Written by Fun Joel on September 2nd, 2010
Not just a hole in the ground. A cistern opening on Givat Oz, in Gush Etzion.
With this post today, I am inaugurating a new feature on the blog. I decided to begin writing a series of short posts that define terms and ideas that come up frequently while touring Israel. Some are unique to this country, others are universal. But I figured it would be a good reference. To see all of the entries in this “lexicon” in the future, you will be able to simply click on the category. I am going to be adding the category to a previous post that I think fits in nicely as well.
That being said, on to this post’s topic: cisterns!
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Posted in What Is...? | 2 Responses »
Tags: archaeology, cistern, Maresha, water
Written by Fun Joel on August 30th, 2010
Inside one of the natural grottoes at Rosh Hanikra
In my last post of a few weeks ago, I asked for some advice in helping my friend Lara to plan a great itinerary for her first trip to Israel. Many of you here, and on my Facebook, made wonderful suggestions of things to do, places to go, and even food to eat. In total, Lara was here for 16 days, and I spent a large portion of that time with her. Your collective assistance was a great help, and I wanted to share with you the bulk of her trip, so you can see the kind of balance we included.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 2 Responses »
Tags: Akko, Ein Gedi, felafel, food, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Ir David, itineraries, Jerusalem, Rosh Hanikra, shakshuka, shwarma, Tel Aviv, tourism, wine, Yaffo
Written by Fun Joel on July 27th, 2010
Lake Kinneret / Sea of Galilee behind the palms
A good old friend of mine is finally making her first trip to Israel next week. She’ll be here for 2-3 weeks, and I am excited to be showing her around a lot, and helping her plan her time here. Someone else (a friend of a friend) contacted me to suggest places for her to visit when she comes here in the Fall. And many other times people ask me similar questions when they hear I am studying to become a tour guide.
Itinerary planning is a job and skill in itself. And it is a major task in the tour guiding profession. But it is not yet something which I have studied or have a lot of experience with. And yet, I am going to have to get started on it now to help Lara have an awesome fun time here! So while I’ve started to think about it, I’d love to hear from you guys as well.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 11 Responses »
Tags: Ein Gedi, history, itineraries, Jerusalem, religion, tourism
Written by Fun Joel on July 4th, 2010
My tourguide class on Mount Meron, overlooking Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and Tzefat (Safed).
I recently received a question from a reader, Baruch, about the various courses for tour guides in Israel, and I felt it would be relevant to share my answers with all of you. Following my response, he also had some follow-up questions, which I will also share and answer here.
But let me preface what I write by saying that I don’t have that much knowledge of the other courses, other than mine. I know a bit about a few, and will try to give as much info as I have. But this is far from a comprehensive answer!
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Posted in Tour Guide Course | 2 Responses »
Tags: Bet Sefer L'Tayarut, Lander College, Ministry of Tourism
Written by Fun Joel on June 9th, 2010
Electric Cars by Renault being recharged at Better Place's Visitors Center
Many industrial facilities offer interested fans of their products tours of their production facilities. Probably the most common are wineries and breweries, and we have no shortage of either here in Israel.
But many places also have tours of facilities when the product is unique to that area. Whereas there may not be a ton of tours of ice cream production factories, many visitors to Vermont will pay a visit to the Ben & Jerry’s factory. Atlanta has the World of Coca-Cola. And does anyone go to Hershey, PA without paying a visit to Hershey Park? (Okay, some of these are more than just factory tours, but that’s how they all began!)
Well, Israel now has a new tour to add to this general variety, but it is also unique in many ways. It is not a food or beverage facility, and is a great advertisement for the high-tech, start-up style endeavor for which Israel has become so well known.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 1 Response »
Tags: Better Place, business, environment, green, high-tech, Pi Glilot, Shai Agassi, Tel Aviv
Written by Fun Joel on May 31st, 2010
I typically don’t talk about politics, on this blog or otherwise, but lately it seems I can do nothing else. That’s part of the reality of living in Israel — you can’t help but have an opinion about politics here, and you virtually have to discuss it at times. Unfortunately, this is one of those times.
Undoubtedly, you have heard about the flotilla of boats heading towards Gaza that was boarded by Israeli Naval sailors this morning. And of course you have heard that a number of the passengers were killed and injured. What does it have to do with the Israeli tourism industry, the stated subject of this blog? Well the entire event was clearly an unmitigated PR nightmare for Israel, and what hurts Israel’s international image clearly also hurts the tourism industry here as well.
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Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Response »
Written by Fun Joel on May 26th, 2010
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (photo in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons)
Many of you may have heard the public flap that occurred when White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel arrived in Israel this week to celebrate the bar mitzvahs of his son and nephew. In case you haven’t, I’ll summarize.
While in Eilat, Emanuel and family ate a seafood dinner in a fancy restaurant, then passed the bill over to a representative of the Israel Ministry of Tourism to pay. Or did he? In a rapid response to the news story, the Ministry quickly denied the allegations.
So why am I raising this story here? I actually have two points to raise.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 2 Responses »
Tags: corruption, Ministry of Tourism, Paula Abdul, politics, Rahm Emanuel
Written by Fun Joel on April 22nd, 2010
Logo of the Israel Ministry of Tourism
Okay, so first of all, I’m really sorry it has taken me so long to post anything here. Things were pretty busy around here with the course and life. But I am going to try to post more frequently here. I’ll just start trying to write shorter posts!
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Posted in Tour Guide Course | No Responses »
Tags: exam, feedback, license, Ministry of Tourism
Written by Fun Joel on March 15th, 2010
The Columbarium Cave at Maresha
There are many sites in Israel that I still need to visit. Numerous places I’ve still not yet been to, and plenty of others that I haven’t seen in many, many years. So I can’t yet say what my “favorite” site in this country is.
However, there is one site that I’ve been to twice in the past year (once on a private tour, and then a couple of weeks ago with my course) that has quickly become one of my favorite sites. Beit Guvrin-Maresha is a great site to visit for so many reasons.
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Posted in Primers, Tour Diary, Tour Guide Course, Uncategorized | 7 Responses »
Tags: archaeology, Beit Guvrin, Herod, Maresha, national park, tourism
Written by Fun Joel on February 19th, 2010
The beautiful Dead Sea oasis of Ein Gedi. (Seen from Nahal Arugot.)
(Catching up on writing about the siyurim/tours we’ve had so far, this one is from a little over a month ago.)
When most people think of Ein Gedi, they think of a beautiful oasis sandwiched between the cliffs at the end of the Judean Desert and the highly saline Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth at 422 meters (1385 feet) below sea level. Popular images that spring to mind related to this oasis include gorgeous waterfalls, colorful flowers and delicate ibex bounding along sharp cliffs. Others might think of the date crops that were so closely connected with this area.
But what is somewhat less prominent, but still highly significant, is the wealth of interesting (and at times perplexing) archaeological finds within the Ein Gedi area. I wanted to highlight a couple of the archaeological sites that you might want to see on your next trip to the Ein Gedi park.
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Posted in Tour Diary, Tour Guide Course | 2 Responses »
Tags: archaeology, Ein Gedi, fortress, synagogue
