In this post, I discuss how I was able to travel cheap to the Tel Aviv, Israel for approximately $90 USD for flight, accommodation, and transportation.

Israel is full of history from the Bible and also just miraculous feats that’s occurred during many major events of the world.

I’ve longed dreamed of visiting Israel to see some of the places I’ve read about in the Bible.

However, traveling to Israel can be relatively expensive. Note that if you really want to see more of Israel, you’ll need to plan to spend a bit more. I chose to take a quick trip just to see as much as I can in 2 days.

I always start with the big 3 expenses in traveling. To travel for cheap, you’ll need to save on Flights, Accommodation, and Transportation. The better deal you’re able to find for all 3, the more money you’ll be able to save.

Flights: -$10

Sorry, the itinerary below was in German. I’m actually not sure how the only receipt I got was in German.

The euro exchange rate at the time was about 1 EUR = 1.05 USD (February 2017) so total cost was approximately $239.

I actually decided to use the $250 Travel Credit I had from my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. So I still had about $10 to spend after paying for my flight to Israel.

I found the flight deal while searching on Google Flights. And then found an even better deal on Expedia.com

Accommodation: $0

Here is where things get sort of… interesting.

So I purposefully didn’t book too long of a stay in Israel. I was on my Round-the-World trip so I already didn’t have much time.

But I also found hotels and stay to be pretty expensive in Tel Aviv.

On top of all that, my flight arrived in Tel Aviv close to midnight. And I had my day tour booked at 6:00am the next morning.

So… I slept at the airport.

And that’s when 5 Secret Agents with guns and semi rifles interrogated me.

It was AWESOME!

And quite frankly, a bit nerve-wrecking.

At first, only 2 agents approached me. But as they listened to my story of how I was traveling around the world and only coming to Israel for a few days without a hotel, they grew suspicious.

Long story short, the director came out and interrogated me for almost an hour. They asked everything from my job to why I was visiting and even how much money I made!

Talk about safe security!

Transportation: $100

To get to the main city, I took the train which was a couple dollars. The tour picked me up in a bus and I paid $88 on Viator for a full day tour through Jerusalem.

As you can see, I tried to tell the tour company of my plans…

Tel Aviv was truly an experience I thoroughly cherished.

I love history and my worldview was shaped by the Bible. So it was incredible to walk through places like the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ pathway to Golgotha, Old and New Jerusalem, the place of Passover, etc.

I didn’t have as much time as I wished to visit Bethlehem and a few other notable places. Nonetheless, I had an awesome and memorable time in Tel Aviv, Israel.