Israel

December 2019 / January 2020 – 10 nights with the family

Israel is a small country packed with culture, nature, conflict, and delicious food (falafel, hummus and pita, and so much more), making it an ideal place for travelers since you can have such a variety of experiences with very little time spent getting around. A huge bonus is the benefit of gaining a better understanding of why the Middle East is such a complicated place. We left with a renewed sense of hope for a way in which the various groups can achieve lasting peace.

Like the rest of our travel guides, this is not an all-encompassing account of everything we did. We do not want to make a list of ‘Best’ or ‘Must-do’ experiences since we know it depends on your personal preferences. These are only our personal favorites and they are divided into two groups: “Avventura Favves” and “Other Things We Liked”.  

The Avventura’s Israel + Jordan Map – see also our guide to visiting Petra and the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan (which we did for the last 2 full days of the trip.

Overview

This trip was all about making us realize how inaccurate preconceived notions can be, for us and the world at large. For a long time, we felt like visiting Israel was only for people who are religious. We couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s a naturally beautiful place with seas, deserts and mountains, and of course a unique opportunity to get an up-close view of history that has shaped so much of our modern human experience.

We also thought it would not be safe to visit, but we were wrong again. We do worry about how these people can get along and how sustainable this situation is, but we were never worried about our personal safety, ever.

We expected to love the beachy, California feel of Tel Aviv, and that Jerusalem would be an old, boring, overly religious city. We were wrong again. We ended up being overwhelmed and amazed by Jerusalem, with its modern vibe, extensive tram system and trendy restaurants, which all sit in juxtaposition to the many people dressed in traditional religious clothing and the long history of the Old City. Meanwhile, we felt that Tel Aviv was a bit shabby. However, in fairness, we were there in the middle of a very rainy period and will need to go back and hope for sun. 

We also loved our hike up to Masada to see the ancient palace that was the site of the famous resistance, and we took quick dips in both the Dead and Red Seas. A highlight of this trip was a side trip to Jordan (link to Jordan post) to see Petra and the Wadi Rum desert.

Avventura Favves

Delicious Israel – This company does a FABULOUS food tour of Tel Aviv. We started the day at Hummus Abu Hassan, where we enjoyed the traditional breakfast food of hummus and onions (?!?!?) with the locals and continued to work our way through the city over the next 5 hours. We loved the French pastries from Dallal Bakery and the amazing falafel from the Carmel Market washed down with a cold one from the Beer Bazaar. We were also fascinated to learn that strawberries (ones that actually taste like strawberries) are a winter fruit in Israel. Most of all, we loved this woman, Irit…serving Yemenite pancakes from a restaurant with no name. 

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Seeing old friends in new places – From Tel Aviv, we took a day trip along the northern coast to visit the city of Acre and the grotto at Rosh Hanikra. Despite the reviews and typical inclusion in tour packages, we do not recommend doing either of those, particularly Rosh Hanikra where it’s just a 30-second gondola ride with not much to see. For us, it was not worth the time or the money, particularly the bike rental since you can just drive down to the beach and the bikes were old and not well maintained. However, we were very happy to see a friend of Lynn’s from vet school who now lives in Zikhron Ya’akov. She lives in a charming little town in the middle of wine country. We were fortunate to be there for Hanukkah to light the candles and celebrate with her family and hear about life in Israel.

Cultural and Food tour of Jerusalem with Amy Ben-Dov for 2 days. Our kids typically cannot handle many guided tours. They get bored quickly and we have learned to keep them to a minimum. However, for Israel, we felt it was essential and we would have missed so many important benefits of this trip without them. But be warned that guides are typically booked far in advance in Israel. The first two guides we tried were already booked 8 months in advance. Thankfully, one of them was Gila from Walkabout Israel and she was super helpful in reaching out to her community of guides and finding us both Amy (and Harel – see below). We really loved Amy. She is originally from Ohio and has been living in Israel since her college years and has a family there. She went at a good pace giving just the right amount of information without getting lost in dates or unnecessary details and had hands-on activities and games prepared for kids during the moments that required more talking so they wouldn’t get bored. Since Israel is a confluence of religions and cultures, we were impressed by how well she was able to speak from each side’s perspective.

We think it’s worth it to take a quick sidebar into history/geography. The rather small old city of Jerusalem is divided into 4 smaller distinct quarters (or neighborhoods): the Christian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. The most incredible experience for us was walking through the different quarters and observing all the differences. And yet, the most incredible experience was standing on the roof at the Tower of David overlooking the Temple Mount (see the first picture in the post) and realizing just how geographically close the holiest symbols of the three different religions are to each other. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried and resurrected) is just to the left, while the iconic Dome of the Rock is front and center. This is an incredibly important site for both the Jewish and Muslim religions. For Jews, it is the site where Abraham is believed to have been prepared to sacrifice his son, while for Muslims, it is the site from which Muhammad began his journey to heaven. It is all in one place. Three religions, one God.

Images (clockwise): Overlooking the Western Wall, Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Mount Herzel Cemetery, Walking through the trenches at Ammunition Hill, Sampling fresh juices at the Mahane Yehuda Market, enjoying a traditional sweet dessert in the Muslin Quarter

Our Favves from the tour:

• The Tower of David overlooking sites of the Old City central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam and also walking along the wall surrounding the separated quarters.
• In the Muslim quarter, we saw many printed signs demanding a Palestinian state and ate sweets and drank sweet tea.
• We walked part of the Via Dolorosa, the path marked with the Stations of the Cross where it is believed Jesus walked on his way to crucifixion
• We spent some time praying at the Western Wall, the important Jewish symbol of freedom to practice their religion.
• On the second day, Amy took us by light rail to the Mount Herzel monument, which is a cemetery for soldiers set in a forest. She read a beautiful children’s book to help the kids understand what it meant to be a soldier fighting to allow Israel to continue to exist.
• Then we went to the Mahane Yehuda Market for all kinds of amazing flavors including freshly made tahini, spices from the Iraqi section of the market, fried kibbeh, fresh juices, local beer, and 30 different flavors of sweet halva.
• At Ammunition Hill, we saw a video with details about the military strategy involved in the Six-Day War and walked through the trenches to try to visualize what the fight must have been like.

Ein Gedi Reserve and a Jeep tour through the surrounding canyons

Day Trip to Ein Gedi Reserve, Masada National Park, and a Jeep tour through the surrounding canyons. Our guide Harel of Desert Trails was fun and informative. To avoid the crowds and be able to focus on nature, we started early at Ein Gedi. We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and saw many adorable hyraxes. Afterward, we drove to Masada, which is the famous site of Herod the Great’s palace and was the setting for the great story of resistance against the Roman Empire. At the visitor’s center, there is a video telling the story which was helpful to see in advance of the hike up. The palace is on the top of a high plateau, all but the very youngest and very oldest in our group decided to hike up and then take the gondola down. It was intense and sweaty but worth the hour climb. Afterward, we ate at the cafeteria and enjoyed a bottle of local wine. Then we dropped our rental car and climbed into Harel’s jeep for a fun off-road tour.

Restaurants & Bars

Annamaja Home Cooking (near Masada and the Dead Sea) – In the private home of this friendly family, we enjoyed an all-inclusive delicious meal with amazing food and wine. The kids played with their dog, while we learned a lot about life in the region. We absolutely love these kinds of experiences.

Hachapuria (Jerusalem) – This was a spot recommended by Amy Ben-Dov for the perfect Georgian ‘pizza’ with egg (another classic Dave favorite).

HaKosem (Tel Aviv) – Here, we had the best falafel and pita. OMG, it was seriously so soft and delicious. Don’t tell Lynn’s Dad, but Israeli pita is way better than Greek pita. Baklava, on the other hand, Greece has them beat.

Falafel Ofer (near Tel Aviv airport) – We almost missed our flight home to make a quick stop to get falafel from this little stand outside the city, but it would have been worth it even if we did because they were that good.

Imperial Cocktail Bar (Tel Aviv) – They serve creative cocktails at a small, dark, and funky bar. We recommend you make a reservation because it’s small.

Other Things We Liked

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Walking along the beach in Tel Aviv – It was winter and there was crazy wind and rain, but we can imagine that it’s a really nice spot to be on a sunny day.

Tzuba winery and kibbutz between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – We can never pass up the opportunity to stop at a winery wherever we are in the world. We didn’t make a reservation and they were happy to let us taste their wines in a casual setting.

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Floating in the Dead Sea – This is one of those bucket-list experiences that might be overrated, but you kind of have to do it anyway. The hotels in the area are huge and a bit tired. There’s not much to do, but it was interesting to take a quick dip in the Dead Sea. We did it first thing in the morning when there was no one else around. It was so salty that we couldn’t even push Kai under, and the ‘healthy’ film was on us after multiple showers. Whether it was amazing for our skin or kind of gross…we’re still not sure.

Scuba diving with dolphins in the Red Sea at the Dolphin Reef in Eilat – The kids were super excited to have their first scuba experience (minimum age was 10). We paid for Lynn to do it with them, but it wasn’t necessary since each person had to have their own guide with them anyway. The water was really shallow, but it was amazing to see wild dolphins up close. The experience was a bit fabricated, so maybe we should have just explored the reefs with Nautilus Red Sea Diving Club or Snuba or snorkeled on our own from the beach.

We all preferred the falafel (and ate plenty of it), but the other really good specialty in Israel is the fried eggplant sandwich called a sabich. We ate them at Mifgash Osher where parking was awful and Dave circled the whole time, but the sabich was worth it.

Satya in Jerusalem for a fancy meal full of Mediterranean flavors.

Logistics and Miscellaneous Notes

• There are many travel companies that plan trips to Israel, but if you don’t mind putting in some effort you can go for much cheaper than what they will charge. We got a quote from a couple of tour groups and were able to plan our own trip for about half the price. You definitely need a guide in Jerusalem, and we were happy to have them for our other stops, just be sure to reserve very early (8 months or more in advance). Otherwise, it’s just like planning a vacation to any other place in the world (air, hotels, car rental, restaurants, … the usual). However, if you want to go with your religious organization that would make a lot of sense.
• We flew in and out of the stunning Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport via a connection in Rome. They encourage you to arrive at the airport 3 hours prior to departure, which we did, but the process did not take nearly that long and went smoothly.
• We have had many bad car rental experiences summering in Europe, but this one takes the cake. It was definitely the car rental experience from hell through Europcar. First, there was a line at the desk in the airport that we waited in for over 2 hours, when we finally got to the desk we were informed of a huge extra fee, then another hour waiting for the car in the dank garage. Once we finally loaded the car with our bags, we noticed one of the tires was flat, then waited another hour for a different car. Oh, and in our frustration, we left a bag in the first car so we had to drive back to the airport later that night to retrieve the bag. I’m getting anxiety just writing about the whole experience. Don’t use Europcar. Even if their prices appear low, there is going to be an extra fee and the lost time won’t be worth it. 
• We were a group of 7 so we stayed in Airbnbs along the way. There were plenty of good options at reasonable prices and well located in the centers of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
• We considered taking a domestic flight from Eilat’s Ramon Airport to Tel Aviv, but it is less than a 4-hour drive so it didn’t seem worth the cost of airfare or one-way rental car fee, or to risk any potential issues at the Ramon airport.
• See our travel guide to Jordan for details about the Israel-Jordan land border crossing if you are going to see Petra, the Wadi Rum desert, or elsewhere in Jordan, which we definitely recommend doing. If you do go, try to avoid a day trip from Israel because it will be too rushed, particularly if you’re part of a group tour from Jerusalem.  We had a great multi-day experience organized by Jordan Horizons.
• Be prepared for most restaurants to be closed on Fridays due to Shabbat, even in Tel Aviv which we expected to be more secular.

Next Time We Go

• More time in Jerusalem including a visit to the intense and emotional Yad Vashem (Holocaust museum; small children not allowed) and eat at Machneyuda restaurant.
• Hope for sun and give Tel Aviv another shot, with a visit to the underground Ayalon Institute’s bullet factory museum, and eat at Ha’Achim or Saluf & Sons. We will also be more prepared for restaurants to be closed on Friday due to Shabbat.
• Relax and dive at the Red Sea from Egypt instead. Eilat was more of an old school Jersey shore experience than we anticipated.