Gil Travel Group

The Arava or the Arabah stretches for 166km, from the Gulf of Aqaba to the southern shore of the Dead Sea, down to Eilat. With the Negev highlands on the west and Jordan’s Edom Mountains on the east, the Arava Valley is a place of captivating history, landscapes, resourcefulness, and imagination. If you’d like an escorted tour to Israel that is relaxing, entertaining, and educational, then the Arava is your perfect destination. It’s a tourist heaven, where visitors can enjoy ancient archeology, local hospitality, ecotourism, hiking, biking, unique scenery, birdwatching, seeing amazing animals, and a multitude of other activities.

For a very special tour of Israel, visit Tel Aviv’s synagogues. One of the country’s biggest cities is home to numerous synagogues that are reaching out to internationals to join their communities and are often tailored towards English speakers. They take pride in being synagogues for all Jews, across the religious spectrum, bridging the gap between religious and non-religious, many of them being either modern, progressive, and/or egalitarian. These include the Hechal Yehuda Synagogue, the Kehila Synagogue of Ramat Aviv, Havurat Tel Aviv, Kehilat Tiferet Shalom, Goren Shul, and Yakar, as well as the non-profit and the egalitarian communities, such as Minyan Shivyoni or White City Shabbat, which are working to bring people together and hold communal dinners, including vegetarian meals. Let’s check out a few other tourist and olim-friendly synagogues.

Escorted tours of Israel are popular with tourists from all over the world. With daily departures and a myriad of available itineraries, there is a perfect tour for everybody – one that meets both your wishes and budget. However, many tourists are wondering if an escorted tour is really worth it. Is it better to just travel independently and explore the sites alone following your own schedule? Whatever you choose, you’ll certainly have a great time in Israel, but the experiences will certainly be different. Let’s check the advantages and disadvantages of escorted tours, so you can decide if this is the right option for you.

Boskovice is a small town situated just 30km from Brno. It is the most important town of the Moravia Region, one of the main historical regions of the Czech Republic, the other two being Silesia and Bohemia. Boskovice has numerous attractions, including an important historical center, a castle, a château, the Jewish quarter, a museum, many family wineries and a fantastic summer festival. Here are some of the things you can see in this charming town and just some of the reasons to include Boskovice in your tour to Eastern Europe.

Israel is a contemporary art hub that hosts numerous leading and emerging artists and numerous others traveling to and from Israel, exchanging art and culture on a global scale. All these creatives are responding to current political and religious issues through present-day, vibrant, and often experimental artistic practices. Israel takes great pride in its curators, artists, and galleries that you ought to visit while on an escorted tour to Israel. Besides great galleries like Dvir Gallery, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Alon Segev, Sommer Gallery, or Rosenbach Contemporary, here are five other, equally fantastic places we recommend you visit.

Lipót Baumhorn (1860-1932) was a Hungarian architect and one of the greatest figures in the world of the Hungarian synagogue architecture. He was born in Kisbér and graduated from the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, where he studied under Heinrich Freiherr von Ferstel, a vital figure in the late 19th-century Viennese architecture and the designer of the Votive Church. Baumhorn also worked in the office of Ödön Lechner in Budapest, which was another crucial period for the formation of Baumhorn’s recognizable style, as he adopted a part of Lechner’s characteristic style, but instead of the folkloric elements, he followed more standard architectural conventions, using patterns appreciated by various Jewish communities. In 1894, he opened his own office.

Český Krumlov is a perfect place to include in your next escorted tour to Eastern Europe. It’s the second most popular tourist attraction in the Czech Republic, the center of which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a walled city where most of the architecture dates from the 14th through 17th centuries, notably in the Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles. The town has a lot to offer to its guests: magnificent religious sites, excellent galleries and museums, many great restaurants, hiking nearby Mount Klet’, kayaking or boat riding along the River Vltava, etc.

For your escorted tour to Israel, we recommend visiting this gem located in the Upper Galilee. Safed is visited by countless people every year who come for its beautiful sites and spiritual atmosphere. Safed was mentioned in a text as early as the 1st century CE, but not much is known before the Crusader conquest in 1099. The city had been occupied by many different forces, each one merging their culture and architecture with the existing ones, thus creating a magnificently rich and unique place of historical sites, diversity, and a growing art community.

For your next tour to Eastern Europe, we recommend Dubrovnik. The two most popular sites here are probably the City Wall and the cable car, but there’s a myriad of other fascinating places to explore, from medieval palaces and forts to houses of worship and old museums. Let us show you ten of many things waiting for you in this unique city.

If you’re planning to go on one of the brilliant escorted tours to Israel and you’re interested in history, culture, and amazing sights, then the country’s third largest city is the place for you. Haifa is located on the gorgeous slopes of Mount Carmel facing the Mediterranean Sea, offering the most wonderful views imaginable. It’s also a popular multicultural city where harmony and a blend of Arab and Jewish cultures are treasured. Haifa is full of cultural pearls for you to discover, but here are some must-sees for you to start the exploration.