tiyul

I want to do a tour of the old city and then of massada and dead sea. Which tours are good? Egged? United? Itas? Any thoughts? Thanks!

teachbio

For the Old City you'll need a walking tour. Zion tours are usually good. If you enter from Jaffe Gate, turn right on the first street and you'll find their office on the left. We took the Mount of Olives tours, so had a van take us up to the Mount of Olives and then we walked down from there to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They offer a good variety. We took a United tour to Masada/Dead Sea and enjoyed it very much.

suntravler

Teachbio: Do you know of a website for more information about these Zion walking tours of the Old City? ...Like to find out the schedule? Prices?

I also want to look for a couple of tours to Caesarea, Akko, and the northern coastal area and also the Tiberias area. I was going to check Egged and United tours.

How far in advance do you have to reserve one of these tours?

Is there any big difference between Egged and United?

Do the hotels have all this information about tours? We will be staying at the Eldan Hotel in Jerusalem.

Do the bus tours waste a lot of time taking you to souvenir shops?

Were the guides on the bus interesting to listen to?

Thanks.

teachbio

The only gift shop we went to on our United tour to Masada/Dead Sea was the Ahava shop at Masada. It's the best skin care cream in the world, and I had a list from friends at home, so I didn't mind. Since it's on the site itself though, many of the men had a cup of juice and sat on the patio in the sun. (By the way- I discovered that the airport is the cheapest place to buy the creams, so wait until you leave and leave room in your carry-on!)
I didn't find a site for Zion, so was glad to find their office while wandering through the Old City on my first day. I thought I'd picked up a written schedule to help my husband plan for his trip next month, but didn't. We paid $25 (cash, no credit cards- they will take dollars) for the Mt. of Olives tour that lasted a little over 3 hours. They offer that tour a couple times a week. There are some others that sound facinating and I wish I'd done more of them. I would find the office as soon as you get there and make plans. Talk to them and ask if there are changes to what they have posted because they are flexible. It is across from the Tower of David and is a very small store-front. I walked past it twice before I saw it.
I don't know the difference between United and Egged. Egged is the main public transportation system... I thought I read that they had merged with United for tours.... Sorry I can't help you with that. We enjoyed our tour guide-- much interesting information without droning on too much.
Enjoy!

suntravler

Teachbio....Thanks for all this information, especially the details about Zion tours.

hastern01

Egged and United are operating as one entity now (I'm not sure if they've merged, or it is just because tourism is still relatively slow). You don't need to book far in advance; we were there in June and booked a Ceasarea/Akko tour the day before, with our hotel concierge in Tel Aviv, and a Masada/Dead Sea tour the day before with the concierge in Jerusalem. The tours are hit or miss, but are the only game in town. The Ceasarea tour was great-- it was a minibus with 10 or 15 people, and no wasted time. The Masada tour was disappointing (thankfully I had been there before)-- because the tour bus ran so late, we were alloted 45 minutes on the top of Masada, and spent another hour waiting at the bottom for the 50 other people on the tour to finish at the gift shop.

mick34

You could probably get some good information on Israel tours from Tiyul Talk.

www.tiyultalk.com