8 Tips for Traveling to Israel

Traveling Graces usually focuses on taking our kids to awesome places and having unique experiences.  This time, Mr. and Mrs. Traveling Graces led a group of 31 (!) to Israel for a tour on evangelical Christian and Biblical history with a focus on the life of Jesus.  This post will be all about our tips for traveling to Israel, but head over to this post for our tips focused around groups and/or leading a trip to Israel. 
** Make sure you also check out our blog post on specific tips for LEADING a trip to Israel here.

1. The Guide

Many places you will go need to have context to have the level of meaning you want to experience.  Our guide, Shimon Zemer, with Tourist Israel was exceptional (not sponsored, just that AMAZING!).  We laughed with him, learned from him, and experienced a completely smooth trip from start to finish.  We have realized (sometimes the hard way) that your guide on a tour like this can completely make or break the entire week, and Shimon is definitely one of our all time favorites! Whether you are going as a family, small group, or big group – contact and book him, you won’t be disappointed.

2. The Money

We traveled in the fall of 2019, and the currency exchange was roughly $1USD to 3.5 Israeli shekels.  Like most places we’ve been, nearly everywhere takes green money with President’s faces or credit/debit card.  A few places did want shekels.  We always withdraw money from an ATM when overseas, because VISA gives us the best exchange rate on our debit card ATM withdrawals and no foreign transaction fee.  However, in Israel we found multiple places that were giving 3.47 to 3.53 shekels per USD with no transaction fee – pretty amazing actually, so feel free to exchange smaller amounts at a time if you prefer to carry local currency.  

From left to right: Grottos of Rosh Hanikra, the Sea of Galilee, Tel Aviv

3. Preparing for the trip

Israel has never heard of the Americans with Disability Act.  Many places you will want to see require a LOT of stair climbing, uneven surfaces, crouched walking, ramps, and a LOT of standing and walking.  If you are going to enjoy this trip, you must start months in advance with physical training. Start slow and build up. See your local physical therapist if you need some guidance, but get squatting/climbing/bending/walking so you can enjoy and engage in all the awesome things!

4. Power converter

This is fairly standard most places you will travel, but you cannot plug items such as a heating pad (minor explosion on our trip) or hair-dryer into a 220V plug, even if you have a plug adaptor.  You can plug in cell phones and laptops to charge, as they have smart capabilities, but if you plan to use the outlets for anything else get a plug AND power adaptor. This is the one we used, and gives you multiple charging options from one plug.

Church of the Nativity in Bethleham

5. Food and Drink

We loved the food.  The hotels we stayed at provided half board so we had buffet breakfast and dinner at our hotels, and our guide was awesome at setting up lunch places for us.  If you aren’t an adventurous eater, you can start practicing that before the trip as well to allow yourself the freedom to try local food and enjoy it. Jon did take a giant bite of cow liver thinking it was steak…not his favorite but at least he tried it!  The cost of food was reasonable, the most expensive item was soft drinks, costing roughly 3 dollars a can. Water is safe to drink and use throughout the country.

6. Shabbat

Jerusalem has a high concentration of orthodox Jews, and thus the Sabbath (Saturday) is strictly observed.  This means that you will not be able to buy anything (a Coke Zero or candy bar even) starting at sun-down Friday night until Sunday morning.  Just prepare for this and it is not a problem. The Old City of Jerusalem did have most of the normal shops open on Saturday, but we stayed a 20 minute walk from the Old City and EVERYTHING was closed.

7. Shopping

An awesome experience would be to visit the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.  It is a hustle and bustle scene with all kinds of shopping, food, and people. We found that the Palestinian areas often had the cheapest souvenir type shopping.  The Old City was probably our favorite overall in regards to browsing/walking/shopping.

Jerusalem Markets

8. Can’t Miss Things to Do

Here’s a list of things that might not be on every itinerary but should be! These are our recommendations for places you absolutely should visit in Israel.  Contact us if you want more information about any of them, or just plan to do them and be amazed:

• House of Caiaphas – high certainty this is where Jesus spent his last night before the crucifixion.
• Hezekiah’s Tunnel – our favorite overall adventure of the trip!
• Garden Tomb – taking communion here was a trip highlight.
• Masada – if you are fit, consider going early in the morning and hiking up!
• Rosh Hanikra – the Lebanese border has amazing grottos.
• Float in the Dead Sea – you should do it while you’re there, but it will be a one-time stop for us.

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If you have any additional travel tips for visiting Israel, please let us know and comment below!