Israel & the Palestinian territories food vacation

Planet

This trip includes a visit to the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site of Tel Jericho and the banks of the Jordan River. Here we use a guesthouse in the Dead Sea that is part of an NGO, originally a refugee camp and now a community initiative that aims to protect the ecology of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River Valley. We will support local companies who share our attitude towards sustainability wherever possible, the group visit a family run brewery in Taybeh who are doing just that. Our food tours are focused on local cuisine and as a result, the food miles associated with this trip tend to be much lower. Our small group tour sizes, mean we can travel with a smaller impact on the environment, using less resources in our smaller vehicles and in hotels along the way.

People

Local communities, and the food cultures they share is a central theme of this tour. You will meet the local Samaritans - a Jewish minority group living in Nablus - who are the only group to hold Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian passports and learn about their culture by making tahini. The group enjoy their creations over lunch and discover what life is like for women in this small Palestinian town. We use locally owned accommodation and transport to ensure money stays in the local communities and this ethos extends to suppliers at all levels of this trip, most notably including the food experiences on this tour. In Bethlehem, the group will share lunch with a local family. In Jerusalem, the group will be taken to a local market to buy a variety of dishes from local vendors, ensuring we support a variety of small business. In Taybeh the group visit a family run brewery, who have become a sustainability champion in the region. One of the accommodations used is a former refugee camp turned ECO lodge, and we are able to support this initiative by staying there with our groups. Our local leaders are always local to the countries we visit.