Shalom Langer Tours
As my wife and I planned our trip to Israel, we knew that we wanted to visit areas in the West Bank. Unfortunately, if you were to rent a car in Israel it cannot be driven into Palestinian controlled areas, such as Bethlehem. Also, given the previous history of suicide attacks in the region, we did not want to use any public transportation. We then narrowed our search to either taking a group tour or a private tour. After reviewing multiple tour operators on Trip Advisor, we came across Shalom Langer Tours which offered private tours. Shalom Langer is an independent, licensed tour operator in Israel and he offered the flexibility in designing our tours that best fit our time schedule. Looking back on this decision, booking three separate day trips with Shalom Langer was the best decision of our trip to Israel and Palestine. Our three day trips with Shalom Langer consisted of a day trip to the biblical north to Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, and Mount Tabor, a day trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and a day trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. Shalom picked us up at our hotel in Tel Aviv at eight in the morning. Each tour lasted as long as we wanted it to and we never made it back to our hotel in Tel Aviv before seven in the evening. We never felt rushed once in our three days with Shalom. If we wanted to see something, he made it happen. For example, when touring Jerusalem, we wanted to visit Oskar Schindler’s grave on Mount Zion. Although this was not normally part of his tour to Jerusalem, he had no problem adjusting to what we wanted. One of the great things about Shalom is that he is very passionate about what he does. Although he does hundreds of tours a year, his enthusiasm never wavered. He seemed as excited as us to visit each of the sites. His knowledge of the different sites was second to none. The other great thing about Shalom is that he has a very balanced perspective. Given the tense situation in the region, Shalom really gave both sides of the story. Although he is passionate about his country, he also gave us perspective about the Palestinians. While spending eleven hours for three straight days with any tour guide, you want to make sure that they have knowledge but also are easy to talk to and personable. Shalom was all of these and more. Shalom was very professional, contacting us via email helping us plan our itinerary. I look back very fondly on our three days with Shalom Langer and can highly recommend him to anybody looking for a tour guide while visiting Israel. Here is a link to Shalom’s website: www.shalomlangertours.com
