Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. Transfer from the airport to the city of Jerusalem/ Bethlehem for dinner and overnight.
Begin on the Mount of Olives for a panoramic view of the Old City of Jerusalem. Visit the Place of Ascension and the Pater Noster Church. Then drive to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity built over the cave where Christ was born. Proceed on to Shepherd’s Field.
Jerusalem/ Bethlehem for dinner and overnight.
Drive to Holy Eucharist at St. George’s Cathedral. Walk through the Walled City of Jerusalem. Enter through Herod’s Gate to visit the Crusaders Church of St. Anne, the Pool of Bethesda. Then proceed to the temple area, Mount Moriah, where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac, the Dome of the Rock, Mosque of El Aksa, and the Western Wall or Wailing Wall.
Drive to Masada. Along the way you will view the Qumran Caves in the Judaean Desert where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. Enjoy a swim in the Dead Sea.
Jerusalem/ Bethlehem for dinner and overnight.
Leave Jerusalem via the coastal highway to Caesarea to visit the Roman theater, the water aqueduct and the ruins of the Crusaders’ city. Continue to the city of Haifa where you will ascend Mt. Carmel for a view of the Mediterranean Sea and harbor, see the Carmelite monastery and Elijah’s Cave, view the Bahai temple and the hanging gardens.
Tiberias/ Nazareth for dinner and overnight.
Visit the Church of Annunciation where the angel appeared to Mary and announced to her about the birth of Christ. You will visit the synagogue where Jesus taught, Mary’s Well and the Old Market. Continue to Beit She’an, one of the oldest cities of the ancient Near East. It is one ofthe largest archaeological excavation sites in Israel. The Philistine rulers displayed the bodies of King Saul and his sons upon its walls after they were killed in the Battle of Gilboa. Visit the theater, the Byzantine bathhouse and the Roman temple.
Tiberias/ Nazareth for dinner and overnight.
Boat ride on the Sea of Galilee from Tiberias to Capernaum. Visit the ruins of the second century synagogue, the ruins of the house of Simon Peter where our Lord lived after he was rejected in his home town of Nazareth. Continue to Tabgha where Christ performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes and on to the Church of Primacy of St. Peter. Then proceed to the Mount of Beatitudes where Christ gave the Sermon on the Mount.
Tiberias/ Nazareth for dinner and overnight.
In the morning you proceed to the country of Jordan. You will enter the country of Jordan via Sheikh Hussein bridge and drive south into the city of Jeresh, the best preserved Roman provincial city with its magnificent arenas, theaters, and temples. Continue to Petra.
Petra for dinner and overnight.
You begin our experience with the rose-red city of Petra known as Mount Seir in biblical times. Petra is unquestionably Jordan’s most spectacular site to visit, always a breath-taking adventure. Petra flourished as a Nabataean city for some 500 years from the second century B.C. to the early fourth century A.D. Petra, the Rock, the Nabataean capital city, is an awesome, indestructible monument to the power and skill of the Nabataeans, an ancient Arab tribe. The whole city was carved out of solid rose-red sandstone leaving us the rock-cut relics of a civilization that expanded the barriers of human knowledge and technology 2,000 years ago. We will enter the city through its only narrow entrance called “the siq” which is a mere slit between cliffs 300 feet above. In the afternoon you cross back into the country of Israel.
Jerusalem/ Bethlehem for dinner and overnight.
This morning we begin at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to visit the Tomb of Christ. Next to the Garden of Gethsemane, visit the Church of All Nations, then on to visit the house of Caiaphas where Peter denied the Lord three times. From there we proceed to Pilate’s Judgement Hall, Chapel of Flagellation, Lithostrotos. Then follow the Via Dolorosa to the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The remaining afternoon is free for family time and shopping.
Jerusalem/ Bethlehem for dinner and overnight.
Drive to West Jerusalem for a visit to the Holy Land Scale Model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ. Then visit the Israel Museum where the Dead Sea Scrolls collection is exhibited as well as the Holocaust History Museum Yad Vashem. Continue the drive to Ein Karem where John the Baptist was born. In the evening you will enjoy a farewell dinner in Jerusalem before leaving to Ben Gurion Airport.