During a recent trip to Israel, deep yoga breaths came in handy as I tried to control my anxiety. My fear wasn’t related to political danger; rather, it was the kind of fright you feel when you are dangling from a rope on the side of a steep canyon of the Judean Desert.
Yes, I had a harness on, and the rope was controlled by the skilled hands of our 20-year-old guide, Boaz Langford — a soldier in an Israeli army unit that specializes in rescues involving supports and extreme climbs. So I gently rappelled my way down the 40m cliff, feeling increasingly secure and ultimately exhilarated.
With terrain that ranges from snow-capped mountains and vast desert to lush valleys and continuous coastline, Israel is being recognized as an ideal destination for adventure travelers.
“For years, Israel was known in the US as the land of the Bible and a place to visit relatives, but in the last decade we see a major change in the reasons people are coming to visit,” said Arie Sommer, Israel’s tourism commissioner for North and South America. “Between the hiking, biking, snappling” — rappelling — “and jeeping, people are discovering that Israel has a lot to offer.”
With my husband, Rich, and our three children — Simon, Emily and Nicole (ages 8, 12 and 14) — I have hiked, biked, rafted and rappelled in places like Costa Rica, Montana and the Canadian Rockies. We didn’t expect much from our excursion but ended up thrilled — and completely exhausted — after a day of hiking, rappelling and swimming through natural pools in the Rachaf Canyon two-and-a-half hours south of Jerusalem near the Dead Sea.
Our tour was organized by Israel Extreme (www.israelextreme.com; 972-52-647-8474), which says its business — 80 percent of its clients are Americans — triples each year. “All of a sudden, people who have been coming to Israel for many years are realizing that there is more to Israel than Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” said Moshe Meyers, who runs Israel Extreme.
Meyers typically customizes the tours, often combining activities like hiking, zip lining and rappelling. The company provides a guide for every seven people for about 1,500 shekels a guide (about US$420 at 3.60 shekels to the US dollar), including insurance.
For each of twice-yearly trips to Israel, Rachel Gittleman, a college student from Lakewood, New Jersey, and her family recruit Israel Extreme for a couple of new adventures. After more than 10 outings the last three years, the Gittlemans have rappelled through waterfalls, crawled through caves, hiked through streams and swung from a rope like Tarzan. “There is no better way to know Israel’s beauty than to explore it,” Gittleman said.
Israel’s connection with nature runs deep, and there are many ways to gain access to its diverse landscapes. The 930km Israel Trail allows hikers to venture from Dan in the north to Eilat in the south. It is divided into 40 segments marked by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, founded in 1953.
For help mapping a route on the trail, contact the Israeli Tourism Office (www.goisrael.org).
Because of its variety of terrain, Israel lends itself to adventures both extreme and soft. Last summer, Kim Heiman of Cincinnati pushed her thrill-seeking threshold to new heights, literally. Thinking she was going along for the car ride to watch her two older children on a skydiving expedition, she ended up joining them.
“Make like a banana when you are free-falling,” is one of the many directions she received at Paradive (www.paradive.co.il; 972-4-639-1068), a skydiving outfit a 45-minute drive north of Tel Aviv at Habonim Beach. There was an instructional video to watch, some practice exercises, and then Heiman put on her equipment and in tandem with an instructor jumped from a turbo-prop at 4,000m, falling 2,000m in 50 seconds before letting out the parachutes.
For those who want to see the country on two wheels, El Al will transport bicycles at no extra charge. The airline has joined with Israeli Bike Experience to offer a weeklong package with two routes: a north-central tour to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea; and a south-central circuit through the Negev Desert gorge to the Dead Sea, Masada and Jerusalem. The package starts at $2,800, including flight, tour and accommodations (www.elal.co.il; 800- 223-6700).
If you prefer to stay off-road and don’t mind taking your mountain bike with you, check out Israel MTB’s new seven-day trip, starting on March 1 (www.israel-mtb.com; 972-77-204-0066). With about 40km of riding each day in the Negev Desert, routes are a combination of dirt paths and single-track trails.
“There has been an incredible demand for mountain biking, which is growing tremendously,” said Nir Benjamini, the company’s owner. “And there’s just nothing like swimming in natural pools, spending the night in the desert and getting up to bike the next day.” The trip costs 4,860 shekels and includes accommodations, most meals and six days of riding with a local guide.
Wendy Schneider, from Hamilton, Ontario, who spent time in the Sinai desert when she lived in Israel in the 1970s, took three of her four grown daughters to Israel in 2007 to share the wonders of desert adventure. “I know Israelis have a passion for the desert, and I wanted to expose my kids to something I’d experienced and had a longing to do again,” she said.
Through a friend, she found Desert Eco Tours (www.desertecotours.com; 972-522-765-753) and planned a two-and-a-half-day trip that included an overnight stay at a Bedouin campsite in Jordan’s Wadi Ram, an enormous expanse of sandstone and granite mountains; a desert jeep tour through the dunes; and an early-morning hot-air balloon ride.
With its access to four seas — the Mediterranean, the Dead, the Red and Galilee — Israel also offers aquatic adventures. For an unusual type of underwater exploration in the Red Sea try what the Israelis call “snuba.” It’s a combination of scuba diving and snorkeling. Divers, who must be at least 8 years old, wear fins and a mask but breathe through a 6m-long tube connected to a tank on an inflatable raft. One instructor guides two divers at a time; an hour of underwater time costs 200 shekels (www.snuba.co.il; 972-8-637-2722).
For an invigorating on-water experience, the upper Jordan River in northern Israel has almost 16km of whitewater rapids that can reach Classes III and IV from March to May. Although the water level is lower in the summer, the river can still be run and is among the world’s steepest for rafting, according to David Gueta, an owner of Neharot Expeditions (info@neharot.com; 972-3-561-3883). “It’s the only river where you start above sea level and finish below sea level,” he said.
During my family’s expedition last April, I scraped my back recklessly skidding down a rockslide. I had failed to listen to the warning of the adventurer ahead of me — Simon — who despite being only 7 at the time, had the wisdom of experience when it comes to slides, whether in a gorge or a playground.
My bruise has since faded, but not the memory of that spectacular day. We were in Israel, occasionally chatting with a group of young soldiers on vacation. All of us looking for an adventure.
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