I have been to Israel before, and would like a return trip October 2011 for about 9 days. I want an escorted tour with a Jewish perspective. I have traveled to other locations with Isram and like them very much. This time I have looked at itineraries from Isram, ARZA, and Ayelet. Each has pros and cons in terms of timing and itineraries. Additional recommendations would be welcome.
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I am thinking you may want to hire a private tour guide so that you can plan the itinerary per your requests. I can recommend an excellent private tour guide with reasonable rates. Her name in Nava Rosenbloom and her email address is nava.rosenbloom@gmail.com. Does this help?
Don't forget that October is full of Jewish holidays. This means there is no public transport. It also means Israeli schools are closed, people are on vacation, there is an increased amount of internal tourism and prices are higher. This needs to be taken into account when planning a vacation.
We just got back from an incredible trip with a private guide, Dina Horn (email: dinatouring@gmail.com, we: http://www.enjoy-israel.com/). She has suggested itineraries but will customize to anything you want. We even made some last minute changes based on our kids requests. We were 2 families, each with 2 older kids (19,20,22,22).
She also made hotel recs and had some discounts above and beyond what I could find. I also did much of the hotel research and did book some of my own. 2 great boutique hotels, that I can't recommend enough are Harmony in Jerusalem and Shalom in Tel Aviv (both part of Atlas hotels). Also Hotel Erna in Natarya was very nice (and inexpensive), and the restaurant Ida in town served the best meal of our trip.
The above link didn't work because some how the ")" got included. The correct link is http://www.enjoy-israel.com
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Yes, I'm keeping the October holidays in mind, thanks.
In this instance I'd really like a group, as opposed to a private guide. My previous visit was in a small family group with a private guide (with our own van) and it was a fabulous experience.
This time going sans family, and would like a group to travel and interact with.
I can't speak 1st hand of these tour companies, but they were referred to me when I was researching out trip; Tal Tours (don't have website but you can probably google it), www.AmericaIsrael.us and www.ayelet.com. The people that recommended them did go on their tours and were pleased.
Ayelet I've been checking out; will look at Tal. Thanks!
Update: I used Isram Tours for my return trip to Israel in March 2012. I had used the company before for both a group tour (Morocco) and some independent touring (Turkey) and once again their arrangements were flawless. Hightly recommend them.