{"id":588,"date":"2015-10-06T11:14:18","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T16:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/?p=588"},"modified":"2015-10-06T11:14:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T16:14:18","slug":"driving-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"Driving in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, \u00a0My wife and I were discussing the pros\/cons of driving vs being part of a tour. \u00a0Driving definitely adds a lot of stress to your trip, but it provides freedom of all sorts, and totally eliminates the moo-factor of existing in large groups of headset-and-hat-wearing-tourists. \u00a0We loved the freedom of seeing so much of this amazing country at our pace. \u00a0Having said that, here are the challenges you will face, and if you can’t avoid them, at least you can expect them!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Car rental:<\/strong> \u00a0A friend recommended Eldan. \u00a0It was right there with Alamo and Thrifty. \u00a0We paid right around $500 for two weeks for our 4-door sedan with a spacious trunk. \u00a0It cost about $65 (US) to fill the tank from empty, and we did that about 4.5 times.<\/li>\n
  2. GPS:<\/strong> \u00a0If you have a Garmin, you need to order a maps SD card online well in advance of your trip. \u00a0This can cost $80-$120. \u00a0Your cell phone is capable of doing what you need, if you set yourself up with data when you get there.<\/strong> \u00a0If you rent a GPS with your rental, they will charge $15-20\/day for your GPS–not worth it, and there is no Walmart to pick one up! \u00a0Use Waze instead of Google Maps! \u00a0<\/strong>Waze is more difficult to use, and displays in Hebrew (on my droid), but it speaks to you in English, and won’t lead you through closed areas (we learned this the hard way!). \u00a0Google Maps works great, but will not keep you out of trouble.<\/li>\n
  3. Speed Traps:<\/strong> \u00a0This is still a big mystery to me. \u00a0I dread finding out that I have several speeding tickets. \u00a0Waze alerts you of the camera-speed-traps, but you don’t really have a way to tell if you are getting a ticket. \u00a0Speed limits range from 60-110 Km\/hr, but it was not unusual to find yourself doing 140 in a 70, behind other people!<\/li>\n
  4. Driving:<\/strong> Thank G-d that you drive on the right side of the road! \u00a0Warning, the yellow and white lines are reversed! \u00a0Twice, I got in the left lane with a dashed white line in the middle of the road thinking it was two lanes going my way. \u00a0Don’t confuse no parking with no-entry signs. \u00a0It’s worth taking a few minutes to google the types of signs BEFORE you drive! \u00a0In the older towns, there are tons of one-way roads, with seemingly no way to get back to where you just were (Safed). \u00a0To make matters worse, building numbers are almost non-existent, often not numeric, and rarely in order. \u00a0Street signs are usually in Hebrew, Arabic and English, except for when they are not!<\/li>\n
  5. Gas:<\/strong> \u00a0This was the most frustrating part of my trip. \u00a0We had a rental car for two weeks, a Pugeau (sp?) that hated going up hills, and had a manual shift function (with no clutch!). \u00a0We didn’t find out that there are two types of gas: 95 and 98 (octane?), and I think I was supposed to use 98, but I didn’t find out until my last fill up before returning the car. \u00a0You definitely want the better gas for getting up the hills, which are very steep and plentiful! \u00a0Most of the gas stations do NOT have an ENGLISH button! \u00a0This means I always had to ask for help filling up my tank with my credit card. \u00a0Sometimes they require the number off the passport ticket you receive upon arrival at the airport, and also the license number of your car. \u00a0They rarely ask for a PIN or signature.<\/li>\n
  6. Take a picture of your license plate.<\/strong> \u00a0This will help you when you are getting gas, but may also help you identify your car if you lose it (don’t laugh.)<\/li>\n
  7. Mark on a map, or take a picture of street signs where you park your car in Jerusalem. \u00a0You can rarely park close to where you need to be, and it’s easy to get turned around. \u00a0(Learned this one the hard way too!)<\/li>\n
  8. Parking:<\/strong> \u00a0Blue and Red means no parking. Blue and White means pay\u00a0parking, \u00a0but free on holidays. \u00a0Always ask about parking, look for parking kiosks, but they often do not have an english button. \u00a0Put in 5 NIS per hour, and press the big \u00a0button. \u00a0If you over pay, it won’t give change, but will continue your time the next day. \u00a0Sometimes there is no kiosk (machine), and just a sign with a phone number to pay by phone. \u00a0You can’t do this with a pre-paid phone. \u00a0Parking tickets are 100NIS, but if God likes you as he does me, you’ll find the money on the ground to pay for your ticket.<\/li>\n
  9. Junk Email–Confirmations:<\/strong> \u00a0If you use HomeAway.com or Booking.com or something like that, they will send you the instructions on how to find your rental, pick up a key, enter the gate, where to park and everything you need. Use one email for ALL your reservations, and check the Junk, Spam, Clutter or any other boxes that may intercept this critical information. \u00a0Also, if there is any way you can give them a (US) number where your voicemail goes to email, that will make things easier.<\/li>\n
  10. Language:<\/strong> \u00a0English may be the universal language, but Israel does what Israel wants. \u00a0It doesn’t seem to matter if there is no way for you to pump gas, park, or read a street sign. \u00a0Be ready to stop and ask. \u00a0Many helpful people make everything possible.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Wow, \u00a0My wife and I were discussing the pros\/cons of driving vs being part of a tour. \u00a0Driving definitely adds a lot of stress to your trip, but it provides freedom of all sorts, and totally eliminates the moo-factor of existing in large groups of headset-and-hat-wearing-tourists. \u00a0We loved the freedom of seeing so much of … Continue reading Driving in Israel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":589,"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/israel.naef.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}