Daniel Rubin

June 30th 2011

As we were deciding on a tour, we began contacting various operators.  When we contacted Shalom Stark, we learned not only that he is really in Israel, but that he is originally from Ohio.  Since we were from Ohio, we asked about his Ohio ties.  We were thrilled (Jewish Geography now) that he worked with several Rabbis in Columbus, all of whom we knew quite well.

When I inquired about the tour, he immediately began giving us suggestions based upon our input.  We liked having the opportunity to have someone listen to our objectives and tailor a trip to meet those objectives.  Shalom also routinely contacted us with follow up questions and was readily available to answer any new questions or ideas that we came up with.

We met 24 other Jewish travelers on the tour, all that purchased their tours from their own agents.  Naturally, everyone was given different advise by their own agents and also paid a different tour package fee.   When we got on the bus initially with the entire group of our new friends, we were the only ones to be handed an envelope with another copy of our itinerary, hats and maps for our tour.  None of our fellow travelers were provided with same.

On the last Sunday morning of our time in Israel, Shalom actually met us at our hotel for coffee.  His number one concern was our satisfaction.  He asked what if anything we could suggest he add or change to the tour and about our tour guide.  He spent a good deal of his morning with us.  Amazingly, shortly after returned home, we were sent a blanket e-mail with a couple of new tours for Israel from Shalom Israel Tours.  Our comments and suggestions for changes were IN THE NEW TOURS he was offering.  Talk about listening to clients!