In 1972, one of the most popular trips? The Holy Land

[SoCalDem]

I was a travel consultant in the Chicago area then, and the "rich folks" just loved their Holy Land Tours. Our community was a bastion of Polish Catholics and also had a large poplation of Jewish people, and since the iron Curtain was virtually impossible to visit, the Holy Land was THE PLACE to go back then..

For the really well to do, we had Maupintours..then Globus and TWA and on down the list.

The tours usually were quite long, and even the least expensive were out of reach for most of our clients.

It's mind boggling today to think back to the destinations on those tours (usually 21-28 days long)

They would usually fly to Rome, and start there..

then on to

Israel, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon,Egypt, Turkey..ALL of those places that even soldiers are afraid to go these days..kevlar or no kevlar..

In all cases, the clients came back praising the friendly, generous people they met in all those places..

Of course after the Olympics hostage-taking, things started to change and have only gotten worse..

Some of these trips were even "fly-drive" packages. Can you even imagine picking up a car at the Amman airport, and driving yourself throughout the middle east??

How times have changed..

[KharmaTrain]

1. You Probably Booked My Parents Trips

They went on regular tours to Israel in the 60s and 70s...most were 2 to 3 weeks in length. Many of these trips would start in a European country...Rome or Athens and would involve a side trip to Jordan or Egypt. Prior to '67, the only way a American Jew could visit the Wailing Wall was to travel to Amman and then to East Jerusalem.

In '69, I spent the summer in Israel...including the West Bank and Gaza. Yes, it was a very different time. This was before the PLO had become powerful and many Palestinians I met at that time were still unsure about the Israelis but prefered being under Israeli control at the time than Jordan (where they had no representation and rights). People traveled freely...Arabs and Jews. I can recall sitting in the Jerusalem bus station and watching people of all types come and go...there even was a bus to Gaza City I could have hopped on...no security check required.

I can still remember how appauled I was at seeing the refugee camps and neighborhoods the Palestinians lived in. They were looked upon as second class citizens. Many worked in the service industries in Tel Aviv. You could almost be assured that your waiter or room attendant was a Palestinian. Despite the class desparity (and yes I thought it was wrong then, still do now) there was an effort at that time to co-exist. The '67 war all but assured Israel wasn't going to be "driven into the sea" and the Palestinians were at a rare point where they were trying to accept that reality. It didn't last long.

Now that I have the resources, I'd like to return to Israel and the other areas I visited...see if I can retrace where I was and compare how things have changed.

Cheers...

[wakeme2008]

2. That why I have not been east of Rome

:(

Every time I thought of taking a cruise that included Athens, some tourist would have problems.

I loved the Baltic cruise I took because of the friendly people.

For now I will do my Caribbean cruises



And have a New Zealand for the end of this year. (Which I may replace with an 18 dayer around the Horn cruise)

There is just too many good places to go to deal with crazies :shrug: