Vacation in Palestine Volunteering at the Excellence Center is going to be an awesome experience. However, as you may already know your schedule will be pretty flexible, and why not taking advantage of your free time to enjoy the touristic life a bit and do a vacation in Palestine
International volunteers will get four days off per month, in addition to Fridays, which are the holy days of Palestine. You will discuss your schedule with the staff and your own weekly day off during your first days of stay in Hebron. You may spend it as you wish: relaxing with your host family or neighbors, hanging out in the Center, visiting the city of Hebron, or going sightseeing in any of the famous cities of Palestine or just playing the tourist around a go relaxing in places like Tel Aviv, Haifa or the Dead Sea.
You may have passed through Jerusalem and Bethlehem in your way from Ben Gurion’s airport to al-Khalīl and you will have already had a taste of Damascus Gate (Bab el-Amūd) and Bethlehem 300. But these places have much more than meets the eye. You may ask a taxi driver for a tour of the graffiti Bansky drew on al-Jdar al-Fasil (the dividing wall). Also in Bethlehem, you will find the Church of Nativity, which deserves at least a visit, and Omar’s Mosque, one in front of the other. North of Jerusalem we have Nablus, famous for its soap factories and its ancient Arabic hammam. Its souq (“market”) is very famous and hosts the oldest and most delicious kanafeh restaurant: al-Aqsa. Kanafeh is a dessert made of kadaif pastry and a particular kind of cheese. Then you may take a taxi to go to the top of the hill that watches over the city named Samaa Nablus, and have some lemūn w na’na’ – a refreshing drink of water, ice, lemon and mint.
The weather is always sunny and hot during summer, so if you want to just lie on the beach and sunbathe, the we suggest that you buy sun protection and go to Jerusalem to get a bus bound to either Haifa, Akko or Tel Aviv: they lie on a part of the Mediterranean Sea that is characterised by warm, still water. Also, if you wish to experience swimming in the Dead Sea, there is a direct taxi to Jericho from Hebron. Immersing yourself and covering your body in its mud is extremely healthy. In addition, it is almost impossible to get sunburnt there because of the high humidity level. Nevertheless, the temperature is insanely high during summer, so bring plenty of iced water with you!
To conclude, Palestine has many historical places that are worth the while to be visited, as well as great relaxing venues such as Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea.. Whatever you plan on doing (vacation in Palestine) , we highly recommend to carefully plan it – especially your visits to al-Quds (which is the Arabic name of Jerusalem) – in advance, in order to have the best experience possible.
