Pharaohs & the Promised Land

[bladette]

Just booked this cruise for end March 2012 combined with a week in a hotel in Cyprus. We are taking my mum with us, and she really wants to do the Jreusalem and Bethlehem trip when we berth in Ashdod. Has anyone done this? Any tips? How long are we on buses for?

[wales4ever]

Excellent trip, especially the Jerusalem part, which we did in June.

 

About an hour or so on the bus, with a fair bit of walking on both parts.

 

Lunch was rubbish and rushed -rushed to get us in the guides friends shop - for longer then we had for lunch!

[sweby]

We did this trip in April, but travelled from Haifa to Jerusalem so we could have the next day at the dead sea from Ashdod. So we travelled a bit longer, but roads were good and coaches comfortable. Trip was excellent,but a full on day. Bethleham was not quite how I imagined it, but so glad we went. The people on our coach all agreed to go into the 'cave'part where Jesus is said to have been born,and the guide was good making sure we secured a place in the queue and didn't waste time. After the Church of the nativity we were rushed by shops to go to the guides preferred 'safe' shop which sold lots of beautiful and very expensive wood carvings. I don't think anyone bought anything, or not much anyway. Then we had lunch, I thought it was very good with lots of choice, perhaps we were lucky, or maybe we were taken somewhere different. Look out for some of the grafitti on the wall as you leave Palestine, definately food for thought.

Jerusalem was something else. Full of interest, lots of walking, but our guide started at the highest point and we walked downhill. We had plenty of time at the church there, but he did rush us past the bazaar on the way down, and put someone at the back to keep us all together and round up stragglers. It would have been nice to stop and buy some tat but nevermind. He did stop to tell us about his Armenien friend and gave us time to shop in his shop, which was a waste of time really, would have preferred to pick up a few cheap souveigners in the bazaar. Anyway, next stop Western Wall, and then Gethsemanie (I am sure I haven't spelt that correctly) anyway a fantastic day. The shop issue just pales into insignificance when you think of all you have seen that day. However we did leave Israel and hadn't bought anything! So in a way the guides are not helping the local economy by not giving more choice. But an absolutely brilliant day, a walk through all the places I've read about in the bible. Hope you enjoy it.

[warrington wanderer]

Just booked this cruise for end March 2012 combined with a week in a hotel in Cyprus. We are taking my mum with us, and she really wants to do the Jreusalem and Bethlehem trip when we berth in Ashdod. Has anyone done this? Any tips? How long are we on buses for?

just booked this today ships tours seem to be 10hr day but have seen some very good reports on independant operator on trip advisor ,we would be willing to join a group if anyone interested

[imajica]

We are going on 4th April and area looking for people to join us on tours in Egypt with Ramses and in Israel with Guided Tours Israel. Both tour operators have great reviews on here and on trip advisor .

[goonersue]

IMAJICA.

 

Make sure you take the traffic into account when you are travelling back.When we did this tour, we had a delay because of the traffic, but as it was a ships tour, they waited for us!

[eltoe]

Hi Sweby and all,

Looking to book Pharaohs & Promise Land for April. Have been told because some of the ports are working ports its not possible to do your own sight seeing, is this so ,as we like to see things at our own pace. can anyone advice. How does The Spirit compere to The Destiny (which by the way we loved )?

[warrington wanderer]

Just booked this cruise for end March 2012 combined with a week in a hotel in Cyprus. We are taking my mum with us, and she really wants to do the Jreusalem and Bethlehem trip when we berth in Ashdod. Has anyone done this? Any tips? How long are we on buses for?

have been looking into private tour 115usdollar if min 8 max 14 9hrs but can avoid 2hr lunch break and visit to someones shop