Princess 2 day Israel excursion?

[phabric]

Has anybody taken this Princess excursion-

 

“Jerusalem, Bethlehem & Galilee Overland”

 

Since there are not many cruises that include Israel, there are not any reviews of this excursion.

[Markanddonna]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

Has anybody taken this Princess excursion-

 

“Jerusalem, Bethlehem & Galilee Overland”

 

Since there are not many cruises that include Israel, there are not any reviews of this excursion.

Is this a two day excursion?  You can do a quick trip to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem in one day and Galilee in the next. I've been to Israel twice, just returned on Monday. Might I recommend you contact Guided Tours Israel to see their excursion?  I have done four with them and have been very pleased. If you are Christian, there is a Christian focus excursion to the Galilee.  I went with Bein Harim on a tour to the Golan Heights  last week which was the world's worst I have ever experience. Avoid them.  

[phabric]

23 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

Is this a two day excursion?  You can do a quick trip to Jerusalem and then Bethlehem in one day and Galilee in the next. I've been to Israel twice, just returned on Monday. Might I recommend you contact Guided Tours Israel to see their excursion?  I have done four with them and have been very pleased. If you are Christian, there is a Christian focus excursion to the Galilee.  I went with Bein Harim on a tour to the Golan Heights  last week which was the world's worst I have ever experience. Avoid them.  

Yes, a 2 day excursion with tours, guides, food, hotel included.

[Markanddonna]

If price isn't a concern, then that might be a nice experience. Are you in both Ashdod and Haifa?  Three years ago, here is what we did with Guided Tours Israel:

Day 1 Jerusalem and Bethlehem

Day 2- Christian Emphasis on the Galilee

Day 3- Akko, Caesarea Maritima, and the Baha'i Gardens

 

Their shore excursions are typically $125 per day.

We stayed seven days in Israel this time and it was DIY to see the other interesting sites. 

[cruisemom42]

The overnight excursions offered by Princess (and other lines) are usually very pricey and in this case, I'd say go with a private tour.  Quite a while back when I cruised with my mom to the Med we did a Princess 2-day overnight in Cairo and that was eye-wateringly expensive and I was only footing half the bill.... 

 

About 10 years later I was on HAL with stops in Haifa and Jerusalem and looked at their 2-day overland trip. Not only was it super expensive, but as a solo I would've paid more for that one excursion than for my entire base cruise price!

 

It has to do with the economics of the hotel pricing. Basically the lines take the full price of the hotel room and charge each passenger -- so for two passengers you are basically paying double the normal booking rate. For a solo (to add insult to injury) they charge you the full price that they would charge two travelers -- so in effect I would be paying the cost for lodging for four people.  Meh, I can pass.

 

So I took the advice of others here and on Trip Advisor and started looking at private operators. Guided Tours Israel (GTI) offer several basic tour versions with smaller groups -- you don't have to arrange the group, just sign up for the itinerary you want. On the plus side, it is relatively inexpensive and very reliable. On the minus side, you have little flexibility and I've heard mixed reviews on the guides -- some are great, some not so great and it's the luck of the draw...

 

I ended up working with another well-reviewed guide, Moti Bar-Tov, as I had some very specific ideas about what I wanted to see in the time allotted. He not only helped me with creating an itinerary (including advising that a hotel was really an unnecessary expense given the way we planned the days, it was just as easy to sleep on the ship), he also found a guide for me that was an expert in my area of interest: the Romans in Israel.  I ended up sharing 1 of the 2 days with another couple, then doing the 2nd day (in Jerusalem) with just the guide. For a fantastic experience, I paid less than half of what I'd have paid for the ship tour....

 

Another note -- that overland private tour generally seems to be late arriving back to the ship. I was back onboard well before the required time, showered and was having a martini when there was an announcement that our departure was delayed due to late arriving ship tours. Several hours later a whole pack of buses showed up. Quite a few of the passengers were pretty cross at how they had been rushed through Jerusalem, their last stop.

 

Hope this is helpful.