Guide for Leading a Trip to Israel
We recently wrote a post about our favorite tips for traveling to Israel that you can find here. However, we felt like tips for LEADING a trip to Israel deserved it’s own post since there is so much that goes into it. When you are in charge of putting together a once-in-a-lifetime tour for 10, 20, 30+ people, you understandably want everything to be perfect.
Our initial planning process was very stressful in trying to get 31 people booked for flights and the tour. Between setting dates, finding options in our budget, and having the right lodging, it proved to be very difficult. We had looked at utilizing a comprehensive travel company, but those rates were averaging about $5,000 per person. For the same trip, we came in at $2,900 per person by doing a lot of work ourselves for the planning. One issue we did have was traveling in the fall during Jewish holidays, so look into the Jewish calendar as you are planning your dates. Learn from our mistakes and wasted time, after hours and hours of frustration, here’s the best way to do it:
1. Book your group flights first.
Flight prices can vary widely from day to day or week to week. If possible when planning, have a 2-3 week window that the group is aware the trip will be during. You can then start working with the group travel desk at major airlines to get quotes. You will not be able to do an online booking for a large group (Hotwire, GoogleFlights, etc.), but we found both United and Delta to be helpful and worked well with us. Once you have a quote, which should be good for a few weeks before a deposit is required, move immediately to step 2.
2. Use a high quality tourist company.
We’d suggest booking through a high quality tourist company or directly with Shimon Zemer. After sending out quote requests for a private tour for our 31 people to a lot of companies, we chose to proceed with Tourist Israel. Nathalie was our trip planner and was awesome. Our trip required adjusting hotel location and preference, but we were very pleased overall at the quality of what we received at our price point for the tour.
3. Work out the trip itinerary.
We started with a sample itinerary with Tourist Israel to figure out where we needed hotels first. We stayed 3 nights in Nazareth and 4 in Jerusalem, and we filled in the rest of the trip in accordance with having confirmed hotel reservations. Nathalie was great to help adjust the itinerary to what our specific evangelical Christian group wanted to see.
4. Request a guide that fits your group.
One thing we did early on with Tourist Israel was set our preference for what we were looking for in a guide. They matched us to Shimon Zemer, which really made the trip for us. They have guides that specialize in itineraries for Evangelical groups, Catholic, Mormon, etc. as well as shopping and general sightseeing tours.
5. Prep your group to be flexible.
Our plans changed frequently, but we were still able to see everything! Because we were flexible to tweak plans slightly, this often ended up allowing us to have smaller crowds, less traffic, and a wonderful experience. Specifically, Shimon did a great job managing this for our group. We had already prepped everyone that changes would occur along the way so we had zero issues.
6. Bring along your pastor.
We would highly suggest taking a pastor (or multiple) on the trip that has the same theology as your group. Our pastor is also a New Testament professor. So, combining the background/culture/context/history/Biblical narrative from Shimon at the multiple sites along with our pastor connecting how that relates and affects our beliefs and faith today was the main highlight of the entire trip.
Don’t be intimidated to lead a group trip to Israel. The initial planning was stressful, but follow our steps and you will end up treasuring those memories and the entire experience. To learn more about our family, head here to check out all of our adventures.
If you have any additional travel tips for leading a trip to Israel, please let us know and comment below!
