Coming of Age in Israel

Day 1

Tel Aviv (B/D)

Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport. Meet our tour representative who will assist you through baggage claim and customs.

Transfer to Tel Aviv and check-in to your hotel.

Overnight: Tel Aviv

Day 2

Tel Aviv & Jaffa (B/D)

Visit the ‘underground’ at the Ayalon Institute, which tells one of the fascinating and mysterious stories in the history of the struggle for the establishment of the State of Israel. Tour of the “Palmach Museum” where we can follow the lives and experiences of the young men and women who founded Israel’s Defense Forces. Stroll through the funky shops and cafes along Sheinken Street, the “Greenwich Village of Tel Aviv.” Shop for unique craft items in Nachalat Binyamin’s colorful, open-air market and see modern Tel Aviv in action. Visit Independence Hall where we will listen to an audio presentation including David Ben Gurion’s moving Declaration of Independence establishing the State of Israel. We will end our day with a visit to the Old Port City of Jaffa (Yafo), just south of Tel Aviv for a beautiful panoramic view of Tel Aviv and a sense of the first Jewish city of the modern era, established in 1909.

Overnight: Tel Aviv

Day 3

Caesarea/Hebrew/Rosh Hanikrah (B/D)

Leave Tel Aviv and travel north to visit the ancient city of Caesarea, built by Herod the Great and once the seat of Roman rule. Continue to the ancient crusader port city of Acre, called Akkoin Arabic / Hebrew, one of the world’s most ancient port cities. Visit the Crusader Halls and the underground tunnels and pathways. Drive to Rosh Hanikrah – the stunning chalk-white cliffs at Israel’s northernmost coastal border. Take the cable car down beneath the cliffs and tour the system of underground caves eroded by pounding waves over thousands of years.

Overnight: Kibbutz hotel

Day 4

Golan Heights/Jordan River (B/D)

Enjoy a day of adventure with an exciting jeep ride tour of the Golan Heights. Next we’ll have a sweet visit to De Karina chocolate factory. Learn about chocolate in this small boutique hand made chocolate factory. Afterwards we will visit OZ 77 and will see a dramatic film about the 1973 Yom Kippur War. We will conclude our day with a ‘wet and wild’ exciting adventure kayaking down the Jordan River.

Overnight: Kibbutz hotel

Day 5

Mystical City/Joseph Caro/Jerusalem (B/D)

Visit to the Mystical City of Safed, the center of the Kaballa movement. Visit the Joseph Caro and the Ha’Ari synagogues, stroll through the narrow, winding alley’s and browse through the artists’ workshops and galleries found in the flourishing artists’ quarter. Leave the north and drive south towards Jerusalem. We will stop along the way at Beit Alpha to see a magnificent mosaic floor from an ancient synagogue showing the 12 signs of the zodiac. We’ll ascend up the Judean Mountains and upon arriving in Jerusalem, we will go to a point overlooking the Old City, where we commemorate our arrival to the heart of Judaism with a special Shehechiyanu ceremony, a blessing introduced for Jews to offer thanks for new and unusual experiences. After checking into our hotel, we will enter the Old City and walk to the Western Wall (Kotel), Judaism’s Holiest site, for a Shabbat evening service unlike anything you have ever experienced. We will return to the hotel for a festive Shabbat dinner with Lone Soldiers as our special guests. Get to know these brave youths who have left their families in their native counties to live in Israel and serve in the IDF.

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 6

Jerusalem (B/D)

After breakfast at the Hotel we’ll have the day at leisure to rest or walk around the quiet city of Jerusalem during Shabbat. Enjoy Shabbat services at one of Jerusalem’s fabulous synagogues!

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 7

Dead Sea/Ein Gedi (B/D)

After an early breakfast, we will depart to the Dead Sea area. Traveling south through the Judean Wilderness, we will arrive at the lowest point on earth at 1388 feet (423m) below sea level. Visit the beautiful Ein Gedi reserve. We will continue south to the legendary mountaintop plateau of Masada. We will ascend by cable car to the ancient synagogue of Masada and explore the ancient fortress. After lunch at a Dead Sea Hotel we will enjoy the remainder of the afternoon at leisure to put mud on us and to float in the waters of the Dead Sea at the Beach.

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 8

Southern wall/Western Wall (B/D)

Today we celebrate our Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony at the southern wall.

Then we’ll head to holy Western Wall – the “Kotel”. We begin at the passageways descending through the many layers of Jerusalem’s past at the time of the Temple through the Western Wall Tunnels. We then proceed to the Jewish Quarter, which was reconstructed after the city was unified after the Six-Day War in 1967. At the end the day we will visit at the City of David and see the newest and exciting excavations of Jerusalem during the time of the first Temple period. Here we’ll also walk through Hezekiah’s Tunnel which still flows with water. Dinner will be in the hills of Judea at the “Land of Genesis“. Here, after a desert camel ride, “Abraham” and his family will host us for a biblical-style dinner in their tent.

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 9

Beit Guvrin/Latrun (B/D)

Experience an exciting archaeological dig at Beit Guvrin. This site served as a major crossroad for commerce in ancient Israel and to this day, new discoveries are being made that shed more light on our past. Next we will visit Latrun, the armored corps museum which presents visitors with the magnificent spirit of the armored corps since Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Return to your hotel and enjoy the remainder of the afternoon at leisure. Free evening on your own to explore Jerusalem and Ben-Yehuda Street and experience the night life of a modern and young Jerusalem

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 10

Jerusalem/Har Herzl (B/D)

Drive to the Jerusalem forest for a Tree Planting Ceremony. Feel your connection with the land of Israel by planting a tree with your own hands. Continue to the Herzl Vision Museum, where we will visit Herzl’s Dream, an interactive tour though the life and times of Zionism’s founder. We will also visit Har Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery, where we can visit the gravesites of Israel’s greatest leaders and heroes, including Theodore Herzl, Ze’ev Jabotinski, and Yitzchak Rabin. Then visit Yad Vashem, considered the first and most famous memorial to mankind’s darkest period. We will visit the very moving exhibit at the Children’s Pavilion. End the day with a great opportunity to “give something back” to Israel by volunteering at Pantry Packers, packing healthy food bags with your own label to go out country-wide to needy families identified by the Israeli Government.

Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 11

Free day & Departure

Leave Israel with everlasting memories.
Transfer to Ben Gurion Airport for your return flight back home.

Kfar Blum (Kibbutz) or similar
Hula Valley

Isrotel Royal Beach or similar
Tel Aviv

Inbal Hotel or similar
Jerusalem