Christian Tours

Introduction To Christian Tours

We have an extensive set of short Christian itineraries listed by region of the country. We also suggest nation-wide multiple-day tours. You can put together several of the regional tours and create your own nation-wide multiple-day tours or use our suggested nation-wide multiple-day tours.

Look to the left to view the regional itineraries and the multiple-day tours or if you desire, go to the site description tool bar to learn more about individual sites.

Multiple-Day Tours and Short Regional Itineraries

Christian Group Tours

Our Christian Group Tours are tailored to the specific interests of your group. More than two billion Christians in the world today share common beliefs but emphasize different priorities during a visit here. We respect those differences and insist on crafting your tour to your priorities.

Christian Tours From Jerusalem to the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea region is in Jerusalem’s backyard. Within a half hour of passing out of Jerusalem and into the Judean Desert we have descended 1200 meters (4,000′) to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea. The Sea is fed by the lower Jordan River and it was not far from here that the Children of Israel crossed the dry river bed into the Holy Land.

We experience the sudden transition from green Jerusalem to the Judean Desert, the smallest desert in the world. Due to its quiet and proximity to the Holy City, it became, during Byzantine times a popular place for monks to live out one of the ideals of Christian life. Today we can see the remains of some of those places in the largest Jewish town in Judea, Maaleh Adumim. This community continues to expand, a bedroom community of Jerusalem, whose industrial area was home to a Soda Stream factory where both Palestinian Arabs and Jewish Israelis were employed side by side.

Christian Tours On The Coastal Plain And Lowlands

If you’re based in Tel Aviv and want a one day tour of Christian sites along the Coastal Plain it’s best to start right in the oldest part of Tel Aviv, biblical Jaffa.

That’s because Jaffa was the historic entryway to the Holy Land and the holy city of Jerusalem, which was a two day journey inland, up into the hills of Judea. And it was from Jaffa that the prophet Jonah set sail to evade his God-given responsibility to warn the city of Ninveh to repent its evil ways. Here Saint Peter had his fateful vision described in Acts 10 which ends with Peter journeying, with God’s approval, to the Roman Centurion Cornelius, located in the Roman Capital of Judea, Caesarea.

Time permitting we can also head inland to the base of the Judean Hills to the church at Emmaus. It was on the road to Emmaus, and then later in the town itself where two of the disciples saw Jesus, after his resurrection and then made a hasty journey back to Jerusalem to report of their experience to the other disciples.

Christian Tours In Areas Surrounding Jerusalem

Much of the New Testament Gospels took place in areas just outside of modern-day Jerusalem and Christian pilgrims should visit these places as a part of their spiritual journey. No pilgrimage should miss the town of Bethlehem, just to the south and right next door to Jerusalem, a 15 minute drive from the Old City of Jerusalem.

While there their first priority should be a visit to the Church of the Nativity, under which Jesus was born. Then there’s the Sheperd’s Field, just outside of town and a more pastoral setting in which to contemplate their faith and its message. Local Christian shops manufacture both hand-carved and machine-carved native Olive wood depictions of Nativity scenes which they will ship directly to patrons homes.

To the west of Jersualem, about 20 minutes away by vehicle is the church at Emmaus, the town where Jesus appeared to disciples when they invited him to spend the night with them, after his resurrection. To the east of Jerusalem, down a steep twisting road one eventually finds oneself able to cross a stream via a pedestrian bridge in the midst of the Judean Desert and arrive at St. George’s Monastery. The monastery was first built here in the 6th century, first destroyed by the Persians in 614 and finally rebuilt in 1901 where Greek Orthodox monks continue to live. The next stop, just a half hour away in Jericho, is the spot where Jesus inquired of the tax collector Zacchaeus, who had climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see Jesus (Luke 19:1-10) if he would invite him to a meal and nearby is the Mount of Temptation where, after his baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus spent forty days and nights fasting and meditating while Satan tried to tempt him to stray from his course.

Christian Tours In And Around Jerusalem’s New City

Pilgrim sites are divided between Old and New Jerusalem for convenience sake. In the Old City a pilgrim faces significant spiritual possibilities; attempting to see New City sites should be reserved for another day. In the New City a good hiker can cover some of the important pilgrim sites over the course of a day. Other sites require vehicular transportation due to their distance from the city center.

Without a doubt one of the most significant spiritual experiences, especially for Protestants, occurs at the Garden Tomb, located just a five minute walk from the northern exit of the Old City, the Damascus Gate. Reputed, by Protestants, to be the true site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the site includes lush gardens, reminiscent of the biblical verse describing the site of the crucifixion.

Christian Tours In And Around Jerusalem’s Old City

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

The courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, seen from the roof of a neighboring Greek Orthodox chapel.

Via Dolorosa

Church of St. Anne and Bethesda Pools.

Western Wall Prayer Plaza

Women relatives of a 13 year old boy celebrating his bar mitzvah ceremony at the Western Wall peer over the separation barrier between men and women worshipers.

Mount Zion

Mount of Olives

Siloam Pool

Christian Tours in the North Country

The Galilee is the backdrop for most of the scenes in the Gospels.

If you’re based in the Lower Galilee or making a day trip from another region, here are some of the Christian sites you must see, and just a few of the many other gems(*). We will divide the sites into day trips. Remember that in this case the itinerary is very ambitious. This means that we cover many sites without the ability to meander about at all of the sites.

One or Two day tour

The sites listed below will take you a very intense day or a more leisurely two days. When we begin to add in the off-the-beaten-track gems you easily reach a full two days of touring.

Nazareth, childhood home of Jesus, has several moving, historical sites with which we begin our tour. The Church of the Annunciation, highlight of this Franciscan compound, is the traditional site of the Angel Gabriel’s meeting with the Virgin Mary. Nearby, over an area said to be the place where the townsmen engaged in commercial activities stands the 20th century Church of St. Joseph.

About a ten minute walk north of the The Church of the Annunciation, we approach the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel. If time permits stop on the way to the church as the spice shop along the road. In the church a spring issues forth out of the rock. This spring was used until the 1960’s. Nearby is the so-called Mary’s Well, a symbolic representation of the ancient well.

Later, we will walk through the Old City market of Nazareth and see the Church-Synagogue of Nazareth, said to be built over the ancient synagogue from the time of Jesus. If time permits, wandering the streets of Old Nazareth is worth while.