Holidays 2018

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Has anyone been to Israel? I'm interested to hear what anyone who has been thinks of it as a tourist destination for an atheist!! The sites look amazing, and it's small and easy to get around so I think it would tick all our boxes but am very interested in people's opinions of being a tourist over there?

Please, before anyone lectures me on the rights and wrongs of such a holiday, I know the politics of the region, I Know there are those who boycott all things Israeli and would never dream of visiting, I get that, but each to their own and all that! :)
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Has anyone been to Israel? I'm interested to hear what anyone who has been thinks of it as a tourist destination for an atheist!! The sites look amazing, and it's small and easy to get around so I think it would tick all our boxes but am very interested in people's opinions of being a tourist over there?

Please, before anyone lectures me on the rights and wrongs of such a holiday, I know the politics of the region, I Know there are those who boycott all things Israeli and would never dream of visiting, I get that, but each to their own and all that! :)
I spent 10 days in Tel Aviv just over two years ago, half of which ended up being days off. I found it a very pleasant place, friendly people at all levels, nice food and a very decent hotel. Beech was nice but I'm not a beechy person and there were plenty of other things to do.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I spent 10 days in Tel Aviv just over two years ago, half of which ended up being days off. I found it a very pleasant place, friendly people at all levels, nice food and a very decent hotel. Beech was nice but I'm not a beechy person and there were plenty of other things to do.

Thanks :)
 

PeterD

ST16 Represent.
I travelled around Tunisia some years back, mostly visiting holy sites. I was and am an atheist but appreciated the beauty and solemnity of it all. I would love to do a similar thing in Israel, I think atheists will always get something or the very least should get something out of visiting holy places, not spiritually, but aesthetically.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I spent 10 days in Tel Aviv just over two years ago, half of which ended up being days off. I found it a very pleasant place, friendly people at all levels, nice food and a very decent hotel. Beech was nice but I'm not a beechy person and there were plenty of other things to do.
Isn't Tel Aviv very different to the rest of Israel?
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
Just to add that IMO it's more of a short break 3-5 days destination, even if you include a trip to Jerusalem and if you are the sort that gets frustrated with airport security you ain't seen nothing until you've caught a flight to or from Israel.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
I travelled around Tunisia some years back, mostly visiting holy sites. I was and am an atheist but appreciated the beauty and solemnity of it all. I would love to do a similar thing in Israel, I think atheists will always get something or the very least should get something out of visiting holy places, not spiritually, but aesthetically.

Yes! This is why we'd like to go, the atmosphere of these sites, the history and the beauty! We won't relate on a spiritual level, but they are still historical places. I think there is also a whole lot more than just biblical history in israel to be honest, not only the 21st century towns and cities, but also there is the Holocaust history :(, and other ancient places to see such as Acra in the north; Negev Desert and Dead Sea look fun too :)
 
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Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
The entire history of 'Western' involvement in Palestine is entirely fascinating.

Baldwin IV, for example, was a leper - he's known as 'The Leper King' not unsurprisingly, and yet despite his infirmity was the King of Jerusalem that almost, almost, unified the 'Frankish' holdings in the Middle East.

It was by no means inevitable that Saladin 'reclaimed' all of the Holy Land, it was as much to do with the internal wranglings of the split states of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli et al vying for their own rights,subject as they were to nominal overlordship of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, that made it possible for a newly unified Muslim diaspora to unite under the figurehead that made the 'reconquest' of Palestine something new - a 'Jihadi' movement exactly equivalent to the 'Crusading' movement that had brought the 'Franks' there in the first place.

Had there been any sort of cohesion of enterprise and solidarity of expected outcome from the First Crusade, backed by a continuum of such enterprise by their sons and grandsons, there would almost certainly be a Kingdom of Jerusalem today - albeit in some quite other form now, but still 'Western' for want of a better term.

That would have made things interesting.
 
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proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
It was an eventful drive from Provence to Monza yesterday with the Mother Of All Storms making the journey with us from Monaco all the way to our destination. The car actually got hit by lightening at one point and I can confirm that an electric car still acts as a Faraday cage. Impressively neither the power unit or any of the instrumentation cut out momentarily as they did in the last car I was driving that was hit by lightening (15 years ago in Hungary). Got to our hotel later than anticipated due to the much slower speeds necessitated by the storms. Mrs p and jr made use of the late opening restaurant. I went straight to bed and crashed out for 10 hours!

A bright and warm morning today though, so not complaining too much.
 

staffordjas

Well-Known Forumite
Off to The Algarve in a few hours time . First ever visit to Portugal (didn't get very far learning the language. After the initial enthusiam kept putting it off until another day.......)
 
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