Travel Review: Luxury Israel Trip, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Herzliya, Old Jerusalem, The Golan Heights, Masada National Park, Jordan Valley

My wife and I had never been to Israel and always had it on our "bucket" list, but never made it a priority. We thought we would go with friends, but finally decided not to wait any longer, and we planned a trip for just the two of us. As someone who has the good fortune to have gone on several "high end" vacations for which I have carefully worked up itineraries with my local travel agent, I was a little concerned that working through Zicasso might not get me what I wanted. As soon as I made my inquiry, someone from Zicasso called me and walked me through the process and made me feel very comfortable. They told me that based upon my preferences, they connected me to two agents that specialized in private and small group tours, and that they felt would give me exactly what I wanted. After working with both agents, we decided to go with this travel company. Both companies were very responsive and we made the decision based upon the fact that this travel company was owned and operated by a tenth generation Israeli family, which I felt would give us a different experience than touring with a company that was owned an operated by an American family. My instincts turned out to be correct, as we had the pleasure of requesting and getting the owner of the company as our guide and travel companion for 8 days. Traveling thru Israel with him was amazing. Not only did he know the history of every place we traveled, in many cases, he or his family were actually part of that history. His insight and opinions could only have come from someone who has lived his entire life as an Israeli and was born at the same time that Israel became a state. When we left Israel, we felt that he was no longer our tour guide, but was now a friend. Not only was he great, but his entire company was really special. The communication before our trip was informative, and from the time we landed in Israel and were met by his staff until we checked in for our return flight, everything went smoothly and was handled with the utmost professionalism.