cinbay

I am an Asian-American male planning a first-time trip to Israel in November for 7-10 days. Plan to stay in Netanya and travel around by bus/train. I plan to do individual trips to Haifa, Jerusalem and Golan by myself. Petra will be next trip and don't plan to see Eilat.

Thank you to Ayalag for previous posting about a tour operator in Israel.
Q #1: Since I wont be using a tour guide most of the time, can I get around via bus / train with just english - especially to Tel Aviv and back again to Netanya on a daily basis. Is Egged also in English? Sounds like YES, but I want to confirm.
Q#2: Any other possible tour ops I can contact?
Q#3: How dangerous is it to get lost in Jerusalem for a couple of hours, especially walking along the Via Dolorosa?

Is a tour guide necessary at all? Should a first-timer consider Trafalgar or Gate 1 or something like that instead?

I have traveled through Morocco, Egypt, Turkey - and never had problems. Thank you all for your assistance.

AlexA

Hi, Cinbay.
How did you pick Netanya?
No, you don't need a guide or guided tour for Israel. If you're generally an independent traveler and it looks like you are, you'll be fine. Most things that you need will also be labeled in English . Israelis especially under the age of 30 or so speak English either very well or good enough

Tel Aviv to Netanya can be done by bus (right now I'm only seeing slow bus listings that take 90 minutes or more) or by train (30 minutes station to station), depending on where you're staying and where you want to go in each city. It's a little farther than I'd like to do on a daily basis, but still possible.

Egged (bus) and Israel Railways (train) websites are also in English but sometimes they don't update them as often as the Hebrew site. If you're making a long trip somewhere or an connection that is infrequent, or very early or late in the day, you might want to have someone doublecheck the Hebrew version for you, just in case. Winter schedules will probably start around then so make sure you look at the date of any timetable you use

Bus drivers will be able to handle basic information in English
http://www.egged.co.il/eng/
http://www.rail.co.il/EN/Pages/Homepage.aspx

When you look things up in the English versions, be flexible in your spelling. It's NATANYA on the train site. NETANYA for the bus site. Some cities sound or are spelled alike so ask before you get on a bus or train if you're not sure.

You can certainly go city to city to Jerusalem or Haifa and get around on your own. Many places have tours included with admission or for a small additional fee. Some archaeological site outside the cities are much less convenient by public transportation. You may want to do a day tour combining several stops or rent a car for a day or more to see some areas. The Galilee and the Golan would be inconvenient without a car or a bus tour

Lots of people like the all inclusive tours, so only you can decide if you like that style, if it's worth the cost and if they sound like they cover places that interest you.
Private guides are3 also popular but very expensive.
In Israel, all these preference work fine so feel free to travel on your own and have a great time!

cinbay

HI AlexA. Thank you for your reply - it looks as though you are a prolific traveler with a lot of good info and posts. I appreciate your feedback. I picked Natanya because I am planning to stay there through an air bnb listing. I may also decide on Yaffa and somewhere in the middle of TLV - so maybe 3 places during my stay there. I have always wanted to visit Israel, and if I can stay at a couple of places during my vacation, I will make new friends, and when I return next year or in 2014, I will have friends to call back upon, everything will be familiar, and a return trip will be so easy - like going back to a second home - hopefully one near the beach.

mbgg

If you are planning to travel to Tel-Aviv "on a daily basis" wouldn't it be much easier to find a place in Tel-Aviv? You would save the bus fare every day (2x18 NIS = $9) and about 2 hours of travelling. There is also little to see in Netanya, except the beach (which is identical to the beach in Tel-Aviv). So if you have an air bnb listing for Tel-Aviv - go for it ! If you post the addresses here we can give you our opinion of the locations.

Q1: No problem with English only.
Q2: There are a lot of free tours that you can take. For example, the city of Tel-Aviv offers 5 free tours weekly:
http://www.visit-tlv.com/?CategoryID...eID=480&Page=1
Also check the City of Jerusalem web site. Many museums also offer free guided tours daily (included in the price of admission). Check their web sites.
Q3: Walking around Israel is not dangerous, including the Old City in Jerusalem.

The City of Tel-Aviv offers a discount package ("City Pass")to tourists which gives reduced admission to museums, discounts at restaurants, etc:
http://www.iandm.co.il/Campaign/TLV/.../city_Pass.pdf

Here is a list of all of the museums in the country:
http://ilmuseums.com/

schmerl

We especially enjoyed having a guide in Jerusalem to give us background and explain the history of everything.

AlexA

Netanya is really not convenient for you. I agree that it would be so much easier for you if you could switch. Maybe find someplace in Haifa or another northern city for part of the trip?

Yaffa/Jaffa/Yafo is probably Ok, but you don't really need that as a separate location as it's right next to Tel Aviv. Transportation to other parts of the cuontry may be much much easier if you can base yourself in one or more of the big cities-Tel Aviv , Jerusalem, Haifa. Then you can go almost anywhere.

cinbay

Thank you all for your expertise. I am thinking instead of 4-5 days in central Tel Aviv or Yaffa, then 3-4 days in Haifa which should give me better access to the north and the Golan Heights. DO you think its worthwhile to spend 2 days in and around the Golan? I heard thats a great area to trek later in the year, but perhaps too close to Lebanon and Syria? Also, someone tried to sell me a skin cream made with Dead Sea Pearls. Is there aquaculture there? Might it be interesting?

mbgg

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to tour the Golan on your own without a car. With a car you can easily spend two days there: Gamla, Mt. Bental, Hamat Gafer, etc,etc - look at the National Parks and Nature Reserve web site for more information.

Dead Sea pearls ? Aquaculture ?? LOL - nothing can live in the Dead Sea