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.