Joel Naftali

After booking plane tickets to Israel, I waited far too long to start looking for a tour guide. When I emailed a handful of guides, none were available. One of them highly recommended Jon of Cicerone, though, so I contacted him as well. 

Sure enough, he was busy too. 

However, by that time we'd decided that what we really wanted was a travel expert to help us design our trip. Then we'd rent a car and venture off by ourselves.

We spoke with a Jon a handful of times, and he custom-designed the perfect trip. I'm just going to quote from an email that I sent him, unsolicited, after we returned: "... every single thing you recommended was special. Every single day, we thought, 'now _that_ was the high point of the trip.' The lunch in the Galilee, the ATVing, the water tunnel in Jerusalem. We had a dinner at Eucalyptus that we'll always remember, and the Jeep ride in the crater was a truly special moment."

And that doesn't even mention the hotels. Jon booked us into hotels that matched out preferences exactly. Casual, comfortable--and of course with stellar breakfasts! We still talk about the meals at the Alexander Hotel in Tel Aviv.

A few times during our trip, we got a little turned around; every time, Jon was just a phone call away, to straighten us out. We can't recommend him highly enough. He was thoughtful, charming, responsible, responsive, well-informed ... he designed a vacation that the whole family loved, and that my young son will never forget.