Being a techie, that is what I will discuss first, as the right tech can make things seriously easier.
- What to buy: Electrical adapters. Buy this! (click on image for clearer text)
- What to bring: USB cords, USB power adapters. Your adapters and laptop power equipment will almost always say 110-230v. If it only says 110, don’t bring it! Israel has 220v. If you bring any electrical equipment that requires 110v, you will need a transformer adapter, which is bulky and heavy. We did not bring one, and did not need one. Be sure to not leave your adapters behind when you change your accommodations!
- Cell Phone: Put your smart phone in Airplane Mode and only turn on wireless when you need it while traveling, to avoid roaming charges. Do not take your phone off Airplane mode until you get a local Israeli SIM card in the phone.
- As SOON AS POSSIBLE get a SIM card for your smart phone. This is the most important thing you can do to make finding your way around on day one easier! For my Droid Turbo, we had to change settings for the network type to GLOBAL, and it took the guy in the store a while to get it working. Bring an IPhone if you can. When you remove your US SIM card, tape it to the back of a card in your wallet, so you don’t lose it.
- Have a currency converter app. While we were there, it was about 4 NIS (New Israeli Shekels) to one US Dollar. The SIM card I got for my droid was about 140 NIS ($35) for one month unlimited talk/text and 3 GB data. I was there two weeks and used only about 1 GB data with all my mapping and searching.
- Skype: This is great for keeping in touch with family. Purchasing the call option for Israel was about $16 or so for the month, and allowed me to call Israeli land lines from the US before I left to set up reservations and such. There is good wireless almost everywhere, and Skype had about a 70% success rate, and re-connects when the call is dropped.
I am happy to report, that we had about a 70% success rate in terms of properly planning and executing the tips above. Better luck when you go!