So you’ve finally managed to decide and yes!, you’re going to Israel! But now what? Well, how about some tips and resources from us to help you have a quality but cheap vacation in Israel? Sure. Here we go.

Get Your Israel Flight Tickets Online

Yes, get them online and get them early! Timing, as stated “time and time again”, is the most important price determinant. Airlines usually sell their cheapest batch of tickets first and by booking early you pretty much increase your chances of buying cheap Israel tickets. Plus, booking Israel flights through the Internet will cut many middle men and help you get a cheaper price. For more on this you may want to check out our Cheap Israel Flights page from the menu.

Go To Israel During Summer; Or Not

If you want to get the most out of the warm Mediterranean climate of Israel you must visit the country during summer. The vacations season runs from late spring up to November and guess what? Booking a cheap vacation in this period is tougher. But how is this a tip on having a cheap Israel vacation? Well, turn this upside down and you get this: if you don’t care much about the sun and the beaches, you may want to plan your Israel vacation during the offseason, from late autumn to early spring. Ta da!

For Longer Vacations, Stay With Roommates

If you plan a longer vacation to Israel you may want to do a bit of an effort and find a cheap Israel rental you can share with one or more roommates. We’ve got some tips related to this as well as some sites where one can do this on our Cheap Israel Rentals page.

Cheap Hotels Aren’t Dirt Cheap; For Shorter Vacations, Hop From Hostel To Hostel

Yes, you’ve heard that! As stated in our special Cheap Israel Hotels page, a cheap hotel in Israel looks to be very expensive compared to a cheap hotel in another country. This is because Israel is overstuffed with luxury hotels. That’s why it would be a better idea – and much more fun – to stay in cheap hostels or guest houses. There are cheap hostel chains in Israel and some of them even offer fidelity cards for frequent travelers. You can find all about them as well as several recommendations on our Cheap Israel Hostels page.

Or, Just Take On A Camping Vacation

If tents and camping are your style, then Israel is a great country to travel in. You can find many camping sites spread all across the country. Some of them are free, some charge a small fee but offer nice amenities such as showers, restrooms or common kitchens. Some don’t even require you to have your own tent.

“OK, OK, enough with those tips. I just want to find some cheap Israel vacation packages. How can I do that?”

Well, cheap vacation packages are anything but cheap usually. Vacation packages are usually a package of fees and commissions on top of a couple of services. But if you want to escape the headache of self-planning then this option might be for you. To find cheap Israel vacation packages you may want to visit these sites, search by country and then put a maximum price cap as a filter:

1. Priceline

2. Travelocity

3. Hotwire

After that, compare offers between sites. On top of that, one may also want to enquire some local travel agents for cheap Israel vacation packages. Once that is done, just add those offers to the comparison, analyze them all and choose the vacation package that fits your needs best.

This concludes our article on cheap Israel vacations. If you’ve got more tips that can help our visitors get their hands on a cheap Israel vacation then please post them in a comment.

How do I get my hands on a cheap tour of Israel but a quality one as well? Well, that’s what we’ll try to cover in this article. We’re going to offer you some tips mixed with some options on how to find cheap Israel tours.

Based on our research, here are some of the companies that offer the best value for money tours of Israel:

1. Pilgrim Tours

Israel tour packages from Pilgrim Tours usually offer a more religious experience so it’s great to choose them in case you’re interested in a holy land tour. Other than that, they offer tours at good prices for many important regions in Israel. Some of their most interesting tours include “Best Of Israel” type of tours or tours that take place in more countries in case you’d like to get to know the neighbors – Egypt, Jordan, etc. – as well.

Site: pilgrimtours.com

2. Ben Harim Tours

Ben Harim is a licensed Israeli company specialized in offering Israel tour packages. They’ve got two types of tours, Israel day tours and Israel private tours. Private tours of Israel extend on many days and are quite expensive but Israel day tours are quite cheap and they don’t take more than one day. Of course, these tours don’t include what a classic country tour includes such as plane tickets, accommodation, etc. You’ll actually have to get to Israel yourself and take one of these tours.

Site: benharim.co.il

3. Globus Journeys

Globus Journeys is another reputable company known to offer quality tours of Israel. Quality but not always cheap though. You may want to call them several months in advance and negociate a better deal. Price-wise this is recommended only if you run out of other options.

Site: globusjourneys.com

4. Tours In English – Alternative Tours Of Israel & Palestine

This is quite a special type of tour. This company, Tours In English, is offering tours that cover the history, culture and geography of both Israel and Palestine. They will take you to places both inside Israel and Palestine, will help you meet the locals and see the Israeli Palestinian conflict from both sides. You can pretty much say that this Israel tour is “all inclusive”. Not only that but these tours also have social benefits for the areas involved because the agency hires and trains tour guides and uses services from both sides of the conflict. Worth a look.

Some people think that Tours In English is biased against Israel so you may want to do your own research on this and decide for yourself.

Site: toursinenglish.com

5. Israel Guides

Israel Guides is a site offering licensed Israel tour guides. You can search for tour guides by language, by style and by region. The licensed tour guides have passed through extensive training and tests so it’s worth trying to find a quality one at a decent price.

Site: israel-guides.net

“I went through your options and still didn’t manage to find a cheap tour to Israel. What now?”

Well, if we failed to give you a serious option when it comes to touring Israel cheap, we’ve got the following tips you might use:

1. As said in the review of one of the tour operators, calling early might help you get a cheaper Israel tour package.

2. You might also try to tour with more acquaintances or friends and use the large number of people you go with in your negotiations for getting a discount.

3. You can take a look at your local tour operators as well and see what prices they offer and then compare them with what we’ve recommended.

4. You should take a look and ask around large travel forums such as Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree or the TripAdvisor forum.

“What other tips can you offer when considering an Israel tour package?”

1. Maybe this tip should be on our list above but it should be said that you’ll often get better deals in both price and quality when hiring an Israel tour operator. You can do that either from abroad or just get flight tickets and a hostel in one of Israel’s major cities and search from there.

2. If you consider hiring a non-Israeli travel agency to book you a tour of Israel you may want to ask them whether they resell these tours and who their original maker is. Then, do a thorough research of the original creator of the tours on the Internet and see what others think of them. Also check out whether you can book directly and whether doing so plus air fare plus accommodation will cost you less than the whole hassle through the initial travel agency.

3. Investigate whether the tour operator you chose actually does a good job. Some of the things you have to look out for are organizing tour groups where the guide would have to present in more than one language (waste of time), putting group members in different hotels (waste of time again), merely passing by some of the attractions, etc. How does one do that? Ask them to refer you to a bunch of previous customers if they can or search for online reviews. In fact, I encourage you to post reviews of Israel tour packages as comments to this post so that people can decide better on what they’ll settle on.

4. The Jerusalem municipality is offering free walking day tours of Jerusalem every Saturday in both English and Hebrew. Pretty cool!

I’m glad we ended this article with a freebie. That’s about it from us on cheap Israel tours and Israel tour packages. If you’ve got anything to add on this topic, then please do so in the comments.

So things are slowly coming along for your trip to Israel and one of the things you need to do is rent a car? Excellent then, because this is the page just for you. You probably got tired Googling for “car rental in Israel” or “car hire Israel” only to come up empty-handed and frustrated by the filler sites. We’re here to do a better job than that bunch. Here we go.

3. A cheap Israel car rental company recommended by a lot of people is Eldan Rent A Car. They also seem to be the largest car rental company in Israel. If you also book online they usually offer a good discount; at the time of writing this the discount is 20% off Israel car hire services. Quite a lot! You can find the terms of rental on their site and on top of regular car rental you can also rent a GPS and buy full or third party insurance (the latter one is mandatory) plus various other extra options.

2. As you might have read in the above paragraph, there are two main types of car insurance in Israel: comprehensive, which is optional, and third party insurance, which is mandatory. To stay on the safe side of things you should look for an Israel car rental deal with comprehensive car insurance.

1. If you’d like to travel to Palestine territories by car, then you should know that there are few car rental companies that allow you to. Most of them are located in East Jerusalem and that’s the place to go to if you’re interested in such a thing. One such company is Dallah Rent A Car. It operates from the American Colony Hotel In East Jerusalem. Awful site at the time of writing but just get through it and give them a call or e-mail once you find the contact info. They’re more expensive than an usual Israel car rental company but that’s what you have to pay if you’d like to travel to Palestinian territories as well.

3. It is important to choose the car rental company carefully because there are times when some of these companies run out of cars and can’t even fulfill the reservations they booked since the previous folks who rented didn’t return the cars on time.

4. Most major car rental companies operate in Israel as well such as Hertz, Avis or Budget. To get a cheap rate on your car rental you might also want to try going through and searching for deals on the websites of all these companies and then compare.

5. When should one rent a car in Israel? Well, if you plan on visiting the attractions located in northern Israel then renting a car is the way to go. Renting a car is also suitable if you’re located in a major Israeli city and would like to take 1-2 day trips in adjacent areas.

6. When should one not rent a car in Israel? When you’re visiting a major city such as Jerusalem and staying there for an extended period of time. Traffic is horrendous, parking spaces are few and one can most of the time get to a place faster by walking than by car. Plus, street names change every few blocks. Better walk and take a taxi or bus for longer distances. Taxis and buses also go faster because they have a dedicated lane.

7. Can I come to Israel with a rental car and drop it here or vice-versa? Due to mostly security reasons, the answer to this question is NO.

8. You may want to know that most Israel car rental companies close midday on Friday and are closed all day Saturday. The only agencies that are open non-stop are at the Ben Gurion Airport. Remember this when renting a car and always ask as to when you can pick it up so you’ll be sure it won’t interfere with your trip schedule.

This concludes our small guide about cheap Israel car rental and tips related to car hire in Israel. If you have more useful information to share on this topic, then don’t hesitate to do that in the comments below.

So you’d like to book a flight to Israel, and a bit cheap if that’s possible? Who doesn’t! To help you out with this issue, we’ve got some tips for you.

1. The bad news: flights to Israel are quite expensive. There aren’t many low cost carriers serving the country so if you’re looking to book a cheap flight to Israel a great option would be to use a charter airline. One such airline is Arkia. They offer charter flights from many European and nearby locations to Israel and vice-versa. The downside of this is that such flights come packed with a hotel and maybe some sort of tour of Israel. Some of these services are at a discount but truth be told in total you might end up paying more than you would choosing hotels and tours and flights by yourself so it’s best to search and compare.

2. Timing is of utmost importance if you’d like a cheap flight to Israel. Or anywhere else actually. Plan your trip early and search for cheap flights early. And book early, several months in advance because airlines usually split tickets in batches. The first batch on sale is the cheap tickets batch and the last is the expensive tickets batch. Booking flights to Israel early might mean booking cheap flights to Israel.

3. Or you could try to ignore timing completely and book a last minute flight. This will only help you get a cheap deal in case the flight isn’t booked completely and the airline will try to cover fixed costs by selling an extra ticket to you cheaper. Truth be told, your negotiating skills should be top notch and even so it’s much more likely to get an expensive flight than a cheap flight. I don’t recommend this but it’s your life.

4. If you’re coming from North America, you should try picking up a connecting flight in Europe. It is most likely to find a good deal containing two flights: one from North America to Europe and another form Europe to Israel. Many people have recommended using Czech Airlines from Israel to North America through Prague and vice-versa.

5. Although flights to Israel are quite expensive almost all the time, there are small time frames where one could find cheaper offers. One such time frame is in the off season at the start of the year in January and early February.

6. Try out Israir Airlines. They are the second largest carrier in Israel after El Al and rumor has it that the company has been modeled after the famous low cost American company JetBlue. They have a comprehensive site and it wouldn’t hurt you to search for some deals there. They operate International charter flights as well as domestic flights and air taxi flights.

Site: israirairlines.com

7. You should also look for Lufthansa flights to Israel. While not exactly a cheap carrier, Lufthansa usually has a decent offer of flights to Israel and if you book early and look around for deals you might get lucky and catch a cheap flight.

“What if, after using all your methods, I still haven’t found a cheap flight to Israel? What now?”

Well, you should still try the classic method:

1. Search for cheap flights to Israel on aggregators such as Kayak, Yahoo! FareChase or Bing Travel. Note down the best deals you can find.

2. Then search for cheap Israel flights on traditional booking engines such as Orbitz, Expedia, Priceline, Travelocity, Hotwire, CheapTickets from the US and Canada. From Europe try out SkyScanner, Vayama or MoMondo. Write down the best deals.

3. And at last, search for flights to Israel on airlines’ websites. We’ve already recommended a couple of airlines above but there are many more of them such as El Al, Egypt Air, Royal Jordanian as wel as any you’ve found using aggregators and booking engines. Note down the results.

You might wonder why should you take this step if you’ve gone through steps 1 and 2? Because there are airlines that don’t show up in aggregators or booking engines because they don’t want to.

4. You should’ve ended up with a list containing the best flights to Israel you’ve found. Go through them and pick the option that fits your needs best.

This concludes our article on cheap flights to Israel. We reckon this is a tough subject and we need all the help we can get to bring visitors something of value related to cheap Israel flights so if you’ve got anything valuable to say on this don’t hesitate to post a comment.

How does one get to Israel? Well, as with any other country, you can reach Israel through various methods but some are more complicated than others.

1. Getting To Israel By Plane

Getting to Israel by plane is the easiest and fastest method you can use. The downside of this is that there are few cheap flights to Israel. For how to increase your chances of getting a cheap flight to Israel you should check out our special “Cheap Flights To Israel” page from the sidebar. Most flights will land at the Ben Gurion International Airport which is very close to both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem but closer to Jerusalem. From there you can rent a car or take public transportation to your destination.

2. Getting To Israel By Ferry

Unfortunately passenger ferries from and to Israel have mostly stopped running from 2001 onwards and there doesn’t seem to be any glimmer of light that service will resume soon. There were ferries from and to Cyprus, Piraeus in Greece and even London. One company that used to run ferries on Israel routes was Salamis International. There are still cargo ferries though and rumor has it that some of these ferries are taking few human passengers and only by request. If you’d like such a thrill then don’t hesitate to contact such companies. You can find them easily by inquiring about them in the port you’re interested in departing from.

There may still be some ferries running now but they are very erratic in schedule. Two companies specialized in cargo and human ferries are Rosenfeld and Grimaldi. Their sites are listed below. They usually use Ashdod and/or Haifa as ports in Israel. You should inquire them both thoroughly before booking a trip. Use at your own risk.

Grimaldi Ferries Site: grimaldi-freightercruises.com
Rosenfeld Ferries Site: rosenfeld.net

3. Getting To Israel By Train

If you’d like to get to Israel by train then you can do so from Europe. How? Well, let’s take the remote (relative to Israel and strictly geographically) European city of London. If you’d like to take the train from there to Israel you’ll go through the following route: London – Paris – Vienna – Budapest – Istanbul – -Adana (Turkey) – Aleppo (Syria) – Damascus (Syria) – Amman (Jordan) – Jerusalem (between Adana, Turkey and Aleppo, Syria, you’ll have to take the bus or another transportation method). The trick here is that you’ve gone from Syria to Jordan to enter Israel. The other way around doesn’t work because Syria won’t let you on their territory if you’ve got anything containing Israel stamped on your passport. Nonetheless, it’ll be quite an interesting journey on the way there.

One other option is to go from Europe to Athens by train and than catch a ferry – if any – to Israel.

4. Getting To Israel By Car

Not much to say on this other than that it is doable and can be done both from Jordan and from Egypt.

If you come from Europe through Syria you can’t go back on the same route though. If that’s the case then one option is to catch a RoRo ferry to Europe, either via Cyprus and Turkey or via Greece. It’s doable but expensive, unreliable and slow. Plus you run the risk of damaging your car. Of course, one can also use a RoRo ferry the other way around, namely to enter Israel but the same risks apply. You can find some companies that are doing this in the ferry section above.

Do note that you can’t take a rental car into and out of Israel.

Simply put, getting to Israel by car is too much hassle.

5. Getting To Israel By Bus

You can get into Israel by bus from both Jordan and Egypt. If you come from Europe by land then you should pass through Syria and reach Jordan. You should take the bus – in case you weren’t in one already – from Amman – the Jordanian capital – to any Israeli city you choose.

From Egypt, you’ll have to take an internal bus to Taba, an Egyptian city close to the Israeli border, cross the border on foot, reach Eilat in Israel which is about 30 minutes away from the border and catch an internal Israel bus from downtown Eilat to other Israeli destinations. Do notice that in Israel on Shabbat – Friday and Saturday evening – buses don’t run at all so plan your bus trip from Egypt carefully.

What should you do to get into Israel easily? Not much. Just be yourself. Don’t lie at the border, tell the truth and you’ll be fine in case you’re not involved in any shady activities. You’ll come into heavier scrutiny in case you’ve got visas on your passports from countries Israel doesn’t have a very good relationship with such as Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, etc. but as long as you tell the truth no matter how silly it may sound you should be OK even though it’ll take a bit longer.

This concludes our article on getting to Israel. If you have any tips on how to get to Israel then don’t hesitate to share them by posting a comment below.

So you’ve managed to finally reach Israel but have doubts as to the best ways to get around the country? Well, you may want to read this article then.

1. Getting Around Israel By Car

Getting around Israel by car is a good option if you’d like to do a trip to several scattered Israel attractions. It is especially good if you’re planning to go up north. You can check out our cheap Israel car rental page for more on how one can rent a cheap car in this awesome country.

Do not rent a car just to drive around an Israeli city! Some of them are infamous for their traffic congestion issues. Jerusalem is one such example. In Jerusalem, you’d be better off walking around or using taxis and public transportation that have dedicated lanes.

As for the traffic signs, they are all in English as well so no need to worry about that. The state of highways in the country are from good to very good to say the least. Driving might seem a bit erratic and aggressive especially if you come from a country with calm drivers.

2. Getting Around Israel By Train

Getting around by train in Israel is also an excellent option. Israel Railways (site below) is the main operator of passenger lines. They have an excellent site in which you can find out pretty much everything there is to know about using trains in Israel.

You may want to know that the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem train line is a bit slow compared to the rest of lines. Taking this in consideration you’ll be worse off in time-wise than taking the bus. However, the scenery along the line is amazing so if you are in no hurry it is well worth using it.

You can’t take the train to the Dead Sea though as there’s no such line. See the bus section below if you’d like to reach Eilat or adjacent places.

Site: rail.co.il/en

3. Getting Around Israel By Bus

Bus service is Israel is pretty good as well. If you’ve not noticed yet given the many times I repeat myself, transportation infrastructure does a decent job. Now, when it comes to buses, you can either take a public bus or a private bus. Public buses run every 15 minutes between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and every 30 minutes between Jerusalem and Haifa and Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Buses are considerably faster than trains on the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv route as well as the Jerusalem – Haifa route. The latter trains will have to go through Tel-Aviv and that’s why it takes longer.

The public bus company in Israel is Egged (site below). They offer cheap and efficient service and they have a comprehensive site in which you can find pretty much everything you’d like about traveling by bus in Israel.

If you’re afraid of a terrorist attack while taking the bus: don’t be. Such attacks have been few and far between and central bus stations in Israel cities have airport-like security checks. On top of that, Egged uses armored buses on some routes that go through the West Bank.

Site: egged.co.il/Eng/

4. Getting Around Israel By Sherut

Sherut or a share taxi is another way you can get around Israel. They can be found near bus stations as well as near airports all the time. They leave as soon as they reach full capacity. For example, there are sherut lines from the Ben Gurion airport to Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv at convenient prices. The opposite route is also available as well as various routes connecting different places from all over the country.

This concludes our article on getting around Israel. If you’ve got more information on this topic that could help our readers in any way then don’t hesitate to post it as a comment.

There are several things one might want to avoid in Israel. Here we go.

1. Expensive hotels and accommodation. Well duh! Unfortunately, this isn’t as easy as it sounds as Israel is filled with expensive hotels and few cheap options. To avoid expensive hotels and accommodation in Israel you should take a look at our Cheap Israel Hotels, Cheap Israel Rentals and Cheap Israel Hostels pages for advice.

2. Being an obnoxious wise guy at the airport. In case you’ve got your passport stamped with visas from countries that aren’t very friendly to Israel such as Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Pakistan, etc., you’ll get a more thorough check-up than a normal traveler. Don’t be afraid of that and answer all questions truthfully no matter how silly you might look. If you’re no terrorist then you’ll be just fine.

3. Planning to get back home through Syria or Lebanon. That just can’t be done.

4. Renting a car and using it inside a city. Major Israeli cities, especially Jerusalem, are well known for their traffic congestion issues. That’s why renting a car just to go from place to place inside a city is a no-no. You’d be better off taking public transportation such as taxis and buses that have dedicated lines or just walk around from place to place and enjoy the scenery. You should check out our cheap Israel car rental page for more on renting a car in Israel.

5. Trying to catch a ferry out of the country. Most passenger ferries have ceased to use Israel since the early 2000s. There are still freight ferries that may at times accept human passengers along with their cargo but they charge exorbitant fees, they don’t respect the promised schedule and their ships are usually outdated.

6. Trying to go from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv by train and vice-versa. This should be avoided if one lacks time and is in a hurry. In this case, buses or shared taxis (sheruts) would be better options as you’ll reach your destination much faster. The train is too slow but the scenery between the two cities is amazing by train so one should use it only if time permits.

The same applies if one wants to go from Jerusalem to Haifa and vice-versa by train because you’ll have to go through Tel-Aviv while buses and shared taxis (sheruts) don’t have to.

This concludes our article on what things to avoid in Israel. We do acknowledge that this is not a very comprehensive list and it’s pretty much what went through our head after doing some research so if you’ve got more to add then don’t hesitate to do so by posting a comment.