Everything about our tour in Isreal with Zvika was exceptional!! We were 12 friends on an Oceania cruise with a two day layover in Haifa. None of us had ever been to Israel before, and each of us had our own laundry list of “Must Sees” once we got there. I’m sure we were a challenge for Zvika from the beginning, but he always handled us professionally and with great finesse all along our journey together.
All suggestions and ideas that Zvika had were wonderful, but his best suggestion by far - and he threw out the idea very early in our negotiations, which helped to cement our relationship - was that we spend the night in Jerusalem rather than return to the ship. That decision alone saved us about 4 hours travel time, plus we got a couple extra hours of sleep on the second morning.
Zvika started out with a basic, two-day itinerary that we worked over for months. We all finally agreed on spending a few hours on the first morning seeing a few sights in the Sea of Galilee area, leaving the majority of our time for Masada and ending the day with a Dead Sea Experience. We spent the night at an Airbnb In Jerusalem and the entire second day on a walking tour of Jerusalem, and we all thoroughly enjoyed every minute.
Zvika is knowledgeable and engaging and obviously love his job!! He is the best storyteller EVER and had us hanging on his every word, especially with his stories of the relentless Roman attacks on the Zealots hunkered down on the top of Masada.
Zvika also did an excellent job of avoiding most of the large crowds of tourists from the cruise ship, who were also keen on seeing all of Isreal in just 2 days. He maneuvered us around crowds, sometimes through crowds, and sometimes we went the opposite direction of the crowds. He’s truly a master at what he does.
In addition to sharing his knowledge and his stories, Zvika was also willing to share some of his personal life with us, which made our time with him all that much richer. He’s a wonderful person, a fantastic guide, and now I consider him a friend, as well!!
Thank you, Zvika, for two beautiful days that will leave us with fond memories for the rest of our lives!!