Necropolis of Bet She’arim is a significant monument of Jewish history, but I suspect only a dedicated WH chaser would include it on an itinerary when visiting Israel for the first time. This is not a must-see but it has to be said that it is one of just a…
For reasons that were not exactly in my control, my original itinerary for the Israel trip underwent a few last-minute sequencing changes. I ended up with a bit more driving between the north of the country and Tel Aviv than I had initially anticipated. On the other hand, I got…
The Bauhaus Movement of the first half of the 20th century left an indelible mark on Tel Aviv, as German and other European émigré artists applied the concepts of the modernist school during the growth of the young metropolis from 1933 onward. There are over four thousand examples of that…
Tel Aviv was my base for the entirety of my two-week stay in Israel. In between day-trips, I gave myself one full day of dedicated exploration of the city and two more days for taking it slow and easy. From the tourist point of view, that is more than enough…
My journey to Israel started with a layover in Istanbul. I’ve never been to the Turkish capital and decided to use the opportunity of a connecting flight to plug that gap on my travel résumé, if only a little. A 9-hour interval from the arrival of the incoming flight to…
My last trip of 2019 was epic by any measure. I spent close to two weeks in Israel for the very first time in my life. Along the way, I also visited Istanbul, explored a bit of south of Jordan, and set foot in the West Bank, adding 4 more…
You would have to go all the way back to mid-January for my last post not related to overseas travel, and even that was an output of a multi-day trip. Appearances notwithstanding, we do occasionally get out and about for short trips in our local area. Here is a recap…
On our last day of the Croatian itinerary, we rented a boat for a tour of Elafiti islands, off the Adriatic coast north of Dubrovnik. We opted for a traditional Dalmatian boat, which afforded a private day-long arrangement at reasonable cost. The downside of that was the low speed at…
From Dubrovnik in Croatia it takes less than an hour of driving to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro, which is technically at the southern edge of the Dalmatian Coast. Or, should take, if Montenegro ever joins the EU and the border controls are relaxed; nowadays, crossing the border on…
The second part of our Croatian itinerary had Dubrovnik as the base. Similarly to Split, we gave ourselves only one full day for exploration of Dubrovnik proper but returned every evening for a meal and a stroll, so managed to acquire a certain level of familiarity with the town. Objectively,…
My latest travel itineraries have been unapologetically influenced by the desire to visit as many World Heritage sites as I come near. In the instances of Portugal or the Dalmatian Coast, that aligned reasonably well with the notion of a typical first-time tour since the most popular and interesting destinations…
In a not widely known quirk of geography, a tiny sliver of the Dalmatian Coast belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, making it impossible to travel by land between Split and Dubrovnik without entering and then quickly exiting Bosnian territory. The border checks are comparatively relaxed on this stretch, never creating…
Krka National Park was not in our original plans. Just like the vast majority of first-time visitors to Croatia, we instead planned on visiting the much more famous Plitvice National Park (even bought tickets online in advance). The latter, however, is two-and-a-half-hour drive away from Split, where we made our…
The historic center of Trogir sits on a tiny island – roughly 500 meters long and 250 meters wide – that has been continuously inhabited for over 2,000 years. Since the early 13th century AD, the town was gradually rebuilt and embellished with examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque…
Šibenik, about halfway between Split and Zadar, has a visibly lower profile than other great towns on the Dalmatian Coast. That standing is probably reasonable: the town offers a single unmissable point of interest, and then a picturesque hillside old quarter that does not take long to get a fill…
While in Croatia, we technically only explored sights on the Dalmatian Coast. This historic region today encompasses counties with seats in Split, Dubrovnik, Šibenik, and Zadar, all of which featured on our itinerary. The latter is the northernmost of great Dalmatian towns. Wait a second!, says an attentive follower of…
For the first part of our adventure in Croatia we were based in Split. We budgeted only a single day for exploring the town, but we also returned to the city core every evening for 5 nights, so by the end of that stay we could plausibly claim a pretty…
I have now come to the end of my photo-material from the spring trip to Portugal. For those interested, over 600 photos from the trip have been uploaded to my Flickr galleries. Central Portugal (Coimbra, Alcobaça, Batalha, Tomar, Évora) Northern Portugal (Douro Valley, Guimarães, Bom Jesus do Monte, Amarante, Aveiro)…
As my Portugal photo-essay series over the last couple of months clearly shows, our traveling targets in the country were heavily aligned with my well-publicized pursuit of the World Heritage. And yet, practically all of the places that we visited would likely feature – or at least be considered as…
Sintra is one of the most impressive and attractive places to visit in all of Portugal. It is also one of the most maddeningly overcrowded. We were there in late April; boarding the local bus to drive up to the higher-situated sights, navigating the sole road that leads to those…