Israel

Israel sits on the eastern Mediterranean and combines three thousand years of religious history with a young, secular tech economy that runs out of Tel Aviv. For Georgian travelers it is one of the easier long-weekend trips outside the Caucasus: short flight time, no visa, and a large Georgian-Israeli community in Bat Yam, Ashdod and Tel Aviv that has made Russian and even Georgian audible on the streets. The country is small enough that visitors regularly base in one city and day-trip everywhere else.

Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are the two essential stops. Jerusalem holds the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and the Old City with its four quarters, plus the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in the west of the city. Tel Aviv, an hour away by train, is the beach city: Rothschild Boulevard, Carmel Market, the Bauhaus White City listed by UNESCO, and a long Mediterranean promenade. South of Jerusalem the Dead Sea sits at minus 430 meters with the Masada fortress and Ein Gedi nature reserve nearby. Further south, Eilat on the Red Sea has coral reef snorkeling and is a winter sun option. In the north, Haifa, Akko and the Sea of Galilee are reachable by Israel Railways.

The best windows are March to May and September to November. Summer is hot and humid on the coast and very hot inland, while winter in Jerusalem can drop to single digits with occasional snow.

The currency is the Israeli shekel (ILS, often written NIS). Public transport runs on the Rav-Kav card, accepted on buses, the Tel Aviv light rail and intercity trains, and Shabbat from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset shuts down most buses and trains. Hebrew and Arabic are official languages, but English is spoken almost everywhere in tourism and business.

Flying from Georgia, Georgian Airways, Israir, Arkia and Red Wings operate Tbilisi (TBS) to Tel Aviv (TLV) Ben Gurion, mostly with several rotations per week, and Turkish Airlines and Pegasus add one-stop options via Istanbul when direct fares are high or the schedule is disrupted by regional events. Flight time Tbilisi to Tel Aviv is about 3 hours direct. Round-trip fares from Tbilisi typically run 700 to 1,800 GEL depending on season, with the cheapest windows in November and February outside Jewish holidays. Note that Ben Gurion security questioning can take 60 to 90 minutes on arrival and again on departure, so plan to arrive at the airport 3 hours before any outbound flight.