Israel: a real travel question (one more time)?

Thank you; we really do appreciate you coming. Sign up at eluna.com for 10% off all featured restaurants on the website. If you are in Jerusalem, 3 must-see things are the tunnels by the Western Wall, the Time elevator & Ir David. There is a city pass that you can sign up for; I forget how much it is, but it gives you access to loads of historical sites & is very good value. (You'll see adverts in the windows of stores in the Old City)

Hi Murad, it depends :) you can live on a 100$ per day, and you can spend 1000$ per day. the most common is 200$ per day. about flights, you'll have the check it with the airlines.

traitor

I put stuff together for a friend. Rather than sort through it - I'm going to put it here & you can use what's useful!! ~~~~~~~Hotels Youth hostel site – from one of the volunteer organizations I worked with. In Winter some close down, so if they have no rooms, that might be it (they dont' say they're closed, only "no rooms"). Also ask for the tourist rate. Israeli’s pay an additional high VAT tax on hotels. http://www.iyha.org.il/eng/ I stayed here in the Beit Schmuel hostel in Jerusalem, which is part of the Progressive Judiasm building. It was 4 minutes from the back side straight across to the Jaff gate of the Old City. The rooms were bare, bare, but perfectly fine. (I’m not fussy on mattresses or sizes so can’t comment on that.) Plenty of spare blankets, hot water, clean. Some bunk beds. The rest of the building in general is very nice. Breakfast wasn’t elaborate (by Israeli standards) but certainly ample. (Thermostat in room that improved things much when I finally noticed it.) http://wupj.org/About/MercazShimshon.asp Hotel page from the main coordinated tourist site for Israel. (Many countries now use a “goNorway” or “goSweden” as their main tourist links. I didn’t use the hotel section much so no ideas on how good it is. http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/Items/Accommodations.htm Discover Israel – privately run, but I browsed for hotels, etc, quite a bit. http://www.ddtravel-acc.com/about.htm ~~~~~~~Transportation Taxi & Sheruts’s phone numbers http://www.tourplanisrael.com/?CategoryID=247 People’s comments on Sheruts from locations to phone numbers. I missed last bus from Jerusalem by 4pm on Shabbat & took the sherut, but by then there was no sherut to Raanana (so be forwarned). In general very nice though. Their destination is put in English on a sign in the windshield. http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Israel/Jerusalem_District/Jerusalem-1708549/Transportation-Jerusalem-Sherut_mini_van-BR-1.html Egged Buses – there was forwarning that in rural areas they come rarely. http://www.egged.co.il/Eng/ Train’s site. I didn’t find use for them. Where they go, I could just drive. http://www.rail.co.il/EN/Pages/HomePage.aspx Summary of various bus companies. In additon to Egged, I would up on Metropoline or MetroDan’s route. Also one is the inside Tel Aviv line if I remember correctly: http://www.science.co.il/Transportation-Companies.asp?s=bus Alternative road to Eliat – in last entry http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-381146-1-1-Travel-0-0-Eilat-discussion.html Need to find the street level map of Raanana I finally found. The municipatlity in the center of town has free maps they give out (when they are in stock). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~General references A list of incredibly many sites on every topic. http://www.jr.co.il/hotsites/i-tour.htm Main officially run tourist site for israel. The site itself has a lot. By phone I found the staff to be young & not that informative. http://www.goisrael.com/Tourism_Eng/ From the Baptist convention, a nice checklist of pre-travel questions for Israel (such as visas, & driver license requirements). I think passports had to be not expiring for at least 9 more months after the travel date. http://bcisrael.com/id11.html The US Transportation Security Agency & exactly what you can take in carry on (liquids & plastic baggies, but the other travel security questions too.) I wish I’d bought ziplock stock. http://www.tsa.gov/311/index.shtm Esra is the English speaking organization for Raanana. On there they have a yahoo group, which I joined & was able to ask questions of people already there. (Someone actually scanned in their map of Raanana & emailed me so I could see it.) http://www.esra.org.il/index.html The Jewish Agency – if you’re stuck on a question, they know stuff. They work mostly with aliyah & volunteers, not tourists, but can point to other resources. http://www.israelprograms.org/JewishAgency/English/Home The Jewish Information Resource Service for Washington, D.C. Not specific for what you want, but if you need an Israeli tour company or travel agent, or name of an israel organization with an american branch, there are a ton of resources on this site. http://www.jirs.org/jirs/jirs0005jd.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Phoning there Telecard is a great card, cheap & easy. If you get it (orderable online on their website, google telecard union), it's cheap to call over to Israel & ask questions like rates. If your cell phones unlock & have the right frequencies, cheap sim cards. Also someone was selling a cheap one on ebay (2 years ago). http://www.telestial.com/sim_cards.php I used these folks for phone rental, without trouble. The airport is a little more $ but easier. http://www.atsisrael.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Money My Credit Union’s ATM/Visa card charged 1% foreign fee. Every non-credit union card charged 3%. They all get a bulk conversion rate, so it’s better actual conversion rate than most anything else. Mom’s private back alley exchange person was even a tad more. Using Ha’Polim banks, which are everywhere, with a Visa card, there was no foreign ATM fee either. Visa’s international ATM list http://corporate.visa.com/pd/consumer_services/atms.jsp Explanation http://www.independenttraveler.com/resources/article.cfm?AID=41&category=8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Attractions Travel books (they were in my library - not so sure they'd be in yours, hum): Foder’s travel guide book was the best. Lots of good specifics. Museum hours though were never correct in any book, not even the websites were always accurate (though the best source). Calling them helped, but even that wasn't always 100% accurate (one closed early without saying so to me when I asked. It's all very Middle Eastern style with that stuff.) Frommer’s wasn’t bad – good specifics. Lonely Planet or Rough Guide (which ever it was with the recently updated version) was terrible. Very few attractions listed, data all inaccurate, & lots of propaganda through out it instead of tourist data. Inside view of Tel Aviv – I didn’t get to use this site, but it looked fun: http://www.telaviv-insider.co.il/index.php Forums I tended to come across & liked. Virtual Tourist was the most comprehensive: http://forum.virtualtourist.com/forum-2750-1-Travel-Israel-1-forum.html http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/archive/t-531880.html http://www.frommers.com/destinations/israel/0227020004.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~On Arrival I'm Jewish looking if there is such a thing, with a Jewish style name, visiting parents who are citizens, & the grilling was intense & went on & on with repetition of questions. So if you do get grilled, it's not because of your name. It's just who you hit & how dilligent they are -- and how polite they chose to be. They're looking for clues in body language, not the answers to the questions. I guess I didn't clue very well.