Israel 6 Days Program

DAY 1 - Bucharest - Tel Aviv - Haifa
Departure from Bucharest to Tel-Aviv, arrival at Ben Gurion airport. After customs formalities we start our journey to the Holy Land by going up the Mediterranean coast to Caesarea, the place where Cornelius was baptized and from where St. Paul went to Rome. We arrive in the city of Haifa where we see the beautiful Bahai Gardens and the Stella Marris Church (the cave of the prophet Elijah the Thezvitean).
Accommodation and dinner at hotel in Tiberias/Nazareth

DAY 2 - Cana of Galilee - Nazareth - Mount Tabor - Mount of Happiness - Capernaum
Breakfast. We begin our day with a visit to Cana in Galilee, the place where Jesus' first miracle took place, the miracle of the pre-figuration of water into wine. We continue to the town of Nazareth, the childhood home of Jesus Christ.
Here we will visit the Orthodox Church of St. Gabriel, built over the spring believed to be the Virgin's, and then we will go to the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, where there is a grotto where the Virgin Mary was told by the Archangel Gabriel that she would give birth to Jesus.
We head towards Mount Tabor, the place where the Transfiguration of the Lord took place. In the Greek Orthodox church there is a miracle-working icon of Our Lady.
We continue to the Mount of Beatitudes where the Saviour Jesus Christ gave the Sermon on the Mount.
Optional - cruise on the Sea of Galilee, as it was in the time of the Saviour.
We will go to Capernaum, the city most loved by the Saviour and where he performed most miracles. Here we will be able to see the ruins of the Synagogue and the house where St. Peter's mother-in-law was healed.
Next is Tabgha - a place that recalls the miracle of the multiplication of 5 loaves and 2 fish and the feeding of over 5000 people.
Hotel accommodation and dinner in Tiberias/Nazareth

DAY 3, Jordan River - Hozeva - Dead Sea - Jericho
Breakfast. We drive down the Jordan Valley with a stop at the Jordan River - the true site of Jesus' baptism. Then we will go to Hozeva where we will visit St. George Monastery. The church is dedicated to St. George the Hozevitch and St. John Jacob of Neamt. Also in the monastery is the cave where the Prophet Elijah lived for many years. Afterwards, we will make a short stop at the Dead Sea - at the lowest point of the world - 420 meters below the planetary ocean.
We will then head to Jericho, the oldest city in the world, where we will visit the Church of the Buddha of Zacchaeus, then we will head to Mount Temptation for a panoramic view of the Carantania Monastery on Mount Temptation.
Hotel accommodation and dinner in Bethlehem

DAY 4 - Jerusalem - Mount of Olives - Mount Zion - Via Dolorosa
After breakfast we will go to Jerusalem, also called the City of Peace, on the Mount of Olives, where we will visit: the Orthodox Monastery of the Ascension of the Lord - The Ascension of the Lord to Heaven and where we have the opportunity to see the place where the head of St. John the Baptist was found for the second time. The Pater Noster Monastery, the place where according to tradition the Saviour taught His disciples the Lord's Prayer "Our Father"; the Monastery "Dominus Flevit" ("The Lord wept") built in the shape of a tear; the Garden of Gethsemane with the Church of the Nations built on the place where the Saviour prayed before being caught; the Church of the Tomb of the Mother of God where we will descend the 48 steps to the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and the Cave of the Betrayal, the cave where the Lord was
Jesus was imprisoned before his trial. We enter the Holy City of Jerusalem through St. Stephen's Gate and walk the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross), with the 14 stops of the Saviour Jesus Christ, reaching the Church of the Holy Resurrection where we will see all the holy places: Golgotha, the Stone of Anointing, the Holy Sepulchre, the place where the Holy Cross was, etc). Afterwards we will go to Mount Zion where there is the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, the Foyer of the Last Supper (the site of the first Christian church in the world) and the Tomb of the Holy Prophet and Psalmist David. Visit the Jewish area of the Holy Citadel at the Wailing Wall.
Hotel accommodation and dinner in Bethlehem

DAY 5, Bethlehem - St. Sava Monastery
After breakfast we will visit the Orthodox Church of the Birth of the Lord in Bethlehem which houses the cave where Jesus Christ was born and the miracle-working icon of the Mother of God called "Bethlehemite" or "Bethlehem's Advocate").
The Milk Cave where the Mother of God stopped with the Child, on the night when the righteous Joseph was commanded by the angel to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt. Afterwards, we go to the wilderness of Judea to visit the Monastery of St. Theodosius with the Cave of the Magi where the tombs of St. Theodosius, St. Sophia - mother of St. Xavier, St. Evlogia - mother of St. Theodosius, St. Theodota - mother of St. Cosmas and Damian are located. From the Monastery of St. Theodosius we will go by taxi to the Monastery of St. Sava, a monastery dating from the 17th century. We return to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Shepherds' Field, the place where the shepherds used to sleep on the night of the birth of the Christ Child.
Hotel accommodation and dinner in Bethlehem

DAY 6 - Ein Karem - Tel Aviv - Bucharest
Breakfast. Drive to Tel-Aviv to visit the Romanian Embassy in Jerusalem. Drive to Ein Karem, home of St. John the Baptist. Here we visit the Church and the birthplace of "the greatest man born of a woman" and the Spring of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the place where the Virgin Mary met her cousin Elizabeth. We move on to Lod where the church houses the tomb, the chain with which it was tied and part of the relics of St. George. We take a tour of Tel-Aviv (the city of spring), the most modern city in Israel and then we head to Ben Gurion Airport for customs formalities and boarding for our flight to Bucharest.