Israel Travel Guide

Israel is a beautiful country and a great place to visit. The country has marvelous old cities, good beaches and plenty of culture, history and holy places... and really good food.  

Israel is bordered by Egypt in the south, Lebanon in the North and Jordan and Syria in the East.

Jerusalem will be high on any list of favourite destinations and with good reason: in the old city there are many places of worship and other holy places. Be sure to go to Mount Scopus (the original campus location for Hebrew University) and get an incredible view of the Old City. While there, go to the other side of the university campus (near the amphitheater) and look out over the Judean Desert towards Jordan. On good visibility days you can see the Dead Sea in the distance and the Moab mountains of Jordan just beyond.

Tel Aviv is the place to party. It has good beaches, top cuisine restaurants and excellent nightlife, probably the best to be found within a circle of a few thousand kilometers.

The north of Israel is worth exploring: the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth and the towns of  Tiberias, Acre (aka Akko), Haifa and the disputed area of the Golan Heights are the most important stops on your itinerary to the North.

The south offers the enormous Negev desert and the Dead Sea. In the southernmost point of Israel, the Red Sea beach resort of Eilat is a tourist hot spot. Located at the very bottom tip of Israel, this is a popular fun-in-the-sun vacation spot. Not to be missed is snorkeling or SCUBA diving at Hof Almog (Coral Beach) right on the border between Israel and Egypt.

Areas administered by the Palestinian Authority are not part of Israel but can only be reached from that country. Cities like Nablus, Jenin, Hebron (in Arabic called al Khalil), Jericho, Bethlehem and Ramallah are dealt with in the guide about the Palestinian Authority.

Climate in Israel:

The Israeli climate is temperate, and temperatures all year round are reasonable. Israel has two main seaons: Winter from November to March, is cold and rainy in most parts of the country; Summer from April to October is hot and dry with little or no rainfall. The desert areas can be extremly hot in summer time. The best time to visit is March-June or October-November, although climate shouldn't be a major consideration in choosing a time to visit.

Israel is definitely worth visting, and just remember to have a lot of fun.
Tel Aviv Hotels can be found at http://www.atlas.co.il

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