Departure from USA

Arrive in Tel Aviv. Transfer to your hotel in Tel Aviv, dinner and overnight.

View Jaffa (Joppa). The ancient Mediterranean city where St. Peter raised Tabitha from the dead. Drive through the modern city of Tel Aviv to Caesaria Maritimes to explore the theatre and other archeological ruins of this Herodian city port where Comelius, the first Gentle convert to Christianity was baptized by St. Peter.

Continue to Haifa to visit the golden dome of the Bahai shrine, the world center of the Bahai faith. Stop at Akko (Acre), the city with the mosques, minarets, Khans (inns), Ottoman fortresses and an underground Crusader city. Drive to Nazareth, the boyhood town of Jesus to see the Church of the Annunciation. Then continue to Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle by converting the water to wine at a wedding feast. Dinner and overnight at the holiday village of Kibbutz Ma’agan on the shores of the Sea of Galilee

Start the day with driving on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee to the Golan Heights. On the way we visit Kursi where Jesus exorcised the demons out of the Gergersene Demoniac into the pigs. Stop at the observation point of Queneitra to view the Syrian border. Visit Birket Ram. Drive through Mas’ada, one of four Druze villages on the Golan Heights. Drive to Caesaria Phillipi (Banyas) on the foothills of Mt. Hermon where the great confession of Peter took place. Then drive to the beautiful nature reserve of Dan, where an Israelite temple once stood.

Continue to Safed, the ancient center of Jewish mysticism, which now represents the secular in its artists’ quarter and the religious in its numerous synagogues and Jewish study centers.

On the way back, visit the Mt. Of Beatinudes, site of the Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Then visit the church of Tabgha (Heptapegon), site of the miracle of the loaves and the fish. Continue to the church of St. Peter’s Primacy (Mensa Christi), before going to Caperneum to visit the House of St. Peter’s mother in law and the famous Synagogue. End the day with a boat ride in the twilight on the Sea of Galilee. Return to Kibbutz Ma’agan for dinner and overnight.

Start the day by driving through the Poriya Valley to Kafr Kama, one of the Circasian villages in the Holy Land. Drive by Mt. Tabor, the site of the Transfiguration on the way to the Armageddon Valley. Visit Meggido, with its extensive excavations, including Ahab’s stables, a grain silo, and an underground water system. Drive through the Dotan valley.

On the way we view Joseph’s well and the Tell of Dotan. Pass through Samaria. Continue to Nablus (Shechem), one of the two places in the holy Land where the Samaritans still have a small country. Visit Jacob’s Well, the place where Jesus had his conversation with the Samaritan woman. Drive through the valley of Bidan "where the sun goes down" (Joshua 6).

Then continue to Jericho, where we visit the Tell and view the Mt. Of Temptation, traditionally associated with the first and the third temptations of Jesus. Drive through the Roman road of Wadi Quilt where we view St. George’s Monastery, one of the monasteries in the Judean Desert that go back to the Byzantine period. Arrive on the Mount of Olives where we view the sun setting on the majestic holy city of Jerusalem with all its religious shrines. Dinner overnight in Jerusalem.

Start the day with a visit to the holy places on the Mount of Olives, such as the Ascension Chapel, the church of the Pater Noster, then walk down the Palm Sunday Procession route to visit the tear shaped church of the Dominus Flevit with its view of the Golden Gate. Then continue down hill to the Garden of Gethsemani and the church of All Nations.

Drive to Mount Zion along the rim of the Kidron valley where we view the Tomb of Absalom and the City of David, the original site of the city of Jerusalem. Visit the church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, the site of the house of Caiphas the High Preist. Then we continue to visit the Upper Room, the Tomb of King David, and the Dormition Abbey.

Drive along the Hinom valley, pass by the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Elias. Go through the Gilo tunnels to Solomon’s Pools that were built about two thousand years ago and continued to be used all the way till the Ottoman period to provide water to the area of Jerusalem via a network of stone aqueducts that were an engineering marvel. Drive to the Shepherds’ Fields.

Along the way we pass through the Monastery of Caritas and the "hidden gardens". Culminate the day with a visit to the city of Bethlehem, town of King David and Jesus. We start with the Lutheran Nativity Church in Madbaseh Square. Visit a "cave under the house". To get a taste of the local cultural life, we walk through the alleys and market places of the Core City of old Bethlehem to the Church of the Nativity, the site of the birth of Jesus. Dinner and overnight in Jerusalem.

This morning is free to worship at one of the many churches, the Garden Tomb, or to explore Jerusalem on your own. Early afternoon, drive to visit the Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem) via Mt. Herzel, then continue to visit the 1:50 scaled model of Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period. Drive to the Israel Museum and the Shrine of the Book where the Dead Sea Scrolls are on exhibit.

Go back to the Old City of Jerusalem to walk the Way of the Cross, retracing Jesus’ final agonizing steps to the traditional site of his Death and Resurrection, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Dinner and overnight in Jerusalem.

We start the day with a visit to the Western Wall, holiest site for Judaism today. Then we visit the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque, third holiest site for Islam in the world. We stop at Bethany, hometown of Lazarus and his sisters, where we visit the church dedicated to the raising of Lazarus from the dead, in addition to Lazarus’ tomb.

We continue driving through the Judean Desert, passing by the Good Samaritan Inn. We visit Qumran, location of the Essenes, the Jewish sect that produced the famous Dead Sea scrolls. We watch a movie about the life of the Essenes, and visit dwellings of the Essenes, in addition to viewing the caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found in 1947. Proceed further south along the shores of the Dead Sea to the Herodian fortress palace of Massada.

Take the cable car to the top of Massada. Take the cable car to the top of Massada, Herod’s outpost and the last stronghold of the Zealots. End the day at Ein Gedi, with a unique experience of swimming in the mineral rich waters of the Dead Sea. Dinner and overnight in Jerusalem.

Transfer to the airport for departure.

COSTS:

• PP in Double Room - $2400.00
• PP in Triple Room - $2200.00
• Single Supplement - $350.00
• Travel between Dec 12 - Jan 12 - Add $300.00