Let's try to figure out where the truth is and where it's just speculation.
So, many people believe that cruises are contraindicated for those who suffer from seasickness. But, excuse me, how, for example, can you know that you are prone to seasickness if you have never traveled by water before? This is the first. Secondly, modern ships are so perfectly equipped that extreme sports, as many imagine, boat trip there will be no talk. You can safely go on a cruise with your whole family, including grandparents and kids - everyone on board the ship will be comfortable and pleasant.
Another fear that many people have when hearing the word cruise is the danger posed by the sea itself. I immediately remember the Titanic, a super ship that could not resist the elements. But, excuse me, does a cruise ship really need to rush somewhere in a hurry, hitting icebergs? The ship is moving at a leisurely pace - it’s simply ridiculous to talk about danger in this case.
An even more ridiculous misconception is that a long time away from land on a ship in a confined space is fraught with the development of claustrophobia. Well, think for yourself how claustrophobic it can be when it’s so interesting on deck! New acquaintances, satellite TV, a bar with the best drinks and the amazing expanse of the sea on both sides - and there will be no time to think about claustrophobia!
And finally, the main thing that scares many people when they hear the word cruise is its supposedly high cost. Most people are accustomed to thinking that only the rich can afford to go on such trips; mere mortals can only dream of trips on liners. The opinion, again, is erroneous. Of course, traveling by sea is not a cheap pleasure, that’s clear, but quite accessible to people with average income.
For example, the amount of $500 includes not only a double cabin, but also meals, as well as insurance and service for the ship’s personnel. Of course, ships can be really, really expensive. For example, when it comes to large luxury liners with a capacity of up to 3,000 people. On average, a trip on such ships will cost at least $5,000 per week per person. However, this is natural; the operation of such ships is difficult to recoup from the rich alone, therefore, the maximum number of passengers, as a rule, going on a cruise does not exceed several hundred people. But those who choose such cruises can enjoy life to the fullest all week long! Champagne with caviar and oysters, a live orchestra during dinner, swimming pools, gyms and spa treatments - these are just a few of the pleasures prepared for VIP clients
TOP-10 from TopIsrael: water cruises on yachts from Jaffa to Haifa, schooners on Lake Kinneret, catamarans on the Jordan River, glass-bottom yachts in Red and a rubber boat in the Dead Sea.
Israel is surrounded by three seas and, even though you won’t be able to sail much on one of them, the Dead Sea (although a surprise awaits you!), there are plenty of alternatives to travel by sail, boat or boat. About yacht rental in Israel we already wrote, and today we offer 10 of the most attractive (not always the most worthy) options for walking on the water.
Kaif and Sababa in Jaffa
Small vessels "Bliss" And "Sababa-5" can hardly be called full-fledged yachts. These two not new schooners, one with a golden lion on the bowsprit, the other with a sonorous bell, invite you to a small half-hour sea cruise along Mediterranean Sea from Jaffa towards Cyprus, accompanied by the same lovers of cheap romantic walks. To the music of Eyal Golan, no one will tell you the legend of the Andromeda rock, not a word about the route, or offer to buy a glass of champagne. But he won’t ask for a high price for a walk.
Price: 25 shekels for half an hour. No schedule, no reservations. Home port: fishing pier in Jaffa.
Hayarkon River: catamarans from the 80s
Once upon a time, the famous Israeli singer Arik Einstein sang: “You can go to Hayarkon, take a boat and sail.” Today, on the banks of the river near Bnei Dan Street, there is still an old boat station where you can rent boats. True, it will be a shabby catamaran in the form of a car with bicycle pedals at a price of 110 shekels. Or, if you're lucky, one of two wooden boats with oars, apparently left over from the time of that very song in 1989. No, Hayarkon, of course, is good, green, clean... but, excuse me, it’s not the Thames.
Price: 90-150 shekels per hour. No need to book. Location: Tel Aviv, st. Bnei Dan, next to Derekh Namir.
Queen of Acre: on a longboat on Haifa Bay
In 2016, for the first time in Israel, two coastal cities were connected by a permanent cruise line. 4 days a week, several times a day, the two-masted passenger ship Malkat Akko leaves from the harbor of Acre to the port of Haifa and vice versa. A journey through the waters of the Haifa Bay proceeds to the accompaniment of unpretentious music with views of the Bahai Gardens of Haifa, the walls ancient Acre and even the silhouettes of Rosh Hanikra in the north. The voyage takes about 25-30 minutes. The ship's capacity is up to 200 people.
Price: 30 shekels (55 round trip). Purchase tickets on site. Schedule on the website.
Haifa Odelia
Among all the numerous Israeli clubs offering to rent a boat, in Haifa it is perhaps worth highlighting Aya Yam, which has three full-fledged sailing yachts - Aya, Yami and Odelia. Under sail you can celebrate a birthday, bachelor party, corporate party, enjoy a romantic sunset with a glass of champagne, or look at Mount Carmel and the Rambam hospital complex from the west. If you have a skipper's license, you can take the helm yourself. And go on a two-day comfortable cruise to Cyprus.
Prices: from 400 shekels per hour per yacht. Location: fishing port "Maagan Shavit" at the mouth of the Kishon River.
On Susita on the Sea of Galilee
Susita was the name of a large Greco-Roman city that stood from the 3rd to the 7th centuries on the slopes of the Golan Heights. “Sushita” is the name of an Israeli car that, according to legend, was eaten by camels. “Susita” was the name given to the first pleasure boat launched into the Sea of Galilee in 1952. Today, the water park at Kibbutz Ein Gev consists of 5 wooden ships, built like old longboats and accommodating from 55 to 146 passengers. Cruises pass the entire coastline of Lake Kinneret and are mainly for organized groups. Individual tourists can join only on Saturdays at 15:00.
Price: 25 shekels. Location: Kinneret, harbor of Kibbutz Ein Gev.
Kayaking on the Jordan River
Kayaks or canoes are not exactly yachts, but they are also swimming devices. Along the Jordan River you will find many clubs offering activities from rafting on inflatable rubber boats to romantic kayaking on calm waters. One of these places is kayak club Rob Roy, located at the southern source of the river. Here you will find a pastoral atmosphere with rich flora and fauna, boats and rafts, magical views and even night cruises on the Jordan.
Prices: starting from 150 shekels per boat. Length: approximately 1.5 hours. Location: Kibbutz Kvutzat Kinneret
Along the Red Sea with a transparent bottom
We tell you about the possibilities of water recreation in Eilat already told. There are small motor boats, scooters, catamarans, yachts, and other small water transport. But the biggest attraction since ancient times has been the boats with glass bottoms, through which corals and marine fauna can be seen. The 22-meter, three-deck Israel Yam will take you past the Underwater Observatory to Dolphin Reef. Through the transparent glass bottom you will see depths of the sea The Gulf of Eilat, myriads of fish, a bottom with corals and perhaps even dolphins.
Price: Adult - 80 shekels, child - 50 (you can find a discount coupon) in about 1.5-2 hours. Location: harbor in Eilat
Sailing from Eilat
And finally, a real sea sailboat. Built in 1974 and sailing around the world in 1977, the 38-foot wooden double-deck sailboat yacht Teleri, accommodating up to 15 people, offers romantic cruises on the Red Sea, access to sea fishing, a sea voyage in honor of a birthday and other events. The latest unique offer: a sushi cruise, which includes a two-hour trip to the sea and a huge platter of sushi. The cost of the offer is 1200 shekels for 4 people, for each additional participant - 50 shekels on top.
Prices: call. Reservation is required. Location: harbor in Eilat
Dead Sea Cruise
It seems impossible, but Israel is generally a country of wonders. Jackie Ben Zaken from Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem invites you on an hour and a half cruise on the saltiest sea in a 10-seater motor boat made of hard rubber. You will see mysterious salt caves, amazing salt stalactites, salt lagoons and other natural wonders of the Dead Sea. And no, you won’t get to Jordan this way; the route runs along the Israeli coast. But, if we take into account that in this body of water, besides Jackie’s boats, only the old rusty research vessel “Reshut Ha-Yamim” sails, then this is a unique opportunity to see the Dead Sea from a point from which few have seen it.
Price: 1800 shekels per boat. Location: Hof Mineral Beach, north of Ein Gedi. Phone: 052-4398931 (Jackie). Advance booking is required.
Yacht hotel on the waves of the Red Sea
For lovers of a completely unusual and exclusive holiday on the water, we can offer the yacht-hotel Red Sea Yachts with 3 or 4 double cabins in Eilat harbor. What’s nice is that the rental price includes not only daily accommodation, as in a regular hotel, but also 3 meals a day, and a cruise along the Gulf of Eilat with stops for swimming and snorkeling near a coral reef and playing with dolphins in the open sea.
Price: from € 535 per day. Location: Eilat marina.
Among the rather interesting facts that were not included in our TOP-10, it is worth noting that you can take a short 20-minute sea cruise around the fortress of the Old City of Acre for 10-15 shekels, rent catamarans (60 shekels for half an hour) and kayaks (30 shekels) on the lake Montfort, a 20-minute catamaran ride on the lake in the Agam Hai be-Iron park in the Upper Galilee for 40 shekels (not including the price of a ticket to the park itself), as well as the possibility of renting yachts and boats in the harbors of Ashdod, Herzliya, Haifa and other cities in Israel.
By the way, on September 22, the annual Sail TLV regatta will take place, in which hundreds of different yachts, boats, catamarans and other schooners will take part, which will leave Tel Aviv harbor, pass along the entire city coast to the port of Jaffa, after which they will turn around and go back.
This week I sailed for 4 days on the Ferry from the Greek city of Lavrio to the Israeli Haifa. Due to the wars that have swept through Arab countries in the past few years, land route has become not entirely impossible, but very dangerous. There are two well-known options to get to Egypt from Europe that were used before - the first by land to Jordan through Syria, the second by ferry to Tunisia, and from there through Libya. Via Syria is not at all an option now; via Libya, in principle, it is possible, but very scary :). Well, there is still an option to travel to Jordan through Iraq, but things have not been calm there for a long time.
Initially, I worked on two options for a ferry crossing - from Greece to Israel and from Turkey to Egypt. The second option fell away during the process of communicating with the Turkish carrier - letters were rarely answered, not to the point, they could not say anything specific - I decided not to get involved. Regarding the first option, I spoke with an agent from Haifa, here are the contacts
Alicia Rozner
A. Rosenfeld Shipping Ltd.
Reservations Dept.
T +972 4 8613 671
F +972 4 8537 002
[email protected]
The ferry leaves Greece every Monday evening. Arrival in Haifa on Friday. It takes so long to sail because it stays in Cyprus for about 40 hours.
The crossing cost me 890 euros (300 for me, 400 for the motorcycle and 190 taxes and registration of the motorcycle in Greece and Israel). In general, not sour. For this money I got a separate cabin with a bathroom/shower and three meals a day + 2 coffee breaks. They took money for the trip at the end of the trip, in Haifa.
Drivers show the wonders of parking.
I also stuck around as best I could.
The cabin itself
The ship has 9 single cabins and two double cabins for guests. There were 5 passengers in total, everyone was sailing to Haifa - me, two truck drivers from Romania (carrying meat in refrigerators) and a couple from Holland in a motorhome (based on some kind of hefty pickup truck) traveling to Namibia. In general, I enjoyed chatting with them all the way about the route. They plan to travel slowly, another 6-7 months :).
The team is about 20 people, the juniors are all Egyptians, the seniors are Cypriots/Greeks. After a hard day, we were grilling steaks right on the deck :)
During a long stay in Cyprus, I examined Limassol. For some reason I didn't like him at all.
At 6:30 Friday morning we docked in Haifa.
I left the port at 13:30 - 7 hours like crazy. First, some security guards took index fingerprints from both hands of all passengers and crew. The passengers were then interrogated/questioned about who/where/when/why. In general, I’m a supporter of always telling the truth - “You’re going to South Africa, it’s very interesting. Through Sudan? Even more interesting. Do you have friends in Sudan?”, well, I’m like, “Yes, there’s one friend, he studied in Perm at a medical university, he’s been back for a year now.” home, lives in Khartoum,” they said, “What are you saying, well, come with us then.” They took me to a torture room and interrogated me with passion for 5 hours with a motorcycle in a special room where they searched all my luggage, opened everything (even small bags with toiletries), what they were looking for is not very clear, maybe they thought that I was taking components of a nuclear bomb to a Sudanese friend or anything else that is prohibited. Well, I’m not offended, vigilance is at its best, everything is clear. Afterwards there were leisurely customs officers and even more leisurely some strange comrades who filled out two pieces of paper for about 3 hours.
I was upset that the Turkish company with which I was going to sail to Egypt canceled flights to this country. From the correspondence it became clear that her ships could only reach Saudi Arabia. I also excluded this option for the reason that women are prohibited from driving there, and it is almost impossible for independent travelers to obtain a visa.
There was still an option: to move by sea to Israel, from where you can travel to Egypt by land. I found out that ferries go to the Israeli port of Haifa from the Greek Patras or the Cypriot Limassol. So I just need to get to Cyprus, which is literally a stone’s throw from Turkey.
But it's not that simple. From Turkey, the ferry goes only to the northern part of the island - an unrecognized territory that the Republic of Cyprus considers occupied by the Turks. You can get from it to Limassol, but only illegally, breaking the law. This means that the road to Israel from there is closed for me. You can go to the Greek port - another more than 2000 kilometers by car to return back by ferry. Firstly, this route makes the sea crossing twice as expensive, and secondly, it is crossing the Schengen zone, which requires a European veterinary certificate. What to do?
I decided to drive to the nearest port along the route, Mersin, to find out on the spot about possible ferry crossings. I went to the first one open door and asked if I could get to Haifa soon. Then an invisible, perhaps long-established, chain began to work: the girl from passport control called the man, he called somewhere and answered that there was an option. But only a car and a dog can go on a ship, and I must fly by plane. How so? I can't leave the dog alone! He calls somewhere else, asks me to wait, runs away and returns with another man. He calls, asks something and hands me the phone. At the other end of the phone they explain to me in Russian that the problem is this: the ship only has double cabins, and they cannot give me one. If I am not embarrassed by being next to a man (there are no women on the ship), then I can sail with a dog. Of course, it doesn’t bother me, I’m ready to get over it! But we are together with Greta!
“Ounliyu, ounliyu,” confirmed the man, who turned out to be an agent of the company that owns the ship. It turned out that this is a cargo ship and they do not take passengers on it. We agreed that I would arrive at the port on May 30 at 10 o’clock, hand over the documents and pay $600 for transportation. This whole negotiation story took no more than an hour. So easy? It seemed implausible to me. Subsequently, my doubts were confirmed.
I arrived at the appointed hour, they were already waiting for me: it seemed that everyone, including the port taxi drivers, was aware of the arrival of a Russian woman in a car with a dog. I didn’t do anything myself, I just stood and watched - all the documents were drawn up by the agent. I drove through a city of many containers and trucks, drove into the hold of the ship and waited for about an hour for the car to be lifted on a special elevator. As a result, Greta and I were given a separate cabin, comfortable enough for a cargo ship, and we sailed to Haifa.
I really turned out to be the only woman on the ship, and the only one in a passenger car. The vessel is designed for heavy cargo, transports 20-25 trucks weekly in both directions and can accommodate up to 12 people in cabins. The Mersin-Haifa flight appeared six months ago.
The sea is not calm, but now I know for sure that both Greta and I can easily endure the rocking. After all, we still have several long water crossings ahead of us. This was my first such a long sea crossing; previously I had only traveled by ferry over short distances.
The route itself took a little over 20 hours, and by lunchtime the next day we were already in the port of Haifa. Face control and passport checks took place directly on board. I was asked several questions: why did I come to Israel, who am I with, do I have relatives or friends here. You are not allowed to leave the ship until the next morning. Well, one more night on the ship, only without any rocking, in silence, with a view of the Bahai Gardens.
In the morning, the captain's assistant returns the passport with an entry visa, which allows you to stay in Israel for 10 days. I was met by an agent who accompanies me everywhere - helps me fill out documents and sort out any questions. It must be said that without an agent you won’t be able to take a single step in the port. We drove up to the police checkpoint for a vehicle search, document check and an interview with the security service.
Then - the veterinary control service. There, Greta’s documents are scanned and sent to the veterinary clinic in Haifa. The doctor who gives permission for animals to enter was not there today, and our documents are being forwarded to the veterinary service of the airport. This is where the ambush was hidden. We received a refusal. It took the whole day to find out all the circumstances - why, what reasons for the refusal and what I should do.
We were not allowed into Israel for a trivial reason: the date of issue of the veterinary certificate must be no later than 10 days before arrival in the country. Even if you rush from Moscow to a Turkish port without stopping, and then another two or three days by sea, taking into account the time for loading/unloading and the queue for parking at the port, this is from the realm of fantasy. “You can visit Israel yourself, but there is no place to keep a dog in the port,” was the final verdict of the customs service. I had to return to the ship and sail back.
Waiting is not the best pastime for a traveler; in total, we spent a week on the ship, becoming hostages of circumstances. There was time to reflect and realize why this happened to me. Israel's denial of entry crippled both morally and financially. The forced Mediterranean cruise cost $1,100. I feel like my energy has dropped. It hurts, I want to cry. Feelings change from self-pity to anger at the whole world. In such a state it is difficult, if not impossible, to move on. We need to recover. I listen to mantras, read books, watch films, do energy exercises. I’m finding out what else can be done and how to change the route. During this time, Greta has become very comfortable on the ship: she walks freely along the side of the deck, climbs up and down the steep ship stairs.
Three important lessons I learned from my failed trip to Israel:
- Hurry slowly. I was glad that I had found a seemingly simple way to move to Africa. I accepted this as a fait accompli, letting go of the focus of attention from the main goal.
- Under any circumstances keep your balance. I had a panic attack in the Israeli port, and I spent a long time calming myself down and psyching myself up, for which I spent a lot of strength and energy. And she was so needed to resolve bureaucratic issues.
- And the most important thing - stay true to yourself always and in everything. I left my inner context, with which I intended to go the entire route, upset my balance, and in fact, betrayed myself. What? For example, I feel that I involuntarily begin to adjust my notes to the expectations of readers, the format of the media and social networks. And for my soul it is more environmentally friendly to share the experiences and observations that happen to me in my travel. This is a basic question of trusting yourself and the world. And without him, the expedition loses its meaning. It is important to find a balance so that both the reader is interested and does not lose himself in this narrative.
Having descended to earth, I go to the first temple I come across. I promise myself to remain true to myself, my feelings and decisions. Be yourself under any circumstances. I promised myself to BE.
I spend another week in Mersin - developing various options for continuing the expedition and ways to get to the African continent without returning to Moscow. It is at this time that I feel powerful support. It manifests itself in everything: offers of help come from everywhere with information, preparation and forwarding of documents, supportive calls and messages. The gas station owner fills me with a full tank of gas, just like that. I stop by the apiary for spring water and receive fresh honey as a gift. If it stalled in a random hole, they immediately came to the rescue and pulled the car out in one moment. And there are many other signs, subtle at first glance, but so significant. The world seems to be telling me: this is just a small obstacle, I will stay with you and support you.
I know that I will still have doubts, and there will be many obstacles - the journey is long and difficult. But I have a clear knowledge: everything will be as I intend to do.
