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How to plan a trip to Israel?

Tags: Israel, Travel, Trip planning, Private Tours, Tour Guide

• Step 1: When to visit Israel?
• Step 2: Desing the tour itinerary
• Step 3: Accommodation
• Step 4: Transportation and getting around
• Step 5: What to take?

When you go to vacation, holiday or family tour, usually you don't have unlimited time. In order to help you not waste your time, here are several advices regarding touring Israel that will allow you to receive the best value of your holiday.

Step 1: When to visit Israel?

Your first step is to select the dates for your traveling. The best time to travel to Israel is during March and April. This is the spring in Israel and usually not crowded season. The colors of the nature paint everything in green. In Jerusalem the temperatures will be around 20C, but at the Dead Sea area and Eilat around 25C. It is still not the high tourist season, so prices for accommodation are relatively good.

The high tourist season in Israel is considered as June - August and the Christmas time.

In the summer time the temperatures in Jerusalem will be around 30C and more than 40C at the Dead Sea and Eilat. No rain at all during the summer. During this period the prices for accommodation jump up to 30%-50% more.

The cheapest prices for accommodation you'll find during September before the Jewish Holidays (Sukkot and Rosh - Hashana).

For booking flights contact us.

Step 2: Design the tour itinerary

Your second step is to design the right itinerary for your tour.

After you decided when you are going to travel and how many days you are going to spend in Israel, now it is the turn to decide what would you like to see. Israel is full with charming places, and only with the "must see" sites you can fill up a trip of 8-9 days. Have a look at the "must sees" of Israel page to get the first impression. Generally, in order to see the entire country our recommendation is:

• 2 Days in Jerusalem
• 1 Day in Tel-Aviv and area
• 3 Days in the North (Galilee and Golan Heights)
• 1 Day in the Dead Sea area
• 1 Day in the Negev Desert.

If you wish to go to Eilat it will take at least 2 days more.

We believe that itinerary is always subject to customization in order to make it suite your requests. For instance, if you are interested in Crusaders, please let me know about it. If you on a Bar-Mitzva tour, you may want to arrange a ceremony at the Western Wall and a good meal after.

You are welcome to contact us in order to help you design the itinerary. Please provide all the info you can: size of the group, ages, dates of traveling, type of tour and sites you've already considered to visit.

Step 3: Book the accommodation

Just after you have an itinerary in your hand, your next step is to book an accommodation.

Why it is so important to book the hotels after you got the itinerary? Unfortunately, we found that people tend to forget that Israel isn't such small country and book all their hotels in Tel-Aviv. This is totally not recommended. Why? For instance you are in Tel Aviv and want to visit the north for two days. The traveling from Tel-Aviv to the Golan Heights or Upper Galilee may take you up to 3 hours. Meaning, every day you'll spend 6 hours just on getting to the place and getting back. While if you book a hotel in the north, for instance in Tiberias, you'll spend just one hour a day on the ride. Your profit is clear 5 hours of tour!

There are different qualities of hotels in Israel, starting from the highest supreme quality and ending with regular 3 stars hotels. Very good option is to stay in Kibbutz on the shore of Sea of Galilee.

You are welcome to contact us to book your hotels and get discounted rates.

Step 4: Transportation and getting around

The cheapest option to get around is renting a car. Renting a car may cost about 50$-90$ a day. During the tour, the tour guide will join as a navigator and will help you to find the right direction on the roads. Several car renting companies operate from Ben-Gurion Airport, in other words you can take your vehicle 24h a day just by arrival to the country and return it before your flight back.

If your tour destination is only Jerusalem and you're staying in the city, it is much cheaper and easier to use the local taxis to get to the main tourist attraction. The taxis charge about 40 NIS (about 10$) for ride; always ask the driver to start the meter! Inside old city you will not be needing any transportation at all.

More expensive option, but definitely more comfortable, is to hire private transportation for the tour. You are welcome to contact us in order to help you to find the transportation for your tour. For private tours the cost range is 300$ - 400$ a day, depends on the distances, type of the vehicle and working hours.

Step 5: What to take?

It is always good idea to have a pair of good walking shoes for your tour in Israel.

Having a pair of sandals is good idea in general. In the summer time, it is very important to be equipped with a hat and use sun screen. In the winter good fleece coat will be handy.If you are intended to hike then closed shoes are essential.

Step 6: Enjoy your holiday!