HaramTours is one of 4 companies operating under one name. Along with Airlink, Metro travel and Manara Travel, all 4 companies operate under Manara travel. Although All 4 companies are basically the same, they do not seem to have good communications between them. As per Haram tours, trouble started here is US even before leaving to Hajj. Packages were changed, flights and departure airport were changed and promised hotels in Medina were no longer available. When we reached Medina we had to wait for at least two hours in the bus because Saudi government would not release the bus for missing hotel reservations. Manara had 20 hotel reservations when they had to have 43. They ended up getting reservations in hotels that were never mentioned in any package. The 5 star hotel was magically changed to 4 star. The trip from Medina to Makka started at 3:00PM and for the bad management and miscommunication between the group leaders, the bus moved from Medina at 8:30 PM. Although the package says “Modern VIP busses, ” The bus that took us to Makka was very old and no A/C. The journey took us 13 hours and we sniffed diesel all the way to Makka. The bus driver was sick and he did not go faster that 40 MPH. We had no guide on our bus and when we reached Makka we had to go around for 2 hours looking for our Mutaweef office. Finally we managed to have someone of the leaders on the phone and fix the problem. Later we arrived at what the package described as AL Ryadah Hotel. That was nothing but a big building with rooms. Each room had 6-7 beds and a 3X3 bathroom that served also as a shower. No matter what package you have, in this building you will be sharing room with 5-6 other people. Transportation was a big problem. Old busses and nothing scheduled professionally. Transportations to Alharam from Azizzia were provided for one day only. Coming back to the residence was a problem as taxi cabs were asking for up to 600 SR for each passenger. Camps in Mina were actually good. There is no such thing as 10-15 people per tent. We were at least 150 people in one tent. The only problem we had there is that the tent next to us had loud speakers and they were doing lots of announcements and pray on the mic which made it hard for us to concentrate on our prayers. Food was always available and actually very good. Arafat tent were also very good with good food. Miscommunications between the different companies caused some problem as far as the dinner when Almanara came with the food and the other company did not provide drink as they supposed to do, so food was at first offered to Manara members only but later this was fixed. Trip to Muzdalifa again was with no guide on bus. The driver decided where to take us. We ended up walking a long tunnel about 4-5 miles to meet the bus at the other side. Trip from Mina back to Azizzia was also a problem again because of bad management. Some of us walked the tunnel to meet the bus and two groups ended up in a bus going to one residence (Naseem). The other group had to pay the driver a high tip to take them to their residence (Al-Ihsan 2). If you’re planning to stay the third day in Mina note that they will start cleaning the tent and kitchen by 10 AM so no food or drink will be provided.
Back to Azizzia we were promised a room in Makka at Dar al Nadwa but the leader told us that he could not find reservation for us so we stayed at (Al-Ihsan).
As far as imams, we saw one sheikh in medina for about 40 min and in arafat for about 20 min. That’s all. No one helped with tawaf or anything else, you are on your own there.
With more organizing between the sub companies and little more honesty on describing packages, this company could be good but until then, do yourself a favor and go with different company.