MODIIN, Israel (JTA) – Israelis don’t like anything in August to leave the country.
The summer heat is oppressive, summer camps subsidized by the Israeli state have closed at that time and many companies are encouraging or even forcing workers to leave the country for several days a month.
But this year, with the coronavirus pandemic, the Israelis are trapped. The European Union, a popular summer tourist destination for maximum Israelis, is prohibited from visiting Israel due to the maximum coVID-19 infection rate in the country. Travelling by air anywhere is a maximum risk, given the inability to take social distances. And Israelis can’t leave their country by car. (Neighbors Egypt and Jordan, the only border countries with which Israel is not in a state of perpetual war, are believed to be prohibited because of the security hazards and coronavirus epidemics of these countries.)
More than ever, Israel feels like an island.
Arab critics mock Israel for living the fantasy that it is a component of Europe rather than the Middle East. Israel’s economy is more like that of a Western European country than that of its Arab neighbors, Israel’s sporting groups play in the European leagues, and of course Israel is a Western democracy and not an autocracy of the Middle East. After Israel signed open skies deals with Europe several years ago, air fares to Europe have become as affordable as the value of an Amtrak ticket from New York to Philadelphia, and Israelis now see Europe as their own backyard.
But this summer, Europe’s doors are closed.
However, in order not to be discouraged, the Israelis will not give up their August vacation. It’s just that the nine million seem to do it in the same places. The country’s beaches are congested, popular hiking trails require pre-registration for overcrowding, and zoos, parks and picnic spaces are wall-to-wall people.
On a recent stopover in Israel’s only freshwater lake, the Kinneret, I found a box of tents so tight that campers can leave their homes a little without tripping over their neighbors. In the water, maintaining a distance of 2 meters (6 feet) was virtually impossible. And that was in July, before the peak holiday season.
In August, any place you need to go will be hot, crowded and expensive. Imagine a state with the length and density of new Jersey population, but with hotels whose value is equal to Aspen’s.
Israelis spend between $300 and $400 per night on accommodation that is not worth noting in most U.S. destinations. Fast browsing on hosting sites like Airbnb, Booking.com or Hotels.com is obviously noticeable.
Take this list of 3 bedrooms on Airbnb in the northern port city of Akko, where $352 per night will provide you with an apartment with shower in one corner of the living room, a small kitchen in the bedroom and a room with bathrooms in the darkened corner. just through a frosted glass panel.
Or you can stop by Nahariya, a quiet beach in the town near the Lebanon border, where a beachfront tent will charge you $203 for two nights. To be clear: Sleep on the floor in a Coleman tent sold on Amazon for $194, unless here, just hire the tent. Overnight prices in a tent in the popular top East Galilee or in the Golan, where the herb landscape is more spectacular, will charge you about double: $400 for two nights.
Do you want to sleep indoors? Be prepared for horseback riding and don’t have high expectations. Most hotels are complete and charge lots of dollars depending on the night. Holiday rentals with similar prices would probably not even have a queen size bed or a view. There are also many beloved summer destinations in the U.S., however, in the vast expanse of the U.S., Tourists have endless features and a diversity of prices, even with festivals for more remote vacation destinations this summer. In Israel, that’s all there is.
The other option is home vacation. The positive facet of Israel’s small length is that if you are fit to drive, you can spend almost the day and still sleep at home. This summer, however, he wants to be strategic about his destiny.
First, think about the water. Due to the maximum temperatures here, the outdoor activities, the heat of the day, are incredibly uncomfortable, so you will have to go through somewhere where you can splash. This leaves beaches (beware of jellyfish!), Municipal pools (oy, crowds!) And popular waterfalls and herbal rivers, such as the Banias in the Golan Heights, the Jordan River or Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea. But get to those places or register early as they fill up temporarily (many Israeli nature reserves now require registration to restrict the overcrowding of the pandemic). Water parks remain closed due to the pandemic.
You venture inside, but COVID-19 limits your characteristics (Israel lately has one of the highest rates of resident infection in the world, with more than 1000 new instances and a dozen new deaths depending on the day). Some of Israel’s most productive museums, such as the Israel Museum, the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem, and even Yad Vashem, the Holocaust monument and museum, have been closed for months due to the coronavirus.
There are some underground features, where temperatures are cool all year round, adding caving in the Stalactites Cave Nature Reserve, wading through the Ezekiel Water Tunnel outside Jerusalem’s Old City or stumbling in the Alona water tunnel near Caesarea.
Or you can simply spend the afternoon during the summer. Sleep, take an afternoon nap and schedule your adventures in the afternoon or evening, when temperatures and crowds drop (or at dawn, before they go up). Night in the desert can be a non-secular experience, with exquisite moonlit perspectives and magical silence.
Despite the pandemic, there are still night crowds on the streets of Tel Aviv and Old Jaffa, and many smart places to eat something. If you are close to the sea, the water breeze makes walking very pleasant. In Jerusalem, you can attend the street party near Balfour Street, in a different way known as the protest site to rid the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Because tourists cannot enter Israel at this time, this summer could be a good time to stop in places invaded by foreign tourists but less popular with Israelis: the historic churches of Jerusalem’s Old City, the Christian sites of Galilee or the Western Wall. . Because of the coronavirus, you must bring your own prayer book.
Whether you need or need to offer classic prayer, next year in Jerusalem! – it’s your decision.
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