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7-Day Tour Day
1 Begin your visit in Jerusalem at the Mount of Olives – the best place to
start your Jerusalem experience, with its panoramic view of the Old City, its
ancient Jewish cemetery and historic churches. Visit the Tower of David Museum.
Visit the Christian Quarter, which sprung up over the centuries around
the historic ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Continue to the rebuilt Jewish
Quarter. Toward evening, head down to the Western Wall, a special time of day
to visit Judaism’s most sacred site revered as the last remnant of the Second
Temple. Overnight in Jerusalem Day 2 Today is devoted to the New
City, beginning the day with a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. Walk
through the astounding new Museum with its new and moving focus on the individual
in the Holocaust, the Children’s Memorial and Hall of Remembrance. Drive
through the New City viewing old and new neighborhoods, the Knesset (The Israeli
Parliament) At the nearby Israel Museum, among many other fascinating exhibits
you can discover the mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Shrine of the Book
and see the 1:50 scale Model of Jerusalem from Second Temple times. Jerusalem
- walk in the pedestrian malls of Ben Yehuda Street, Nahalat Shiva, a restored
quarter of shops, galleries and cafes, and the Mahane Yehuda open-air fruit and
vegetable market. Overnight in Jerusalem Day 3 Head for Tel Aviv,
beginning with Old Jaffa, where you can wander the restored old lanes lined with
galleries and shops. Stop in at the Visitor Center, which showcases the long and
fascinating history of this port city to which Solomon brought the cedar wood
from Lebanon to build the Temple and from which Jonah set sail to be swallowed
by the whale. See St. Peter’s Church. Tour Tel Aviv’s White City to see the preservation
of buildings of Bauhaus architecture (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) including
Independence Hall, where Ben-Gurion declared independence in 1948. Take
a walk through Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park and head to the nearby Tel Aviv Port for
sunset and a fish dinner. Overnight in Tel Aviv Day 4 Head up the
Mediterranean coast today, stopping first at Caesarea National Park to see the
remains of the former Roman capital, including the ancient theater and hippodrome.
Walk the seaside promenade to the renovated port area within the Crusader walls.
See the Caesarea Experience, a fascinating computerized presentation of the city's
history and best-known historical figures. Then, it’s on to Haifa, head
to the renovated old German Colony neighborhood for dinner and a stroll. In the
late afternoon, arrive in Acre, the ancient Phoenician and Crusader seaport (designated
by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site) for a stroll through the covered markets and
along the 18th century ramparts, the fishing port, the Khan al-Umdan Caravansary,
and more. Overnight at a hotel in Acre or a bed-and-breakfast in the Galilee mountains.
Day 5 Start your day in Nazareth, the boyhood home of Jesus, with its beautiful
churches and colorful markets. Continue to the Sea of Galilee and the Mount of
Beatitudes, traditional site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and Korazim, a Talmudic-era
town also mentioned in the New Testament. Heading north to the Hula Valley, at
the Hula Nature Reserve you’ll enjoy the lovely walking trails over the last remnant
of this protected wetland, and the special lookout points where you can observe
the avian wildlife. Overnight at a hotel in Tiberias or a bed-and-breakfast in
the Galilee Mountains Day 6 Get an early start this morning, driving
down the Jordan Valley to the Dead Sea. Your first stop can be Qumran, the ruins
of an ancient settlement in whose nearby caves the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
and whose Visitor Center tells its fascinating story. Continue to Ein Gedi Nature
Reserve, a biblical oasis with a spring and waterfalls, where David hid from Saul.
Then it’s on to Massada, taking the cable-car up to explore this fortress built
by Herod the Great, which was the scene of the epic stand by Jewish rebels at
the end of the Great Revolt against Rome nearly 2,000 years ago. End the day with
a relaxing float in the healthful waters of the Dead Sea, the lowest, saltiest
body of water on earth. Overnight in the Dead Sea area Day 7 Head
to the northern Negev today, beginning with the dramatic scenery along the Nahal
Zohar road that will take you west into to the high-desert town of Arad. Then
it’s on to Be'er Sheba National Park. Archaeology buffs will enjoy seeing the
ruins of the town founded by Abraham and fortified by the kings of Judah, along
with its fascinating water system, all of which have awarded it the status of
a UNESCO World Heritage Site. | 
