Bar Mitzvah in Israel – Sample Itinerary
This is a sample itinerary of an actual Bar Mitzvah event Eliezer Hemeli planned and executed for a family from the United States:
Goals
1. Visit and connect to the sites reflecting 4000 years of Jewish history in the land of Israel.
2. Enjoy and absorb the gorgeous nature, Geography, and uniqueness of the land and the people.
3. Join the IDF units and follow some of their great historical victories.
4. Watch the Israeli entrepreneurship in technology.
5. Enjoy flying, hiking, rappelling, Jeep adventure and ATV tour during the course of the tour.
6. Become an ambassador on behalf of Israel!
Friday – International flights going out from the States
3:30PM: Delta Detroit -New York JFK.
9:10PM: Delta New York JFK-Tel-Aviv.
Saturday – Arrival to the holy land and pick up at the airport
Delta flight Arrival to Ben Gurion airport at 2:45PM.
VIP welcome at the sleeve by representative of “Red Carpet”.
Drive to Mitzphe- Hayamim Hotel in the Galilee and check in.
Evening: short tour, dinner and relaxation.
Accommodation: Mitzphe-Hayamim Boutique Hotel & Resort Rosh-Pina
Sunday – Treasures of the Galilee
We will start the morning with a tour of the city of Zefat the highest city in Israel (elevation of 2,953 feet) located few minutes from our hotel. Since the sixteenth century Zefat has been considered one of Judaism’s Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem Hebron and Tiberias. Since that time the city remained a center of Kabbalah, also known as Jewish mysticism. We will tour the gorgeous galleries, and the ancient synagogues that were built some 500 hundred years ago by famous Jewish Rabies. It will be a great start for absorbing the unique spirit of the holy land its wonders.
From the City of Zefat we shall continue north to the agricultural village of Dishon. We will first grab a light lunch and then we will meet our ATVs for a special tour in the orchards valleys and hills of the upper Galilee, one of the most beautiful and prosperous agricultural area in Israel. While driving we will get close to the Lebanon border and witness the reality of life there. We will stare from above at the fruitful Hauula valley all the way to the slopes of the Golan Heights and understand why this piece of land is considered to be the most beautiful in Israel. Our tour will take us through the rivers that are now streaming gloriously due to the powerful winter we are having this year. As we finish our ATV tour we will grab a quick lunch.
Around 4pm we will climb to the Jeeps at Margaliot and drive the mountains close to the Lebanon border for a strategic tour to witness the impossible life in this area.
Our final activity for the day will be dinner in Mitzphe- hayamim hotel restaurant,
Accommodation: Mitzphe-Hayamim Boutique Hotel & Resort Rosh-Pina
Monday – The Golan Heights- A stunning piece of land
In the morning we will drive to the foots of the Golan Heights, and start climbing the Golan heights , crossing the Jordan river and using the same path the “Alexandroni” brigade used in the 1967 “six day war” to conquer the Syrian stronghold on the main highway to Damascus.
There we will witness the impossible situation the Israeli population faced until 1967 having machine-guns and artillery canons threatening their lives on a daily basis. At 10am we will be the guests of an IDF armor unit, meet the commanders, see the weapons and ride the most sophisticated tank in the world the Mercava number 4. From there we will proceed to the “Valley of Tears” the Syrian Israeli border where we will honor the brave soldiers of the IDF who fought with such bravery at the 1973 “Yom Kippur” war. This visit will follow a special film of the war presented at the “OZ 77” memorial at Kibbutz Elrom. Our lunch will take place at a Druze village (Optional).
Our next and last visit of the day we will be Kibbutz Kfar- Giladi a unique way of community life established by the Jewish immigrants who came to the land of Israel 100 years ago to rebuild the Jewish state. We will listen to the story of struggling in a hostile environment, the success, the amazing achievements, the sacrifice and the changes in life today. If time allows we will visit the kfar- Giladi “Slik” the secret story of smuggling and hiding weapons for IDF before Israel became independent.
We will end the day at our hotel using the heated pool and spa to enjoy last night there.
Accommodation: Mitzphe-Hayamim Boutique Hotel & Resort Rosh-Pina
Tuesday – Jerusalem of Gold
This day id dedicated to Jerusalem the city that is a center for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the morning we will check out our Hotel and leave the gorgeous Galilee on the way to Jerusalem. We may drive through Tiberias, Beit-Shean, the Jordan valley, Jericho and the historical highway Jericho -Jerusalem. Our first stop will be Mount olive from there we will get a perfect view on the holy city. From Mount olive we will descend to the City of David. This is the city near the holy city that King David conquered 3000 years ago and was the original capital of his kingdom. We will take a tour through the excavations that are still going on there and follow the tunnel that brought the water to the city. From the city of David we will precede to the Holy city. The Tour of the holy city will include the Davidson center, the Wailing Wall, the Jewish quarter, the Christian quarter the “Cardo” and other sites. At 4:10 we will enter the breathtaking “Kotel” tunnel for a 45 minutes’ walk. Dinner will be served in a typical local Jerusalem restaurant. As we finish dinner we will get organized to a short foot tour of the Mamilla pedestrian walk. At the end of this tour we will conclude this first Jerusalem day in our beautiful Mamilla hotel.
Accommodation: Mamilla luxury hotel Jerusalem
Wednesday – From destruction to Independence
We will start the day visiting Mount Herzl and the grave of the prophet whose vision was so essential in the creation of the state of Israel. From there we shall proceed to “Yad Vashem” holocaust museum. We will follow the terrible story of the destruction of the Jewish community in Europe during world war two. From “Yad Vashem” we will slide down the Jerusalem Tel- Aviv highway on the way to visit the IDF air- force base.
On 11:30 we will start our visit as guests of the Israeli air force in the Tel-Nof base. Our host there will be Colonel Ziv and we will be introduced to the air-force responsibilities aircrafts and activities. We will witness combat aircraft taking off for their missions while we are there.
From Tel-Nof we will drive to Lartun- an armor site and major Jordanian stronghold until 1967. We will witness the struggle to defend the state of Israel as we received our independence and the price we paid for it. We will pay tribute to the fallen soldiers and from there we will drive back to Jerusalem.
At 7:00pm we will join “The night spectacular show” a multimedia gorgeous presentation about the history of Jerusalem presented on the walls of the Tower of David at the Jaffa gate.
Accommodation: Mamilla luxury hotel Jerusalem
Thursday – The Mystery of the Desert
In the morning we will check out and drive/fly south to spend the day in the Israeli desert. We will begin our tour in Sde-boker kibutz with a drive to the wilderness of the Zin Valley natural reserve where most of the natural springs within the Negev are concentrated. Along the way we will stop at some beautiful observation points and visit Ein-aqev spring which is a high waterfall that includes a very deep pool where we will be swimming.
We will continue the upper part of the Zin Valley to get a glimpse into the hidden and secret world of the Nabataea’s kingdom. For instance, how they managed to collect and hide water, or grow vineyards in ancient times. Then will continue to a beautiful pre-historic rock art site that reveals the spiritual world of the nomadic people of the Negev. In the site we can witness the full transition from hunting scenes to symbols and into the emerging of the first alphabet in the world, both Modern Hebrew and Latin are derived from. Around sunset will drive to our special location and lit the fire using flint stone. We will have our nomad traditional dinner over the bonfire base on chicken baked in coals as the main course.
Optional-We will end our desert day with a Night safari– It is an exciting, interesting and fun adventure for kids and grownups as well. During the safari we will search for wildlife such as wolf, hyena, fox, hare, porcupine, scorpions with a spotlight from the 4WD vehicle. In addition will explore animal borrows and footprints.
This desert day will come to an end at the “Bereshit” hotel in Mitzphe-Ramon.
Accommodation: Boutique hotel Bereshit, Mitzphe Ramon
Friday – The Ramon Crater and Masada
In the morning we will check out the hotel and will descend to the Ramon Crater first by rappelling and then with the Jeep. It is Israel’s most unique site with dramatic landscape and wide open spaces of pure wilderness. The crater is 40 km long, 2–10 km wide and 500 meters deep – a spectacular geological jewel. It also includes signs of prehistoric man that lived throughout the region. These include ancient dwellings, graves, water systems and old trade routes. Furthermore, The Ramon nature reserve which includes the crater and the Negev highlands is the largest protected area in Israel, thus an excellent place to observe the diverse Negev wildlife. During the tour we will explore the most interesting attractions of the crater such as colorful rocks, exciting geological formations, medicine herb plants, animal foot prints and many more unique activities.
At 12:00 noon we will leave the Ramon Crater with a helicopter and fly to Masada the historical fortress that became a symbol for Jewish dedication and bravery. Optional: (We will climb up the snake path all the way to the fortress). We will tour the place that reflects more then everything else the sacrifice Jews made in order to live as free people in their own land. we will see and understand how 991 men women and children were able to defend themselves three years against the most powerful military force in the world 2000 years ago. It is now late afternoon so the right thing will be to take the Helicopter to fly to Tel- Aviv, check in the Hilton Hotel and prepare for a beautiful Shabbat dinner as a spectacular week in the holy land comes to an end.
Accommodation: Hilton hotel Tel-Aviv
Saturday – Relax, Enjoy and tour the city of Tel-Aviv on Bicycles
We will spend this weekend day in Tel-Aviv the city that became recently one of the hottest cities in the world. We can enjoy a beautiful Bicycle tour that will begin in Jaffa the old city and the ancient gate to the land of Israel. We will tour the port, the gorgeous galleries, the flea market and the restored buildings. We will precede to Neve- Tzedek the first neighborhood of Tel- Aviv and will see the first train station of the Jaffa Jerusalem train. We will continue to the famous Rothschild Street, the Azrieli center with its sky- scrapers, the Sharona center and the new port of Tel- Aviv. The most important part-the whole tour we be on bicycles!
Since the tour can be several hours we will be left with time for some other activities as we wish.
Accommodation: Hilton Tel-Aviv
Sunday – Yamam and farewell
In the morning w will leave Tel Aviv on the way to visit the special anti terror unit-Yamam.
9:30 – We will meet the fighters learn about their operations, training and routine. We will witness their performance and understand why they are known to be the best in the world. We will conclude the visit in a lunch with the fighters. From there we will get back to the Hotel to check out in the evening and continue to the Ben-Gurion airport to fly back to the U.S.
Monday – Flight Tel Aviv – U.S
12:40AM- Delta flight Tel-Aviv New-York JFK.
07:55AM-Delta flight JFK- Detroit.
Count the days until the next tour!