Jerusalem Tours

Hi, we are due to visit Israel at the end of October, has anyone any experience of using local tour firms rather than booking the ship organised tours?

We used celebrity arranged tours and were very satisfied. They were on top of security and safety and that was a concern. Would visit again and do it on our own/with a private company now.

Thank you, very helpful

Just to know - Jerusalem is an old city with very uneven walkways - as is all of Israel It is difficult for people with limited mobility to negotiate - also quite crowed when we were there last September

When I researched Israel previously, I found this thread helpful (it's long!) :

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=913621

While I beleive there are many excellent tour guides and agencies in Israel, IF you are not overnighting in Israel, I would consider the added security of using Celebrity's shore excursion in this port - just due to the ship waiting for you to return.

Alternatively, allow a lot of extra time for unexpected delays on the way back to the ship. I'm not saying there ARE delays, I'm just saying that's what I would be concerned about.

If you do use a private company, I suggest you also look them up on Tripadvisor to see some reviews and ratings.

We used Joe Yudin from Touring Israel back in 2010. He arranged 2 days meeting us for tours in Haifa and Jerusalem. They were amongst the best, if not the best, tours we have done in 15 years of cruising. We all remember it with great fondness.

Thank you everyone for your responses, very helpful

We were there last year while on the Constellation. I used www.guidedtoursisrael.com . They did a phenomenal job. I would highly recommend them. They can put you into a group, if you can't form one on your roll call. You can see what I did on the various tours on our website that is linked to in my signature. There are lots of photos of the amazing places we visited in Israel.

We used Guided Tours Israel as well. Fantastic guide who met us in Haifa also met us for two days in Ashdod for a total of 3 days across the country. Guide was very knowledgeable, transportation was comfortable, and prices were more reasonable than tours offered by ship...

Were in Israel just last week. Used Guided Tours Israel for a private driver one day and a tour in Haifa another day. Arranged a private guide in Bethlehem for the second day in Jerusalem who was very good as well (see misho.co).

Another vote for Guided Tours Israel.

I found out about them here on CC. Ended up doing an on-land visit and used them for 4 private tour days and they were outstanding.

I'm sure many will agree that a good smaller tour of Israel is so important. Israel is one of the most meaningful and moving destinations we have ever been to. Go with a smaller group, you will get so much more out of it than with the big slow-moving group ship tour.

Have a great time.

Also used Guided Tours Israel. Fantastic company and experience; very well organized, professional, reliable and super friendly/knowledgeable guide. You will see so much more and have a MUCH better experience going with a reputable private company than an over-priced, over-crowded excursion booked via Celebrity.

Definitely agree a small guided private tour is the way to go in Israel. We saw so much more than the large tour groups and it was really special.

Also, another vote for GTI. Plus, for a very few dollars more, we restricted our group size to eight to make private group and had a more intimate experience with the opportunity to customize the itinerary. Excellent ongoing communications with them, great guide, quality minibuses.

We also used GTI. Tour guide Mickey Schneider was fabulous. We were a group of 8. The 3 days that we toured with GTI were outstanding.

We toured with Travel Israel - http://www.travelisrael.co.il/ - with Udi. We had a small group of 6 people and we were able to design our own tour, since we had been to Israel previously. Udi was fantastic, and very easy to work with. We had 2 wonderful tours with him out of Ashdod. Highly recommended.

Back in 2012 (Celebrity Silhouette) we used Guided Tours Israel ( http://www.guidedtoursisrael.com)

for our 3 days in the country. We had a mini-bus with an excellent guide who had a fascinating background. We used the same van/guide for both ports (Ashdod and Haifa). Our tour company simply drove their van to the 2nd port (they got there much faster then our ship. We seldom do any kind of ship tour since we prefer to either be on our own, or with a small group. A fellow passenger made all the tour arrangements (we found him on the CC Roll Call board).

Our guide was a fascinating expat guy from California. He said he was an aging "hippie" who left California as a young man and decided to live on a Kibbutz (where he still lived more then 20 years later). We actually got a quick tour of his Kibbutz when he needed to get another pair of shoes (the heel fell off his first pair). One very interesting part of our tour was when we went to the West Bank (Bethlehem) to see the church and Manger Square. Since Israeli's were not permitted to handle this part of the trip we drove to the border area...where we transferred to a Palestinian operated van and had a local Palestinian Christian guide. He had contacts inside the church....and got us into some areas not normally open to tours.

Hank