Haifa tour operators dockside?

[knippsel]

In Haifa, do tour operators station themselves on the dock to offer independent tours to passengers on a pick-up basis? Or are all the independent tours pre-booked? The Queen Elizabeth will be the only ship in port on Nov 14. We'd prefer to avoid a ship's tour since the groups are so large and a private tour for the 2 of us is quite pricy. If anyone has experience with this, we'd appreciate any information. Thanks!

[TaliaBT]

In Haifa, do tour operators station themselves on the dock to offer independent tours to passengers on a pick-up basis? Or are all the independent tours pre-booked? The Queen Elizabeth will be the only ship in port on Nov 14. We'd prefer to avoid a ship's tour since the groups are so large and a private tour for the 2 of us is quite pricy. If anyone has experience with this, we'd appreciate any information. Thanks!

 

 

There are no tour operators or any option to arrange a tour from Haifa port unless you pre-arranged it.

Last year there was an office that was operating in the passengers’ terminal, unfortunately it was closed.

Your only option is to take a taxi, and option that can hardly be consider as “an arranged excursion…”

My suggestion to you is to pre-book one.

[little_nasty]

We were there last march and several groups were arranged with Guided Tours Israel. The minimum to guarantee the tour was 6 people and the maximum 16.

You can ask them about it then post on the roll call thread to see if others are interested. Each person does their reservation directly with GTI, you don't have to do anything but encourage others to join.

You can read about GTI on several threads like this one:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1065769

 

GTI: http://www.guidedtoursisrael.com/

[John Bull]

In Haifa, do tour operators station themselves on the dock to offer independent tours to passengers on a pick-up basis? Or are all the independent tours pre-booked? The Queen Elizabeth will be the only ship in port on Nov 14. We'd prefer to avoid a ship's tour since the groups are so large and a private tour for the 2 of us is quite pricy. If anyone has experience with this, we'd appreciate any information. Thanks!

 

Yes, they do.

Or at least they did when we were there something under two years ago.

 

Outside the terminal were a mix of vans & taxis offering tours, much like the Caribbean.

We shared a van for the day on a tour of Haifa, Nazareth, Cana, River Jordan baptisms, Sea of Galilee, back at the ship around 7pm (sailaway around 10pm).

Arranged at the vehicles, no office.

As in the Caribbean, the driver certainly wasn't a qualified guide, but knew his stuff & we had a very full & enjoyable day.

Sorry, don't recall the price but it was very reasonable so I guess somewhere between 25 & 50 euros per person.

I recall that the driver accepted shekels & euros.

 

My post almost completely contradicts Talia's.

And it's a bit dodgy to contradict a local. ;)

 

So mebbe my experience is out-of-date, or mebbe that's Talia's reference to taxis.

 

Can I suggest you go ask on a few RollCalls of cruises that recently visited Haifa - plenty of folk check back on RollCalls for a week or two after a cruise.

 

JB :)

[TaliaBT]

Yes, they do.

Or at least they did when we were there something under two years ago.

 

Outside the terminal were a mix of vans & taxis offering tours, much like the Caribbean.

We shared a van for the day on a tour of Haifa, Nazareth, Cana, River Jordan baptisms, Sea of Galilee, back at the ship around 7pm (sailaway around 10pm).

Arranged at the vehicles, no office.

As in the Caribbean, the driver certainly wasn't a qualified guide, but knew his stuff & we had a very full & enjoyable day.

Sorry, don't recall the price but it was very reasonable so I guess somewhere between 25 & 50 euros per person.

I recall that the driver accepted shekels & euros.

 

My post almost completely contradicts Talia's.

And it's a bit dodgy to contradict a local. ;)

 

So mebbe my experience is out-of-date, or mebbe that's Talia's reference to taxis.

 

Can I suggest you go ask on a few RollCalls of cruises that recently visited Haifa - plenty of folk check back on RollCalls for a week or two after a cruise.

 

JB :)

 

Hey John

 

You did not contradict me...

As I said the only option for those who did not book a tour in advance is to use a taxi. Indeed as you come out of the terminal you have taxi drivers, some with 10 seats taxis, which are used in Israel as Sherut (shared taxi) in between Haifa and Tel Aviv or the Airport. But as I noted one can hardly call this a tour, it is more hiring a driver to take you from one place to another.

Frankly I must say that once the office in the port was closed the taxi driver started back to take over priced prices, and I don’t think it worth it.

One can today book a shared tour on line in small groups of max 16 people from Haifa for around 99$USD per person, and this is a real tour guided by a tour guide and not just taken from one place to another with a taxi driver who usually hardly speaks English…

Guided Tour Israel was mentioned here and they are highly recommended. I woud add to that list also Discover Holy Land Excursions (www.hl-travels.com).

Now just to make clear, i am not in any busines relationship with none of the 2 mentioned.

[John Bull]

Hi Talia,

 

Thanks for the clarification.

I don't recall the price for our van, but it was certainly less than $99 pp.

But yes, he was just a driver - knew a bit, quite chatty & helpful, but not a guide.

OP did use the term "tour operators", so I guess a pre-booked tour would be better for them.

 

So to summarise, folk can choose to take a tour by taxi/van from those at Haifa port, but if they want to spend the extra for a more in-depth guided tour they need to pre-book.

 

JB :)

[knippsel]

Thanks to all. It's as I feared, then. I have been in contact with GTI, but they aren't booking any "open" group for our day in port. They've also not been exactly clear about the cost and their cancellation policies. I'll try the other company.