Tel Aviv
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Monday, October 10th, 2011
This one shouldn't be THAT hard...
I am shifting into serious study mode now, and the Jewish holidays are also affecting my schedule, so please bear with me if my posting is slow! Still, I am trying to get some posts out, and view them as review for my studies as well.
I thought that since the last Mystery Photo was of a somewhat famous building in Tel Aviv, that more people would’ve guessed right. But alas not. I guess most of my Tel Aviv friends don’t make it into some of the quieter parts of the city, preferring to focus on the hustle and bustle of the party life there! But there is a lot to see in Tel Aviv when exploring this country’s modern development.
So I hope that you’ll at least know that I am trying to make these somewhat less challenging! I think that the current photo should be recognizable to those who have been there, and also might be something that people could figure out due to contextual details.
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Posted in Mystery Photo | 10 Responses »
Tags: architecture, Bauhaus, Eclectic Style, Hayim Nahman Bialik, International Style, literature, poetry, Tel Aviv
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Logo of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism
I’m going to try to start doing regular posts where I summarize recent news stories with relevance to the tourism industry in Israel. These might have to do with plans the Tourism Ministry is making, events or news about hotels or airlines, or anything that might affect the tour guiding business directly. If any of you come across relevant news stories that you think I might not have seen, please feel free to forward my way! Thanks! And as always, I’d love to hear any responses or opinions in the comments section.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 1 Response »
Tags: airlines, business, Canada, Chanukkah, Christian pilgrims, El Al, holidays, hotels, Jerusalem, Jordan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, Misezhnikov, Palestinian Authority, Russia, Tel Aviv, tourism, UK
Monday, 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
Wednesday, 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 | 2 Responses »
Tags: Better Place, business, environment, green, high-tech, Pi Glilot, Shai Agassi, Tel Aviv
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
A tour group at the theater in Caesarea, Mediterranean in the background.
Finding a bit more time now, so hope to post some tour updates and more news stories soon. But just a quick summary for now. Tours that I’ve taken but not yet written about: Ein Gedi, southern Dead Sea area (Mt. Sodom), Modiin vicinity (Tel Gezer and stuff related to the Maccabees) and Sharon/southern Carmel region (Apollonia, Dor and Atlit).
And some of the class subjects I may want to discuss here: Geography and Geology of Israel (and how they relate to each other) and fauna. But first…
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Posted in Israeli Tourism, Miscellaneous, Tour Guide Course | No Responses »
Tags: business, culinary tourism, IMTM, Israel, Market, Ministry of Tourism, Tel Aviv, tourism, wine
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
"Light around the Bend" - Roman amphitheater at Beit Guvrin
There’s been plenty of coverage, of late, about the latest Israeli tourism numbers in 2009. And anytime there is a drop in the number of tourists from the previous year, it will be at least somewhat worrisome to people who make their living (or hope to down the road) within the industry.
At the same time, however, there seems to be a lot of good and/or hopeful news in the figures as well. That, and the fact that I am still two years away from fully depending on this industry for my income, give me reason to remain my typically optimistic self.
So let’s examine some of the numbers, as well as a number of trends and changes in the Israeli tourism industry.
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Posted in Israeli Tourism | 6 Responses »
Tags: budget, Bulgaria, Eilat, Jerusalem, Jordan, Ministry of Tourism, Misezhnikov, Petra, statistics, Tel Aviv, tourism, Turkey
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
A piece of the wall that surrounded Jerusalem in the time of King Hezekiah.
Our siyur (tour) this past Tuesday started in my backyard, almost literally. We met at the Tayelet / Haas Promenade, a mere 5-minute walk from my apartment in beautiful Arnona, Jerusalem. This scenic outlook offers an excellent spot to view the geography of ancient Jerusalem. From there, we went to a semi-hidden and little known spot called Ketef Hinnom (Shoulder of Hinnom, a valley in Jerusalem), then hiked through Gei Ben-Hinnom / the Hinnom Valley, and came out at the bottom of Ir David / City of David. We spent the rest of the day winding our way up, down and back up again inside this complex and interesting archaeological site.
I am not going to go into too much detail about Ir David, especially since I already discussed it a bit in this post here, but I did want to discuss a few interesting points from throughout the day. I also want to discuss two recent news stories that relate to things we learned about.
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Posted in Tour Diary, Tour Guide Course | No Responses »
Tags: archaeology, David, gravesite, Ir David, Jerusalem, Ketef Hinnom, Tayelet, Tel Aviv, writing
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Tel Beit Shemesh
No, I’m not talking about a poker tell. I’m talking about the kinds of tells that you hear about whenever your travel to Israel (or other parts of the Middle East). Tel Arad, Tel Be’er Sheva or Tel Maresha, for example.
(By the way, you may have noticed the change in spelling from “tell” to “tel.” If so, 10 points for you. More on that distinction later!)
So, what is a tell, anyway?
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Posted in Tour Guide Course, What Is...? | No Responses »
Tags: archaeology, Beit Shemesh, tel, Tel Aviv, tell
