The tour includes – Jerusalem: Old City Tour; Mount Zion; Tomb of King David; The room of the last supper; Nazareth – The Church of the Annunciation; Caesarea – Ancient Roman Port; Golan Heights; Sea of Galilee; Jordan Valley; Haifa; Tel Aviv and Istanbul; and more. Pictured here, the Via Dolorosa.
The Hebron, CT Lions Club invites you to ISRAEL + ISTANBUL, a 12-day escorted tour from March 6-17, 2013.
The cost of the trip is $2,459 including air travel to and from JFK Airport.
The tour includes –
Jerusalem: Old City Tour; Mount Zion; Tomb of King David; The room of the last supper; Nazareth – The Church of the Annunciation; Caesarea – Ancient Roman Port; Golan Heights; Sea of Galilee; Jordan Valley; Haifa; Tel Aviv and Istanbul; and more.
The $2,459 includes the round-trip flights from JFK
eight nights First Class and Superior Tourist class hotel accommodations (Israel),
two nights Istanbul;
four nights Prima Royale Hotel, Jerusalem;
two nights Rimonim Mineral Tiberias, Tiberia;
two nights Tal Hotel, Tel Aviv,
two nights at Hotel: Innova Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey.
The fee also includes all group transfers; 11 meals (12 breakfasts, one dinner); sightseeing in modern, air-conditioned motor coaches; and the services of English-speaking tour managers per itinerary.
What’s not included are the following costs: airline taxes, $280; insurance, $159 (required); Single supplement, $630; Turkish Visa, $20 (paid upon arrival); optional tours; and gratuities.
All personal expenses are also your responsibility. And beverages are not included with the Tuesday dinner on March 12.
Transportation is available from Hebron, CT to/from JFK.
Questions? Contact Hebron Lions member Dr. William Levy, who will accompany the trip, at 860-647 -1195.
For reservations, call Doug Payette at The Travel Companion (44 Groveway, Clinton, CT 06413) at 860-399-7776 Doug Payette. The fee is $509 to hold your space, which includes both your insurance and deposit.
Here’s more about the trip:
MARCH 6 (Wed.) Depart USA, flights include meals, drinks and in-flight entertainment.
MARCH 7 (Thur.) Arrive in Tel Aviv and transfer to Jerusalem and your hotel. In the evening, a welcome briefing at your hotel. (Optional: dinner 1 of 5 Day Dinner Value Package – $119. Your hotels provide an economical way to stick to your budget, enjoy dependable local cuisine, without incurring any travel cost. Meals are based on the hotel’s buffet or four-course set menu. Beverages are not included.) Overnight: Jerusalem
MARCH 8 (Fri.) A half-day tour of Jerusalem’s Old City. Walk along the Via Dolorosa and visit some of the Stations of the Cross en route to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Pass through the local bazaars en route to Mount Zion. Visit the Room of the Last Supper and the Tomb of King David. (Optional: dinner 2 of 5 Day Dinner Value Package).
You also have the option of a half-day in Bethlehem, 2 p.m., $33… a half-day tour featuring the Church of the Nativity. A shopping stop for local souvenirs and olive-wood handicrafts is included. Please note that Bethlehem is located six miles south of Jerusalem in the West Bank and governed by the Palestinian National Authority. Overnight: Jerusalem. Meals: Breakfast.
MARCH 9 (Sat.) – Day at leisure in Jerusalem. Enjoy the day at leisure in this fascinating city. Stroll the pedestrian Ben Yehuda Street with its many shops and cafés and restaurants or visit one of the city’s many museums. (Optional: Dinner 3 of 5 Day Dinner Value Package.) You also have the optin of Full Day Masada and Dead Sea, $94. Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A towering desert mesa via cable car to visit the excavations of the fortress of King Herod and the last stronghold of the Zealots against the Romans. Here you will be able to see the synagogue and storehouses, painstakingly restored by archaeologists. Descend the mount via cable car. Next, visit the Museum of Masada, the Story of Masada. Continue your tour via Ein Gedi and the Judean Desert to the Dead Sea, more than 1,200 feet below sea level. While at this natural wonder, enjoy the opportunity to float in the water or cover yourself in the mineral-rich mud. Return to your hotel. Overnight: Jerusalem. Meals: Breakfast.
MARCH 10 (Sun.) Day at leisure in Jerusalem. Enjoy a full day at leisure in Jerusalem. You also have the option of Half Day Jerusalem Old City – Jewish Quarter (morning)/Half Day Jerusalem New City, $54.
In the first half of the tour… drive past the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament to visit the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed on a rotating platform. View the model of Jerusalem during Second Temple period. En route to Yad Vashem, pass by the Israeli Supreme Court Building. Explore the new facilities of Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust.
In the second half of the tour… Half Day Jerusalem Old City Jewish Quarter (p.m.), $50. Begin the Old City tour, entering through Zion Gate, where provisions for the Jewish Quarter were smuggled through during the War of Independence. Walk to the Cardo, the ancient Roman Street which was the main shopping area during the Roman and Byzantine Periods. Visit the Jewish Quarter and the four Sephardic Synagogues from the 16th Century, restored after the 1967 war. Visit Davidson Center and tour the southern wall excavation.
Another option, Illuminated Jerusalem, with dinner, $61. Jerusalem at night shows off her splendor. Drive by the walls of the Old City and various other monuments to see the city in a new light. Continue to a local restaurant for dinner. Overnight: Jerusalem. – Meals: Breakfast.
MARCH 11 (Mon.) Beit Shean and Capernaum Sightseeing. Depart Jerusalem, driving via the Jordan Valley to Beit Shean, a city mentioned in the Bible, later a Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine city which was destroyed by an earthquake in 749 AD. Continue north following the Jordan River to Yardenit. Drive around the Sea of Galilee with views of Tiberias, to Capernaum. Overnight: Tiberias. Meals: Breakfast and dinner.
MARCH 12 (Tue.) Day at leisure in Tiberias. Enjoy a full day at leisure in Tiberias. With the evening at leisure, we suggest a visit to a local diamond factory (Optional: Dinner 4 of 5 Day Dinner Value Package).
Another option, Full Day Golan Heights Tour with lunch, $94. To Safed, a holy city and the center of the mystical Kabbala. Stroll through the artists’ colony and visit an ancient synagogue. Proceed to Golan Heights stopping at Mitzphe Gadot for a tour and lunch at Kibbutz Gadot. Continue to Har Ben Tal, site of a former Israeli bunker. Next visit a kosher winery in Katzrin, the largest town in the Golan Heights. – Overnight: Tiberias. Meals: breakfast.
MARCH 13 (Wed.) Nazareth, Haifa and Ceasarea sightseeing. Drive south through the Galilean hills to Nazareth, home of the Church of the Annunciation. Continue to Haifa, via Bahai Gardens. Proceed to the Mediterranean coast and visit Caesarea. Tour the remains of the Roman and Crusader – ancient history comes to life with the multi-media presentation. Drive south along the coastal highway to Tel Aviv.
Another option, Panoramic Night Tour of Tel Aviv with dinner, $61. This evening you will see the highlights of Tel Aviv, a vibrant city renowned for its chic, cosmopolitan character. Drive down Ibn Givrol Street, one of Tel Aviv’s main streets with shops and restaurants. Pass Yitzhak Rabin Square with its memorial to the late Israeli Prime Minister. Continue past the Mann Auditorium and Habima, Israel’s National Theatre, and down the tree-lined Rothschild Avenue which boasts a large selection of Bauhaus Architecture style from the 1930s and 1940s. Continue toward the Mediterranean Sea and then south to Jaffa for dinner in a local restaurant. – Overnight: Tel Aviv. Meals:breakfast.
MARCH 14 (Thur.) Day of leisure in Tel Aviv. Enjoy a full day at leisure in Tel Aviv. Stroll along Dizengoff Street and have coffee in one of the many sidewalk cafes. Or visit the open-air arts and crafts market in the pedestrian streets of Nahalat Binyamin. (Optional: Last Dinner of 5 Day Dinner Value Package).
Another option, Half Day Tel Aviv (morning) – $43. Morning tour of Tel Aviv begins along Ben Gurion Boulevard, named for Israel first Prime Minister and where David Ben Gurion’s House remains as it was as a permanent exhibition, to the Tel Aviv waterfront on the Mediterranean to ancient Jaffa. Proceed to Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood of Tel Aviv style. Stroll through the narrow lanes and winding streets. Overnight: Tel Aviv. Meals: breakfast
MARCH 15 (Fri.) Morning. TEL AVIV to ISTANBUL departure flight. The remainder of your day is at leisure Overnight: Istanbul. Meals: breakfast.
MARCH 16 (Sat.) Istanbul City Tour (Topkapi Palace & Grand Bazaar), the famous Underground Cistern (remember the James Bond movie From Russia with Love?); The Topkapi Palace, residence of Ottoman Sultan’s, housing the richness of 700 years. Finally, the Grand Bazaar , world-famous shopping center where you will have the opportunity to shop for carpets, jewelry, leather, etc. Overnight: Istanbul. Meals: breakfast.
MARCH 17 (Sat.) Transfer to the Istanbul airport for your departure flight to JFK. Meals: breakfast.
Posted December 4, 2012
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