Stuart Laughton

May 13th 2015

Wendy and I are in our early 60’s, from Burlington, Ontario, Canada. This was our first trip to Israel and Shalom Tours easily exceeded our very high expectations. We want everyone to know that travel in Israel is very safe and that you should feel very, very proud to visit.

We began with a few days in Tel Aviv with tour guide Yaki (large bus), then joined guide Eli Dabi for the remainder of our Classic Israel tour, combining Jewish and Christian heritage sites. Yaki and Eli were superb, with a passion for Israel that made clear that this was more than a job to them.

We got to know Eli very well over the remainder of the tour, and we felt early on that we would be proud to have him as a friend for life (as perhaps we have). My favourite time of the tour wasn’t even scheduled. He asked whether anyone wanted to join him on a pre-dawn hike to see the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee. My photo shows this gorgeous morning, taken from the summit of the historic “Horns of Hattin” (Google it!).
We hope to return to Israel in 8 years to celebrate the country’s 75th anniversary. We’ll be calling Shalom.