Israel: Masada/Dead Sea

The next day (our first full one in Israel) we had a tour to Masada and the Dead Sea. The hotel’s breakfast buffet didn’t start until 7 am and most tours (in Hebrew, Russian and English) started around that time. You would think the hotel would have realized that and made it’s breakfast from 6 am- 9 am instead of 7 am- 10 am. We ate at the 24 hour bakery/café instead. We were met at our hotel by a guide who walked us to a bus. The whole thing was a little crazy. You had to know the company’s (Bein Harim) system. You got met at your hotel by a guide and brought to a bus. Then that bus brought you to a park in Tel Aviv where a bunch of other buses and vans were waiting and you had to find which one was for your tour and sometimes you then had to change again when you got to Jerusalem. Some guides explained all of this and others didn’t. When we got to our correct tour bus we had a female guide (I forget her name.) We drove to an Elvis Diner rest stop (it wouldn’t be our only time there) and had to pay for the restrooms – it was the only time in Israel we had to pay for them. Then we stopped at an Ahava Dead Sea Soap and Lotion Store. Next we entered the Israeli controlled part of the West Bank – there was a check point, but we didn’t even have to slow down. We dropped some people off at a Dead Sea resort (that we would return to in the afternoon) and then headed to Masada.

Masada was pretty impressive. The palace/fortress was immense. It was very hot (in the mid-90s) and very sunny that day. We took a very crowded cable car up to the top and then our guide walked us around the grounds explaining things. She was very informative and gave lots of history. I took a lot of pictures and enjoyed the views from the top of Masada to the Dead Sea miles away. At the end of the visit we were ushered onto the bus and couldn’t use the bathroom or get drinks.  One thing I didn’t like is that because we had gone out of our way to drop the people off at the resort earlier in the day we weren’t going to have lunch until 3 pm and I was starving. We then drove back to the Dead Sea resort and were given 2 hours free. The guide brought us to a cafeteria and left us. The place was expensive and wasn’t very good. It wasn’t until we got to the beach that I saw  the really good smelling places to eat. We rented some towels and then went to the changing rooms to change and then put our stuff in a rented locker and headed down to the sea.

Since it was a holiday it was very crowded. I was surprised that the Dead Sea wasn’t deep at all. It only went to my ankle. I did swim – well float – and took some pictures. All in all I wasn’t that impressed with the Dead Sea. While the scenery was nice, like I wrote before, the sea itself wasn’t deep at all. When it was time to leave we got on the bus and they drove us close to our hotel in Tel Aviv – we arrived around 7 pm. We went back to the 24 hour bakery/café for dinner and then back to our hotel.