Israel trip under 15k- possible?

amother

↑ OP ↓

Sat, Nov 16 2024, 7:56 pm

banana123 wrote:

Well first of all, how much of the $15k are you spending on tickets?

Answer that, and we might be able to help you.

15k would include the plane tickets. I have no idea how much they would cost because I haven't really looked into them yet. We would only fly elal because we don't want to take chances with cancelations. For accommodations, we'd want to stay in the Yerushalayim area but no need to be in a prime location and no need for a large, fancy place. I would expect to prep most of the food, maybe eat out once or twice. Would probably take buses to get around.

amother

↑ Cantaloupe

Sat, Nov 16 2024, 8:00 pm

amother OP wrote:

I think it's possible if you plan carefully and take public transportation. I did it for around that. Didn't eat out in restaurants or buy a ton of food in general. Did a mix of free and paid attractions.

amother

Holly

Sat, Nov 16 2024, 8:35 pm

amother Eggplant wrote:

Quote:

Plane tickets alone would cost you that amount or more

Not necessarily. I am flying direct in a few weeks and got tickets for $1400 (x6 is $8400). If you are are willing to have a stop over, it will probably be less.

A rental and food will cost. Not sure how much. Also depends how long you plan to stay.

how did you get such cheap flights?!

amother

Ghostwhite

Yesterday at 1:41 am

amother Holly wrote:

how did you get such cheap flights?!

That's not so cheap. I am also looking now for the summer and there are plenty of direct flights for $1293:

https://www.skyscanner.com/tra.....tops=!oneStop,!twoPlusStops

I don't know if this helps you, OP, but I'm planning to make this work by finding a family in Yerushalayim to swap apartments/houses and hopefully cars with us. Lots of families fly back here for the summer, and the house we can offer them is in a prime location and with 3 floors and nice sized yard, it's not huge by American standards but is positively enormous for ppl coming from Yerushalayim.

I'm also hoping to go in the summer. I have 3 kids who'd be going to sleepaway this year and a bunch more who'd need day camp if we stayed home. After doing the math, I think tickets to EY for 10 ppl will come out even cheaper than paying for 3 kids to go to sleepaway and another 5 to go to daycamp for one half.

elemeno

Yesterday at 6:51 am

That would be so exciting!
See if a travel agent can help you fly deliver, but the leg to israel through el al. May not work but cant hurt to try.
You can try to do an apartment swap (and car swap if you want) to get everything for free! Any bein hazmanim can work for that. Summer during av, succos, pesach… If not, you can see if people can post on neighborhood chats to try to get a good price for a rental.
If you’re willing to rent a small or non renovated apartment, it can be quite affordable.
For food, you can totally bring an extra suitcase along with some of your own cooked or prepared frozen food to cook when you’re here. Or you can go shopping and cook food like you normally do. Good spent have to be more expensive than you always spend. If you bring along, you know the places where you shop for cheaper and get good priced deals, and could be easier and cheaper than navigating the makolets in israel. Free or cheap activities can be just about anything!!

Let me know if you have any questions

amother

Steel

Yesterday at 7:51 am

We did it for 20k similar details
6 flying
From USA

Stayed in ey for 1 m

The biggest expenses were tickets and apt (8k in Jerusalem!!!!!)

Trips were mostly just experiencing the beautiful ey. A day in tzfas, day in meron, the kosel, the shuk...all don't cost much but u need a car.

If you're not picky w location u might find cheaper apt so once that's tackled, it should be cheaper.

Jmho being on a trip with a shoe string budget cud put a damper on everything. Arguing about purchasing a bottle of water for a thirsty kid etc. or a trinket makes kids feel deprived. Btdt

amother

↑ OP

Yesterday at 8:46 am

amother Steel wrote:

Jmho being on a trip with a shoe string budget cud put a damper on everything. Arguing about purchasing a bottle of water for a thirsty kid etc. or a trinket makes kids feel deprived. Btdt

So by 15k, I really mean the big ticket items like flights, accommodations, transportation, food in general. I don't mean literally nickel and diming every possible incidental expense. If incidentals add up to a few hundred or even 1000, that's not a big deal. I just want to know if the most important necessities, which are also the most expensive, but obviously can't be avoided because you need to get there, sleep somewhere, eat, and get around- are possible for about that amount or even less.

amother

Maroon

Yesterday at 9:36 am

We did it last February with 5 kids.

Tickets were about 1200 el al direct, 8400
About 150 to and from the airport both ways, 600
We rented an apartment for 450/night, you can find cheaper but we were going to visit a relative and wanted to be close by, 6 nights, plus a cleaning fee, total 3000
We brought some food frozen from home, cooked a bit, ate by a relative a bit. We bought lunch one day and supper one day. So food wasn't a big expense. We probably spent less money on food than we would have spent at home because we ate some meals with relatives.
We didn't do any attractions that cost money, aside for camel rides in the desert. We went to the kosel, kever Rochel, geula, visited gedolim, the shuk, old city, yam hamelech.
A big expense was getting around. We did mostly taxis, took the light rail a few times. It added up, but don't know how much. I'm sure it was at least $1K but probably even more.
We bought the kids drinks and a small thing in the olive wood store, also little trinkets in the shuk, and some Israeli candy.
Then there were things we bought for The trip, luggage, games, etc.
The trip probably cost us under or around $15K.

amother

↑ Valerian

Yesterday at 10:29 am

If you go for more than 2 weeks it pays to get a monthly ravkav. This allows you to travel daily all over Israel on trains and buses and light rails for a daily fee.
It’s about 100$ per person. Children less.
There are buses and train stations everywhere. I have one with my picture and id. So if I lose it I don’t lose the money I put on it. Every time I visit, I charge a “chofshi chodshi” on it. The only place I take a taxi is to kever rochel.
Also if you eat out in small falafel places, it’s not really more expensive than cooking at home, when you compare the exchange rate.

amother

Springgreen

Yesterday at 11:40 pm

If your kids are off in January, that’s the best time to go. Tickets are more reasonable then (in general-no way to know now) and the weather is more mild, but oppressively hot. The question here really depends on if you will go again soon or is this is more of a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Do you know your way around EY well enough to just take crowded public transportation with a whole family (and their gear) to where you want to go? If you could afford a car and could figure out where to park it, would you even be comfortable driving there? We were not. Tours were our lifeline. We knew we were being safely transported- the timing and details were all worked out. Same question with food. I know that if I am out on a day trip with my kids, I have limited time and energy to then cook. And that is in my fully stocked kitchen with a grocery I am familiar with nearby. When are you reasonably going to have time to shop and cook (and clean up!) in a foreign kitchen and with what utensils? I did bring a few things from home, but I felt the time I would have spent shopping and cooking were better spent experiencing EY. If you are going to do a trip like this every few years, it’s one thing, if not, save up for longer and do it right.

↑ DrMom

Yesterday at 11:56 pm

amother Nemesia wrote:

Best time to do this is Pesach, very possible at that time to find apartment and car swaps because families are going home. It does mean you need to make pesach in a foreign country, but I personally think its one of the most underrated times to come. Also, its a less packed crazy time.

Well if you come during Pessach, you'd better find an apartment swap (ideally some place you don't need to clean for Pessach) , because otherwise prices are outrageous.

And except for wartime, Pesach is typically very crowded.

amother

IndianRed

Today at 1:21 am

Definitely doable if you go with a budget in mind.

You can do a stopover to somewhere in Europe or nearby and then take an ELAL flight to Israel like this you know your flight won’t be canceled. Your first flight shouldn’t be canceled since it’s not to Israel.

Food in Israel is really not expensive, especially if you’re not big eaters but even then you’d be fine. Me & DH went to a really nice Meat restaurant and our bill was like $85 with dessert while in the US it would’ve been $200. Also groceries would be an expense in the US too.

ETA: please don’t skimp on food in Israel that’s a major advantage/attraction when going there. You and the kids will get to try all kinds of different foods. Please buy Falafel in a pita with chips, a baguette toast with all kinds of cheeses, ice creams in gas stations, snacks, slush drinks etc. and of course the Shuk has so much food to offer you can eat brunch and supper there. Yes it’s lots of fast food especially if you don’t want to spend as much in restaurants (again cheaper than the states but still it’s a restaurant) but when you get home after your trip you can go back to nutritious meals. Eating brunch or supper in a mall is not really possible in the US (American Dream has kosher now but that’s it as far as I know) so enjoy it in Israel. (Mamilla, or any mall). You can save by eating breakfast at your apartment like rolls with cheese, yogurts, pudding, vegetable salads, eggs, cereal etc. and later buy lunch & supper or buy brunch & supper.

BUT: if you go in a time of war you have to know your budget may just fly out the window with your tickets. I was there October 7 with a budget for Sukkos and unfortunately our tickets ended up costing us 2.5 times our original amount plus car and apartment rentals that had to be extended until we got a flight out.

amother

↑ Arcticblue

Today at 2:08 am

amother Maroon wrote:

I find it insane that it cost you 300 to get to and from the airport in Israel. I traveled with the same number of kids and took the train, very very convenient and much cheaper. I find it mind blowing that you decided to forgo food experiences but dumped ao much money on getting to the airport