Hi gang-
A little help is needed. I'm travelling to Israel in one week. I'd like to spend one day in Tel Aviv, two in Jerusalem and three days between Ein Gedi and Akko.
My flight is taken care of and I'm looking for some tips on a budget for food, local and inter-city travel and accomodation. We're planning on staying in hostels and eating mostly street food. Any tips as to how much cash I ought to bring?
I'm considering around 1500 NIS.
Any help would be much appreciated...
I'm guessing dorm beds will run you NIS50-100 max.
Accommodation 600NIS
Transport - TLV-JER is NIS20
JER Ein Geddi is probably about NIS 30
And TLV to Akko by train won't be more than NIS30-40
Airport TLV or Jer-Airport is about 20-30 (unless you are flying in on Saturday or Friday night and need a cab...)
Transport 350-400NIS
And then there's food... It's rather cheap on the street - a falafel will run you about 10-15NIS, a Schawarma about 20-25NIS
You can get fruits and vegetables from any market for cheap
You can also get great bread, pita, cottage cheese in any supermarket or grocery store for very cheap.
Food - 70 a day (~400_
I think 1500 should be enough
Accommodation in the Ein Gedi area is expensive (the youth hostel at Masada is 170 shekels or something like that, inc breakfast and dinner, and the Ein Gedi YH is more than 100) so I would suggest not staying the night there to save money. The cheapest accomm in Jerusalem is found near to Damascus Gate, at the Faisal or the Palm Youth hostel (both 25-35 a night inc a meal) and since the dead sea is so close it would make sense to do it as a day trip.
I looked up the cost of transport for you. Tel Aviv to Akko by train (one way) is 65.50.
Jerusalem to Ein Gedi by bus (one way) is 32.50.
But the good news is that Jerusalem to Tel Aviv by bus (one way) is only 18!
What about things like admission costs? For example, the Israel Museum is 32. The Ein Gedi national park is 23.
Entertainment? Obviously the cost of that depends on what you want to do.
It sounds like you are planning to buy shekels in your home country before you arrive. It's always cheaper to buy currency in its own country. Unless you have a stash of shekels already, wait till you get here. There are exchange bureaus all over the place.
I did a very rough calculation as follows:
Accommodation 100 a night - this is not unrealistic; I think 50 is very unrealistic unless you go to one of those rock-bottom places that Ros85 mentions.
Fares 80 a day (obviously you won't travel every day, so this is perhaps a bit on the high side, but not much)
Food 50 a day, very stingy
Museums 20 a day (averaged out, some days you won't).
Multiply by 6 and that comes to exactly 1500. Nothing there for any other contingencies. You don't want to have to worry about whether you can afford to buy a glass of juice or hop on a local bus to save a long walk. I think you need more.
You say "in a week" - do you mean you are travelling a week from today? Bear in mind that it will be Easter, not a holiday in Israel but a very busy time for tourists and pilgrims. If you don't have accommodation booked you might find yourself having to pay a whole lot more.