What's New in Israel
As this edition of Frommer's Israel goes to press, tourism in Israel, Jordan, and Sinai is booming. Hundreds of thousands of travelers who for years have put off vacationing in the region have decided now is the time. Flights and hotels are fully booked, and after years of low tourism, when visitors could freewheel around the area without worrying about finding a rental car or a room, it is again necessary to plan ahead to nail down accommodations, especially your top choices in places where you really want to stay. With rooms at a premium, hotel rates have risen, and even more so for American travelers, already hit by a declining dollar. For years, Israel has held steady as a relatively affordable destination. Now, along with much of Europe, it has moved into a more expensive category.
But the Middle East travel scene is one of the most unpredictable in the world. A slight flare-up of tensions can lead to an unexpected tourism drop and a fall in prices. A major flare-up, and Israel, Jordan, and Sinai can empty of tourists as if by magic: It can take a year for prices, tourist numbers, and room occupancy to rebound.
Despite uncertainties, travelers are drawn to the region not only because of the powerful mystique of the three great Western religions -- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -- but also because of the sheer beauty, variety, and magnificence to be encountered in these countries. After years without much momentum, the tourism infrastructure in Israel, Jordan, and Sinai is revamping and expanding to deal with thousands more visitors.
Planning Your Trip -- Prices may be going up, but Israel has come up with an inexpensive, offbeat network of places to stay and things to do that give independent travelers a chance to have genuine, personal encounters with Israelis and with the land of Israel -- experiences you couldn't get at any price. There's ILH-Israel Hostels (www.hostels-israel.com), a network of 20 unusual, quality-assured independent hostels and guesthouses across Israel, most with interesting, inventive managements that will help direct you to great local experiences. Weekend (www.weekend.co.il) is a website that offers all kinds of treks, nature walks, and activities throughout Israel, with coordinating, reasonably priced accommodations. The new Jesus Trail (www.jesustrail.com) offers a website that explains in detail beautifully planned walks that actually follow the footsteps of Jesus through the modern Galilee countryside, again with coordinating places for dining and lodging on your walking journey. The Israel National Trail (www.israelnationaltrail.com) provides similar, brilliantly planned information for hiking and walking throughout Israel.
Getting There -- Delta Airlines (www.delta.com), which a few years ago began direct service to Tel Aviv from its hub in Atlanta, began direct nonstop service from New York to Tel Aviv in 2008. At the same time, El Al, the national airline of Israel, announced a new cooperation/code-sharing agreement with American Airlines that will allow travelers to reach almost any major city in the U.S. on a single, cheaper ticket. With airline seats to Israel harder to nail down, Air Canada, an underused airline on the North America-Israel route, offering direct flights from Toronto to Tel Aviv, has been busy upgrading its cabins (and its business-class service, which was lagging when I last traveled from Israel on Air Canada in 2005). For travelers from the western half of the U.S., an Air Canada routing to Tel Aviv via Toronto can be an excellent option. For travelers from the U.K., a new choice of bargain, no-frill flights to Israel is in the offing, although scheduled airlines as of press time are opposing these initiatives.
Settling Into Jerusalem -- For decades, Israel's moderate price-range hotels have been generally colorless, generic, and worn, with staffs that find it hard to crack a smile. Now, just in time for the U.S. dollar crunch, the Atlas hotels (www.atlas.co.il), a moderately priced Israeli hotel chain that has always been a cut above the competition, has really taken off. In 2008, Atlas's newly constructed 50-room Harmony Hotel (tel. 02/621-9999) opened its doors on the quaint Yoel Salomon Pedestrian Mall, right in the heart of downtown West Jerusalem. With spanking-new rooms, double-glazed windows, and a happy hour with complimentary wine and snacks each day, it promises a lively alternative to the five-star choices. Also in 2008, Dan Hotels (www.danhotels.com), the largest Israeli hotel chain, normally specializing in more expensive properties, opened its sparkling new Dan Boutique Hotel (tel. 02/568-9999), a moderately priced choice with a rooftop deck overlooking the Old City. In East Jerusalem, the East Jerusalem YMCA has completely reconstructed its formerly institutional in-house hotel into a new midprice-range option, the comfortable and charmingly decorated Legacy Hotel at the East Jerusalem YMCA (tel. 02/627-0800; www.jerusalemlegacy.com). As hotel rooms fill up in West Jerusalem, more travelers for whom an Israeli atmosphere is not important will find themselves turning to places in East Jerusalem, where a number of hotels have been busy redecorating and updating.
Among the best of the new restaurants in the upper-moderate price range, you'll find Rivlin (tel. 02/624-7979), a French/Mediterranean gem, and the eclectic, surprising Chakra (tel. 02/625-2733), on Shlomzion HaMalka Street, a formerly nondescript street that's become lined wall-to-wall with trendy dining spots over the past few years. New kosher dining choices include Eldad Vesayhoo (tel. 02/625-4007), which for years was a nonkosher French-style standout with great luncheon specials, and Eucalyptus (tel. 02/623-2864), with a gourmet menu of traditional home-style Jerusalem recipes. 1868 Café (tel. 02/672-5366) is a new near-gourmet dairy restaurant in a charming South Jerusalem location, serving fine fish, dairy meals, and wonderful desserts.
Exploring Jerusalem -- Much of the Israel Museum (www.imj.org.il) will be closed for renovations through 2009, but some parts of the museum complex will remain open to visitors, and some of the museum's collection will be exhibited at other venues in Jerusalem. Check the museum's website to see what's open and where.
The Temple Mount/Haram Es Sharif in Jerusalem's Old City, containing the magnificent Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque (the third-holiest place of prayer in Islam), is open to visitors for 2 to 3 hours Sunday to Thursday mornings, and often for 1 hour Sunday to Thursday afternoons. For the latest information on visiting hours at this monumental site, check with Tourist Information. Since 2000, tourists have not been permitted to enter the Dome of the Rock or the Al Aqsa, but this situation may change during the time span of this edition.
Warning: The West Bank -- The West Bank, which includes the historic biblical towns of Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, and Nablus (biblical Shechem), is closed to Israeli visitors, and most Western governments have advised their citizens not to visit the area until the political situation improves. As a result, we do not cover the region in this book. Despite warnings, some travelers continue to visit the Church of the Nativity (birthplace of Jesus) in Bethlehem, mainly on organized Christian tours led by guides who are familiar with border crossing and security problems. At press time, the situation in other parts of the West Bank was so chaotic and unpredictable that virtually no tourists risked traveling there. In many cases, foreign insurance policies do not cover people traveling in areas where government travel warnings have been issued.
Tel Aviv -- Here the moderate-range Atlas Hotels (www.atlas.co.il) are really taking off with a series of properties that offer a bit of style and personality as well as helpful staffs. The Art Deco Hotel Cinema at Dizengoff Square (tel. 03/520-7100), built into a long-closed Bauhaus-style movie house, is probably Israel's most enticingly designed midrange hotel. Just next door, Atlas has freshly renovated its Center Hotel (tel. 03/526-6100), with a design theme reflecting Tel Aviv's Bauhaus architecture and a running video about the city's architectural history playing in the lobby. Not only that, but the Center Hotel lends complimentary bicycles to its guests for exploring around town. Atlas's pride, the Melody Hotel (tel. 03/521-5300), across from the beachfront Tel Aviv Hilton, was totally renovated in 2007-08, and now sports designer rooms, a rooftop lounge deck, and the complimentary happy hour that now marks many of the Atlas properties. Atlas will open a new art-themed budget/moderate hotel, the Art Hotel, on Ben-Yehuda Street, a block from the beach, during the time span of this edition, and is busy upgrading its other Tel Aviv properties.
Tel Aviv's restaurant scene continues to offer stellar, world-class choices. The most dazzling new entry into the galaxy of luxury-level eateries is Catit (tel. 03/510-7001), where Chef Meir Adoni has created one of the richest, most lavish menus Israel has ever seen. Goocha (tel. 03/522-2886), a lively place specializing in tasty fish and seafood, wins my vote as the best new moderately priced restaurant, with branches on Dizengoff Street near the hotel district and on Ibn Givrol Street. The most important new development on the Tel Aviv dining scene is the formerly derelict, but now booming, Old Tel Aviv Port, which has become a nightly festival of promenading Tel Avivians exploring restaurants, bars, shops, and bakeries -- many overlooking the sea. New places are constantly opening here, and the vast compound now hosts an interesting Friday flea market that's become a Tel Aviv institution. There are security checks at the entrances to the port area.
The Golden Coast -- The Roman and Crusader ruins of Caesarea are host to an ever-increasing number of fine restaurants overlooking the sea, where you can dine and enjoy the romantic ruins after 6pm, when the park at Caesarea officially closes. There are kosher and nonkosher choices. Helena (tel. 04/610-1018) is the best of the top-notch Caesarea choices: It's an elegant seafood restaurant with fabulous vistas, and has recently installed Amos Sion, one of the best young chefs in Israel, to oversee its kitchen. In Akko, the lovely, midrange boutique Akkotel (tel. 04/987-7100), built into a restored Old City mansion, makes it possible to overnight with style in this picturesque walled city by the sea.
