Have enjoyed reading your posts and all the information you share on these boards. We are going on a Regent cruise in September, spending 1 day in Haifa and 2 days in Ashdod. Regent offers free excursions and I picked my excursions the other day. Today I looked online and the excursion that I picked for Haifa is no longer listed and that excursion I picked is apparently no longer offered. I will be calling Regent tomorrow to find out why. In the meantime, I was very excited about the excursion which included a visit to Safed, a stop to a Kibbutz for lunch and Golan Heights. The excursions I picked for Ashdod are (1) Jerusalem and (2) Tel Aviv. There are various Jerusalem excursions and we picked the one that is more Jewish oriented as we are Jewish. So, this leaves me with my questions about Haifa. The remaining choices for excursions are Jerusalem (we are already going from Ashdod) and then there's one called "Herod's Dream, Caesarea Maritime" and another called "Acre and the Crusader's Kingdom". My question is, should I skip the excursions offered by Regent and book an independent tour to Safed and the northern part of Israel, OR should I pick Caesarea or Acre? I have been to Israel before (my husband has not), but it has been many, many years. There is not enough time in 3 days to see everything, but I am hoping my husband gets enough of a taste so we will plan another trip to Israel giving us more time to visit Massada, the Dead Sea, (I have been to both before) and some of the other amazing places. Another question I have is that we will be visiting Israel after Rosh Hashanah and before Yom Kippur. In fact, I just realized that we will be in Haifa on September 11, a Saturday. Perhaps that is why they cancelled the tour, being Shabbat. Will it be difficult to find an independent tour to Safed on that day due to it being Shabbat? Will everything be closed? We will be in Ashdod on Sunday, September 12 (that's when we are going to Jerusalem), and on Monday, September 13 (that's when we are going to Tel Aviv). Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.
Cruise Critic member in Israel, happy to answer questions
in Africa & Middle East
Posted
Ruth,
Have enjoyed reading your posts and all the information you share on these boards. We are going on a Regent cruise in September, spending 1 day in Haifa and 2 days in Ashdod. Regent offers free excursions and I picked my excursions the other day. Today I looked online and the excursion that I picked for Haifa is no longer listed and that excursion I picked is apparently no longer offered. I will be calling Regent tomorrow to find out why. In the meantime, I was very excited about the excursion which included a visit to Safed, a stop to a Kibbutz for lunch and Golan Heights. The excursions I picked for Ashdod are (1) Jerusalem and (2) Tel Aviv. There are various Jerusalem excursions and we picked the one that is more Jewish oriented as we are Jewish. So, this leaves me with my questions about Haifa. The remaining choices for excursions are Jerusalem (we are already going from Ashdod) and then there's one called "Herod's Dream, Caesarea Maritime" and another called "Acre and the Crusader's Kingdom". My question is, should I skip the excursions offered by Regent and book an independent tour to Safed and the northern part of Israel, OR should I pick Caesarea or Acre? I have been to Israel before (my husband has not), but it has been many, many years. There is not enough time in 3 days to see everything, but I am hoping my husband gets enough of a taste so we will plan another trip to Israel giving us more time to visit Massada, the Dead Sea, (I have been to both before) and some of the other amazing places. Another question I have is that we will be visiting Israel after Rosh Hashanah and before Yom Kippur. In fact, I just realized that we will be in Haifa on September 11, a Saturday. Perhaps that is why they cancelled the tour, being Shabbat. Will it be difficult to find an independent tour to Safed on that day due to it being Shabbat? Will everything be closed? We will be in Ashdod on Sunday, September 12 (that's when we are going to Jerusalem), and on Monday, September 13 (that's when we are going to Tel Aviv). Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.
Thank you!