. We did not receive the tour we paid for, and were distressed by the lack of security and disorganization. Tourist Israel/FunTime has offered a free tour, if and when we ever return to Israel in the future.