The Israel Travel Podcast

Many visitors to Israel underestimate how seriously shabbat – or the Jewish sabbath – is taken in Israel. John and Whitney go into how site openings, schedules, logistics, and even staffing are all impacted by the observance of shabbat all around Israel, and how you can avoid having your trip disrupted with a little smart and informed planning. For more information, insights, advice, reviews, and recommendations about travel to and around Israel, be sure to check out www.IsraelTravelblog.com. Jetset Media · Planning for Shabbat Episode Transcript Episode transcript text coming shortly…

John and Whitney take a deep dive into the various ways you can structure and map out an ideal itinerary for a trip to Israel based on your specific interests, motivations, and travel habits. They also cover how to avoid unexpected trip interruptions, how to make sure you don’t accidentally miss the top “must-see” sites, and much more. For more information, insights, advice, reviews, and recommendations about travel to and around Israel, be sure to check out www.IsraelTravelblog.com Jetset Media · How to Structure an Itinerary in Israel Episode Transcript Episode transcript text coming shortly…

John and Whitney share and talk through all of the different ways there are to get to Israel by air. They review the various airlines that fly to Israel, discuss routings through airline alliances, talk about when it’s worth it to invest in upgrades, and even spill the beans on the famous “secret flight” to Israel. For more information, insights, advice, reviews, and recommendations about travel to and around Israel, be sure to check out www.IsraelTravelblog.com. Jetset Media · Getting to Israel Episode Transcript Episode transcript text coming shortly…

In this premier episode of The Israel Travel Podcast, co-hosts John and Whitney introduce themselves and then take a deep dive into all of the common misconceptions about travel to Israel, and they discuss which are honest concerns and what’s just overblown hype. For more information, insights, advice, reviews, and recommendations about travel to and around Israel, be sure to check out www.IsraelTravelblog.com. Jetset Media · Misconceptions about Israel Episode Transcript John Navarre 0:11Hi, everybody, and welcome to the new Israel travel podcast, your new source for information, insights, advice, reviews, recommendations, and a whole lot more about travel to and around the wonderful nation of Israel. My name is John, and I’m one of your co hosts for the Israel travel podcast. My other co host is the wonderful Whitney, who will introduce herself in a second. But first, let me tell you a little bit about myself, I actually run a tour operator in the Middle East, my company focuses on Egypt, Egypt elite, and we also have another company in Israel, that Whitney runs with me also called elevation journeys. And so my background is basically in travel media, and travel industry and being a tour operator leading a tour operator in several countries in the Middle East, Egypt, Jordan, Israel. And the things that I like to do as part of the work I do in travel in the Middle East is share basically what’s in my brain share 20 years of experience living and working in the Middle East, with those who are planning travel to and around the Middle East. And so we wanted to start this new podcast, and a new blog, which we’ll tell you about in a few minutes. But we wanted to start this new media property about to travel to Israel, so that Whitney, and I can share everything we know everything we’ve learned everything we come across and see and the things that you don’t even think to think about before a trip to Israel, with you as you plan and think about, and hopefully soon carry out your dream trip of a lifetime to Israel. So I’m actually living in Spain, I live in Europe in the south of Spain. I’m American, as you can probably tell from my accent, my southern accent specifically. I grew up in the South, just like Whitney did. But now I live in Spain, and I work in the Middle East in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, mostly. So with that, let me bring you in. Whitney, can you tell everyone a little bit about your background, where you’re from? And your interest in Israel? In particular, where did that come from? Whitney O’Halek 2:14Yeah, so I’m Whitney Oh, Halleck. And my accent is deeper than yours, because I grew up in Tennessee, but my husband and I are now based in Washington, DC, we’ve both been here quite a while. And I have been a travel blogger since 2006. And kind of my niche, and my travel blog is helping people travel better. So the tips, things to know before you go, figuring out logistics, you know, there’s those things that you don’t really know until you get to a place and I tried to find those things and explain them to people in my blog. And when I went to Israel for the first time, there were just a lot of logistics, there were a lot of things that were you know, had to be done on a certain day, or you couldn’t do on a certain day and figuring out how to get from place to place. And so it was kind of a natural progression to start a tour company in Israel with John because he has the Middle Eastern tour operator background, and I have kind of the logistical outside the box solutions to travel issues and the things that people need to know before they go. So John Navarre 3:21here we are. And let’s just say too, that Whitney and I actually met, because she was a guest of ours in Egypt. And she was a client of our company in Egypt. And her and her husband, Steve come over for an incredible trip around the entire country. And I got to spend some time with both of them while they were there, get to know them. So that’s how Whitney and I got to know each other. And now we’re working together on the elevation journeys in Israel, and also on the travel media properties that we’re developing related to travel to Israel. Good times to come. Yeah, absolutely. And so you’ve probably heard me mentioned a couple times to now travel media properties, plural. In addition to the Israel travel podcast, we also have launched Israel travel blog.com. And we have that that also will be an enormous resource for anyone doing their due diligence, doing their homework, and trying to research travel to and around Israel. Israel is obviously a really well known country. I think pretty much everyone’s heard of it. It’s a bucket list country for most of the planet for many reasons that we’ll get into, of course, but you know, it’s just so hard to find good, reliable, well sourced current info on a country like this when you’re doing your travel planning and your travel research. And so we’re hoping that Israel travel blog.com and the Israel travel podcast will be useful resources for you and for everyone else, and planning travel to Israel and learning more about Israel because, like I said, many people have heard of it. But many people either don’t know much about it, or they think they know stuff about it. That’s completely wrong. And actually, that’s going to be the topic of our first episode here. We really wanted to launch the Israel travel podcast. With an episode about misconceptions about Israel, and so why don’t we just jump into that? I think Whitney has been doing some amazing writing for Israel travel blog.com. And in fact, one of her first articles for the site was sort of the inspiration for this first episode. And so why don’t I just let you Whitney jump into bringing up talking about what I think is what I call the elephant in the room with everybody when it comes to travel to the Middle East? Probably the biggest misconception people have about Israel, what would you say? That is? Whitney O’Halek 5:32I would say people think it is not safe. People think that it’s super dangerous, you’re gonna die if you go there. And none of that is true. Actually, I did, can you believe it. So my first trip to Israel started off solo. And then I met up with John later, and I felt totally comfortable. I mean, I was in an Arabic part of Israel, I was in a Jewish part of Israel, I was in Jerusalem, but it just was safe. I just felt safe. And I’ve traveled to 64 countries now many of them solo. And I’ve felt at least as safe in Israel, as I do anywhere in the world. There are places in DC, that I would not go at night. But I’ve felt totally fine walking around Jerusalem by myself while I was in Israel. And you John Navarre 6:19really did a lot of that to in Israel, when we were there, you branched out a lot on your own, you went out, not only on your own, but also with guides on your own with drivers on your own people you’ve never met before you just talked to on the internet, which no matter what country you go to, even in your own city meeting someone you know, you’ve only talked to on the internet, or going off with a stranger in their car to another city. Whitney O’Halek 6:42When you put it like that, it sounds like my best experiences on trips are either with people I didn’t know before or by myself, or just meeting people on a public bus. Those are the people with the best tips, you know. So I felt totally safe, I felt totally safe going off in a car individually, with a tour guide that I had never met before. Everybody was really communicative, confirming details before we were supposed to meet up and making sure that we knew what time and we knew, you know, reconfirming, the address and everybody that I was dealing with was very flexible. Like if I said, Oh, I think I’d really liked to go over there. They were like, oh, okay, let’s just go do it. You know, everybody, it just felt safe. Because I was with locals, I was with people who knew what they were doing. And actually, one of the things that I appreciate about Israel that I had not really thought of before is that basically everyone’s been in the military. Everybody knows what to do, and then emergency, and you’re not going to find that anywhere else in the world where your tour guide is in the National Guard on the weekends, and knows what to do is really updated on you know, whatever new procedures. So it just, it felt safe from the standpoint of like, nobody’s going to come get me as a like a single woman traveling by myself. But I also felt safe knowing that I was around people who knew what to do in case of an emergency. Like I didn’t have to worry about it, because I didn’t have to know what to do. They knew what to do. So just from the people I encountered, and my personal solo experience being there. I can’t recommend Israel more as a safe destination. John Navarre 8:23Yeah, in a way to be honest. I know, Israel and other countries in the Middle East have this reputation of being dicey of being edgy of being up to an including unsafe sometimes. But the thing people need to really realize about Israel is that, first of all, they know how to do security. They’re the best security in the world. Yes, things happen in that region. Just like back home in the States, we have shootings, we have robberies, we have accidents. Yes, they have incidents that happen there. However, sometimes Israel proper is going to be some of the safest land and space you can be on on the planet, because they are so good at security. Now, of course, you could go out into a dark alley at night in any city, including Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, and maybe you run into who knows a mentally unstable person, and then you get robbed, that can happen anywhere. I’m not talking about the things that can happen anywhere. But I’m talking about the things that are specific to the Middle East and people’s conceptions and misconceptions about this region. Israel is a lot safer than people thi