Visiting Israel

[NJA]

Some friends are going next week.

Are there any sites "off the tourist trail", but safe that you would reccommend?

 

[Aidan K]

You have to see the Baha'i shrine and gardens in Haifa, very very beautiful

 

[Dialogist]

Some friends are going next week.

Are there any sites "off the tourist trail", but safe that you would reccommend?

Take a bus to Nazareth and go to the small Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. If you are there in a Sunday, you might want to attend Divine Liturgy. It is in Arabic.

If you choose to do this, you will want to get to Haifa first and then have a taxi take you to the public bus station. There are plenty of taxi drivers who will offer to drive you all the way there, but I recommend against it. It is more interesting to take the bus. But take the bus to Nazareth, and not Nazareth-Ilit. Nazareth-Ilit is a Jewish settlement that Israel set up some time ago to overwhelm the Arab population in the area (it didn't work).

I would suggest that instead of taking a bus back to Haifa, you take an Arab taxi.

Another place off the beaten track you might visit is Taybeh. It is the last Christian village left in Palestine. It is in the West Bank, though. You can contact the mayor's wife, Maria Khoury. She can be found on the web and visits the U.S. quite frequently.