Is the Bible Lands Tour Safe?

That has been asked often and Here are the most recent comments from our Bible Lands Tours Tour designers and Tour Guides (Bro Tim Martin from Brooklyn Bethel and Bro Derek House of 'Bethel Tours London'!

Brother Concerned,

I received a copy of your note dated August 27 from Bethel Coach Tours regarding your concerns about going to Israel because as you put it, “We are indeed worried about many things there, we read daily in our press and feel Israel is a very dangerous place at this moment in time.” First of all, I want to thank you for your note and letting us know your concerns. My name is Timothy Martin and I have been taking groups to Israel for Bethel Coach Tours for the last two years. I am not sure just what you are referring to when you say, “we read daily in our press and feel Israel is a very dangerous place.” At this point in time there are travel warnings in Israel for the West Bank and Gaza ONLY. However, Bethel Coach Tours has never taken groups to the West Bank and Gaza (and has no plans to go to these places this year or anytime in the future.) Knowing how dangerous these places are we would not knowing go there and expose our travelers to the dangers there.

What about the locations in Israel we do plan to take our travelers? Please note what one reputable website says about traveling in Israel:

“Travel to Israel is safe. Security, Israel ... You wouldn’t know from the news channels that these two words do go together, of course, so you might be wondering whether you should come or not. Many governments issue advisories for travelers to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Does this mean Israel is unsafe? Jerusalem, was just voted one of the best cities for travelers in the world by a major travel magazine and, although there’s nowhere in the world that’s totally safe, Israel’s capital offers women travelers a level of safety and freedom no longer found in many other countries. That said, here’s the scoop on safe travel to Israel. Security is tight in Israel: you will find security checkpoints in most public places. You’ll go through metal detectors at every mall, government building or train station. You’ll be asked to open your bags for a security check before entering most department stores or major restaurants. At the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, your bags will be X-rayed as they would be in an airport. Every eating establishment will have a security guard. Israeli organized trips are accompanied by armed guards. In short – unless you’re a Hollywood celebrity, you’ll never have been this well-guarded in all your life.’

So as you can see in many respects traveling in the well-traveled areas in Israel is safe. I can say personally having been there two times that in all of the places I have traveled in Israel I never felt threatened or uneasy, in fact, in many respects I felt safer in Israel than in other places in the world.

Dear Concerned!

This is Derek & Polly from Carlisle, UK.

We thought you'd be interested to know that there's several of us going from UK all together;

This year will be our 4th visit to Israel; the last 2 years were especially truly wonderful with so many new sites and memorable treats; it gets better every year!

The dangers that we read of in the press are quite specific to the Gaza strip (which is effectively part of Egypt and nowhere near where we go) and also to the wilder parts of Sinai, which is even further away. Israel itself is one of the safest places to go to, in reality. It has a very high level of preventive security measures, and none of felt unsafe at any time (this question was asked in a questionnaire).

Both London and New York have massively higher rates of terror and crime than Israel, yet we can hardly keep up with the number of visitors going there with us... many thousands every year!