Green Olive Tours

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• Lexi Lator

  20 March 2018

  The Ramallah-Hebron-Tour offered a lot of insight in the everydaylife of palestinians and the current situation of the occupation. Amro was a cognizant and funny guide, King Solomon a safe driver. I highly recommend this tour and would definitely book Green Olive again.

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• Patrick Patrick

  26 February 2018

  Me and my girlfriend took the three-day-westbank-package including Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nablus. The tours were interesting and what we expected: An Palestinian view on the conflict with Israel and some insight in how this country runs.
  
  The home stay was great as well. The accomodation was neat, the food fantastic and the host family very nice.
  
  But a thing I really have to complain about ist the price of the package. Usually you would expect any benefits from booking a package. A coherent tour and/or financial benefits. In this case you have to pay a lot more and the only benefit is that they will provide a tour for sure. I have to admit it was my fault as well because all prices are on the website. But I didnt and had to find out that every one else in the bus was paying much less. We were there in the beginning of January shortly after Trump declaration (definitly off-season) and there were always more than enough people doing the tour.
  
  Dont be as stupid as I was and dont book the package!!
  
  For those who are into calculations:
  - Jerusalem All-Day = $93
  - Bethlehem Tour = ~$90
  - Nablus Tour - Central West Bank = ~$125
  - Accomodation including breakfast & dinner = $65 * 3 = $195
  = $503
  The package price is more than $700 per person.
  
  So my girlfriend and I had about $400 of additional costs together.

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• Nora Achrati

  31 August 2017

  This tour was really an exceptional experience. Yamen, our tour guide, exposed us to as much current culture (food, music, art, politics) as he did deep history, and he did it with enthusiasm and unabashed love for his work.
  
  Yamen met us at a drop-off with a view of Har Homa, an enormous illegal settlement between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and drove us through a nearby Palestinian village and out to Mar Saba, site of a 5th-century Orthodox monastery with a breathtaking view of cliffs, caves, and a valley below. On the way, we stopped for cardamom-laced coffee and a clear view of Jerusalem, including the wall that divides East from West, and Yamen pointed to features we might have overlooked otherwise -- like the barrels of water on every Palestinian rooftop, used for storing water to be used during the regularly occurring periods when the Israeli government decides to restrict its flow.
  
  We drove to Bethlehem City from there, listening to Muhammad Assaf tracks (Assaf is a Palestinian winner of Arab Idol; some of his hits are mad infectious), and got an up-close and personal view of the Separation Wall and some famous works of graffiti (including two new fantastic and terrible Trump murals). We stopped at Banksy's Walled-Off hotel, which had a free gallery of Palestinian artists' works (gorgeous and moving) and a 15-shekel museum (WELL worth it) dedicated to the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the Separation Wall.
  
  Yamen brought us to his family store to browse for souvenirs (there was no pressure to buy anything, though if you want to buy Palestinian-made products, this is the place), and then drove to Aida Refugee Camp. There, we visited the Al-Rowwad Cultural Center, where Palestinian women learn life skills and children get involved in all kinds of art, from dancing to theater to photography to videomaking.
  
  Lunch was maqluba --a rice/chicken/cauliflower dish from heaven -- at a downtown Bethlehem restaurant, followed by a tour of the Church of the Nativity and St. Catherine's (we were passed off to a registered Nativity tour guide here whose knowledge of the place was incredible) and a half hour of roaming the streets of downtown Bethlehem on our own.
  
  Bring water, money for lunch (~40 NIS), the Wall museum (15 NIS) and souvenir shopping, and wear comfortable shoes.

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• Esther Lorenz

  17 March 2017

  My tour with Yamen Elabed was excellent. It was very informative & enlightening. We covered a lot of ground by bus and by walking. Yamen is passionate about his work and life. I recommend him highly as your guide.

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• Michi Keppes

  13 January 2016

  I took the Hebron-Bethlehem tour and it was an outstanding experience. We got picked up from Tel Aviv pretty early in the morning (and punctually - that´s not something you can take for granted in Israel) and then taken to Jerusalem, where we gathered with the rest of our small group.
  
  From there on, we headed to Bethlehem to see the Church of the Nativity and a refugee camp. Our guide, a native Palestinian called Mouhanad (I hope I spelled this correctly) was extremely nice, patient, competent and spoke perfect English as well.
  
  Later our group headed through the Old City of Hebron and we got to chat with the locals there, and they gladly shared their experience of their struggle, just how it is to maintain the daily life there, which is full of hate and tensions from various sides. As a non-jewish person, who already spent quite a while in Israel, this gives you a really different perspective on the ongoing conflict, and I think it would be absolutely essential for tourists (and also for Israeli citizens, who have to possibility to go to the West Bank) to see this side as well.
  
  You won´t feel unsafe, your tourguide will be close to you, and everyone (from the Israeli soldiers to the Palestinian locals) will be friendly. The salespersons might be a bit pushy, but after a few "La, shukran", they give up, and they will not be disrespectful to you as an obviously Western woman.
  
  I might have to recommend a certain kind of dresscode if you do the Hebron tour: as a woman, it´s probably better to wear long pants (to not be mistaken as a settler), a scarf (that you could put on your head if needed) and take a long jacket that covers your arms - it´s a cold, windy and pretty conservative city.
  
  To sum it up: I will definitely book a tour again (probably with friends and family) and I can recommend it without any reservation. It is absolutely worth the money!

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• James Goodman-Stephens

  27 September 2015

  Amazing tour. Guide was great. We went on the tour to Bethlehem. Visited the wall, refugee camp, Bethlehem .. Desert. Would recommend 100%. A must is any trip to Israel and Palestine.

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• Jackie Petrosky

  14 January 2015

  I really enjoyed knowing that I would be able to travel safely and expediently between Israel and Palestine over Christmas. I was able to tailor-craft key areas that I had wanted to visit with suggestions from Noam. My stay with the wonderful Palestinian families reminded me of the warmth that I had received when working and living in Lebanon a year ago. I was able to balance my own activities with the tour's activities. The prices were fair, considering the high costs of travel in the region, esp. in Israel. I felt I could communicate at any time with Noam before and during my tour. I met some of the sweetest, most compassionate Israelis. I highly recommend this tour agency if you want to experience both Israel and Palestine without any government's or religious institution's agenda. I will definitely use this agency again. I am grateful to my Israeli acquaintance for recommending Green Olive Tours to me. I was saved from finding myself in a heavily-laden Christian tour or Jewish-American onemiddle of the road was good for me. Shalom/Salaam aleykum! Happy New Year!

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• Joanne DeVoe

  22 July 2014

  The four Green Olive day tours I took in Jerusalem and the West Bank, helped me to understand better the difficult conditions under which Palestinians must live. The guides were well informed and knew about life there first hand. They were respectful of everyone in the groups and I felt very safe at all times

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