The Itinierary:

• Trips are generally ten days long.

• The itinerary includes travelling throughout the country by bus to become familiarised with key historical, religious and cultural sites.

• Mifgash, which is Hebrew for ‘encounter’ allows participants to meet with Israeli peers, usually soldiers serving in the Israeli Defence Force who join the touring. By becoming friends, each party gets to know more about Judaism from a different perspective.

• Most trips include the Mega Event, which brings together people on the birth right trip to Israel from all countries who are led by various organizers. The Mega Event involves people with music acts and informative speeches by important Israeli ambassadors.

• As a short introductory trip, the program encourages participants to extend their stay in Israel for up to 3 months after the program is over.

Birthright Israel or Taglit-Birthright Israel is a not-for-profit educational organisation that sponsors free 10-day tourist travel in Israel.

The aim of the birth right organisation is to connect Israel with Jewish communities living in other parts of the world, and to strengthen the Jewish identity of Jews living in the diaspora who might not be as familiar with their Jewish history or the culture of the Jewish homeland.

The Itinerary:

-       A birth right trip to Israel is generally ten days long.

-       The itinerary includes travelling throughout the country by bus to become familiarised with key historical, religious and cultural sites.

-       Mifgash, which is Hebrew for ‘encounter’ allows participants to meet with Israeli peers, usually soldiers serving in the Israeli Defence Force who join the touring. By becoming friends, each party gets to know more about Judaism from a different perspective.

-       Most trips include the Mega Event, which brings together people on the birth right trip to Israel from all countries who are led by various organisers. The Mega Event involves people with music acts and informative speeches by important Israeli ambassadors.

-       As a short introductory trip, the program encourages participants to extend their stay in Israel for up to 3 months after the program is over.

Israel has economic ties with almost every country in the world including manufacture and consumer products. This means that you’re not only exposed to authentic Israeli goods, but you can purchase imported items that can’t be found in your home country.

There are countless opportunities for shopping in Israel in the shopping centres that have sprung up in the past few decades – including the Malkha Mall, the largest in the Middle East.

Many travellers find the colourful markets, annual bazaars, street malls, and hole-in-the-wall shops the most fascinating of all. Here you can find goods from spices to jewellery and other attractive imported and locally-made items.

Most stores are open from Sunday to Thursday between 9 in the morning and 7 in the evening. Stores that close for a break between 2 and 4 in the afternoon have a sign with their hours posted on the door. In some cities, stores are closed on Tuesday afternoons.

Many stores close at midday on Friday and open again on Sunday morning. Stores close in the mid-afternoon on the eve of Jewish holidays and remain closed throughout the holiday.

As much as you’d like it to be, your food discoveries in Israel will not be limited to felafel, hummus and tahina. While 3 decades ago, a visit to Israel would consist of these foods on every menu, nowadays, Israel has transformed into an ethnic melting pot of cultures and religions due to immigration.

This has thankfully propelled a diverse and vibrant food scene throughout the country. While the majority of Israelis are Jews of whom more than half were born in Israel, most of their parents, grandparents or great grandparents came to Israel from more than 120 countries, bringing with them foods, recipes and food traditions from six continents. And the smaller minority of non-Jewish Israelis have their own food traditions too.

On your birth right trip, you will find the standard hamburger, pizza and sushi plates. In fact, did you know that there are more sushi restaurants per capita in Tel Aviv than in any other city in the world?

But it is the restaurants that you can find in Israel that serve cuisines that exist nowhere else in the world that make it so interesting. Places like Mesopotamia, Persia, Yemen and Bukhara, where large Jewish populations created their own eclectic cuisines now exist in Israel and interestingly, can no longer can be found in their birth cities.

Once in Israel extension/change of return is $150 subject to seat availability in the same class of service only. Please contact United Airlines directly for all changes 03- 511-6777. Hours of operation Sun-Thu 8:30- 17:00.