Greece, Israel, Italy and Turkey are the big ones that raise eyebrows when I cop to not having visited (excepting airport connections). With some unexpected time freed up this weekend I am Israel-bound, thanks to a last-minute $521 fare on Aeroflot with good flight and connection times. I used 39k Citi ThankYou Points.
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If all goes well this will be my 149th UN country and 225th Travelers Century Club Country. No way to avoid history or geopolitics on such a trip and I don’t want to. I want to see for myself the land so central to world history and current events. Palestine will be my 226th Travelers Century Club Country. Rick Steves Travel as a Political Act reflects my view of travel and is a good primer.
I will have 2.5 full days. Not enough, you shout. I will do my best. I will see the core religious sites, am looking at a trip up to Haifa and/or down to Masada, and want to head deeper into the West Bank. Hard to narrow the choices when nearly every point on the map, has a ‘that sounds familiar,’ ring. It sounds like the situation in Gaza is not suited to a short there and back trip. Dead Sea is the one typical highlight I may skip.
I will be renting a car, hopefully can find one that allows entry to the West Bank. I have gotten letters of insurance for 3 different credit cards (Chase Hyatt Visa for its raised numbers, Chase United MileagePlus Explorer for another Visa, and Citi Premier MasterCard, my preferred for 3x). I am determined to not pay CDW!
I haven’t yet picked where I will sleep for the nights. The chain hotels look poor value for a traveler who will hardly be in the room and are clustered in Tel Aviv. I will be looking for smaller places along my route.
Readers, this is a land many of you know intimately, what are your suggestions and tips?
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