Dubai, Muscat, Doha, Abu Dhabi - private tours

[Cruiser Nonna]

We are looking for private tours that we could book in the above ports - any suggestions - would be greatly appreciated

 

Stay well and safe

[donaldsc]

I suggest that you post on the Roll Call for your cruise.

 

DON

[Cruiser Nonna]

Thank you - I did post there and also on the Middle East ports - sadly no response so was hoping maybe someone would see this and have some options.

 

Stay well and safe

[uktog]

It’s not a part of the world that many are comfortable with private tours. 

[Grandma Cruising]

Try Sunshine Tours in Oman

[pf778c]

If you have enough time in Dubai I can not say enough good things about Platinum Heritage!  We combined a few of their offerings a few years ago to do a fabulous overnight desert tour with astronomy and drop-off at the pier the next day.  Our astronomer-guide was with us from pickup to drop-off and was outstanding.  Utterly turnkey.

[Piaa]

8 hours ago, uktog said:

It’s not a part of the world that many are comfortable with private tours. 

 

Forgive my ignorance, but why is that?  I would have assumed a private tour would be safe?

 

[Marmaduke]

Taxis in this part of the world are very cheap and having researched the places we wanted to visit managed to get around independently. We visited the Mosques in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat.  There are shuttle buses provided in most of the ports and in Doha the bus driver was happy   to drop us off the Museum of Islamic Art.  In Abu Dhabi we got a taxi from the port to the new Louvre Museum.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Piaa said:

 

Forgive my ignorance, but why is that?  I would have assumed a private tour would be safe?

 

They can be however if you read around there are many reports of unscrupulous operators not delivering as promised taking you to their cousins shop over priced restaurants etc. There sense of timing is poor and are less focused on your time deadlines. That’s why most people take the security of the ships tours

[nuneham]

We used to visit Abu Dhabi & Dubai regularly to visit family & found the regulated taxi service to be reliable, cheap & safe. Returning more recently on a cruise & making our first visit to Muscat, we took taxis from the port to The Louvre & the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi & to the creek area of Dubai. We are planning to rely on taxis for most of our excursions during our November cruise.

[Cruiser Nonna]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions - my friend uses a walker so often times taxi's (if small} do not work thus we usually try and have private tours with Vans arranged - does anyone who has been there remember seeing Van taxis?  Also agree about ship excursions but most say they are not accessible and getting on and off a bus is not an option - Thank you again for all your help - stay well and safe

[Piaa]

On 8/5/2022 at 11:39 AM, uktog said:

They can be however if you read around there are many reports of unscrupulous operators not delivering as promised taking you to their cousins shop over priced restaurants etc. There sense of timing is poor and are less focused on your time deadlines. That’s why most people take the security of the ships tours

 

Thank you 

 

[Grandma Cruising]

2 hours ago, Piaa said:

 

Thank you 

 

We used a company called Your Egypt Tours to do a 2 day overnight excursion from Safaga to Luxor & the Valley of the Kings & they were wonderful, and much cheaper than the ships overnight tour.

[Piaa]

4 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

We used a company called Your Egypt Tours to do a 2 day overnight excursion from Safaga to Luxor & the Valley of the Kings & they were wonderful, and much cheaper than the ships overnight tour.

 

Awesome - thank you so much 

[artmc]

We are on Azamara Journey from Athens to Dubai and then BTB Dubai - Abu Dhabi, Qatar, -Dubai.

I am wondering if anyone can clarify information on Visas for all the countries - Egypt, Jordan, Oman,and United Arab Emirates.

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, artmc said:

We are on Azamara Journey from Athens to Dubai and then BTB Dubai - Abu Dhabi, Qatar, -Dubai.

I am wondering if anyone can clarify information on Visas for all the countries - Egypt, Jordan, Oman,and United Arab Emirates.

When we did Athens to Dubai last October we didn’t need to get any visas for Egypt, Jordan, Oman or UAE. Azamara handled all that as required.

[artmc]

Do you know if this was done for all passengers.  We are Canadian.

[Grandma Cruising]

10 hours ago, artmc said:

Do you know if this was done for all passengers.  We are Canadian.

I presume so. It was certainly done for UK passengers and they’re all ‘visas on arrival’ so I can’t see why not.

[govanguy]

On 8/5/2022 at 7:15 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

Try Sunshine Tours in Oman

Hi Denise. Athens to Dubai again in 2024.

Any particular tour you would recommend? Done the mosque (we met) , done the town ..

[Grandma Cruising]

9 hours ago, govanguy said:

Hi Denise. Athens to Dubai again in 2024.

Any particular tour you would recommend? Done the mosque (we met) , done the town ..

Hi - it’s a great cruise isn’t it, we’ve done it 4 times!

We did Mosque & town with Sunshine - what was really nice about it was that it included a stop at the owners house where we were given a great selection of fruits etc. I’m not sure what other tours they offer as our tour was arranged by our US friends. 
We have done a nice tour previously with Azamara - it was to a fort and included a stop at a fish market next to the beach and to a place where there was a stream that had fish in it that gave you a fish pedicure if you put you feet in the water.

[LADodger99]

On 7/7/2023 at 11:38 PM, Grandma Cruising said:

Hi - it’s a great cruise isn’t it, we’ve done it 4 times!

We did Mosque & town with Sunshine - what was really nice about it was that it included a stop at the owners house where we were given a great selection of fruits etc. I’m not sure what other tours they offer as our tour was arranged by our US friends. 
We have done a nice tour previously with Azamara - it was to a fort and included a stop at a fish market next to the beach and to a place where there was a stream that had fish in it that gave you a fish pedicure if you put you feet in the water.

I'm scheduled to sail on this itinerary as well as the seven night roundtrip Dubai after this.  Question....how was the internet during the seven days at sea??  Not needing to stream nor have video conferences, but good enough to answer emails and make a few WhatsApp calls if needed.

[Grandma Cruising]

Just now, LADodger99 said:

I'm scheduled to sail on this itinerary as well as the seven night roundtrip Dubai after this.  Question....how was the internet during the seven days at sea??  Not needing to stream nor have video conferences, but good enough to answer emails and make a few WhatsApp calls if needed.

It was good on the Quest in October. Certainly good enough for emails & Whats App. We always prefer to buy a complete cruise package, rather than minutes - saves worrying about the minutes you’ve used!

[LADodger99]

On 7/9/2023 at 4:47 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

It was good on the Quest in October. Certainly good enough for emails & Whats App. We always prefer to buy a complete cruise package, rather than minutes - saves worrying about the minutes you’ve used!

Perfect...thank you!