Despite booking this tour through Viator as “7-Night Israel Highlights and Biblical Tour”, it merges with “Highlights Tour”, organized by CTO.
Overall, I found this tour to be a great way to get to know Israel. As it’s only a 7-night tour, time is a constraint as to how much one can see and visit.
The tour started in Jerusalem and gradually moved north to Galilee and the Golan Heights before heading west to the coast (Haifa) and south to Tel Aviv. Our guide, Pauli, and the bus driver were both great. Be aware that this tour can be physically demanding as mornings start early and there’s a fair bit of walking under the melting sun. There were also two optional tours we took: i) boat crossing of the Sea of Galilee, and ii) the Dead Sea.
In addition to all the amazing historical places we visited, we spent two nights at the beautiful Hagoshrim Kibbutz. It completely changed my perception of a kibbutz.
The only negative feedback I have relates to the hotel we stayed at in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Gate Hotel). Our hotel room and bathroom were quite dirty and breakfast was mediocre at best. In all fairness, when we booked the tour we opted for the cheaper room, but I could not imagine it would be this bad.
All in all, I highly recommend this tour, but some heads-up regarding the hotel in Jerusalem would have been nice.