Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Everything else is a day trip.
What the Masada sunrise run actually costs. Whether the Dead Sea is worth a 6am pick-up. How the Bethlehem crossing works. Which Galilee day covers the most ground. Reviews of every tour you can book in Israel.
Where the days go
Masada, the Old City, the Galilee, Bethlehem.
The four bookings a first Israeli week is built around. What each one costs, how early it leaves, and what the people who took it say.
01The desert dayMasada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick UpUp the fortress by cable car, Ein Gedi below it, then the salt water before the bus turns back. The day out nearly everyone books.
02Two cities, one dayJerusalem and Bethlehem Guided Day TripJerusalem in the morning, Bethlehem after lunch. Passports travel with you and the crossing is part of the itinerary.
03North for the dayGuided Day Trip to Nazareth & Sea of GalileeNazareth, Capernaum and the lake. Four hours of driving each way from the coast, and still the best-value long day in the country.
04The cheap way inGuided Walking Tour of the Old CityThree hours on foot through the four quarters. The lowest-priced way to see the Old City with somebody who knows which gate to use.
Israel runs on day trips. Four of them, and how they differ.
Pick-ups start before six and somebody else does the driving. What separates these four is how far out you go, how much of it is on foot, and whether the day ends in salt water or under a church roof.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up
The Dead Sea dayMasada by cable car, Ein Gedi, then the float.
Jerusalem and BethlehemThe Old City, then across for the Nativity church.
North to the GalileeNazareth, Capernaum and the lake in one long day.
The coast roadRoman Caesarea, the Bahai terraces, the walls at Akko.
Every day out in Israel →
Jerusalem: one square kilometre, and it takes a whole day.
The Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock stand inside the same set of walls, with the Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters packed around them. A guide matters here more than anywhere else in the country — most of what you are looking at is invisible without one.
The days out more travellers take than any other in Israel.
Every tour in Israel →The tours that fill first, what each one costs, and what earns it the slot.
1
Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up
Review of the Masada and Dead Sea tour from Tel Aviv, with cable-car views, ancient ruins, Qumran, practical tips, and honest advice.
From · $117
Read our review →
2
Jerusalem and Bethlehem Guided Day Trip
from $118
3
Masada and the Dead Sea Day Trip from Tel Aviv
from $120
4
Jerusalem, Bethlehem & Dead Sea
from $109
5
Guided Day Trip to Nazareth & Sea of Galilee
from $98
6
Jerusalem Old & New City Bus Tour
from $95
7
Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up
from $111
8
Masada and the Dead Sea Day Trip from Jerusalem
from $111
Tel Aviv is the flat, walkable half of the trip.
A beach, a covered market and a hundred Bauhaus blocks, all crossable on foot. Most people use the city as the bed at the end of a long day somewhere else. A morning here is enough to see why some of them never leave.
What a day out in Israel actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The gap between an Old City walk and a private car with a guide is wider here than most people plan for.
Old City walking tours, market mornings, museum entry and the run in from the airport.
The full-day standards: Masada and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the Galilee run.
Private guides, the two-day crossings into Jordan, and the desert days that start in the dark.
- 1Day Tour to Petra from Eilatfrom $219
- 22-Day Petra Tour from Jerusalemfrom $420
- 32 Day Tour to Petra and Wadi Rum from Tel Avivfrom $399
Three days you cannot have anywhere else.
Beaches and old towns run the length of this coast. A sea you cannot sink in, a cliff-top fortress you climb before sunrise, and a walled city holding three religions do not.
Floating on the Dead Sea
The water is roughly a third mineral, which is why you float on top of it rather than in it. The shore sits about 430 metres below sea level and drops a little further every year. Twenty minutes is the usual limit before the salt starts to sting, so almost every trip pairs the float with Masada or Ein Gedi rather than making a day of it alone.
- 1Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,496 reviews
- 2Masada and the Dead Sea Day Trip from Tel Aviv★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,014 reviews
- 3Jerusalem, Bethlehem & Dead Sea★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 881 reviews
Masada at sunrise
The snake path opens in the dark and takes about an hour on foot; the cable car starts running later. Herod built his palace into the northern cliff in three tiers, and the Roman siege ramp is still banked against the western side. Coaches leave Tel Aviv around three in the morning to put you on the summit for the light.
- 1Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,496 reviews
- 2Masada and the Dead Sea Day Trip from Tel Aviv★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,014 reviews
- 3Masada & Dead Sea Full Day Tour with Pick Up★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 815 reviews
The four quarters
One square kilometre holds the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock, with the Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters wrapped around them. Each of the seven open gates lands you somewhere different, and the gap between a good visit and a confusing one is usually the guide.
- 1Jerusalem Old City & Dead Sea Guided Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 389 reviews
- 2Guided Walking Tour of the Old City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 386 reviews
- 3Best seller! Jerusalem old city four quarters tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 123 reviews
What still runs when the country stops for Shabbat.
From Friday afternoon to Saturday night the buses and trains stop, most of Jerusalem shuts, and a good number of tours simply do not go. Tel Aviv keeps moving, taxis and shared sheruts keep running, and the day trips that do depart on Saturday morning are the ones to book ahead.
Four Israeli bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before from a hotel lobby. These four cannot. They run on border formalities, pre-dawn departures and timetables that answer to somebody else.
- 01Day Tour to Petra from EilatThe Jordan crossing needs your passport and a border fee, and the operator files your details in advance. Same-day booking is not a thing.
- 02Masada Sunrise, Ein Gedi, and Dead Sea TourThe coach leaves the coast around three in the morning to reach the gate for first light. There is one departure, and it does not wait.
- 03Jerusalem and Bethlehem Guided Day TripCrossing into the West Bank means passports on the bus and a checkpoint each way. Operators want the paperwork before the day, not on it.
- 04Ashdod Shore Excursion: Jerusalem and Bethlehem – for cruise ship guests onlyCruise-port days run to the ship’s clock. Ashdod and Haifa excursions are timed to the gangway and there is no later bus back.
By place — the two cities and the country around them
By kind of day — desert, water, old stone or a table
New this week, from Eilat to the Galilee.
The rest of the new ones →
Palm Sunday in Jerusalem: Mass at Bethpage and Via Dolorosa Procession with Transport from Tel Aviv
Read our review →
Jerusalem Running Tour-Experience the unique vibes of Jerusalem in your sneakers
Read our review →
Tel Aviv to Tel Aviv Airport (TLV) – Departure Private Transfer
Read our review →
Hebron & Ramallah Full-Day Guided Tour from Jerusalem
Read our review →
Private Transportation From / To Ben Gurion Airport to Tel Aviv Hotels
Read our review →
Day Tour Cruises Ashdod Port Jerusalem & Dead Sea or Bethlehem
Read our review →