Getting around

If you can afford it, I highly recommend renting a car and driving around the country.  It is hands down the best way to see Israel.  Israel is very small (about the size of New Jersey), and nothing is very far apart

(except for Eilat, at the southern tip of the country on the Red Sea).  Indeed, you could drive from the northernmost tip to Eilat in five to six hours, though  no one would ever do that since there are so many

wonderful places in between.  Most road signs are in English as well as Hebrew and Arabic, and it is fairly easy to get around, at least outside the cities.  By renting a car, you are not slave to bus schedules or someone

else’s idea of what you should see and when.  Also, because most of the terrorist attacks of the early 2000s were on the buses, some people feel safer in a car.  That said, at this point I would feel perfectly safe on a bus

– it’s been years since there has been a bus bombing (praise God!).  The bus service also is quite extensive, inexpensive, and good.  You can even put your luggage underneath in the cargo hold You should definitely rent a car before you leave; you will save money over waiting to rent once you arrive in Israel.  I recommend an Israeli company called Eldan for rental cars.  On my last two trips, they had by far the best rate, with a 20% discount for Internet bookings at www.eldan.co.il.  Eldan also has a hotel in Jerusalem next to the YMCA; you can book the hotel with the car as a package deal. Hertz, Avis,  Budget,  Sixt (Israeli)  and  Kemwell

(European) also offer rental cars in Israel.  You can at least initially check comparative prices using Orbitz at www.orbitz.com (though the best prices seem to be through booking directly on the particular company’s Israel web site).  I have used Avis in the past and was happy with it; see www.avis.co.il.  Budget is a newer player in Israel, and I used them in October 2006, getting a great rate at www.budget.co.il.  We have had a lot of complaints about Budget’s service on the Trip Advisor forum, though, and I had  a very bad customer-service experience of my own in 2006, so it’s not my first choice.  You should not need an international driver’s license as long as your license has the information in English.  If not, you will need to obtain the international

driver’s license, which basically translates the information into English.

Getting there

You have a number of carriers to choose from in flying to Israel.  Obviously El Al Israel Airlines serves the country with the most flights.  El Al flies directly from New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles.  The cost is competitive, and El Al offers the most frequent flights,  plus an early start to your Israel experience.  I also rank El Al’s more intensive security measures as a plus, though they can feel like a hassle and can be intrusive.  On the negative side, El Al has, in my experience, poorer (and surlier) service and seemingly a more chaotic clientele.  In fairness, I note that I have not flown El Al since 1991, and I have heard the service has

improved since then.  But remember that El Al does not fly on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown.  This can cut into your available vacation time.  I flew El Al the first two times, largely for patriotic reasons, but have since found other airlines more convenient.  Delta Air Lines now

offers nonstop flights from Atlanta and JFK/New York to Ben Gurion Airport  and back.  Because Cincinnati is a Delta hub, this is a very convenient option for me, and I liked the service overall.  Note:  Delta reduced the Atlanta service to four days a week over the winter months in 2009; daily service will resume in the busier season.  For right now, fly to and from Atlanta if you can, because the Boeing 777 jets are much more comfortable than the 767-300ER jets used for the JFK service.  I am grateful that Delta will be upgrading the JFK service to 747- 400 jets in June 2010, which will be much  better.  Continental also offers non-stop flights to Israel from Newark, and I’ve heard that is a good option. US Airways has added daily non-stop

service from Philadelphia recently, giving another option.  For Canadian (and even American) readers, Air Canada offers convenient, nonstop services from Toronto.  Lufthansa, Air France, KLM,  and British Airways also serve Israel, and they are easy to connect to in Europe via various American carriers. In 2005, I flew Delta to Europe and connected through KLM (going) and Lufthansa (returning), both  very good carriers.   With  tourism to Israel  booming again,  other options may become available.

travel guide

The Israel travel guide you are reading is a greatly expanded version of one I first prepared for an American friend  some fifteen years ago.   In it,  I have  tried to  share  my experiences and knowledge of Israel based on a lifetime of study and ten visits to the country, most recently in November 2009.  I enjoy independent travel, and this guide was written primarily with such travelers in mind, though I hope the information will be helpful to those on group tours as well.  As an American, I have produced a guide that is, no doubt, US-centric.  I hope my readers from other countries will forgive that, and still find useful information. I am not in the travel industry.  I am a labor lawyer who happens to love Israel passionately, and I want to encourage others to travel there and experience this wonderful land.  My first visit was in November 1988, and I caught the bug; thus I started visiting every other year or so thereafter.  After my June 1999 trip, however, I had not returned for several years because of the level of violence and despair in the country.  I returned in May 2005 and had one of the best trips of my life.  The eruption of the Second Lebanon War in August 2006, just months before a visit in the fall of 2006, again raised security concerns.  Even in  2009, some friends still asked,  “are you sure you want to go back to Israel?”  So what is the reality?  Each trip has been a dream, and travel to Israel is one of the great joys of my life.  The security situation is nothing like you may fear.  My trips have all been calm and peaceful, and while security is present everywhere, we were never afraid, and Israelis are not either.  The country certainly does not feel as if it is under siege, despite the “CNN image.”  So please don’t give in to irrational and uninformed fears, and don’t listen to your friends saying “I can’t believe you’re going to Israel!!”  We don’t refuse to travel to New York  after the September 11 attacks; life in the United States has goes on – even though we are a country at war.  The same is true in London, Madrid, and Moscow.  It does in Israel, too.  In my most recent visit, I saw people out everywhere, outdoor cafés were packed, the country was full of tourists, hotels were full, and prices are up.  So you need to book ahead, or you risk being closed out of things you want to do or see.   With that in mind, I hope you find the information I prepared about traveling in Israel and life in that country interesting and helpful.