Tiberias

Tiberias—a nearly 2,000-year-old city founded by Herod Antipas in A.D. 17-22 and named for the Roman Emperor Tiberius—hosts thousands of travelers every year, and is a favored vacation spot for Israelis. Located on what Israel calls Lake Kinneret and the rest of the world knows as the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias is Israel’s lowest city at more than 600 ft. below sea level and the country’s single largest source for water.

It’s one of the country’s most popular resort areas, with 30 hotels ranging from luxury, to bed and breakfast and hostels. Most are located on the beach, many with expansive lawns and views of the Sea of Galilee. Clients will also find a fun-filled, family water park here, a host of restaurants and bars, as well as a variety of both extreme and not-so-extreme watersports.

The city’s marina offers boat rides on Lake Kinneret, while a promenade crawls along the lake near the marina with a variety of cafes and restaurants specializing in fish entrees straight from the lake. Dozens of fishing boats head out each morning, returning with fresh fish for sale at the famed Tiberias Fish Market. From the Old City and promenade, the central boardwalk winds its way up to downtown and the commercial center packed with still more restaurants, cafes, pubs and souvenir shops. In the busy and crowded summer season, street bazaars and street musicians entertain, while horse-drawn carriages near the boardwalk offer tours of the town. Tell clients to taste test the delicious falafels in the city’s always popular, busy and crowded falafel complex.

The Galilee Region

Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee sit amidst The Galilee region, a mountainous area in Israel’s north that’s divided into two main parts—the Upper Galilee to the north and the Lower Galilee to the south. The highest peak in the Upper Galilee is Mount Meron, standing almost 4,000 ft. above sea level; Mount Kamon in the Lower Galilee sits at 2,000 ft. above sea level.

Because of the abundant water and fertile soil in The Galilee’s valleys, this region’s been densely populated since ancient times and has the largest variety of ethnic communities in Israel. There are Druze and Circassian villages who preserve ancient traditions, as well as Arab villages with either Muslim or Christian majorities or an equal balance of the two.

The Galilee runs just 80 miles from north to south along the Jezreel Plain, the site of Biblical Armageddon. Its eastern reaches on the far edge of the Golan plateau are 50 miles from the Mediterranean in the west. The drive from one end to the other is just one hour, but it’s filled with dozens of attractions, from recreational to historical and religious. It’s a short hop from major cities and sites around Israel: two hours to Tel Aviv and under three to Jerusalem or the Dead Sea.

The Galilee region, including Haifa and the nearby Dead Sea, is probably one of the oldest spa regions in the world. Visitors have been coming to the area for its “curative waters” for over 2,000 years. Camel caravans brought the “curative waters” of the Dead Sea to Cleopatra’s palace and Roman nobility savored the mineral springs by the Sea of Galilee and near Haifa in the Carmel Mountains where even today you’ll find soothing spa services in the Carmel forest.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

Hamat Tiberias National Park just north of the old city of Jerusalem, has 17 hot springs with 60C degrees (140F) waters that are said to contain approximately 100 minerals with unique therapeutic qualities that can be found only here. The springs’ waters feed the Tiberias Springs spa and its thermo-mineral pools.