Israel by Foot

Ancient trade routes and recreational trails have crisscrossed Israel’s landscape for thousands of years. The extensive history interlaced within the country’s geologic wonders have made Israel a famous destination for outdoor exploration. Now it’s your turn. Israel By Foot is a 10-day Taglit-Birthright Israel trip that takes you on a journey through some of Israel’s most exquisite landscapes. This trip is designed for anyone with a passion for outdoor experiences. Use your feet to explore picturesque mountains, sweeping valleys, awesome deserts, and magnificent coastline. Not only is this trip about breathtaking hikes, but also about 3,000 years of Jewish historical exploration, and forming new cross-cultural friendships.

Negev, Israel's Largest Desert, Is a Gastronomic Oasis

Camping in israel, The biggest news in the Negev is the Isrotel hotel group’s Beresheet, which opened in April on the edge of the Ramon Crater—Israel’s Grand Canyon—about a two–hour drive from Tel Aviv. Something of an Israeli version of the new Aman resorts in Utah and Turkey, the 111-room Beresheet perches on a 12-acre expanse of scorched earth, a series of rustic-chic local-stone bungalows, all smartly appointed and many with their own plunge pools, arranged around a central courtyard, pool, restaurant, and spa. The restaurant proves a garden of Middle Eastern delights; its daily buffet is a cornucopia of chickpea-dotted humus, smokey baba ghanoush, creamy labneh, in-season vegetable salads, fresh breads and more. The spa, meanwhile, Moroccan- tinged in design and with a white-marble Hammam, takes its menu from Isrotel’s beloved Carmel Forest Spa Resort in the country’s north. Service kinks and growing pains aside, there’s no more luxurious place to use as a base for explorations of the region. These explorations can be myriad, and the hotel should be able to help you arrange many of them—from bike, horse, and Jeep rides through the crater, to hot air balloon rides over it, and rappelling routes down its sides. For culinary adventure, there’s Chez Eugene, another recently opened spot, this one a restaurant with six mod suites in a former industrial hanger. Started by a French expat who fell in love with the region and decided to open a European-style auberge, Eugene boasts a chef trained at Copenhagen’s Noma, one of modern gastronomy’s holy grails, who spins out seasonal Mediterranean fare from the desert’s surprising bounty.

In Israel, a camping experience like no other

Camping in Israel - In some ways, Succah in the Desert (an eco-camp in the High Negev Desert south of Beersheva ) was exactly what I had hoped to share with my boyfriend about my childhood. In other ways, I was terribly off-base. The first sign that things were going to be different couldn’t have been more clearly spelt out. We were driving on the older highway toward the desert camp and came across a sign saying “Slow, dust clouds and tanks ahead.” Dust clouds – check, we were in the desert. But tanks? I had never seen them in countries at peace in the Middle East. My boyfriend and I looked at each other baffled. Within five minutes of driving, we started screaming, “Oh my God!” Rolling less than 100 metres away from us was an army tank. The driver was either new at it, or intentionally driving in circles. We had clearly stumbled into a training zone of the Israeli Defence Forces and saw many more troops.