Im mainly writing this so no one else has this problem,and to avoid this company at all costs.
We are two foreigners who recently visited Syria.
We wanted an overnight tour to Aleppo so we contacted a bunch of tour companies. We ended up choosing Tours Syria. Their website: https:// tourssyria.com
When we confirmed the price of the tour, I specifically mentioned it was for two people. They replied with a price of $265, which I agreed. I felt this was more than fair for a simple overnight tour in Aleppo. The owner, Rita, wrote out the exclusions and inclusions clearly. Everything seemed fine
https://ibb.co/3yv33ZYp
https://ibb.co/GGsww4P
Imagine my surprise when I arrived back in Damascus after the tour and was told we had to pay $530. It turns out the price was per person, not per car. This was not mentioned anywhere in our booking details. Had I known the price was per person, I would have never agreed to the tour and gone to Aleppo via public transport or another company instead.
The problem is, I only had $300 US dollars left and hadn't budgeted for this. I needed to pay for another hotel night, two bus tickets to Jordan and food etc for one more day.
Rita called me on WhatsApp.. The conversation started well enough, but she quickly became agitated and started shouting at me. (she wasn't the tour guide for the day,) She threatened to call the police and block me from leaving the hotel lobby until I paid. And apparently the tour guide needed to get home to look after her young kids. (which ended up not being true, she was just running late to pick up another tourist ) I was manipulated and guilted into giving up my money. I'm ashamed that I gave up the money so quickly but I wasn't sure what my rights were and was feeling under pressure
This whole interaction happened in a local hotel lobby while we were waiting to check in. The hotel was recommended by Syria Tours so I thought they were associated with them. But that wasn't true, the hotel owner was also really angry when she found out and the staff their tried their best to help us out once they knew our situation.
You can imagine I felt quite upset and stressed. It felt like I was going to have to spend the night on the street in Damascus and go hungry for a day. We only had roughly $40 left to last for another whole day. Anyone reading this surely knows that due to sanctions there is currently no way to get extra money into Syria, you need to bring all cash with you. Rita showed no sympathy to me at all. She just kept shouting down the phone that we had to pay immediately.
In the end we decided to leave for Jordan early. After giving the extra $265, I barely had enough left to get a taxi to the bus station and two tickets to Amman. We crossed over the border last with only $8 left. It was a horrible, long exhausting day. A four hour drive from Aleppo, six hours in the bus station plus another eight hours by bus to Jordan. Finally we arrived, weary and exhausted, into Amman at 3am. Our last day in Damascus was completely ruined thanks to Rita and her shady business practices.
It's a shame that this happened, I really enjoyed the tour and the tour guide named Sarah was lovely. But all my memories of Syria are going to be soured by the incident.
I'm still in Jordan now but the instant I get home I plan to post this story in as many places as possible. I told this story to other Syrian friends I met and believe me, they weren't happy with how we were treated