We are scheduled for a trip to Israel and Jordan in late October. I'm concerned about the safety of the area with the recent problems throughout the Middle East. Has anyone traveled there recently? What did you encounter? Do you have any suggestions about traveling there or about cancelling the trip?

I spent 16 days traveling in Israel and Jordan just this past May. We had a FANTASTIC time. Met wonderful, friendly, helpful people wherever we went. We never felt any sense of danger even when we crossed the West Bank and the "wall".
Go and enjoy...it is a fascinating part of the world with so much history!

I spent 16 days traveling in Israel and Jordan just this past May. We had a FANTASTIC time. Met wonderful, friendly, helpful people wherever we went. We never felt any sense of danger even when we crossed the West Bank and the "wall".
Go and enjoy...it is a fascinating part of the world with so much history!

It wasn't recently but I have been to both Israel and Jordan and I would have no hesitation whatsoever in going again. Don't believe everything you see on the news, they do tend to blow things out of proportion. While I was in Israel there was an "uprising" in the Old City. I was in the Old City that day and we barely noticed it. Later I was watching CNN and they made it look a lot worse than it was. I also went into the Palestinian West Bank and once again, no danger at all. Just go and enjoy.

Thank you for your reassurance. We have wanted to visit this part of the world for ages. We will keep watching the news & the State Dept. alerts.

Spearfish

The State Dept. alerts are ridiculous. If you listened to them you would never travel to that part of the world.
I was so pleasantly surprised when we got to Israel and Jordan as they are nothing like what we are led to believe by the media.
Our guide in Jordan said it very well when he said, "We are a quiet country in a noisy part of the world."

I agree with schmerl. I put off going to Israel for so many years due to those warnings, then once I got there I realized how foolish I was.

And as I mentioned above, don't believe everything you see on the news. The "good story" isn't always the whole story.

I agree with everyone. You will be as safe in Israel as anywhere else. We had a rental car and went from Tel Aviv up to the North and then down to Eilat, and back to Jerusalem. Love it all. Not one problem.

Many thanks to all of you. This part of the world holds great fascination. I believe that we will keep on schedule and continue our plans.

Spearfish

I'll jump in and agree to everything everyone said here - there is no reason to worry - it's safe here and probably much safer than back home.

As to the State Dept. warnings - as schmerl said, if you listened to them you would probably never leave home. Don't even waste your time reading them - they are not reality based.

I was in Israel in the beginning of June. We felt perfectly safe.