As many of you know, today is the 45th Yom Yerushalayim / Jerusalem Day, the holiday that celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 during the Six Day War. In celebration, I was asked to give a tour to a group of overseas students in a gap year program here in Jerusalem. They are studying Read More
Category: Tour Diary
A Tour of Wineries in Eretz Binyamin / Samaria
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting five different wineries with some other tour guides and friends. The wineries were all located in the region of Eretz Binyamin — the area that was designated in the Bible for the tribe of Benjamin. Today it is part of the region known as Samaria, and there Read More
A Tour of Crusader Caesarea
When most people visit Caesarea, the beautiful Israeli coastal city between Netanya and Haifa, they focus on its history and archaeology in the Herodian (early Roman) and Byzantine periods. While most visitors walk right through the heart of the Crusader era city, they barely pay any attention to it. But the truth is that Caesarea Read More
Environmental Tour of the Negev
I took a friend down to the Negev desert last week for a tour focused on various environmental topics. We visited sites and discussed issues of CleanTech/Green energy, water usage, desert agriculture, ecology, etc. In addition to being interesting for me, I see it as another niche in which I may work in the future Read More
Sample 1-Day Jerusalem Itinerary
One of the fun things that I do as I prepare to become a tour guide in Israel is practice! It helps me learn to plan a tour, make it flow seamlessly and learn such things as timing, reading the audience, use of visual aids and organization of material. So it is really a very Read More
Tour: Beit Guvrin-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 Read More
Tour: The Mysteries of Ein Gedi Archaeology
(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 Read More
Walking Through First Temple-Era Jerusalem
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 Read More
Tour: “In the Footsteps of David and Shimshon”
We had our first siyur (tour) this past Tuesday. Entitled “In the Footsteps of David and Shimshon (Samson),” it really encompassed a few different subjects that all related to the area around the city of Beit Shemesh. We also spent some time at the beginning of the day in moshav Beit Meir, at the very Read More