Touring with Guide in Jerusalem

amother

Hotpink

Tue, May 26 2015, 12:02 am

We have booked a guide (we're a family with kids) for one day.

We're were advised to do City of David, Chizkiah's Tunnels, Southern Excavations & Jewish Quarter.

Please share your experiences or knowledge.

Should we do these? Should we do other things?

Are Kotel tunnels something we can do alone?

Iymnok

Tue, May 26 2015, 2:29 am

amother wrote:

Or Dovid has tours, ask for when the English ones are.
Southern wall has headsets, so it's self guided.
Jewish Quarter use a guide who has the same hashkafa as you. You will get the most out of it.
In the old city, the burnt house is an interesting museum/tour
Your guide may give a discount for using him for multiple tours, they often have entry to the paid sites that you mentioned.
Ask them for suggestions.

amother

Hotpink

Tue, May 26 2015, 2:38 am

Thanks Lymnok.

Roughly how long does the burnt house take? Do you know how much it costs?

Regarding Kotel Tunnels:

Anything that's a must for a family in Israel for a very short time? Please tell me. We will be in Jlm most of the time.

DrMom

Tue, May 26 2015, 5:28 am

Guides in Israel are relatively expensive. Make sure you are getting your money's worth. If a site has guides (I believe Ir David is a guided site anyway, as are the Kotel Tunnels), then why pay for another guide? Hezekia's Tunnels are part of the Ir David site, aren't they? They are very narrow -- I'm not sure a guide will be able to show you anything... Find out what is included: admission, transportation to/from each site, etc.

STovah

Tue, May 26 2015, 9:43 am

For the Kotel tunnels, book an English tour on the Kotel website. It is a much cheaper option than going with Artzeinu or another private tour company. Just book well in advance if you will be going during a busy tourist season. The website is safe and legit.

rosehill

Tue, May 26 2015, 1:04 pm

I've twice used a professional guide for a day with the family in Israel.
Both times, they spent extensive time on the phone/email beforehand discussing with me what our goals were for the day.
Factors included ages of the children, their educational background, do you want to focus on ancient history, modern Zionism, nature, extreme sports etc.
You can never do everything in Jerusalem in a day, and what's a must-see for me might not be for you. Your guide should be walking you through that.
I did the kotel tunnels alone with some of my kids. They have their own guides, you don't need to go with yours.
HTH.

DrMom

Tue, May 26 2015, 1:11 pm

PAMOM wrote:

One more point-/how old are your kids? I've seen younger kids panic as they descended into the kotel tunnels and you can't exactly turn around and go back. Most kids, though, love the idea.

Really? The Kotel tunnels are not that narrow. The tunnel in Ir David is very claustrophobic, though.

amother

Hotpink

Thu, May 28 2015, 10:54 pm

OP here.

STovah wrote:

Thanks. The website booking system seems unprofessional, and therefore fishy. Thanks for clearing it up.

Should we do the Generations thing too? It comes as a package (if you want). I don't understand what it is.

rosehill wrote:

Thanks Rose.

What would you recommend we make sure we see in our one day of touring?

amother

Aubergine

Fri, May 29 2015, 1:07 am

amother wrote:

OP here.

I notice the Kotel tunnel tours operate at night too. I can understand why since it's underground anyway, but I'm wondering whether we would miss out on anything if we don't do it by day?

I went 2x once day once night. The tour was exactly the same.

DrMom

Fri, May 29 2015, 5:02 am

amother wrote:

OP here.

I notice the Kotel tunnel tours operate at night too. I can understand why since it's underground anyway, but I'm wondering whether we would miss out on anything if we don't do it by day?

It's a tunnel. It looks the same at night as it does during the day. Same tour.

If you are touring in the summer, I'd recommend a day tour because it is a break from the searing heat.

rosehill

Fri, May 29 2015, 5:04 am

amother wrote:

OP here.

Thanks Rose.

What would you recommend we make sure we see in our one day of touring?

My point was, it depends on all those factors!
Here's the email I received from my guide as we started planning our day. We ended up following it pretty closely, and it was PERFECT. At least for us it was!

Quote:

morning: walk on chomot yerushalayim, understanding in/out, old/new, united. we go down at har zion, and do a bit on david hamelech before going in to the rova—a scavenger hunt, a view from the rooftops, a visit to machon hamikdash (so interesting, and aesthetically appealing, and dovetailing with so much of what they’ve learned and celebrated!) and then down to the kotel.

after our kotel visit, we head to the new city. I’d stop at city hall, to show them the model of the municipality—just a few minutes, but it’s really cool!
then, to ammunition hill, let them run in the trenches, and connect the old city, where they just were, to the new city, and how important a united jerusalem is. (we don’t do the military aspect as much)

then, to the knesset menorah, where we play a game, and we end the day at the israel museum—not the boring museum part, but the fun part! we do a bit of a game at the shrine of the book, a treasure hunt at the second temple model, and if we have time, a dash in to the street of the shuls—they’re just pretty, and neat, and different!.

NB, we did this in the winter; no kids in strollers.