I've had tickets booked four times over the last couple of years, but always had to cancel for this reason or that.
Maybe the fifth time's the charm... hopefully Israel will let us in. I've never done too much planning for an Israel trip, so I am quite literally starting from scratch here. Any and all feedback and tips would be appreciated.
Cliché jokes about Niturei Karta or the Kosel shall be limited to DDFers with at least 1948 posts or likes (cannot be combined).
Here's the current itinerary:
Sunday: Depart JFK 11:45p, direct on DL.
Monday: Arrive TLV 5:35p.
........aaaaand that's all I've got.
Thinking of leaving the following Thursday, which brings me to my first specific question: are the midnight-ish flights a wise idea, or should I stick with the late morning ones? Departing later gives me essentially a full extra day in Israel, and still lands 15-16 hours before Shabbos (Friday 4 or 5am).
This is planned for smack in the middle of the summer. I know that it may not be the perfectly perfect Shavous or Sukkos weather, but it's what works.
What do we want to see and do? Everything, pretty much - it's our first time there. But we also don't want to run around like dead chickens for 10 days either, or change hotels every night or two. So we need to find that happy medium between the spiritual, historical, nature, adventure, family visits, relaxing, etc. etc. etc.
As far as hotels, we are absolutely not fans of large and/or fancy places. We're way happier off in an interesting Airbnb than a 5-star resort. We value uniqueness - and our budget - way more than aspirational (for some) properties. I have a bunch of Hotels.com free nights of varying value I'll be using, and will use rev for others. I'll consider using points or miles if it's a really good value - i.e. I'm probably not gonna bother with anything over 15k/nt.
So, for now - let's start with a very basic framework. Any good links to
Israel 101? I think there was one on DDMS but it's been years. How many nights in which region? What are the must-dos? Do I even need a car? Anything cool way off the beaten path? What food is not to be missed?
