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.