Israel

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Perhaps the most interesting cultural mixture we’ve seen around the world, with the coexistence of so extreme cultures and religions in such a small area. It seems to be a civilized coexistence, but it shows their disputes in every sentence of its citizens.

Certainly, Jerusalem is the big pop-star of this story … Muslims, Jews, Orthodox Jews, Christians, Orthodox Christians … All dividing the alleys of the old city in the midst of a charming architecture. Nothing like spending hours walking through its streets.

Israel is located in one of the areas of greatest conflict in history and this conflict has dragged on until today and despite everything look OK on the streets of the old city of Jerusalem, the history between Israel and its neighbor Palestine still has many scars. Understanding a bit more of this complicated story that even them don’t know very well how to explain and how the reality of their day-to-day life is affected nowadays is a must. And do it yourself, crossing one of the numerous border on foot.

What was worth it: Jerusalem, Bethlehem (Palestine) and the stunning Dead Sea.
What was not so paid off: Tiberias (nothing that compensates the displacement, but if you go try to bike around the lake in 2 days) and Eilat (beach town uninteresting, if you want a beach escape to the paradise of Sinai in Egypt, it is a few hours from Eilat and does not require a visa).

A few tips:

• TRANSPORTATION: Going around is easy, the country is small, the transport by bus has quality and there are lines to all corners of the country. The company best known for the main lines is Egged, that even offers Wi-Fi on its buses. But cost is not the cheapest, for 2 hours trip expect to pay at least 10 USD.
• CROSSING BORDERS: Crossing the borders of Israel by land is much easier than people tends to say. We crossed 3 times on 3 different points and it was never a problem. But remember that despite Israel does not require a visa, each time you leave the country by land you are required to pay an exit fee at the border, which can vary depending on where you cross from 25-35 USD per person.
• STAMP ON PASSPORT: Who has not heard that it is better not to have the stamp of Israel in your passport because it would prevent your entry into other countries? There is no right answer to this, but we heard all sort of stories. Ours was stamped and we had no problem in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, etc … They say the bigger problem is with Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and UAE. If you’re afraid of it try asking the officer to put the entry stamp of Israel on a separate sheet, but take the separate sheet ready on your passport. And remember, that might work or not.

Our itinerary (14 days)

We took a night bus from Cairo to the Egypt’s border with Israel in Taba. From there we went to the bus station in Eilat, from where we took a bus to Jerusalem. After 5 days relaxing and visiting delicious Jerusalem and the Palestine we took a bus to Tiberias in the north. After a day we went by bus to Nazareth and spent two days from where we visited also Akko. Then we took another bus to the capital Tel Aviv and we spent four days there before taking our route towards Jordan.

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