Day 1

flight to Tel Aviv

 

Day 2

Arrival Caesarea, Nazareth

Drive to Caesarea - built by Herod the Great in the style of a Roman city and capital of the Roman province. Visit its theatre, Herod’s palace, Crusader ruins and the Harbour from which St. Paul was taken to Rome.

Continue to Nazareth for dinner and overnight.

 

Day 3

Nazareth, Megiddo, Carmel, Akko.

AM: Start the morning with a visit to Nazareth, visit Mary’s well and the Basilica of the Annunciation.

Drive to Megiddo. Located in the Jezreel valley Megiddo was once one of the most important cities of King Solomon’s realm, and is now the symbol for the battle to end all wars.

PM: Mt Carmel, Muhrakah, Stella Maris. Continue to Akko on the Mediterranean coast, the capital of the second Crusader kingdom, see its harbour and visit the Crusader knights’ halls then walk in the underground tunnel.

Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight.

 

Day 4

Mt Tabor, Jordan River, Sea of Galilee, Tabgha, Capernaum, Mt beatitudes.

 

Drive to Mt Tabor to visit the Church of the Transfiguration. Continue to the Jordan River and the baptismal site. Take the boat across the Sea of Galilee. Proceed to Tabgha to visit the Church of the Multiplication of the loaves and the fish and by the shore visit the church of Menza Christi known as Peter's Primacy. Then drive to Capernaum, known as Jesus’ town where Jesus performed many miracles of healing. Proceed to the Mt of Beatitudes where the Sermon on the Mount is remembered. Drive back via Tiberius to Nazareth for dinner and overnight.

 

 

DAY 5

Mt Hermon, Caesarea Philippi, Cana.

 

Berchat Ram, Nimrod’s Castle. Caesarea Philippi, known today as Banias is where Peter confessed to Jesus that he is the Christ. See a Roman temple and the sources of the Jordan River. Visit Bir’am on the Lebanese border.

Drive back to Cana to visit the Church of the Wedding where Jesus performed his first miracle, then to Nazareth for dinner and overnight.

 

DAY 6

Sephoris

 

AM: Visit Sephoris, built during the childhood of Jesus.

See the Byzantine church, the Roman Villa and the Synagogue

PM: Free

Overnight Hotel

 

DAY 7

Ein Harod, Jericho, Bethany, Jerusalem.

 

Drive to Ein Harod the spring at Mt Gilboa where Gideon chose his men. Drive through Bet-Shean where the Philistines exhibited the body of King Saul, carry on via the Jordan valley to Jericho the oldest and the lowest city on earth, visit the Tel and Elisha’s spring and view the Mt of Temptation.

PM: Qumran, swim in the Dead Sea. Drive up to Jerusalem/ Bethlehem via the old Roman Road and Bethany, dinner and overnight.

 

 

DAY 8

Bethlehem, Shepherds fields, the Second Temple model, Mt Zion.

Drive to Bethlehem and visit the Church of Nativity built above the grotto where Jesus was born then see the cave of the Holy Innocents and the grotto where St Jerome translated the Bible from Greek to Latin. Continue to Shepherds’ field, visit the church built over one of the caves of the shepherds.

PM. . Drive back to Jerusalem and see the model of the second temple. Proceed to Mount Zion to the upper room and King David’s tomb. Visit the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, built over the palace of the high priest Caiaphas. Back to hotel for dinner and overnight.

 

DAY 9

Old city of Jerusalem: Via Dolorosa, Wailing Wall, Temple Mount, St Anne's church.

 

Start the Via Dolorosa from the Antonia Fortress passing the Stations of the Cross, come to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Continue to the Jewish Quarter. See the Cardo Maximus then to the Wailing (or the Western) Wall, continue to the Temple Mount and see the Dome of the Rock and El-Aksa Mosque. On to the pools of Bethesda where Jesus healed the cripple man and visit the Church of St Anne, the traditional birth place of Jesus’ mother. Back to hotel for dinner and overnight.

 

DAY 10
Mt Olives, David’s City, Garden Tomb.

 

The Mount of Olives, the site of the Ascension and Pater Noster church, where Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer. Continue to the Panorama, a breathtaking view of Jerusalem. Walk down the Palm Sunday Route to the Church of Dominus Flevit where Christ wept over Jerusalem, then come to the Garden of Gethsemane see the old olive trees and the Church of the Agony. Drive through the Kidron valley to David’s city and see the pools of Siloam where Christ healed the blind man. Finish our morning at the Garden Tomb.

PM: Free - back to hotel for dinner and overnight.

 

DAY 11
Holocaust museum, Ein Karem, Emmaus, Chagal windows, Shrine of the book, flight home

Drive to Yad Vashem Museum the memorial of the Jewish Holocaust. Continue to Ein Karem, the traditional site where Elizabeth and Zachariah lived and where Mary visited Elizabeth and where John the Baptist was born.

Drive to Jaffa, the biblical Joppa, and view the harbour through which King Solomon brought the cedar wood of Lebanon and where Jonah set sail. Then see the house of Simon the Tanner where Peter received his vision. On to Bet Hatevuzoth Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv.

 

Airport and a pm flight home