Expert: Corey Shuster - 10/9/2004

Question
Dear Corey
I am an Indian working in a Telecommunication Company in Muscat-Oman for the last morethan 15 years. I live here with my family, my wife Andrea
aged 42 and my son Mishael aged 12.
I visited Israel in the year 2000 with our church members and we were there for only 3 days and I have not seen many other places.
Now I am planning to visit Israel with my family and we would like to know the following points and we trust that you will help us,

1. Which is the shortest route to reach Israel    from Muscat-Oman and How?
2. Where can we get a rented house with all facilities for cooking for 15 days and what would be the rent?
3. where can we get a guide and what would be his fee for a day.
4. Can you provide us with the Name,Address and the telephone number of the people for the above services.
5. Please send us the Name and location of all the tourist places in Israel.

My family and self pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May God Bless Israel Abundantly.

Thank You brother

K.J.Mathew
00 968 9316442  

Answer
Hi,

Apologies for the delay. There was a problem logging on for a while.

I don't have any specific information for you. I know that there are companies that rent out apartments/houses for weeks at a time. I would just do a google search and ask a few for prices. Do you know where you want to stay for 2 weeks? I am assuming Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a good base to see the following areas: Jerusalem, Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Jaffa/Tel Aviv. If you want to go into any areas that are Palestinian (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Bethlehem) I would go with a tour guide (Either Israeli or Palestinian) since they know where you shouldn't go. The old city seems pretty safe still but other Palestinian areas have turned lawless and dangerous.

Outside of the centre of the country I assume you will want to go to the Sea of Galilee area. Again, I don't have specific places you can stay but there are lots of B&Bs in that area so finding one shouldn't be a problem on google. If you have some names of places, I can let you know my opinion on how they seem, the area they are located in, etc.

In terms of getting to Israel. My guess is that the easiest way to get here is through Amman or Cairo. Both have (I think) daily flights to Israel. Since you live in Oman, make sure that the passport people don't stamp your passport (you can ask them to give you a piece of paper with the stamp on it). I understand that Oman has ties with Israel but just so it won't cause you problems in the future.

I don't know any tour guides that are currently working. The market has been down for the past few years and many are working in other areas. I once saw a site that had a list of tour guides in Israel including what they specialize in and what languages they speak. I did a search but can't find that site. What I did find were guides on different sites such as:
http://www.infotour.co.il/
http://www.maven.co.il
I also don't know what the going rate for tour guides is today but I trust that whatever they quote you is what they charge. I have rarely seen tourists taken advantage of in Israel. Make sure that the guide you choose has experience in the areas you are interested in.

Again, if you want to get my opinion of prices, qualifications, hotels, etc. send me a list and I will let you know my opinion.

You didn't specifically ask, but I will give you a few interesting/fun things to do in Israel:
-the dead sea area has lots of hikes and intersting things to see. A great company to check out is Matzoke Dragot (http://www.metzoke.co.il). They have a centre in the desert that do jeep tours, rock rappeling courses (great fun!) etc. They also employ tour guides and might be a good resource for finding someone in the area. If you do a Jeep tour, there are Christian sites in the Judean desert like Mar Saba but you can only get there with a jeep.
You will probably also want to go to Qumran (proto-Christian community where Dead Sea scrolls were hidden), Ein Gedi (where King David hid from Saul), Masada (site of Jewish revolt), and the Flour Cave (just a nice little hike in a small valley ending with a 100M cave (bring candles)). If you want to stay in the Dead Sea area, a great place is Kibbutz Ein Gedi hotel and gardens.

-The north of Israel has a totally different climate- greener and hilly. You will probably want to go to Nazareth and the Sea of Gallilee area. You can do this with or without a tour guide since having a map of locations is enough to get you there (assuming you are renting car). Note, driving from the Dead Sea area north to the Sea of Galilee is possible however there have been shootings on that road (it goes through the West Bank). Ask in your hotel if that road is safe. If not, take the coastal road.

- One really nice part of Jerusalem that not many tourists get to is Ein Kerem. It is the birth place of John the baptist and a really nice place to spend an afternoon. There is a church there and lots of nice relaxing cafes that Israelis frequent, artist workshops etc.

Those are all the places I can think of off hand. If you have any other interests, let me know.

Good luck.