My husband and I were planning a tour with our four adult children for my husband’s 65th birthday. We contacted Samuel and as one of my kids said “getting Samuel was a key to our whole trip’s success.” We toured Jerusalem, Massada and the desert area, the Golan Heights and Galilee, ending in Tel Aviv. His tours had themes to help us remember what we were seeing, he had expansive knowledge to answer questions, and he adapted to all our interests. I knew his humor and lightness would suit the entire age range, and I was confident all would work out when he asked to have a phone conversation with us about what we wanted before we comitted to hiring him. And here’s the thing–we are a hard bunch to please. We travel a lot, and are rather demanding. Specifically, my husband has Jewish heritage, but no knowledge or background in Judaism. I am a chaplain in a progressive church. Our kids are well-educated, and very diverse–one Greek and Roman major in college, one high school science teacher, one public defender interested in the Palestinian issue. We have LGBT issues, and some health issues that we were worried about. They are very interested in food and cooking, but can tire of one more church or ruin, even if I love old sites. Samuel found cooking demonstrations with Palestinian cooks, winerys with tastings near important sites, and cut down some of the minor stops so that we could learn, see and get to know Israel, without feeling like herded sheep. My daughter, the teacher, especially liked his summaries each day of the theme of the day tying together what we saw. It was very important to them that he could talk to them about the political issues of the day in an open way, and allow for the very different levels of religious attachment to the sites in Jerusalem, from reverance to detached interest.
Samuel also found an interesting guide to Bethlehem and Jericho who was Palestinian, so we had a different viewpoint from him. Thanks for a great trip, Samuel!
— Samuel
