Country Info
- Jerusalem
- Capital
- New Israeli Sheqel (ILS)
- Currency
- 5,938,093
- Population
- IL
- Country Code
Israel Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Israel
The old city
This is a top pick! ... didn't matter. The old city is also known as East Jerusalem. The residents and businesses are primarily Arab. Israel only recently gained control of the old city after the 1967 war. So the government was just beginning excavations of ...
Surroundings
This is a top pick! ... ; Commercialism? Advertising? Luxury? Religion comes first. Also survival. For every Jew in Israel, there are 10 Arabs in surrounding countries that want to destroy their country. Military service is mandatory for ...
Afterward Part 1: Changes to Make Back at Home
This is a top pick! ... for themselves. Here are some of the changes that I plan to make in my life as a result of this trip to Israel: ˇ Find an answer to the question that Harvey raised when we were leaving Yad ...
Day 27: Private walking tour of Jerusalem
This is a top pick! ... walking into a large private mansion. One of the highlights was the Beliefs and Believers exhibit which contained items from the Israel Museum. There is a human figure made out of pottery that is 10,000 years old and it looks like it could have ...
Day 26: Yad Vashem
This is a top pick! ... clients for the day who are also staying at the Mount Zion Hotel; they are taking a short break and are off to the Israel Museum which is open late tonight. We have dinner at the Lavan Café Restaurant at 11 Hebron Road, in the Cinematheque. It ...
Photography Tips for Israel
This is a top pick! ... courtyard. And then there are those photos of the countryside taken from a moving car. Yes, photographically Israel offers many challenges! I am not a professional photographer, but someone who has a keen interest in ...
Day 13: Korazim,Nof Ginossar,Hammat Gader,Hula
This is a top pick! ... little shade, and see the mosaics which are beautiful. Fodor's describes these mosaics as among the finest ever found in Israel. We comment that although they are so well preserved, if someone is not a mosaic aficionado, if someone had gone ...
Day 5: Zichron Yaacov, Ramat Hanadiv
This is a top pick! ... more about the history of our forefather's families than we had from our own families; our families, instead of going to Israel, came to the U.S., but the initial reasons for leaving Russia, Austria and Poland were probably the same. It is time ...
Day 8: Rosh Hanikrah, Montfort Castle
This is a top pick! ... (also spelled Rosh Haniqra) this morning. These are the grottoes that both Harvey and I remember from our first visit to Israel. Rosh Hanikrah is on the border with Lebanon so you see signs about the border crossing. We park ...
Day 16: Wadi David
This is a top pick! ... Dead Sea. Steep canyon with high walls set against the flatness of the Dead Sea plain. This wadi is a microcosm of Israel, full of contrasts. Before returning back to the bus, Zabu reviews the map of the area and makes some additional hiking ...
Herod's fortress
This is a top pick! To the east and west of the Dead Sea are several mountains and rock formations. The most prominent of all is a Roman fortress built by Herod - Masada! In 67AD, the Jews rebelled against the Romans. It was their last stand, as it was quickly ...
Tel Aviv: Arrival Day!
This is a top pick! ... the square below, we enjoy the night air and the complimentary desserts, tea and dried figs, dates, and apricots. I ask Harvey to pinch me again to remind me that this is real and we are truly in Israel. Click here to see more ...
Tiberias and the North (Golan Heights)
This is a top pick! Finally, some good exercise! We wake up bright and early for a morning hike in the Golan Heights, a disputed territory that Israel captured from Syria in the Yom Kippur war. Yael, our guide, has us play a fun game as we trek down the ...
Day 3: Ayalon Institute, Weizmann Institute
This is a top pick! ... today's term) and is beautiful architecture. It was a worthwhile tour, giving us insight into the beginning period of Israel and personalizing it around one individual. History came alive. It was interesting that of all the gifts ...
Jezreel Valley
This is a top pick! ... can't keep them straight. Of all of them, the Jezreel Valley is the largest and perhaps most prolific. Israel has always been a strategically important region. It marks the intersection of three continents. There are political, ...
Day 10: Eastern Galilee and Golan
This is a top pick! ... map of eastern Golan. We find the cherry trees, we find the UN monitoring vehicles that patrol the border between Syria and Israel, we find the kibbutz, but we don't find people to ask where the you-pick fields are. The hours of the day ...
Day 30: Rest day!
This is a top pick! ... terrace: 1) the Old City wall and 2) the West Bank barrier wall. It is another one of those only in Israel moments as I absorb this time in history. Tonight when we arrive at Lavan for dinner, we say we have reservations and we are ...
Bedouin Tents
This is a top pick! My alarm has now been changed to Bob Marley's 'Three Little Birds' which opens with the line, "Don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright!" This minor adjustment feels like the best thing I've ever done when the alarm ...
Gettin' Ready...
This is a top pick! My room looks like a backpacker war zone. All equipment for my upcoming trip is sprawled out on the floor and examined daily. Trying on my rain jacket and hiking shoes have become part of my regular morning routine along with coffee and a shower (Not at ...
Day 23: Eilat
This is a top pick! ... only other couple in the hotel and they are our next door neighbors. Keith is from the U.K. and Atmit is from Israel. Harvey determines that Keith has commitment issues and Atmit absolutely agrees. We talk and laugh. Then comes the live ...
Day 29: Ticho House, Mahaneh Yehuda Market
This is a top pick! ... street musicians in Tel Aviv from Russia, this seems a perfect way to combine our music interest and see another side of modern Israel. The Ticho House is a renovated 19th century house and the concert is in an intimate venue. ...
Day 33: German Colony, Generations Center, Concert
This is a top pick! ... Israel has revealed a little more of itself each day. We are so thankful to have had these experiences and this time in Israel! It has truly gotten under our skin and our hearts are full. We are so thankful to all the people we met ...
Day 22: Camel ride and the Eilat Mountains
This is a top pick! ... place, growing organic produce, fruit, olives, grapes, cheese. I'm putting it on our list for our next visit to Israel. Before getting on Farouk again, Eli tells us some interesting information about camels. I don't remember any of it now, ...
Shalom from the centre of world religion!
This is a top pick! ... stopped for lunch at a local restaurant which served up the usual hummus, falafel, various dips, pickles and chips. I think Israel runs on hummus. After lunch we walked to the famous Western (Wailing)Wall where we could see Jews praying and ...
Sun and Sand in Israel
This is a top pick! ... in others but here it was showing several times a day in English so jackpot for Ly. The billboards had been banned in Israel because they contained the word Sex in it so we were worried that the movie might be heavily censored. We had seen ...
Reflections
This is a top pick! ... to also make the trip! It's not only about visiting sites that you have heard about since you were a child. Israel is an extremely interesting country, one that gets under your skin and touches your heart and soul. It may be a ...
Day 15: Masada, Ein Gedi Spa at Dead Sea
This is a top pick! At 4:40 AM, it's DARK! Other than the front desk clerk, no one else is in the hotel lobby. At this time of day, it can only be Zabu who walks in a few minutes after us. We meet and I am immediately curious about this man. He appears to be in ...
The day of rest
This is a top pick! A late morning is accompanied by a very quiet city as we do a walking tour of Tel Aviv. The square in front of city hall provides for story time (Yael is always telling great stories that are always chalk full of color and fact), but the mood ...
Eilat... The resort city of Israel
This is a top pick! The bus rides keep getting better and we now have the Israeli soldiers riding with us so it makes for interesting conversations and many awkward/unsure laughs! We head south through the Negev desert to Eilat. The bus stops at the ancient Tel ...
Masada and the Dead Sea
This is a top pick! ... the night, our last of the trip. We have some quality team time in between discussions about how we can return to Israel on different programs. Yael teaches us a new game called Pinnochio, which is entirely way to fun for such a simple ...