Susan Weiner

December 28th 2014

My husband and I just got back from the Jewish Heritage tour. It was such a wonderful trip!
Shalom Israel tours are wonderful. Shalom is great to deal with. He answered all my questions very quickly. He must stay up all night answering emails because no matter what time I emailed him, he always replied quickly.

Our tour guide, Eli, was great. He had such energy, was so knowledgeable and has such a love for Israel. He was very caring of all the people on the tour and went out of his way for us. On Friday, after the tour was over, he dropped everyone off at their hotels and then walked back to pick up anyone who wanted to go to the Western Wall for Shabbat. Eli really made the tour for us — we are still talking about him.We chose the Dan Panorama hotels in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Shalom’s recommendation, and they were great.

In Tel Aviv the hotel is in the perfect location, we were able to watch the sunset on the water from our balcony and it was close to everything. In Jerusalem, we could walk anywhere from the hotel. The Hotel Lavi in the kibbutz that everyone stayed in was disappointing. I realize it is a kibbutz, but the hotel is old, the rooms dreary and the food mediocre. Of course, we have great memories of the kibbutz because of Eli the tour guide, who gathered anyone who wanted to join him at 5 am for a walk to see the sunrise –it was beautiful –and a lovely walk seeing all the cows grazing so early in the morning. All in all, definitely book with Shalom Israel, It’s a memorable tour with the nicest, most caring people.