Desert Jeep Tour from Jerusalem: Mar Saba Monastery and Wadi Qelt

This was a most Outstanding Tour !!! Our Guide, Nir, conducted a most enjoyable Trip....he is very passionate about the Israeli Desert and showcased it very well blending historical sights as well as contemporary issues...we covered a lot of ground in tricky Terrain but his driving was Fantastic...we would love to do this Tour again !!!

This tour is a nice break from busy Jerusalem and visits many sites of historical and geological significance. Being a small group tour there is a better sense of intimacy which suits the setting.

An outstanding experience. Words can't express how amazing this experience was. Imagine going off road, interacting with bedouins. Finding a hidden spring in the desert and having a sheep and goats wander up. Highly recommended.

The best experience of our whole trip according to our three teenage boys. Zaki, our driver, made it really fun!!

I was in Israel for just a few days with my brother to celebrate our nephew's wedding. It was my second visit to Israel, my brother's first. We tried to fit in as much as possible in the short time that we had. This trip is right up there as of of our favorite highlights. The off-roading was exhilarating, the sights unimaginably spectacular and our guide Mir was the perfect guide to lead us on this adventure. He is charming, funny, fascinating and insightful. His knowledge of history, culture as well as current events made all that we saw come alive and filled with meaning. Do not think twice. Go on this tour. It is fabulous.

We needed to find something to do in Jerusalem before our group tour started and found this. Great tour! I wish I had done this when we just got back so I would remember the guide's names but they were great! The lead guide was so informative about the areas we saw and also life in Israel and a kibbutz. One of our jeeps got a flat tire but the extra time was not wasted as we learned still more about the area and the country. We had two jeeps for 11 people so it was a bit cozy but we got out of the jeeps often enough so it wasn't too bad.

Highly recommended!

Brilliant tour. Nir was fantastic, very informative and a great sense of humour. The scenery was breathtaking and the sweet tea at our Mar Saba stop was delicious. The gentleman in the second jeep my apologies but I can't remember your name was also a wealth of information with a fun sense of humour. I highly recommend this tour if you wish to get off the beaten track.

The Desert Jeep Tour conducted by Nir was outstanding in every way. Nir and his assistant have encyclopedic knowledge of the area, superb skills in sharing their knowledge, and a convivial attitude which help make this unusual adventure extraordinary.

I think that on the whole it was a positive tour experience, as you do get off the beaten tourist path and get to see some great views of the desert and the monastery. The tour guide's ability to drive a Landrover and navigate through the desert was definitely commendable - a lot of tricky and sharp twists and turns. However, Wadi Qelt fell way short of my expectations - we were taken to a very small stream which was hardly big enough for anyone to jump in and swim. Also, the tour guide mentioned at the start of the tour that we were due for a long day and a very long drive to the desert - but the tour ended at about 3.10 pm that day and the drive to the desert was less than half an hour, which left me wondering if his representation was simply due to language issues or otherwise. That said, I did appreciate the tour ending at the time it did because it gives you a couple of hours in Jerusalem before the start of Shabbat note that the tour takes place on Fridays.

This was a really great tour and the off road experience was wonderful. The guide was very informative. However I had booked this tour because part of the itinerary was a stop at Ein Prat nature reserve. It was very disappointing that this never happened.