DAY ONE: Tuesday, June 12, 2012
DEPARTURE

• 12:10 p.m.  Depart Fort Lauderdale on Delta flight #202 arriving JFK Airport at 3:15pm.
• Depart JFK Airport on Delta flight #268 at 8:30pm arriving Tel Aviv the following day.

Overnight: Flight

• 2:15 p.m. Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport.
• Welcome by our representative and assistance with arrival formalities.
• Group transfer to Jerusalem (for the participants on the group flight).
• Check into the hotel.
• Meet in the hotel lobby.
• Overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, stop to recite the traditional “shehechiyanu” blessing.
• Enjoy dinner on your own in Jerusalem, choosing from a wide array of restaurants.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem

• A concluding Memorial Service at Yad Vashem. 
• Experience the sites, smells, and tastes of Jerusalem while walking through the Machaneh Yehuda Market, with lunch on your own.
• Return to the hotel; afternoon at leisure.
• Stroll through the Ben Yehuda and Nachalat Shiva Pedestrian Mall, joining the many Israelis out on the town.
• Dinner on your own.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem
 

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Guided visit through the City of David's new excavations, which have redefined the origins of Jerusalem; and wade through the 2,700-year-old Hezekiah's Water Tunnel in the Kidron Valley. There is a dry exit for non-waders.
• Walking tour through the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, for guided visits to some of the sites excavated over the past 40 years, including:
• The Jerusalem Archaeological Park, including a visit to the Davidson Center and the Southern Wall Excavations.
• The Kotel (Western Wall).
•  The Cardo, a Byzantine street that is now the oldest shopping arcade in the world.
• The Hurva Square, the central square of the Jewish Quarter.
• Walk through the famous Jerusalem Arab Shuk (Market), with lunch on your own.
• Return to the hotel to prepare for Shabbat.
• Depart Jerusalem for Kabbalat Shabbat Service at the Birkat Shalom Synagogue at Kibbutz Gezer with Rabbi Miri Gold followed by a Home Hospitality Shabbat Dinner with local congregants.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Optional Shabbat Morning Services at local synagogues.
• Shabbat lunch on your own.
• Visit the renewed, world-class Israel Museum, with its wide and eclectic collections of Jewish Art and Life, Archaeology and Fine Art (from Renaissance to contemporary Israeli). Special “don't miss” exhibits include the Dead Sea Scrolls (housed in the Shrine of the Book) and the enormous open-air scale model of Second Temple-period Jerusalem.
• Return to the hotel.
• Bein Kodesh Lechol - Havdallah overlooking the Old City.
• Free time in the Mamilla Pedestrian Arcade, a new and contemporary shopping area, located outside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City.
• The Night Spectacular at the Tower of David Museum - The walls of the Citadel serve as a stage for a night-time show which is a celebration of sight and sound, depicting the story of Jerusalem.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem
 

• Early breakfast at the hotel.
• Descend to the Dead Sea Basin.
• Short ride through the desert in Biblical style (on camels) at Eretz Bereishit - Genesis Land.
• Take the cable-car up Masada, Herod's mountain palace and site of the Jewish Zealots' last stand against the Roman Legionnaires.  Discuss Masada's role as a symbol of Jewish defence and its current significance in modern Israel.
• Lunch on your own.
• Short hike to the fresh waterfalls of Nahal David in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, a lush oasis overlooking the Dead Sea.
• Bathe in the relaxing and healthy sulphur springs at Mineral Beach and float in the Dead Sea.
• Return to Jerusalem.
• Dinner on your own and evening at leisure.

Overnight: David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem

• Early breakfast at the hotel.
• B'nai Mitzvah Ceremony at Robinson's Arch and the Southern Wall Excavations.
• Return to the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel and depart Jerusalem.
• Take part in an active archaeological dig at the Beit Guvrin Caves. Prepare to get your hands dirty as you uncover pottery from the Hellenistic period, 2,300 years ago, and crawl (optional!) through the Maresha Cave Labyrinth.
• Lunch on your own en route.
• Drive north along the Trans-Israel Highway for a close up view of the ‘Security Barrier' along the seam zone between Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
• Drive through the Lower and Upper Galilee to your Kibbutz hotel.
• Check into the hotel; evening at leisure to enjoy the hotel's facilities.
• Dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: Nof Ginosar Hotel, Sea of Galilee
 

• From a former Israeli outpost on the top of Mt. Bental, look into the abandoned Syrian town of Kuneitra for an appreciation of the challenges Israel faced in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and its present security situation on the Golan Heights.
• Dinner at the Charolais Restaurant situated at the foot of the Golan Heights, with invited IDF Soldiers serving on the Lebanese and Syrian borders.
• Return to the hotel.

Overnight: Nof Ginosar Hotel, Sea of Galilee

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Walk along the top of Mount Meron, the highest mountain in the Galilee, a longtime beacon for Jewish mystics. The beautiful nature reserve towers over the city of Safed and the ancient grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.
• Explore Safed, a center of Jewish mysticism for hundreds of years, and a contemporary artists' colony, including:
• Guided visits to the Ari, Caro or Abuhav Synagogues with their great stories and mystical messages.
• A stroll through the quaint Art Galleries and shop in the artists' colony.
• A visit to the Safed Candle Factory.
• Lunch on your own.
• A dialogue with an Artist, inspired by Kabbalistic messages.
• Enjoy Rafting or Kayaking on the Jordan River.
• Return to the hotel.
• Dinner at the hotel.
• Where Is My Kibbutz Going? Dialogue with a kibbutz member on the ever-changing nature of kibbutz life today.

Overnight: Nof Ginosar Hotel, Sea of Galilee

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Check out of the hotel.
• Visit the Hula Lake (Agamon HaHula) for bike riding, nature walks and bird watching.
• Drive through the Upper and Lower Galilee towards the Carmel Mountain Range.
• Visit a Druze village in the Carmel Mountains for a window into the unique world of the Israeli Druze community, with home hospitality lunch. 
• Guided visit to Caesarea, one of the Land of Israel's most important cities during the Roman Period; visit the Herodian theater and new excavations along the Mediterranean shore, concluding with a visit to the 900-year-old Crusader city built on the same site.
• Continue south along the Mediterranean Coast to Tel Aviv and check into the hotel.
• Enjoy dinner on your own in one of cosmopolitan Tel Aviv's many great restaurants, from the Tel Aviv Port to Jaffa, and downtown Tel Aviv.

Overnight: Carlton Hotel, Tel Aviv

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• At Beit Hapalmach, follow the story of the extraordinary members of the Palmach, Israel's pre-state elite fighting force, through a state-of-the-art multimedia experience.
• Visit Rabin Square, in the heart of Tel Aviv, where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated (November 1995) and pause in remembrance at the small memorial.
• Visit to Independence Hall, site of David Ben Gurion's monumental proclamation of the State of Israel in May 1948.
• Lunch on your own.
• Visit the Nachalat Binyamin pedestrian mall, with its restored buildings and sidewalk artists, and continue onto the colorful Carmel Market and then to Shenkin, one of Israel's most avant-garde streets.
• Return to the hotel to prepare for Shabbat.
• Kabbalat Shabbat Service at Kehillat Yozma in Modi'in led by Rabbi Kinneret Shirion and Rabbi Nir Barkin.
• Return to Tel Aviv and to the hotel for festive Shabbat dinner with a private room.

Overnight: Carlton Hotel, Tel Aviv

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Optional Shabbat Morning Services.
• Shabbat in Tel Aviv with optional visits on own:
• Take in the grand art collection at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
• Meander through the Old City of Jaffa.
• Explore the newly gentrified Neve Zedek Neighborhood
• Visit some of Tel Aviv's legendary Art Galleries
• Enjoy the Ganei Yehoshua Park on the Yarkon River
• Crash the waves of the Mediterranean Sea
• The Tachana, Tel Aviv's newly renovated old train station, now a center of music, good food and one of Tel Aviv's blooming hot spots
• Walk or bike the Blue Route in Tel Aviv, representing Tel Aviv-Yafo's beautiful coastline and the city's Mediterranean atmosphere, from the Yafo Ridge in the south to the Tel Aviv Port in the north
• Walk or bike the Green Route in Tel Aviv, passing through Ganei Yehoshua along the Yarkon River
• Guided walk with a local city guide through Tel Aviv's magnificent Bauhaus architectural area, known as the ‘White City' and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Walk through the trendy Tel Aviv Port.
• Late check out.
•  Festive farewell dinner at Kimmel Restaurant, which offers a delicious, eclectic taster's menu.
• 8:15 p.m. Transfer to Ben Gurion International Airport for the departure flight to the U.S.A.

Overnight: Flight

• 12:40 a.m. Departure flight to the U.S.A on Delta flight #269, arriving JFK airport at 5:25am. Depart JFK on Delta flight #1271 at 8:25am arriving Fort Lauderdale