Anyone genuinely worried to travel for fear of being caught up in a terror attack

Disgruntled Badger

Nope. Travel broadens the mind. If you keep weighing up the risks you'd never leave you bed...get out there, look around, enjoy yourself

masculinist

At this stage in my life when a location comes up in a Hollywood movie I can usually exclaim '' I was there'' ! It's nice to put the world into a personal context.

With all the troubles in the Middle East at the moment I checked for flights and they're not too expensive.

Would it be possible to visit Jerusalem , Gaza and so on and see with my own eyes whats happening there ? And do it safely ? I don't know anyone from there.

At bars and clubs do they have any problems with terror attacks compared to London and Paris etc ?

This is just an idea at the back of my head. Maybe not soon but eventually I intend to visit. Has anyone been and come back with a story I can learn from ?


*Important please be civil. Theres good and bad things in every country. I dont want the thread closed. I want travel advice for an Irish guy from a neutral country. If WW3 starts it wont matter where in the world you are. *

Hana98

I was thinking about going here too. From looking it up and seeing travel forums, it seems fine except for visiting the Gaza strip. There might be some minor restrictions though. I think though if you go you might get a stamp on your passport and you wouldn't be able to go to other countries like Egypt because of it. Also, be wary of what time of year you travel because I think they close some places down because of certain religious customs. But to answer your main question, it does seem mostly safe. This is only from a bit of googling. So don't hold me on it Out of curiosity, what was the price of flights?

Peregrinus

Most Western governments have travel advisories in place that say you need to exercise reasonable caution when visiting Israel, that you shouldn't visit the West Bank unless you have a particular need to go there and if you do you should take extra precautions, and that you shouldn't visit the Gaza strip under any circumstances.

For Israel proper, basically, the advise is be vigilant about your personal security at all time, and pay attention to local media to learn of actual or likely trouble, and avoid it.

If you do have a need to visit the West Bank, be aware that your travel insurance may not cover you, or may only cover you if you need an extra premium.

If you visit Gaza your travel insurance will certainly be void, and if you get in any kind of difficulty your government will probably not be able to do much to help you.

There are terrorist incidents in Israel from time to time. Generally foreign travellers are not specifically targetted, but in the nature of terrorist incidents they can nevertheless fall victim.

Re what Hana said; having an Israeli stamp in your passport may be a problem entering some Arab countries, but it's not a problem for entering Egypt or Jordan. Nowadays, anyway, the Israelis mostly give you a visa on a separate slip of paper so that this problem is avoided.

masculinist

Hana98 wrote: »

Out of curiosity, what was the price of flights?

To answer your question I found a return flight in a week's time for 400 with a stop in Turkey . I wish I was in college again with no commitments...

masculinist

Peregrinus wrote: »

Most Western governments have travel advisories in place that say you need to exercise reasonable caution when visiting Israel, that you shouldn't visit the West Bank unless you have a particular need to go there and if you do you should take extra precautions, and that you shouldn't visit the Gaza strip under any circumstances.

For Israel proper, basically, the advise is be vigilant about your personal security at all time, and pay attention to local media to learn of actual or likely trouble, and avoid it.

If you do have a need to visit the West Bank, be aware that your travel insurance may not cover you, or may only cover you if you need an extra premium.

If you visit Gaza your travel insurance will certainly be void, and if you get in any kind of difficulty your government will probably not be able to do much to help you.

There are terrorist incidents in Israel from time to time. Generally foreign travellers are not specifically targetted, but in the nature of terrorist incidents they can nevertheless fall victim.

Re what Hana said; having an Israeli stamp in your passport may be a problem entering some Arab countries, but it's not a problem for entering Egypt or Jordan. Nowadays, anyway, the Israelis mostly give you a visa on a separate slip of paper so that this problem is avoided.

The lord mayor who I didn't vote for was recently over there . Any idea if he went into Gaza or Westbank ? Is there anything to see there except crowds of disaffected youths burning tyres ? Can those areas be seen from a safe vantage point without having to go through stressful checkpoints risks etc . The camera lens doesn't do reality any justice . For example the walls of Derry looking down on the bogside was meaningless to me until I actually stood there

zac8

I don't think you can get into Gaza. The West Bank is fine though. In fact that's were Bethlehem is which gets plenty of visitors on a daily basis. You can get a taxi from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and from memory was quite reasonable. We used the same driver then to take us to different sites outside the city. You can experience the Dead Sea from here too although we traveled over to Jordan to do this. You would really need the guts of a week to make the most of it.

Jerusalem itself feels very safe due to the high level of security there. Incredible place and cheap enough to get to with Turkish Airlines.

Fred Swanson

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Call me Al

We have been. Its a very interesting country. There is so much history. But it's very much divided. You might have an Israeli town and across the motorway you might see an Arab equivalent.
Tel Aviv is very cosmopolitan. Great food and shopping. The Old Jaffa arab district is amazing and worth spending some time looking around. There's an underground museum on the hill that goes through the history of the old city. Haifa is another beautiful city.

We took a guided tour from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and Bethlehem (which is in the WestBank). Jerusalem is incredible for many and varied reasons. I felt an undercurrent of tension travelling into the WestBank and in hindsight it wasn't wise to go. The transport and guides had to change (I felt like we were being watched the whole time) and the guide wasn't the most pleasant. We had security with us who were constantly on the lookout. But nothing happened.

On the whole it was a great trip. We didn't get any stamps on our passport entering or leaving through Tel Aviv airport. My husband has been many many times and never had an issue with his passport elsewhere. It might be different travelling through other border crossings though.

masculinist

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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They appear on the maps to be small enough areas. Can they be viewed from the Israeli side at all ?

Fred Swanson

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masculinist

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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wow . That sounds really like some experience . Not a place to being the family. There's probably pictures of the streets and sites online somewhere ?
The prospect of being kidnapped is the part which would deter me from visiting. The fact they have a mall and hotel and restaurants etc while also being a warzone makes it seems sort of surreal

Peregrinus

masculinist wrote: »

They appear on the maps to be small enough areas. Can they be viewed from the Israeli side at all ?

Advice is not even to approach within a few km of the Gaza border. There is a heavy security presence on the Israeli side, and you will attract their not-very-subtle attentions, plus there are missiles and grenades and the like lobbed over into the Israeli side from time to time, and you don't want to be the target of that.

Having said that, if you want to approach the Gaza border, you can. But I don't imagine you will see very much other than the the border fortifications themselves, which are substantial. There are a limited number of crossing points on the Israeli side of the border; approach at one of these, since if you approach the border at a point where crossing is not permitted, there's a high likelihood that somebody, on one side or the other, will think your intentions must be hostile.

munchkin_utd

masculinist wrote: »

wow . That sounds really like some experience . Not a place to being the family. There's probably pictures of the streets and sites online somewhere ?
The prospect of being kidnapped is the part which would deter me from visiting. The fact they have a mall and hotel and restaurants etc while also being a warzone makes it seems sort of surreal

there was an irish person kidnapped maybe 10 years back along with a few others in Gaza. Teaching english (possibly using bibles!). In the end they were all released.
That was the week that ISIS started chopping peoples heads off on video, so I am sure it was a scary experience for all involved.

As for not travelling somewhere, from the looks of it London is to be avoided thanks to low level scumbags.
60 killed this year so far in stabbings.