Safety Tips for Vacation to Israel

Eat_Fire

Hi, I have a female friend that has been invited by a guy she is seeing to visit Israel for a few months. They will be staying in Tel Aviv from what I understand. I have to admit that I was very worried at first when hearing about her plans. However a precursory look at some basic information seems to show Israel is as safe as anywhere else as long as she is in Tel Aviv.

My Questions:

1. Is there any dangers outside of Gaza and the West Bank that I am overlooking / should she not go?
2. What are some good safety tips for her while she is out there?
3. What is an easy way to contact someone abroad cheaply? ( Cell Phone? Prepaid?)

Sakebomb

Eat_Fire wrote: »

3. What is an easy way to contact someone abroad cheaply? ( Cell Phone? Prepaid?)

laptop, wifi, skype

Canada_jezus

I have this on rumour only but an israeli stamp on your pasport and a general western appearance will get you turned away at some other countries doorstep. Syria etc. This probably won't be an issue.

VisionOfClarity

Second on the Skye and Israel is perfectly safe to visit. I have friends who visit every year and some who visit family have visited towns that have been shelled (none of my friends have ever been hurt though) but it doesn't sound like that will be an issue here. I'm assuming the guy is Israeli or has family who is because one typically does not go on extended hols in Israel for any other reason, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Reckless

Canada_jezus wrote: »

I have this on rumour only but an israeli stamp on your pasport and a general western appearance will get you turned away at some other countries doorstep. Syria etc. This probably won't be an issue.

There used to be a way around this, but recently from what I've heard, the Israeli customs officers are less willing to stamp anything other than a regular page in your passport book.

Organichu

I'm Israeli. She'll be fine.

Element Brian

As long as she doesn't plan on standing in front of bulldozers anytime soon, she's fine. Trust me, tourist have this thing called money, and other countries like money, so they generally try to make it as foreigner friendly as possible.

My brother works for NSA and has visited Egypt on a few occasions, hes about as obvious a westerner as anyone else and had no trouble at all just doing the normal tourist stuff, I imagine Israel is the same.

Seriously though, don't go protesting in front of a bulldozer as if they would give a crap,

because they dont.

Duffel

She has nothing to worry about, although the standard rules always apply - stay away from sketchy neighborhoods, don't walk around town alone, especially at night, be leery of strangers, that sort of shit.

The most danger she'll probably have to worry about is the heat, depending on when she's there. It's relatively cool there now, of course, but if she stays for a few months she might be getting into springtime. Warm weather in Israel can seem unbearably hot to people who aren't used to it, and it's easy to not realise how hot you are, because the air is so dry you barely sweat. Last time I was there one of my friends came down with heatstroke and was down for a couple of days, which I'm sure she doesn't want. But, if the dude has been to Israel very much I'm sure he'd be telling her stuff like that.

Lintilla

All middle-east current event concerns aside, my hipster friends went to some pretty wild parties while they were in Tel Aviv. If she were my friend I'd give her the spring break lecture about going to a big city with a boy she's just started seeing.

Monoxide

about the passport concerns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_passport#Countries_that_do_not_accept_passports_which_contain_Israeli_stamps_or_visas

so if she's planning on visiting any of those places any time soon (which I wouldn't recommend, for the most part) she'll be fine with an Israel stamp on her passport

Eat_Fire

I appreciate all the posts so far thank you for the replies. Any other input would still be valued as I would like to consider anything possible to pass along to her.

Balgair

I'd suggest getting outside of Tel Aviv, if her schedule permits. Obviously conflict zones are no-go, but the vast majority of the country is littered with awesome archaeological sites, beautiful Mediterranean coastline, mountains, deserts, and some great food. All that stuff is safe. Or she can do the typical touristy stuff...if she wants to get her like-wow-this-is-totally-where-jesus-was-lolz on.

Just something to remember (and this goes for any country "in conflict"), it's never as bad as the news would lead you to believe. Not to downplay the immense struggle that many people are going through, there and elsewhere in the world, but it's never as atrocious as we're lead to believe.