There are 17 countries (including the partially-recognized state of Palestine) that are typically categorized as part of the Middle East, and while some areas are dangerous for travelers, there are also many, many places that would be worthy of any travel bucket list.
Read MoreFor 12 years, booking-tours.com has been helping travelers find their way when it comes to Israel, Jordan, and other Middle Eastern destinations — places I know a little something about, as longtime readers of this blog may recall
Read MoreBeing serenaded in Arabic by a blind man playing the oud in a Jordanian desert was not a memory I ever suspected I’d make.
Read MoreTwo final activities awaited us on the last full-fledged day of #Israel2016, the first of which was a trip to the Orchard of Abraham's Children in Jaffa. The Orchard is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2011 by Ihab and Ora Balha; its primary mission is to create a sense of community and connectedness between Israelis and Palestinians.
Read MoreDue to scheduling snafus and the fluidity of our schedule in general, we were able to drive back toward Masada this morning and climb the beast in much better weather (only in the 70s this time around). To do so, we left the hotel in Jerusalem right around 5:30 AM and made our way southeast for about an hour and a half into the Judaean Desert where Herod the Great's solitary fortress stands.
Read MoreToday began on a somber note with a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust remembrance center. We were given audio tour guide devices and headphones, and then let loose to examine the exhibits in the Holocaust History Museum — one portion of Yad Vashem — at our own pace.
Read MoreAs opposed to the previous day, Day 14 was chock full of sightseeing and activities. In the morning we set out with our ever-faithful, ever-trumpet-toting tour guide Yair to the Mount of Olives, where a grand view of the city of Jerusalem can be enjoyed by the eyeballs. The Mount of Olives, named as such due to the olive groves that in times past graced its slopes, is, according to the Acts of the Apostles, the place where Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days after he rose from the dead.
Read MoreIn a word (or two), Day 13 was low key. The agenda called for climbing Masada in the morning, but, as expected, the heat kept us from attempting to do so. Instead we spent about a half hour at the Masada Museum in Memory of Yigael Yadin — an Israeli archaeologist whose many finds are on display, such as ancient water/wine jugs and some exceedingly-vintage coinage.
Read MoreWe awoke before the crack of dawn today, at which time the temperature was mild — only in the 80s — in Aqaba. By the time we'd arrived at the Israeli-Jordanian border, it was easily over 100 degrees. Such intense heat makes it a bit difficult to do anything outdoors, which is why it proved advantageous that a visit to the Dead Sea — the lowest point on Earth — was the only real activity on today's docket.
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