Driving in Israel
I had been worried about driving in Israel ever since I got here. If you hadn't heard already, there seems to be some national love of honking, which makes me jump at every honk. So driving and thus naturally getting honked at seemed a daunting adventure.
However, how else could we have gotten to northern Israel? Believe me, I looked into all sorts of alternatives, including trying to take some formal, organized trips but there just weren't any to be had. So Matt and I walked over to the Eldon rental car office (there is also Avis, Budget, and more but Matt wanted to go with the Israeli one) at about 8 am one morning and made our reservation. The reservation was made quickly and easily and the only slight hang-up was that Matt had to show him his passport (which luckily he had on him) and that we had to pay up-front because our visa didn't go for all that much longer.
Two days later, we walked back to the rental car office at 8 a.m. (you don't have to be there at that time, it's just when they open and Matt is a stickler for being early) and stood in line to get our car. This took a few minutes since there are lots of people turning in and picking up cars right upon opening, but all went smoothly. We were handed the keys to a small, white, 4-door, automatic car.
We were nervous Nellies as soon as we sat down in the car. Matt was nervous because he was going to be the primary driver and except for our short trip to the States for Hanukkah, he hadn't driven a car in a year. I was nervous because on that last trip to the States I got quite car sick on even short car trips to the grocery store because I was so used to walking and so un-used to riding in a car.
However, armed with a Jerusalem map, Matt slowly eased the car out of the parking lot and we managed to get to our apartment building without getting honked at! We then loaded up the car with our suitcases and we were off on our adventure!
Once we were out of Jerusalem, the driving was easy. The road signs were clear and traffic was easy to manage. We did get a lot of practice using round-abouts though, because they are found all over Israel. In general, our fears about driving in Israel were completely unfounded except for that one incident back in Jerusalem when we were trying to return the car...but I digress :)
The only real surprise with driving the car was the price of gas. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what it was per gallon, but we had a tiny car and filling it up just half way (Matt never lets any car get below half full of gas) it was routinely between 120 to 180 shekels (about $30 to $40). This might, in part, be because nearly everywhere here gas stations offer full-service. (But on the other hand, where on earth does Israel get gas from?)
Despite the high gas expense, I loved having the car for many reasons. The obvious reason was ease of movement and no limit on how much I could pack...lol. However, another maybe not-quite-so-obvious reason was that we were able to get a much earlier start than other travelers. I'm not saying we got out at the crack of dawn, but every day we did see people who were traveling in large groups standing around and waiting, and waiting, and waiting for their companions to join them. We regularly were leaving our first stop when they were just pulling up. Thus, overall, we were able to see a lot more than they were just because we were on our own schedule.
Another reason I loved having the car was for something I hadn't thought about prior to our trip. We were able to stop and see some amazing things that I would have otherwise definitely missed.
Most notably, Matt and I stopped at Cesarea and did a quick tour of the ruins. Then we got back in the car and drove over to the Roman aqueduct which was truly an awesome sight. After witnessing droves of tourists getting off buses, taking a couple pictures, and then getting right back on their bus, we decided to take a stroll along the beach that is attached to this location. This turned out to be no ordinary stroll! We were totally amazed by what we found. At first we just found gobs and gobs of sea shells. They were so thick on the sand that you were forced to walk on them just to keep walking on the beach so you heard the dreaded sound of "crunch" from every step.
But even more interestingly, we found history on the beach. There were old, broken pottery pieces everywhere and many small slabs of marble that used to be parts of floors. These were just strewn about and were just fascinating to look at.
Other benefits to having a car were making those quick stops that are quick for two people but would take forever with a large group. Such stops included an overlook that had views of an abandoned Syrian city, a quick jaunt to see the Jordan River and caught a glimpse of the most amazing peacock (I think his tail was at least six feet long!),
our fare share of tanks and humvees,
and funny road signs (we can't stop saying that we're "scare-ified!"...lol).
Definitely overall we were really glad to have rented a car and would definitely do it again for another trip.
However, how else could we have gotten to northern Israel? Believe me, I looked into all sorts of alternatives, including trying to take some formal, organized trips but there just weren't any to be had. So Matt and I walked over to the Eldon rental car office (there is also Avis, Budget, and more but Matt wanted to go with the Israeli one) at about 8 am one morning and made our reservation. The reservation was made quickly and easily and the only slight hang-up was that Matt had to show him his passport (which luckily he had on him) and that we had to pay up-front because our visa didn't go for all that much longer.
Two days later, we walked back to the rental car office at 8 a.m. (you don't have to be there at that time, it's just when they open and Matt is a stickler for being early) and stood in line to get our car. This took a few minutes since there are lots of people turning in and picking up cars right upon opening, but all went smoothly. We were handed the keys to a small, white, 4-door, automatic car.
We were nervous Nellies as soon as we sat down in the car. Matt was nervous because he was going to be the primary driver and except for our short trip to the States for Hanukkah, he hadn't driven a car in a year. I was nervous because on that last trip to the States I got quite car sick on even short car trips to the grocery store because I was so used to walking and so un-used to riding in a car.
However, armed with a Jerusalem map, Matt slowly eased the car out of the parking lot and we managed to get to our apartment building without getting honked at! We then loaded up the car with our suitcases and we were off on our adventure!
Once we were out of Jerusalem, the driving was easy. The road signs were clear and traffic was easy to manage. We did get a lot of practice using round-abouts though, because they are found all over Israel. In general, our fears about driving in Israel were completely unfounded except for that one incident back in Jerusalem when we were trying to return the car...but I digress :)
The only real surprise with driving the car was the price of gas. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what it was per gallon, but we had a tiny car and filling it up just half way (Matt never lets any car get below half full of gas) it was routinely between 120 to 180 shekels (about $30 to $40). This might, in part, be because nearly everywhere here gas stations offer full-service. (But on the other hand, where on earth does Israel get gas from?)
Despite the high gas expense, I loved having the car for many reasons. The obvious reason was ease of movement and no limit on how much I could pack...lol. However, another maybe not-quite-so-obvious reason was that we were able to get a much earlier start than other travelers. I'm not saying we got out at the crack of dawn, but every day we did see people who were traveling in large groups standing around and waiting, and waiting, and waiting for their companions to join them. We regularly were leaving our first stop when they were just pulling up. Thus, overall, we were able to see a lot more than they were just because we were on our own schedule.
Another reason I loved having the car was for something I hadn't thought about prior to our trip. We were able to stop and see some amazing things that I would have otherwise definitely missed.
Most notably, Matt and I stopped at Cesarea and did a quick tour of the ruins. Then we got back in the car and drove over to the Roman aqueduct which was truly an awesome sight. After witnessing droves of tourists getting off buses, taking a couple pictures, and then getting right back on their bus, we decided to take a stroll along the beach that is attached to this location. This turned out to be no ordinary stroll! We were totally amazed by what we found. At first we just found gobs and gobs of sea shells. They were so thick on the sand that you were forced to walk on them just to keep walking on the beach so you heard the dreaded sound of "crunch" from every step.
But even more interestingly, we found history on the beach. There were old, broken pottery pieces everywhere and many small slabs of marble that used to be parts of floors. These were just strewn about and were just fascinating to look at.
Other benefits to having a car were making those quick stops that are quick for two people but would take forever with a large group. Such stops included an overlook that had views of an abandoned Syrian city, a quick jaunt to see the Jordan River and caught a glimpse of the most amazing peacock (I think his tail was at least six feet long!),
our fare share of tanks and humvees,
and funny road signs (we can't stop saying that we're "scare-ified!"...lol).
Definitely overall we were really glad to have rented a car and would definitely do it again for another trip.
posted by Jen | 10:10 AM
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