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Overview

Tailor made trip to Israel

Israel: eternal land of diverse traditions, cultures, and mysteries. Home to some of the oldest civilizations on earth, this country continues to fascinate and intrigue travelers from all across the globe. This two-week self-drive tour is your chance to finally see this fascinating country’s most beautiful sites with your own eyes. From the busy nightlife and modern districts of the resolutely Westernized city of Tel Aviv to the temple ruins of Jerusalem and its reminders of the region’s past glories, you’ll travel across centuries of tumultuous history. Accompanied by a professional guide at every destination, take a stroll in the local markets or discover the surprising riches hiding in the country’s museums. Wherever you decide to go, you’ll meet friendly and open-minded people whose turbulent history doesn’t prevent them from wearing welcoming smiles.
Journey across the land of olive trees and stones rich in history, all the way to Golan and Galilee, and spend a whole day trying out local dishes and sampling the area’s wines. To make sure nothing is left out of this complete itinerary, you’ll also explore the Dead Sea and its sacred scrolls, the Jordan Valley fortress, the Roman ruins of Caesarea, and the citadel of Akko.

Contact Uniktour’s Israel expert for more information on this superb tailored trip to the Middle East!

Itinerary

Day 1|International flight

Day 2| Tel Aviv
Arrival at Ben Gurion Airport. Transfer to Tel Aviv.

Day 3| Tel Aviv
After breakfast, meet your tour guide for a walking tour of Tel Aviv including Neve Zedek, a cobblestoned neighborhood dating back to the 1800s and now an arts’ center, and the ancient port city of Jaffa dating back to biblical times. Guided day.

Day 4| Tel Aviv
On day 3, two options available

Option 1: After breakfast, explore on your own the open air markets of Tel Aviv: Carmel Market with foods, spices, fresh bread, bourekhas (crispy pastry dough stuffed with salty cheese), Bezalel Market for clothes at ridiculously low prices, Flea Market for vintage trinkets, and Nahlat Binyamin Fair on Tuesdays and Fridays. Enjoy a sumptous sampling lunch at a premier restaurant whose award-winning chef trained in the USA, Australia and France and was a winner of the popular TV show, Iron Chef.
Partial Self-guided day. Sampling lunch.

Option 2: After breakfast, explore on your own the open air markets of Tel Aviv: Carmel Market with foods, spices, fresh bread, bourekhas (crispy pastry dough stuffed with salty cheese), Bezalel Market for clothes at ridiculously low prices, Jaffa Flea Market for vintage trinkets, and Nahlat Binyamin Fair on Tuesdays and Fridays. In the Neve Zedek area of Tel Aviv, visit the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art to view highly colorful paintings by one of Israel’s preeminent artists, or the Reuven Rubin Art Museum located in the artist’s original home from the 1920s. Walk or taxi to the northern Tel Aviv Port to meet your Segway instructor for a Segway tour of Tel Aviv’s urban park, Park HaYarkon.
Partial Self-guided day. Self guided Museum visit. Segway tour.

Day 5| Caesarea
After breakfast, check out of hotel. Pick up your rental car at Hertz at 144 HaYarkon St. Drive
to the ancient Roman port city of Caesarea. Check in at your hotel or private guest house. Overnight: Luxury guesthouse in Caesarea or Zikhron Yaakov. Transfer / Relaxation day.

Day 6| Caesarea
After breakfast, meet your local guide for a day long tour of the ancient ruins in Caesarea, a local winery for tasting and learning the wine-making process, and a maritime archaeology museum with antiques brought up from the sea.
Overnight: Luxury guesthouse in Caesarea or Zikhron Yaakov.

Optional: Weather conditions permitting, sea kayaking can be included. List of suggested dinner restaurants will be included. Guided day.

Day 7| Haifa
After breakfast, check out of your hotel and drive to Haifa for a guided tour of Israel’s major
port city. Meet your guide for the day. After visiting key sites in Haifa, continue together to the World Heritage site of Acco, a Crusader port city on the Mediterranean. Time permitting, continue to Rosh HaNikra situated along the Lebanese border to explore the sea caves and grottoes. Continue to the Galilee. Guided day + self-drive.

Day 8| Galilee
After breakfast served to your cottage, your day of Jewish mysticism and culinary adventure begins. Meet your guide in the Old City of Safed (Tsfat) for a 1.5 hour long tour of this ancient city of Jewish mysticism or Kabbalah. End the tour at the oldest dairy in Israel to sample hand crafted sheep milk cheeses. Continue your culinary adventure by driving to a unique winery to sample wines made from red pomegranates grown in the vintner’s own orchards. At your next stop, sample goat cheese, ice cream made from goat’s milk, and red and white wines from Galilee grapes. Last stop in this gourmet foods tour is at a beer brewery where top quality beers are created – sample some. Overnight: Galilee village. Site tours at Safed, Pomegranate Winery, Goat Cheese, Galilee Winery, Microbrewery. Self-drive.

Day 9| Golan Heights
After breakfast served to your cottage, meet your guide for a day-long jeep trip to the Golan Heights. Among the sites you will visit (weather, security and season permitting) are security points along the Syrian border, waterfalls, lunch in a Druze village, and ancient ruins. Overnight: Galilee village. Guided day.

Day 10| Sea of Galilee
After breakfast served to your cottage, meet your guide to visit sites holy to Christianity -
some of which have roots in Judaism - along the Sea of Galilee. Continue to the Upper Galilee. Among the sites to visit are Capernaum, Taghba, Beit Yigal Allon Museum where the Jesus Boat dating to the time of Jesus was found at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. Overnight: Galilee village. Guided day.

Day 11| Jordan Valley - Jerusalem
Check out of your lodgings to begin the drive to Jerusalem via the Jordan Valley to BelleVoir, the ruins of a Crusader fortress. Continue to Beit Shean, an impressive Roman ampitheater. Return your rental car. Self-drive + self-tour

Day 12| Jerusalem
After breakfast, meet your guide for a full day walking tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and the City of David. Guided day.

Day 13| Jerusalem
After breakfast, visit the newly reopened Israel Museum in western Jerusalem for a selfguided tour and view the Dead Sea Scrolls. Options for the day include a visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Machane Yehuda outdoor market, Arab souk (market) in the Old City. Self-tour day by taxi/walking.

Day 14| Dead Sea
After breakfast, meet your guide for a trip to the Dead Sea region including floating in the mineral-rich waters and mud packs. You will visit the mountain-top fortress of Masada, a World Heritage site with cable car access. Time permitting, visit Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, as well as the Inn of the Good Samaritan, now a museum of mosaic works found in the Holy Land. Guided day.

Day 15| Jerusalem – Judean Hills
After breakfast, meet your guide for a jeep trip to a cave site dating back to the 2nd Temple period. Leave Jerusalem via the Burma Road to learn about the War of Independence in 1948. Visit a boutique winery for tasting wines from the Judean Hills. Guided day.

Day 16| International flight
Check out of your hotel. Transfer to Ben Gurion Airport for your flight home. Transfer day.

Budget

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Overview

Israel is a Middle-East country bordering Lebanon to the north, Jordan and Syria to the east, and Egypt to the south. The west coast of the country is the Mediterranean Sea. Its sovereign territory spreads over 20,700 sq km for a population of 7.5 million habitants. Also adjacent are the West Bank (where East-Jerusalem is located), the Golan Heights and the Gaza strip, Palestinian territories annexed by Israel after the Six-Day War (1967), and still undergoing recurrent tensions between the two communities. As of today, neither the Palestinian Authority nor the aforesaid annexations are acknowledged yet by the international community. Israel doesn't have a capital, even if its heads of state usually point out Jerusalem (770,000 habitants), which holds a prominent part in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions, as well as in the patriotic feeling. Therefore, the government and the Chamber of Parliament (Knesset) are established there. Tel Aviv, a city created from nothing in the early 20th century, is the largest built-up area in the country with 3,2 millions residents. Most of the embassies and consulates offices are located in downtown Tel Aviv.

Tourism

Given the shaky political situation of the country, we suggest the future visitors of Israel to be watchful regarding safety matters. The most sensitive areas such as the Palestinian territories (West Bank, Gaza and the Golan) should be avoided as well as the Lebanese border where riots can break out from time to time. It is therefore important to follow the news every day, check the traveller information bulletins, step away from mass meetings and stay vigilant. These few recommendations should guarantee a peaceful journey rich in wonderful memories.

Geography

Despite a limited landmass, Israel is a mix of varied geographical landscapes, from the immense Negev desert spreading onto the southern part of the country, to the highlands and mounts of Galilee and Golan to the north. The low Mediterranean coastal plain roughly homes 70% of the total population. To the east of the central hills of Samaria, the Jordan River flows out from the Sea of Galilee into the Dead Sea, an over salted landlocked lake and the lowest point on Earth (407 m under the sea level), southeast of Jerusalem. Even more southward, the arid valley of Aqabah goes as far as the eponymous gulf in the Red Sea, a vivid marine wildlife sanctuary, thanks to the abundance lots of reefs and corals.

Culture

Israel, given its extremely turmoiled political evolution, has a short but complex modern history, of which one should know a bit in order to understand the current local mindset. Created after World War II as a consequence of the ending of the British mandate, Israel is attacked the very day of its independence by surrounding Arab countries. After many truces and other conflicts (Six-Day War in 1967, Yom Kippur War in 1973), the country is still today in an unstable situation, particularly regarding the Palestinian territories issues.

Jerusalem is the traditional place of fundamental historic sites for the three main monotheist religions, and therefore, more than often the epicentre of jolts breaking out at regular intervals. The main interests are the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Old City of Jerusalem is belted by walls dating back to the 16th century, and to the south is located the Mount Zion, a landmark revered by the Jewish community as it homes the legendary King David's tomb. Two museums are must-sees for every visitor in Jerusalem: The Israel Museum showcasing the Dead Sea Scrolls and a scale model of the gigantic Herodian Temple, and Yad Vashem, otherwise known as the Holocaust Museum, is a soul-stirring homage to the Jewish victims of World War II.

Out of the city, hundreds of archaeological sites shelter the origins of cultural and religious human history and are spread all over the country; the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the former city-state Megiddo ruins, or onto the north, the walls of Acre erected by the Templar Knights and the stunning mosque of Jezzar Pasha, the complete list of all those winders is almost impossible to draw.

To relax and nurture yourself in a quiet environment, nature offers countless magnificent landscapes; in the shade of the orchards in the Jordan River valley, the surreal colors of the mountains in the National Park of Pasada by the sunset, the fish-crowded sea floors in the Gulf of Aqabah, the mysterious oasis in the Negev where the immemorial Bedouin rites will bring you into the Thousand and One Nights legends, Israel is the country where every dream comes true.

Israel is the source of a non-stop cultural bustle, and Tel Aviv is its vibrant heart. Nicknamed the -bubble-, as for standing out of the usual political heaviness, Tel Aviv has a worldwide renowned night life. Trail blazer in the gay rights domain, as well as for social and artistic trends, its bars and clubs are popular hangouts for a youth eager to win back a carefreeness sometimes torn apart, and the fast touristic development attests an unrivalled appetite of freedom and entertainment. In Eilat, the Red Sea Jazz Festival welcomes music amateurs at beach concerts, while Karmiel hosts a dance festival where hundreds of thousands people gather every July. Finally, fine arts and visual arts like motion pictures have never been so vivid and take the best from an endless energy.

Climate

Israel has a mediterranean climate along the coastline year-round and getting more temperate from the mid heights on. Summers last long (from May to October), are wet and warm (from 25°C to 35°C), even scorching to the south and above all in the Negev desert. In Eilat, for example, located at the southernmost point of the country by the Gulf of Aqabat, temperatures can peak at 45°C. Winters (from December to March) are mild to cool and average 10°C in the plains, but in the northern ranges, snowfalls are not so rare, as well as in Jerusalem. Also, due to the major water deficit in some regions where the rainfall is low, Israel has developed various water-saving technologies. The best period to travel to Israel is basically early or late summer, on the fringe of the harsh heat and humidity that can get sweltering.