I’ve decided to combine last year with 2023 because frankly there’s not very much to report, I had a couple of half days of guiding the whole year and the war has been even harder than Covid. I’ve been working on my photography and did get away twice, 8 days in Masai Mara reserve in Kenya and about 2 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia. Back in Israel I’ve been working on my birding skills and since November I’ve been taking photographs of birds and I’m happy to organize a tour around birds and/or photography. To see my latest photographs and updates check my Facebook page at http://facebook.com/shmuel.browns). The number of views of my website has risen to 761,800, that’s about 30,000 views a year so thank you. 

Because Israel is on the migratory path between Europe/Asia and Africa 500,000,000 (that’s 500 million) birds fly over the country twice a year. Since the “ceasefire” with Hizbollah in Lebanon the national parks and reserves have re-opened in the north. Agamon HaHula just opened on Dec 22nd (it was closed since Oct 7th) and that’s a great place to experience the migration, the other place being the Negev and Eilat.

Time flies, I became a licensed guide in 2007 so I’ve been guiding visitors for 17 years. The last few years have been challenging as Israel was closed down and there were no tourists due to Covid. Just as we were recovering Hamas infiltrated the south of Israel on October 7th killing and raping innocent civilians and taking hundreds of prisoners. In fact, I was guiding on Saturday morning October 7th and met my clients at their hotel at 8:30am. The security guard asked me where did I think I was going? I said we were going to be in the Old City and then visiting the Israel museum. He said no, you should stay at the hotel where there is a protected shelter against rockets. So it seemed that the Old City was not going to be possible but I thought that we could still do the Israel museum so off we went. Within a few minutes there was a lot of rocket fire over Jerusalem (the first time I had seen rockets above the city) and we could see the trails of Iron Dome and then the explosions taking out the rockets. We made it to the museum but their security team was outside and told us that the museum was closed for the foreseeable future (I’m happy to report that they have re-opened). That was the end of guiding for 2023 and 2024.

“What about 2025?” you ask. Well, there are some tourists. I’m ready to guide you but not everyplace you might want to go will be possible to visit. You can contact me by using the information on my business card (Cell is also WhatsApp and Telegram).

For more information there are about 370 blog posts on this website/blog, in words and pictures (very close to 1500 of my photos). 

For those who may not know, I have an Israel Tours page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/IsraelToursbyShmuel/ that I update often. For those interested in photography and tours I have a page at https://www.facebook.com/iphotosandtours/

What have I been up to? I’ve guided the site of the Ummayad Hisham’s palace and the incredible mosaics in the bathhouse there. Recently I climbed the mountain overlooking Jericho and the Quarantal monastery to the Herodian site Dagon.

I also climbed Sartaba, Hyrcania and Machaerus in Jordan so that completes the set of King Herod’s desert fortresses and I can guide you at Alexandrium (Sartaba), Dagon, Cypros, Hasmonean & Herodian palaces near Jericho, Hyrcania, Machaerus, Herodium and Masada. There’s also another fortress currently being excavated overlooking highway 1 down to the Dead Sea near the museum at Inn of Good Samaritan which is a site that I really like showing people and I spent a week doing conservation work there on the mosaics. I worked with a team from the Israel Parks Authority on a mosaic from the 6th century synagogue in Gaza and a floor from a Byzantine Church in Jiflik that was moved there for safekeeping.

I did an in-depth 16 days with a couple where we covered historical (Caesarea, Acre, Nimrod fortress, Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Jerusalem, Herodium, Masada) and nature sites (Banias, Saar falls, Gamla to photograph the Griffon vultures, Agamon HaHula, Mitzpe Ramon, En Avdat, Hai Bar, Eilat Bird sanctuary) throughout the country, with some great food and wine along the way and 3+ days from Eilat to see Dana BioSphere Reserve, Petra (also Little Petra), new Petra museum and Wadi Rum. This is an email from the clients:

With Shmuel as our guide we visited well known sites as well as special areas “off the beaten path”. Shmuel provided great information and interpretation everywhere we went. We highly recommend Shmuel for anyone wanting great insights in visiting Israel.
As I said, we could never have done this amazing of a trip without you. Take care Andy and Paula

I also volunteered with Haifa University and excavated the Burnt Church at Sussita. Besides working on cleaning the mosaic floor in the narthex I also got to do some conservation work. Here I’m repairing a basalt Ionic capital.

For those who want a tour of the Gaza envelope to see where the kibbutzim are, Sderot, Nova memorial site, destroyed cars at Tkuma, etc. I do a solidarity tour for October 7th.

I look forward to your next trip to Israel and the Holy Land whenever that might be. I’ll be ready and delighted to guide you and share this very special place.