Connect with your Jewish roots on this 11-night Jewish Heritage Tour to Israel. Explore religious, historical and archaeological sites that make Israel so unique. Take part in this meaningful experience of discovering Jewish history in an ancient land.
Your land arrangements include:
Sharing transfer on arrival* and departure (from/to Ben Gurion Airport)
* Assistance at the airport on arrival
11-night accommodation based on double occupancy on bed and breakfast basis
2 dinners at hotel Kibbuz Lavi
Lunch and Spa in the Dead Sea area (Cost of treatments not included)
8 touring days as per itinerary, with English speaking guide
Entrance fees to the sites visited as per itinerary
Jeep tour in the Galilee
Your land arrangements do not include:
Airfare to and from Tel Aviv
Departure taxes, fuel surcharges or airport improvement fees
Porterage at the airport or hotels
Insurance
Early check in/late check out
Single room supplement – a limited number of single rooms available on payment of supplement
Meals and beverages not mentioned
Optional tours not quoted
Gratuities for individual services, laundry and valet service and any other items of a purely personal nature
Tipping to guide, driver, hotel or restaurant staff
E. & O.E.
For information or reservations please contact Janice Snider.
Day 1 Wednesday Ben Gurion Airport / Tel Aviv
Arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, where you will be met by our representative and transferred to your hotel.
Overnight in Tel Aviv.
Day 2 Thursday Latrun / Tel Afek / Ayalon Institute / Weizmann House
Drive to Latrun to visit the Armored Corps Museum and Memorial, also considered as one of the most diverse tank museums in the world. Continue to explore Antipatris also known as Tel-Afek national park, a historically significant site that has played a crucial role throughout the ages in the Holy Land. Proceed to Ayalon Institute, once a secret underground ammunition factory established by the “Hagana” the Jewish underground movement before May 1948. Continue to Weizmann House in Rehovot built-in 1936, the private home and later the formal residence of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the first President of the State of Israel and founder of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Visit the house with its impressive structure and fascinating gardens, which now form part of the Weizmann Institute of Science. Learn the story of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, an outstanding scientist and head of the Zionist movement for over 30 years.
Overnight in Tel Aviv. B
Day 3 Friday Tel-Aviv / ANU / Old Jaffa
We begin at the ANU museum drive around the vibrant streets of Tel Aviv, the center of business and entertainment in Israel. Also known as the “White City,” Tel-Aviv was declared as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site for its collection of over 4,000 Bauhaus style buildings. Stop at Rabin Square, the site of the assassination of Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin in 1995. Continue to Old Jaffa, one of the oldest port cities in the world and visit the ancient ruins and walk along the Artists Quarter. Visit Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood of Tel Aviv built-in 1887, followed by Nachalat Binyamin, the lively pedestrian mall of the city where you can enjoy live street music, arts, crafts, and handmade jewelry.
Overnight Tel Aviv. B
Day 4 Saturday Tel Aviv
Day at leisure
Overnight Tel Aviv B
Day 5 Sunday Caesarea / Haifa / Acre / Rosh Hanikra / Galilee
Drive north to Caesarea, once the Roman capital of the region. See the excavations of the Crusader-era city, the aqueduct and the amphitheater that has been restored as a concert venue. Proceed to Haifa for a panoramic view of the golden domed Bahai Shrine and gardens. Drive to Acre, the Old City recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Walk through the old port and vibrant local market. Continue to Rosh Hanikra, descend by cable car into the underwater grottoes and admire the spectacular natural formations.
Drive to the Galilee.
Overnight at a Kibbutz guesthouse. B/D
Day 6 Monday Jeep tour / Safed / Golan Heights / Tel-Hai / Galilee
Drive to Safed, one of the four holy cities in Israel and the center of the Kabbalah movement. Visit the Caro and Ari synagogues steeped in history. Stroll through the narrow alleyways and visit the picturesque Artist Quarter. Next, enjoy a Jeep tour at the foot of the Golan. Continue to the Golan Heights. Stop at the Gadot Overlook, the memorial for the fallen of the Golan located over former Syrian bunkers. View the monument built in honor of the Alexandroni Brigade. Proceed for a magnificent observation point over the city of Quneitra and the Syrian territory. Drive to Tel-Hai and see the Roaring Lion Monument and learn about the heroic battle of Joseph Trumpeldor and his comrades in 1920.
Overnight at a Kibbutz guesthouse. B/D
Day 7 Tuesday Tiberias / Beit She’an / Beit Alpha / Gan HaShlosha / Jerusalem
Drive to Tiberias to visit Rambam’s Grave. Continue through the Jordan valley to Beit She’an known as “Scythopolis” and see the fascinating excavated remains from Roman and Byzantine periods. Stop at Beit Alpha to admire the beautiful mosaic floor of a synagogue discovered in 1929. Visit Gan HaShlosha National Park and enjoy the warm spring water pools and waterfalls. Continue via the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem. Stop at Mount Scopus to recite the Shehecheyanu blessing as you enter the city.
Overnight Jerusalem. B
Day 8 Wednesday Kotel tunnels/Sephardic synagogues/Davidson Center/Tower of David
Visit the Tomb of King David on Mt. Zion. Men and women enter the tomb separately. One must dress modestly with a head covering. Walk along the Cardo, the heart of the ancient Roman City. Visit the four Sephardic synagogues restored after the 1967 war in the Jewish Quarter meticulously restored. Tour the Western Wall Tunnels. Visit the archaeological park at Davidson Center. Walk through the colorful local bazaar and visit the Tower of David Museum presenting the buried beneath this sacred site history of Jerusalem and ancient remains of the city beginning with the First Temple period.
Overnight Jerusalem. B
Day 9 Thursday Yad Vashem / Mt. Herzl / Ammunition Hill / Israel Museum
Drive through Mea Shearim, one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem and learn about the unique lifestyle of the ultra-orthodox communities. Proceed to Mount Herzl, the military cemetery and Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust. Visit Ammunition Hill, a former Jordanian army stronghold conquered by the Israeli army in the Six-Day War and later converted into a national memorial site and museum. Drive by the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and see the giant bronze Menorah with Biblical emblems. Next, visit the Israel Museum, the Shrine of the Book where the renowned Dead Sea Scrolls are housed and the Holyland Model, a miniature replica of Jerusalem as it was during the Second Temple period.
Overnight Jerusalem. B
Day 10 Friday Ein Gedi / Masada / Dead Sea
Drive through the Judaean Desert to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. Visit the ancient synagogue of Ein Gedi. Continue to Masada, ascend by cable car and tour the mountain top fortress built by King Herod where the Zealots made their last stand against the Romans. Visit the remains of the walls, palaces, synagogue and bathhouse and descend by cable car. Stop for lunch and spa facilities in one of the leading hotels in the area (cost of treatments not included) and enjoy a ’swim’ in the mineral-rich Dead Sea (weather permitting). Mud is available at additional costs.
Overnight Jerusalem. B/L
Day 11 Saturday Jerusalem
At leisure
Overnight in Jerusalem. B
Day 12 Sunday Jerusalem / Ben Gurion Airport
After breakfast, transfer to Ben Gurion Airport for departure. B
* Program sequence is subject to change without advance notice.
*Site under the Palestinian Authority Jurisdiction – visit subject to situation
**Visit subject to weather conditions
***The sequence of the tour, border crossing point used, hotels used and sites visited may be amended due to circumstances
****Men must cover their head while in the prayer area and women must cover their shoulders and wear long pants or a knee-length skirt. If you forget to bring a covering, guards will provide you with a piece of fabric for that purpose before you enter. The prayer area is separated by gender. If you want to be super respectful follow Jewish custom by never turning your back on the wall. You will see many people walking away from the wall backwards because it is simply disrespectful to turn away.
B = breakfast L= lunch D = dinner