Jesus. Kangaroos. Fighter jets. All on the same trip. Think it’s impossible? You haven’t been to Israel.
When I think of historical travel opportunities in Canada, images of frocked women churning butter at Black Creek Pioneer Village come to mind. Send me to Europe and I might be able to revert back two millennia occasionally, like on the ancient cobblestone streets near Rome’s Colosseum. But I can’t help but be constantly in awe of Israel, where 2,000-year-old structures appear around every corner, marking a mere footnote roughly half-way along the timeline of the country’s preserved human civilization.
So, with this in mind, I boldly shoe-horned my wife and two children (ages seven and five) into economy-class seats at the back of a Lufthansa 767 on route to Tel-Aviv via Frankfurt. Israel is a tiny country packed with endless tourism possibilities. For example, you could stroll from Ashdod in the south to Rosh Hanikra in the north, lazing away weeks on world-class beaches — but you would miss out on an incredible array of unique sights and activities. Planning for the weather is also crucial, particularly when travelling during the hot and dry summer season. The lowest daily high temperature we experienced was 36C (not factoring in the humidex). In addition, advance reservations are necessary for many of the country’s best activities — especially if you require an English-speaking guide. For all these reasons, our itinerary was planned far in advance.
Our trip began with a clear day designed to allow us to acclimate to the seven-hour time difference while settling in to our central Israel home in the city of Modi’in — our headquarters for much of the 3.5-week trip. By day two, I was sufficiently comfortable to test my defensive driving skills on the infamous Israeli highway network and we made the short trip to the Latrun Tank Memorial, followed by a visit to nearby Mini Israel. This sprawling park consists of faithfully recreated dioramas of many of Israel’s most famous structures, attractions and cities, reduced to a 1:25 scale. I chuckled at the cheeky model designers — the miniature Volvos, Subarus and Hyundais that dot the roads and parking lots of most miniaturized Israeli landmarks are replaced by flashy Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches in the parking lot of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. Who said government doesn’t have its perks?
The following day we drove to the city of Holon (adjacent to Tel Aviv) for a scheduled tour of the Children’s Museum. This attraction is not really a museum in the traditional sense; instead of structured exhibits, the museum divides children by age into one of three streams and leads them through an interactive environment geared specifically to them. Our children both fell into the middle age range and participated in the Magical Forest Tour, in which their group of five cooperatively solved puzzles under the direction of their museum guide. While difficult to describe, the experience is akin to participating in an interactive children’s fairy tale and differs from any other museum visit I have encountered elsewhere. Older children make use of sensory deprivation techniques to encounter the challenges of being blind and deaf in the museum’s acclaimed senior exhibit.
Later in the week, we made our first sojourn into Jerusalem, and were immediately struck by the contrast between ancient and modern that defines the city. After wrestling choking traffic through Jerusalem’s haphazard streets, we arrived at the parking lot of the gleaming new Mamilla Mall. The sparkling mall is clad in yellow-tinged Jerusalem stone, and houses high-end jewellery stores and WiFi-enabled coffee shops — all literally in the shadow of the ancient Old City’s walls. After enjoying lattes and cappuccinos from the terrace at the Aroma Cafe, we strolled a mere hundred metres through the Jaffa Gate and entered the Old City.
Coming out the other side of the Jaffa Gate the cacophony of the shuk (marketplace) is overwhelming at first. Stores are crowded so close together that awnings intertwine across the narrow pedestrian street, forming a covered rooftop that darkens the market and intensifies the smells from the spice merchants and the flavours of the shwarma spits. After zig-zagging down a series of these streets, it was almost shocking to emerge into the brilliant heat and sunshine of the broad open plaza that precedes the Kotel (Western or Wailing Wall), with the gold-domed roof of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Haram as-Sharif perched prominently on top. We took advantage of relatively recent excavations to participate in the Western Wall Tunnel Tour that runs the full span of the wall’s 500 metres, while also descending down to the base of the wall where the stonework is markedly different from the destroyed and rebuilt rubble that has come to define the wall’s face today.
We departed central Israel the following week, setting up camp further north in Tiberias along the banks of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). Our focus for this leg of the trip was on child-friendly outings; though I might be fascinated participating in a four-hour intense tour of an archaeological site, children require a constantly shifting stream of diverse programming to maintain their interest level. Our opening trip to Gan Garoo did not disappoint. Although the park houses a number of other animals and activities (including giant bats, peacocks and a natural maze), we found it virtually impossible to pull our kids out of the kangaroo enclosure. No bars, cages or ropes separate you from the fun here; the kangaroos roam free across an expansive area as you wander through their territory. After tossing a shekel into the feed machine, my five-year-old became an instant kangaroo celebrity, surrounded by the marsupials like Britney Spears sauntering out of a taxi cab.
We found amazing experiences at every turn as we criss-crossed this tiny country, including a trip by raft down the River Jordan, exploring the galleries of the world-renowned artists’ colony of Safed (where we emerged with a custom order for a Jonathan Darmon bronze sculpture), bike-riding parrots and much more at the Hamat Gader nature park and acres of fighter jets on display at the Israel Air Force Museum. With proper planning, it’s possible to take in a good many of the tourism opportunities Israel offers. Travellers with kids can easily construct an itinerary — much as we did — that satisfies adult curiosities while satiating childhood desires. Best of all, with Israel’s tiny size and vast array of activities, a parent can always honestly answer “Not far now!” to the inevitable back seat cry of “Are we there yet?”
When not jetting around the world as his alter ego, The Crime Traveller, Edward Prutschi is a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer. Follow Ed’s criminal law commentary (@prutschi) and The Crime Traveller’s adventures (@crimetraveller) on Twitter, read his Crime Traveller blog, or email ed@thecrimetraveller.com.