Israel is a beautiful country and a great place to visit. The country has marvelous old cities, good beaches and plenty of culture, history and holy places... and really good food.

Israel is bordered by Egypt in the south, Lebanon in the North and Jordan and Syria in the East.

Jerusalem will be high on any list of favourite destinations and with good reason: in the old city there is a church or convent on every corner, there are beautiful mosques and many other holy places. Be sure to go to Mount Scopus (the original campus location for Hebrew University) and get an incredible view of the Old City. While there, go to the other side of the university campus (near the amphitheater) and look out over the Judean Desert towards Jordan. On good visibility days you can see the Dead Sea in the distance and the Moab mountains of Jordan just beyond.

Tel Aviv is the place to party. It has good beaches, top cuisine restaurants and excellent nightlife, probably the best to be found within a circle of a few thousand kilometers.

The north of Israel is worth exploring: the Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, the Golan Heights and the towns of Tiberias, Acre (aka Akko), and Haifa are the most important stops on your itinerary to the North.

The south offers the enormous Negev desert and the Dead Sea. In the southernmost point of Israel, the Red Sea beach resort of Eilat is a tourist hot spot. Located at the very bottom tip of Israel, this is a popular fun-in-the-sun vacation spot. Not to be missed is snorkeling or SCUBA diving at Hof Almog (Coral Beach) right on the border between Israel and Egypt.