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7 Day Tours. Day 1 Begin your Jerusalem tours experience
on the Mount of Olives, with its panoramic view of the Old City and its ancient
Jewish cemetery. Then, it’s time to begin your tour of the Old City. Start with
the Ramparts Walk – a walkway atop the Old City walls offers a unique panoramic
view of the Old City and its surroundings and is a shutterbug’s delight. (Entry
points: Citadel moat, Jaffa and Damascus Gates). Continue to the Western Wall,
Judaism’s most sacred site. See Bar Mitzvahs (on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays).
While at the Western Wall, arrange your schedule to join a public tour of the
Western Wall Tunnels by enquiring at the Western Wall Heritage Foundation (www.english.thekotel.org).
Visit the Southern Wall Excavations, walking on the original two thousand-year
old street and climbing the ancient steps. At the Davidson Center, in the basement
of an eighth-century-CE palace, look into the possibility of seeing its virtual-reconstruction,
high-definition interactive model, and enjoy the high-definition film that depicts
ancient pilgrimage to the Temple in a unique way. On Mount Zion, visit King David’s
Tomb, a site of Jewish pilgrimage since the Middle Ages. Overnight: in Jerusalem.
Day 2 Discover the rebuilt Jewish Quarter including the old Sephardic
synagogues, the Cardo, the Broad Wall, the Burnt House with its captivating audiovisual
presentation, the Herodian Mansions, and more Continue 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)
(open for visits on Sundays and Thursdays) and the beautifully designed Supreme
Court building. 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 Model of ancient Jerusalem. Stroll through the city’s venerable ultra-Orthodox
Me’ah She’arim quarter (modest dress required) to get a sense of Jewish life of
yesteryear. End the day along the pedestrian malls of Ben Yehuda St. and Nahalat
Shiva, restored quarter of shops, galleries and cafes. Overnight: in Jerusalem.
Day 3 Drive down to Jaffa, beginning your day with a tour of Old Jaffa, the ancient
seaport, enjoying the galleries and shops and Visitor Center in the renovated
Old City. Tour the Tel Aviv’s White City to see the preservation of buildings
of Bauhaus architecture (declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site) including Independence
Hall, where Ben-Gurion declared independence in 1948. Sheinkin Street is famous
for its fun shopping, dining and people-watching in a youthful atmosphere, while
the open-air Carmel fruit and vegetable market is a treat for all the senses.
On Tuesdays and Fridays, the Nahalat Binyamin pedestrian mall comes alive with
stalls selling handicrafts of every type. Choose from a variety of museums, including
the Tel Aviv Art Museum, the Eretz Israel Museum, the Palmah Museum and the Diaspora
Museum, among others. 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 Leaving Tel Aviv, head north for your first stop of the day, Caesarea National
Park, magnificent remains of Herod’s city, the Roman capital and port and fortified
Crusader town. Tour the Roman theater, hippodrome and, walk the promenade to the
renovated Caesarea port area. Then, it’s on to Haifa, Israel’s third largest city
with its highlights, including The Baha’i Shrine and Gardens - World center of
the young Baha’i faith with its magnificent terraced gardens that are a Haifa
landmark; the panoramic of the city and the bay from the Louis Promenade; the
gentrified old German Colony, with its galleries, restaurants and an unusual accent:
the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art. Continue to the Tiberias, the historic resort
town on the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) and one of Israel's traditional “four
holy cities.” Overnight: in the Tiberias area. Day 5 Drive north this morning
through the Hula Valley and take the historic crossing of the Jordan River at
the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, to the Golan Heights’ “capital city” of Katsrin,
home to the Golan Winery, a Talmudic village, and an archaeological museum. History
and nature buffs will want to continue to Gamla National Park, for a view of the
dramatic ruins of a fortified Jewish city destroyed during the Great Revolt against
the Romans (66-70CE.), as protected Griffon’s vultures soar overhead. Cross back
into the Galilee mountains to spend the afternoon in Tzefat (Safed), one of the
four holy cities in Israel and the home of Lurian mysticism, a branch of Jewish
mysticism conceived by the 16th Century Rabbi Isaac Luria, the traditional author
of the seminal mystic work, the Zohar. Stroll along the lanes of the Old City
and see its many synagogues, as well as its unique artist’s colony. Overnight:
in the Tiberias area. Day 6 Get an early start today and drive south to
the Dead Sea and Massada, taking the cable car to the top to view the ruins of
King Herod’s mountaintop fortress and the last stronghold of the Jewish revolt
against the Romans in 73 CE, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visit the new museum in the Visitor Center, which reveals the secrets of the daily
life of the rebels, the story of the excavations, and s how the site became one
of Israel’s most important symbols. At the Ein Gedi Antiquities National Park
see the remains of the Talmudic village with its synagogue and mysterious mosaic
floor. End the day with a dip in the Dead Sea, the “greatest outdoor spa in the
world” and the world’s lowest, saltiest body of water. Overnight: in the Dead
Sea area. Day 7 Head north today via the central Negev and the Ramon Crater,
stopping at the Visitor Center in Mitspe Ramon that tells the story of this amazing
natural wonder. Continue to Avdat, once a central city on the Nabatean trade route
(known as the Incense Route), which became a Christian city of pilgrimage. Pay
your respects at the tomb of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion and
his wife Paula, overlooking magnificent Nahal Tsin near Kibbutz Sde Boker. Then,
it’s on to biblical Be’er Sheba and on northward. Search terms; Israel
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