Israel 2006, are you crazy? Yes, standard question asked upon telling people we’re going to Israel in November. Are we crazy, I don’t think so but then again I guess everyone has their own definitions of crazy.
Why Israel? Because daughter, Becky, became a Bat Mitzvah this year. We gave her a choice, large wasteful party or trip. She chose trip and because surprisingly I’ve raised a good Jew, she chose Israel. Can’t lie, I’m 100% behind her decision.
Since we leave in three short weeks, and I haven’t blogged in a while, I’m just going to give you a quick catch-up on our plan.
We’re not paying for airfare; Chris cashed in frequent flyer miles and after much back and forth with Continental (perhaps fodder for another entry), we’re flying Newark – Atlanta – Tel Aviv and reversing it for the trip home.
We’re barely paying for hotels; Chris also cashed in miles but because of miles we’re limited on hotel choice.
In Jerusalem, we’re staying at the Renaissance Jerusalem Hotel. We had enough miles for two rooms, four nights, I believe and ended up spending about $240 to purchase miles for the fifth night of our stay.
After Jerusalem, we’re heading to a kibbutz in the Galilee, Hagoshrim. If you visit the site, beware the music. We’ll spend two nights here. No miles for this stay, and don’t ask me how much per night b/c I do not know; it’s part of our package.
Package, you ask? Yeah – more on that later.
Finally, after the kibbutz, we’re heading down to Tel Aviv for our last three nights at the Tel Aviv Hilton. We cashed in miles for two rooms, three nights. We’ll have almost a full day our last day, as our flight back to the states does not depart until 11:30 from Tel Aviv.
One thing we did learn from doing our hotel bookings, these “American” properties, like in in Europe do not have quad rooms. Can’t speak to whether or not it’s that way throughout the country.
Okay – so that’s the skeleton. I’ll get more of the details later.
