Jerusalem & Dead Sea: Exclusive Private Holy Land Journey

Gil provided the perfect day for us. His expertise was much appreciated, and his tour of the holy city was great. We ended the day with a drive out to the Dead Sea which was a wonderful experience in itself.

Our private tour was from Ashdod to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. This is probably the best private tour we have ever had. Lior was our tour guide and driver. Lior contacted us the evening before the o tour to introduce himself and to find out where were going to be and what we would like to do for our tour. He met us right where the shuttle bus to Gate One dropped us off. Lior was very professional and courteous. He had water bottles in the minivan for us. We started our drive for Ashdod to the Old City (about 1.5 hours). Lior pointed out points in interest on the way there and gave us a history of the area as we passed thru it. We arrived at the Old City and the road to the Jaffa Gate was closed due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and a huge amount to pedestrian traffic in the area. He found a parking garage close by and we walked in from there. First thing I notice was the IDF presence as well as a police presence. We felt completely safe entering and touring the Old City. Both my wife and I are late 50s to late 60s and bad knees and an injured back. Lior went at our pace, he wasn’t in a hurry to get us anywhere. We stopped for breaks and refreshments as needed. We were interested in seeing the Old City from the Jewish perspective. He catered the tour to make sure we saw everything we needed to see to make the tour complete. We stopped for lunch at a local shawarma restaurant. He knew the owner and we got great service. We had a fantastic lunch of Israeli salad, Turkish relish, shawarma, hummus, and Arabic bread. Some of the best food we have had. He showed us some shops that were all merchants that he trusts. Very reputable folks that were selling their wares without any pressure to buy. From the Old City it was off to the Dead Sea to Bob around in the water. You get about chest deep in the water and you can no longer touch the bottom. I felt like I was a bobber on a fishing line. You just can’t go down!!!! You can see Jordan for the beach. We have been in the Dead Sea from the Jordan side looking at Israel. In Jordan the tour stopped at a resort to go swimming, on this tour we went to a pay beach. I have to admit the other side was a nicer experience. I am sure that Lior did not pick the site as it was the one on the tour. I would not hesitate to book with Bein Harim again.

He kept trying to guide us to specific restaurants, uninformative , wasn’t friendly and left us early

I took this tour from Tel Aviv. Overall it was a good tour of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, however, I thought it was quite expensive ($131) for what it was. Our tour guide, Hava, was nice and made the tour entertaining. Two things I didn't like. One, and maybe this is common with all tour companies, is taking us to a particular souvenir shop and making it seem like we are getting a great deal or something by shopping there. It's obvious that there is some sort of kickback that the tour guide or tour company gets from the shop, so it would be better if they were upfront about it instead of trying to hide it. Second issue was the ride back to Tel Aviv. Instead of dropping everyone off at their individual hotels it would have been better to go to a central location in Tel Aviv and drop everyone off there. Otherwise it takes a lot of unnecessary time navigating through traffic, etc...

Great experience! The tour guide Itamar expressed in a sympathetic, friendly and knowledgeable way the history/ stories around Jerusalem. It has been interesting and encouraging to listen to him. Highly recommend to do this trip.

We booked the tour (1 day) and were assigned to Yoav Malach. If you have the chance to work with him, the trip is already set to be excellent. Yoav knows the local surroundings and has a charming & funny way to convey the knowledge. The only small critique was the proposal of the restaurant for lunch, the food there wasn’t really that good. We felt very safe during the tour, esp in the crowded areas. We were briefed several times about the history of different parts of the city and the tour felt very flexible. In summary, apart from the food, very enjoyable and fun experience for us to get a lot of tourist sightseeing done in only one day. Awesome job, Yoav.

With him i visited and learned so much of Jerusalem and Bethlehem....it was all what I hoped for....thank you Shaffer!

Our tour guide was knowledgeable knew the old city like the back of his hand. I expanded my knowledge and learned things I didn't know or had forgotten over the years. I only wish we had more time.

Sara, our guide, was absolutely fantastic. She immediately got a sense of our understanding of history, our predilection for intelligent insights, and the pace in which we wanted to cover Jerusalem. Our tour covered the major touchpoints for the Christian, Jewish and Muslim interests of the city. Of course, there's so much more to see, but it gave us exactly the base in which it allowed us the next day to explore further with confidence and direction.We also visited the Dead Sea... which frankly is more of a tourist trap, but we were glad we did it. The phenomenological experience of floating in such waters is truly singular. Next, as it was our first time in Israel, it was very interesting to pass through the Palestinian Authority on our way to the Dead Sea. Lastly, it was a nice punctuation to a busy day running around Jerusalem to lazily bob around the salty waters.I would highly recommend this tour for first time visitors to Jerusalem. The tour company was punctual, communicative and offered what they advertised.

Our guide, Michael, picked us up at our hotel promptly and spent the day taking us wherever we wanted to go, in a nice oversized comfortable air conditioned van. We saw everything! The private tour is the only way to go with 4 kids (16, 15, 11, & 10). However, all sites visited were ridiculously packed with tourists and overly commercialized. We saw Bethlehem, The Old City, The Dead Sea, the place where Jesus was (supposedly) born and crucified, and all the places that were mentioned in the Bible. But everything has been built over, destroyed, reconstructed, and commercialized. Nothing seemed authentic, and there was so much tourism that it was in no way holy or sacred. Even those at the Wailing Wall were tourists with cameras taking selfies! Our modern society has destroyed what was once a sacred and meaningful place. We were glad to have marked it off our bucket list by would not go back.