Bus arrived at 7:30AM, took us to a collecting area, we had an excellent guide Amir, very knowledgeable, open minded & ready to answer all types of questions. We stopped on the way to get Coffee, arrived in Jerusalem around 9:00AM .. We had a view of the city from over the mountain. Then went to the Lamentation wall, the Via Dolorosa, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, it was impossible to enter Jesus's tomb because of the long queue. Left to the bus at 12:15PM to go to Bethlehem. There we were guided to a restaurant to have lunch (Costs around 16$) I had my lunch with me, I just took a drink. We went a walking distance to the Church of Nativity, visited inside with another guide Martin. Before leaving Bethlehem we stopped by a gift shop. Then trip back to Tel Aviv, we arrived at around 5:15PM My next visit will be on my own, there is still a thousand of other sites in Jerusalem that you can never see in a guided tour. A new train takes you directly from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

My boyfriend and I joined a group of 40 tourists both national and international to visit and learn all about Jerusalem followed by some down time at the Dead Sea. A few tips for people like myself who haven’t travelled in this area before. Girls wear a skirt or pants or dress covering your knees and take an over shirt or scarf to cover your shoulders and chest. You don’t need to wear the scarf all the time but you cannot enter some of the sites without this attire. Men can wear a long short and shirt but if you’re Aussie we wear short shorts haha so maybe pants and a change of shorts for later. This wasn’t really something we were briefed on which wasn’t a negative but good to know. The insight our guide gave us was amazing, which he explained while exploring three of the Jerusalem quarters. Our guide was very knowledgeable explaining the rich history in a reality lovely way. Lunch was delish and the perfect amount of downtime by the sea afterwards. Highly recommended!

All in all a great tour with a reliable tour guide and a good price-performance ratio. Highlights were of course the sunrise at Masada and Ein Gedi with it's animals and the waterfal. Things to mind: - The climb at Masada is really exhausting. The cable car starts at 8am,, so you have to walk. If your old or not that sporty, it is possible, that you are not in time in Masada for the sunrise. - We don't know why everybody's talking about the dead sea and how wonderful it is. You feel like a dead fish in (too) salty, oily, nearly boiling water. If you make the mistake to put finger in your eyes, you feeling the pains of your life and after 30 minutes lying at the "beach" (more like mud desert) you sweating like hell. You can say, that you were at the lowest point at the earth, maybe that's the experience. But, like I said: The tour was all in all a great adventure!

Guide was not the very best, time given for HOLY CHURCH of sepulchre was too little just 40mins, considering the huge crowds and the importance of this church, the long distances we travel to come n expenditure involved, we certainly wished to see Jesus tomb, in the bargain we got late coming out, and our guide had left us behind, we missed the bus, without a phone we requested a shopkeeper and contacted the company, we were surprised with thr promptness that the company contacted us back and kept a taxi waiting for us and helped us join the bus again. However the tour ended much before time within 8hrs when we were told 11hrs, hence we feel at least 1hour should be given for thr holy church of sepulchre considering the crowds there to worship and waiting in line for Jesus tomb.

The tour starts early but that's understandable since there's a lot of territory to cover. I really enjoyed Jerusalem - a person could spend several days exploring the sights, but for a view of the highlights and historical/religious perspectives like I wanted, this was perfect. Bethlehem felt a little less structured and there was a fair amount of time spent trying to park the coach when I thought we could have been touring. Still, the Church of the Nativity was worth it. Finishing up at the Dead Sea was awesome and there was enough time to enjoy it and relax a little (i.e. get a drink or two) before the journey back to Tel Aviv. Good value.