Join us for a fifteen-day adventure in learning. This trip will highlight the extraordinary community-based care provided to older adults in Israel. We’ll visit the Supportive Community and Supportive Independent Housing programs, tour exemplary projects, and meet luminaries in the field.
We’ll enjoy several in-home dinners with Israelis, both secular and Orthodox, and spend time on a kibbutz. Our trip is an “insider’s” tour of Israel with an experienced guide and an archeologist, and visit Masada, the Old City of Jerusalem, Bet She’an, the Dead Sea, Safed, and other sites.
Enrollment is limited to fourteen travelers. Reserve your seat today!
*All prices per person. Airfare not included. Itinerary subject to change.
Itinerary:
Monday, May 22: Tel Aviv
12 Noon Welcome program at the Prima City Hotel – Meet in the lobby
Early walk about, getting to know the city
Ben Gurion House Museum
Stroll down Rothschild Street
Dinner At Tel Aviv Port
Tuesday, May 23: Tel Aviv
Older Adult Program and site visit
Anu Museum (Museum of the Jewish People, University of Tel Aviv Campus)
Dinner in Jaffa
Wednesday, May 24: Tel Aviv
Older Adult program and site visit
Carmel Market
Various sites around Tel Aviv
Dinner with Tel Aviv Residents
Thursday, May 25: Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by minibus
Sites on the way to Jerusalem
Friday, May 26: Jerusalem
West Jerusalem
Jaffa Street
Machane Yehuda
Other neighborhoods
Mea Shearim
Optional Jewish Shabbat service
Traditional Evening Shabbat Dinner
Saturday, May 27: Jerusalem
Walking tour of the Old City
The Western Wall and Tunnel Tour
Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Walk on the City Wall
Sunday, May 28: Jerusalem
Older Adult Program and site visit in West Jerusalem
Yad V’Shem
Israel Museum
Wine and Cheese with Jerusalem residents.
Monday, May 29: Jerusalem to Masada
9:30 AM Melabev
East Jerusalem -- Mount of Olives, Mount Scopus
Bus to the Dead Sea through the Judean Desert (have your swimsuits ready
Night: Masada Guest House
Tuesday, May 30: Masada
9 AM Masada led by professional archeologist
Lunch and Walking tour of Kibbutz Ein Gedi (Ein Gedi is both a working kibbutz with many enterprises and a botanical garden)
Night: Masada Guest House
Wednesday, May 31: Masada to Galilee
Drive along the Jordan River through the West Bank, stops along the way
Bet She’an-Ancient Canaanite, Philistine, Greek, Jewish, Roman, Byzantine city
Belvoir Crusader Castle overlooking the Jordan Valley
Swim in Yam Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)
Thursday, June 1: Yam Kinnerat/Sea of Galilee/Golan
Senior Adult Day Program in Tiberius
Tel Dan -- Good for limited walkers
Lebanese Border Kiryat Shmona and Metula
Tour of Golan Heights
Friday, June 2: Sea of Galilee to Nazareth
Older Adult Program focused on the Arab community
Rosh Pina – pioneering town
Tour of Safad – Holy City on the Hill – Center of Kabbalistic Scholarship
Dinner in Nazareth
Night: In the center of Nazareth
Saturday, June 3: Nazareth To Gesher Haziv
Tour of Nazareth and Nazareth Elite
Karmiel Dinner with Bedouin community
Night: Kibbutz
Sunday, June 4: Acre
Akko (Acre)
Tour of Haifa
Bahai Gardens
Night: Kibbutz
Monday, June 5: Acre to Haifa to Tel Aviv, possible stops along the way
Caesarea
Free time in Tel Aviv
Farewell Dinner
Night: Tel Aviv Prima City Hotel
Tuesday, June 6:
Tel Aviv, breakfast, and goodbye.
Trip Information
What is included?
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Fifteen hotel nights, Check-in Monday, May 22 to Check-out Tuesday, June 6.
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All meals beginning with lunch Monday, May 2 through breakfast Tuesday, June 6.
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Taxis in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other cities, if necessary.
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Bus travel to our destination cities and to tour sites (which can include trailheads or the beach)
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Organizer and accompanying trip leader
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Museum, event, and tour fees.
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Professional guides on occasions, which will be specified in the final itinerary
Here are the exceptions:
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Airfare to and from Israel.
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Transfers to and from Ben Gurion Airport. It will be challenging to have a single bus pick-up for everyone if arrival times are very different. However, if you send us your arrival information, we will make an effort to meet you at Ben Gurion Airport. Getting to and from Ben Gurion airport to Tel Aviv is pretty straightforward, but depending on how you choose to travel, it will cost $16 or $17 to $70.
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Alcohol.
Regarding travel to and from Israel, we suggest you arrive in Israel on Sunday, May 21 or the morning of Monday, May 22. There are a large number of overnight flights from the U.S. leaving mid/late evening and arrive the next morning. Plan to depart in the afternoon (unless you are planning an "after-trip") on Monday, June 5. If you need help planning your flights let us know and perhaps we can help you choose a flight schedule or preferred airlines.
About the hotels, these will be clean, smaller hotels with excellent accessibility to the places we are visiting, city centers, on the grounds of a kibbutz, or close to our major tour sites. Most of the hotels have an Internet connection, although we cannot vouch for its reliability.
Transportation. We will travel either in a tour coach, usually a 20 seater, while traveling outside Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The bus will comfortably fit our group. We will do our best to find, and confirm, a coach that has wi-fi. In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv we are more likely to use taxis and/or Gett (a shared-ride company, think Uber or Lyft).
Phone Service. Your cell phone provider in the U.S. may be able to provide you with an affordable package for calling, and receiving, calls from the U.S.
Cancellations & Deposits
- The total cost of your reservation is due 45 days before the trip (Friday, April 7, 2023).
- 45 days before the trip (Friday, April 7, 2023) or more: 90% of the total cost of the trip will be refunded.
- Between 44 and 30 days before (Saturday, April 8, 2023 to Saturday, April 22, 2023): 50% of the total cost of the trip will be refunded.
- 29 days before the trip (Sunday, April 23, 2023) or less: the entirety of your payment is non-refundable.