27 Dec 2022
I rated this tour 5 stars primarily because we had an outstanding guide (Abraham) and brilliant drivers. We were picked up at the airport and taken to our hotel even though we arrived two days earlier than our tour! So that was a pleasant and unexpected surprise. Everything was very well organized and the activities were brilliant. The only thing we didn’t like were our hotels (they were very basic and terrible) and the places we stopped for food. The hotels looked lovely in the lobby areas but were inconvenient and uncomfortable, poor quality rooms. The food choices at the restaurants we were taken to were extremely limited and overpriced. Toward the end, we just started leaving the group at meal times and went elsewhere, reassuring our guide that we would return to the group on time. It would’ve been better had we all been given a specific time to grab lunch and left to our own devices. The Christmas Eve dinner was excellent however, and it was paid for by the tour company including the wine. The Christmas Eve event was a bit disappointing (no fault of our guide) because we weren’t allowed in the church where the mass was given, and although they had TV screens outside - there was no sound. So that was disappointing. Our guide, Abraham took very good care of us which made up for some of these blips. He was also extremely knowledgeable and funny which made the tour very enjoyable for our diverse group. I will honestly miss his guidance and company during our final extra days in Israel. Overall, I would definitely recommend the trip, but skip out on the group meals.