Synagogue and Community Missions
Family Tours
Bar and Bat Mitzvah Tours
Schools, Youth Movements and Camps

Specialty Tours
European Heritage Tours
Jordan, Egypt, SCUBA Diving
Taglit-Birthright Israel

Bar and Bat Mitzvah Tours

 

 

 

At Routes we create personalized Bar and Bat Mitzvah tours for groups and families who want to combine a world-class vacation in Israel with the meaningful ceremony and celebration of their child's bar/bat mitzvah. Let us plan the perfect event for you.  We will work closely with you to customize a trip that will ensure all ages benefit from this experience.

When planning the Bar or Bat Mitzvah service, we will use our wealth of knowledge to suggest special locations for the ceremony, including Massada, the Western Wall, Southern Wall and Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem, Biblical Tent and ancient synagogues in the Golan and Galilee as well as other spiritual settings. We can arrange the ceremony for you at the beach front, archeological site or even underground in a cave! Your Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebration can also be hosted in the traditional setting of a deluxe hotel or hall

Take full advantage of the range of our services when we customize your family's trip itinerary.  We recommend a variety of hotel options, high quality guides/educators, and exciting new tours and activities so that you can choose what options match your family's needs.

Take a look at this:

New York Times - In Israel, History With a Whiff of Adventure

"Dear Friends at Routes Travel,

How can we ever possibly thank you enough for the wonderful Bar Mitzvah trip that you planned for us in Israel?
We are sincerely grateful for the experience that you neatly packaged for us, not easy given the age span, but somehow you really pulled it off. Adventure, history, education, delicious food served in extraordinary locales....we had it all!! Also appreciated was your attention to our needs once we got to Israel. Thanks for dealing with all of the last minute airport transfers, copying the Bar Mitzvah service, roundtrip transportation for the Torah and attending the BM to make sure that everything was just right for us.Most of all, thank you for our guide. As you are already aware he is an unusually gifted person. He enhanced and illuminated Israel for us and served the information up to us in the most incredible manner. His own stories and his gift for recounting them were a pleasure to listen to.

It is as if we came to Israel as a "blank coloring book", full of outlines and shapes. Your guide helped us fill our own coloring books with costumes, wild colors and three dimensional images and words in many languages and accents.

He was very sensitive to the group's needs, both spiritual and physical.

He handled Yad Vashem masterfully knowing that some of our guests were particularly sensitive, ramped up the adventure aspect for the kids and willing adults and always had a thoughtful answer to the barrage of questions being hurled at him. His information font was both deep and wide, absolutely extraordinary !!

 

Anyway, we hope to keep in touch with you and we will certainly be in regular contact with our guide.

 

Thanks just doesn't seem ample.

 Best,
Julie, David and the entire group
(February 2009 - New York - USA)"

 

  

 

  • Read below for a sample itinerary of a 10 day Bar/Bat Mitzvah tour:
   

Day 1

  • Arrival to Ben Gurion Airport
  • Meet Your Routes Representative Upon arrival and receive assistance at passport Control and other formalities.
  • Meet your Tour Guide/Educator and your Deluxe Luxury van/minibus/bus 
  • Program Opening in Old Jaffa
  • Walk Through Neve Tzedek and Nachalat Binyamin
  • Check In to the Hotel
  • Opening Dinner at a Local Restaurant
Overnight: Tel Aviv 

   

Day 2

  • Breakfast
  • Visit to the Palmach Museum
  • Visit Independence Hall
  • Drive North
  • Visit Ancient Caesarea
  • Pioneers Lunch and Tour at Moshav Nahalal
  • Drive to the Hotel
  • Dinner at the Hotel
Overnight: Kibbutz Guest House in the North  

   

Day 3

  • Breakfast
  • Start this day with an incredible overview of Lebanon
  • Visit to the Mystical City of Tzfat. Tour and Shopping
  • Free time for lunch on own
  • Hike and Overview of the Galil from Mt. Bental
  • Return to the Hotel
  • Dinner at Ja'Uni in Rosh Pina

Overnight: Kibbutz Guest House in the North  

    

Day 4

  • Sleep In
  • Breakfast
  • Overview of the Montfort fortress in Park Goren (Possible Hike)
  • Visit and explore the Old City of Acco. Descend into the headquarters of the Knights of St. John to see the Crusader Crypt- Return to surface and explore Ottoman Acco and the 18th century Turkish Bazaar, stop at Kahan El-Umdan, and the picturesque Pisan port.
    Drive to Rosh-Hanikra on the Mediterranean. Enjoy the cable car ride to the grottos carved into the white chalk stone.
  • Return to the Hotel
  • Dinner on own
  • Optional visit to the Canada Center (Bowling, swimming, ice skating, basketball, shooting...)
Overnight: Kibbutz Guest House in the North

   

Day 5

  • Breakfast
  • Off Roading Jeep Adventure through the old Syrian Defenses to the top of the Golan
  • Overview of Syria from Mt. Bental
  • Lunch during the Jeep Ride in the field
  • Visit and Tour Ancient Beit Shean
  • Depart South to Jerusalem
  • Dinner on own
Overnight: Jerusalem 

   

Day 6

Bar Mitzvah Day!

  • Breakfast
  • Bar Mitzvah Ceremony in a Unique Location Followed by a Small Luncheon
  • Take part in an active Archeological Excavation at the Beit Guvrin caves and prepare to get your hands dirty as you uncover pottery from the Hellenistic period, 2,300 years ago. This will be followed by a cave crawling adventure (for the whole family)
  • Return to Jerusalem and Change for the Evening
  • Banquet Festive Dinner in Jerusalem (Arcadia or Similar)

Overnight: Jerusalem

 

 

 

Day 7

  • After Breakfast, we will begin our day touring in the Old City of Jerusalem.
  • Start the walking tour in the City of David.
  • Visit the Cardo and the Jewish Quarter
  • Lunch on Own in the Old City
  • Visit to the Western Wall Tunnels and also visit the Davidson Center, which brings the Temple Mount ruins to life.
  • Finish the Day by taking part in a fun and interactive ride back into history at the "Time Elevator"
  • Dinner on own

Overnight: Jerusalem

 

    

Day 8

  • Breakfast
  • Today we will visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance site. Since its inception, Yad Vashem has been entrusted with documenting the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of the six million victims.
  • Visit to the Mount Herzl Museum and Cemetery
  • Drive South
  • Camel Trek in the Desert
  • Bedouin ‘Hafla", Hospitality and Dinner at the Bedouin Tent

Overnight in Arad

  

Day 9

  • Breakfast at Hotel
  • Morning ascent of Masada via the Roman Ramp
  • Overview and Tour of Masada, built by King Herod and the last refuge for Jewish zealots after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple (70 C.E.)
  • Swim and float at the Dead Sea Spa and Lunch
  • Drive to Mitzpe Ramon
  • Dinner at the Hotel
Overnight: South 

  

Day 10

  • Breakfast
  • Rappelling on the Edge of the Crater (The largest natural Crater in the world !)
  • Hike and Tour inside the Crater (Bring Bottles to fill up with colored sand)
  • Lunch on own
  • Travel to the Center of the Country
  • Program Summary and Dinner  
  • Depart to the Airport

Overnight: Flight Home

 


1. Contact information
Name of family/ Group
Email
Principal Contact Person
Office/ Home Tel
Cell
2. Beginning of tour
Date of arrival
Estimated time of arrival
Air Carrier
Flight no.
3. End of tour
Date of departure
Estimated time of departure
Departure Air Carrier
Departure Flight no.
4. No. of participants in group
5. Age range of participants
6. What is the preferable rooming arrangement?
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Two adult participants per room
Three adult participants per room
Family rooming plan (usually involves 1-2 rooms of 3-4 beds being shared by parents and children)
7. Are most of the group members
individuals who have been to Israel
before, or mostly first-timers?
8. Is there a main theme and/or objective for
the tour?
9. Is there a specific price target or
budget within which the tour should
be planned?
10. What is the requested level of accommodation?
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Five Star Deluxe
moderate Five Star
four Star or Kibbuts Hotel Lodging
Three Star or Kibbuts Country Lodging
11. For families with children, please indicate how many hotel rooms you would like.
Please note: family rooms in Israel are usually slightly larger than the regular double
room and normally include one pull-out sofa-bed in addition to the regular double or twin
bed.
1 Family Room (Depending on hotel, can accommodate up to 2 adults and 2 children)
2 Rooms Please advise number of adults/children in each room:
3 Rooms Please advise number of adults/children in each room:
Other Please advise number of adults/children in each room:
12. For groups of 7 or less, what are the preferred arrangement for guide and
transportation? (For larger groups, minibus or full size bus can be provided)
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
private car with guide as driver
Self driven rental car with the guide as a passenger
13. What are the preferred arrangement with regards to meals (lunch and dinner)?
Please note: Israeli Buffet Breakfast is normally included with accommodation in Israel.
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Please do not make any arrangements with regards to meals. We will book and pay for all our lunches and dinners ourselves
please include a number of recommended restaurants or culinary experiences
Please include all meals in our program
14. Which of the following types of sites and activities should be of interest?
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Art Folklore/Minorities (Please select Muslim/Christian/Druze/Bahai)
Archaeology Historical Sites
Nature and Outdoors Jewish Heritage Sites
Museums Sites of Religious Importance
15. Are there any specific additional
sites or experienceswhice are of
any interest? Are there sites
which should not be included?
16. With respect to how physically challenging the program can be, which of the following is
most applicable?
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Tour should be almost entirely by car, with short walks between the car and sites
Tour can include reasonable mix between car transportation and walking tours within cities and sites
In addition to the above, tour can include some short (about 1-1/2 hour) hikes at Nature Reserves
Tour can include some moderately challenging physical activities, such as:
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Moderate Walks Hikes
Rock Climbing/Rappeling/Zip Line Camel Rides
Swimming Cycling
Rafting/canoeing/Water Sports Other (Please specify)
17. Please characterize the preferred pace of schedule:
(Please select by clicking the appropriate checkbox)
Leisurely - with some carefully chosen sites, but with plenty of free time each day to rest, shop, and walk around on your own
Relatively full but not exhausting with sufficient time for rest, beach, and relaxation
Full and varied - minimal free time, but perhaps with one free day, or two free half-days
Packed from morning to night in order to cover as much as possible
18. Is there anything else we
should know?

  A Rough Idea of Costs for Bar/Bat Mitzvah Trips

There is a very wide range of prices which can apply to a tour, depending especially on the number of people in the group, the season in which the tour takes place, the level of hotel accommodation, the number of touring days as well as the range and type of activities which are included. We provide here a very rough estimate of possible costs so that you can get a sense of the type of expense involved, but please note that actual pricing for a specific group could be significantly higher or lower than these examples.

The following chart illustrates possible costs for a variety of accommodation levels and group sizes. All prices are per person per day in USD and are based on double occupancy (except the costs for one person which are based on single occupancy). All prices include Israeli Buffet Breakfast, a professional full time guide, private transportation, the expenses of the guide and a budget for entrances to sites. Not included in these estimates are lunch, dinner, extras, supplements for Single room and gratuities. All estimates assume regular rooms in the hotels but do not include supplements for high seasons (or discounts for low seasons). Supplements would of course apply for any deluxe or upgraded rooms and suites requested.

The costs below also include a Tour Planning Fee which applies to a customized tour, and which covers the costs of the extra dedicated staff time and administrative expenses involved in such specialized travel.

Prices per Person for Different Group Sizes and Different Hotel Levels
# of People >301510642SGL Supp
Level of Hotel V
Kibbutz15018523525532551045
4 Star16521026028035055070
Moderate 5 Star215260315335415630115
5 Star Deluxe250295355375460690145

 

There are discounts available for a child (and in some hotels for 2 children) staying in the same room as the parents.

Payment Arrangements

Once the Tour Request Form is received, you will be contacted by your personal Routes Travel tour operator.  Your tour operator will guide you through the trip planning process and provide you with necessary time tables and payment guidelines.  Once you are comfortable with the guidelines involved, the Routes Travel team is ready to begin investing the time and effort which go into the development of a personalized itinerary.  At that time we require a tour registration fee .  The deposit is non-refundable, but it is fully applicable to the total cost of the tour.

 

 

Produced by
KCS interactive boutique
All rights reserved by “Routes Travel & Tours”
‎© 2008