I just came back from 21 days in Israel ; I have to point out that my partner is from Israel and this made everything easier, even though we travelled like tourists. I'd like to begin with accommodation: due to the cost of living very high, including rent, it is a common practice for locals to rent out their accommodation while they go on holiday for example. Even for short periods like a week. They call it subletting. During my stay In Tel Aviv is what I've done. I've stayed in Jaffa one week, then we went to the Sea of Galilee and stayed near by, again subletting. It was nice and worth the visit; I was surprised how green the whole area is, hills and hills covered with trees and plants. What surprised me was the type of vegetation, like pine trees, cypresses, evergreens and much more. All stuff that doesn't belong in the middle East, more like North European forest. It was explained to me that it was desert there so everything is imported, strange nevertheless. While there We visited the 'monkey forest' as well. This time the accommodation was a self contained "hut" built on top of detached house, very nice. Next was Jerusalem, high on my list of things to visit. It was just before Xmas and the Cristian part was fully decorated accordingly. Santas and decorated trees were everywhere. The Ethiopian Church was impressive, I don't know if I was lucky but the prists were singing and it was amazing. We then moved to the Arab side and the Ortodox part. My visit in Jerusalem started with this modern building where all the fallen ones who fought for the Country are remembered. There is a huge free parking just outside and there is where we parked the car. The only down side I that there were to many people around, I love taking pictures and it wasn't easy taking good shots without tourist included. We left around 17:00 and there was a sea of tourists just arriving. Next time I will definitely go nice and early in the morning just for making good camera shots. The next day we went to visit a kibutz, it was early afternoon during sabbath and they were all sleep, I was told. So nobody around, still we visited the palm plantation and the cow farm they had. Back to Tel Aviv, this time subletting in Raanana; another apartment where the occupants were on holiday for a week. You can tell subletting is common because usually there are stickers inside the house helping you find things. What they do for instance, is leaving you a part of the wardrobe free and what they don't want you to use is often closed or marked. I have to say that they're very trustworthy, we never met the owners;we were told where the key was hidden and payment, in both occasion, we left it cash in an envelope as instructed. That's it. There are loads of ads in Facebook where they advertise, from a couple of nights to a year. Some will cut the price if they ask you to water the plants or even free if there is a pet to take care. In Tel Aviv we went sailing as well, me and my partner are sailors (this is how we met) and she belong to a sailing club (very common there) and she was able to get us cheaply, a nice 37 feet boat for one afternoon. I just want to remind everyone that Tel Aviv it's very expensive, and so Israel. Compared to Italy, EVERYTHING is 4 times the price. From cigarettes to food in supermarkets and restaurants. The only place where things were a bit more affordable, is the Carmel souq. Stall after stall of magnificent food, spices, vegetables, sweets, and even a pork only butcher shop. I did most of my shopping there, for both quality and prices. Avoid going on Fridays as it's full of people. One of the warmest day we spent at the beach it was like been, I don't know Aruba or Ft Lauderdale, with all these new beachfront skyrises and condo, right by the beach. We moved mainly with public transports, using Moovit, which by the way, it's an Israeli app. We went to dine out a few times, nice restaurants, but again: pricey.
I stayed 21 days and even subletting and watching the spending, it was a costly holiday. One last thing: almost every body smokes weed there, and you can easily order it with telegram. It is delivered to you and you pay when arrives. If you Google: how to purchase weed in Tel Aviv, it will even mention which telegram address to use. Amazing!! 10 gr of good weed will set you up about 800 shekels or roughly 20 euros per gram. Overall it was a very nice experience, petty crime almost
non existan, I was never arrassed and women, freely walk alone in the evening with no problems and it was confirmed by my partner who lives there.
mordechai2022
08 Nov 2022
The agent met us on time, however there was no wheelchair or buggy, as requested from Viator, to take us on the long route to passport control if no vehicle was being provided to transport us. The advertisement for the service said that there would be a car provided from the sleeve of the plane to passport control. We were not very happy with this service as it was not value for money.
LoveTravel722984
25 Oct 2022
Israelwelcome.com. This site was run by some unprofessional people. We flew in to Tel Aviv from Paris. There was a 9 hour flight delay when we landed in Paris. The company said because the airline did not give us a 24 hour advanced notice, they would not meet us and would not refund our money. I have never had an airline give me advanced notice of a delayed flight. To not provide the service , nor refund the money is unprofessional. They said their policy required 24 hours and they had already paid the expeditor. The company should know delays and changes are part of flying, but to not accommodate someone who pays that much money is ridiculous. I am very disappointed. Also, they charge twice as much as a taxi should cost from the airport in Tel Aviv.