Innovation & Startups

The Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus looks across the Old City, the Judean Desert, and the hills beyond Jerusalem. Its setting makes it a strong place to explore a side of the city that is often missed by first-time visitors. A walk can include the history of the university, its architecture, academic life, and the story of Mount Scopus itself. The area played an important role in the development of modern Jerusalem, from the early Zionist period through the years when the campus stood as an isolated Israeli enclave between 1948 and 1967. The campus reflects the ambition to build a centre of learning in Jerusalem, but also the reality that education, politics, war, separation, and reunion became part of its story.

The Sea of Galilee is one of the most important landscapes in the Christian world, but it is also a living lake surrounded by fishing villages, farms, Roman sites, and hills shaped by thousands of years of settlement. A private day can combine Capernaum, Magdala, Tabgha, Mount Arbel, a boat ride, local food, and quiet lakeshore viewpoints. The route can focus on the life and ministry of Jesus, Jewish communities in the Roman period, nature, or the geography of the Galilee. The story of the lake is one of ordinary life becoming sacred history. Fishing boats, village roads, fields, synagogues, and family homes became the setting for events remembered far beyond the Galilee.

The Upper Galilee is shaped by the waters that descend from Mount Hermon and gather into the sources of the Jordan River. Tel Dan, Banias, and Nahal Snir each offer a different combination of clear streams, shaded walks, archaeology, and border landscapes. A private day can be built around the ancient city of Dan, the springs and waterfall at Banias, and a riverside walk along the Snir, also known as the Hasbani. The route can be relaxed and family-friendly or more active, depending on the group and season. The deeper story is water. These springs have drawn settlement, worship, agriculture, and conflict for thousands of years, and still explain why the far north feels so different from the rest of Israel.

Haifa rises from the Mediterranean shore up the slopes of Mount Carmel. It is a city of sea views, religious communities, neighbourhoods, gardens, ports, and migration stories. A private day can include the Bahá’í Gardens, the German Colony, Wadi Nisnas, the Louis Promenade, local food stops, and viewpoints from Mount Carmel. The day can focus on Haifa’s mixed communities, modern history, architecture, religion, food, or the connection between the city, the mountain, and the sea. Haifa offers a different way of seeing Israel. Its character comes less from one dominant narrative and more from the daily presence of different communities, languages, faiths, and family histories sharing the same steep slopes between Carmel and the Mediterranean.

Travel south with Eli Romanovsky to explore the Negev through the people who chose to build their lives there. The desert was central to David Ben-Gurion’s vision for Israel. He believed its future would be shaped by the ability to live, farm, and create communities in the Negev. This tour follows that idea through early kibbutzim, desert farms, and the wide open landscape around Sde Boker. Visit Kibbutz Revivim, one of the communities founded in the 1940s under difficult desert conditions. Continue south to Sde Boker, where Ben-Gurion chose to make his home after leaving public office. Visit his desert home and his grave overlooking the Zin Valley. The route can include a local farm or winery, a walk near Avdat Creek, and a stop connected with the Nabataean Incense Route. The day can end in Mitzpe Ramon, making it a natural beginning to a longer Negev stay. This private journey combines Israel’s modern story, desert life, and the landscapes that continue to shape both.