Local Guides World
Oliver Stanton
1 reviews on 1 places
Mayever Trip Report
I traveled twice this year to Israel, once with family on a Bar/Bat Mitzvah tour with my wife and two 13 year old kids and a second time alone, on a volunteer tour after the October 7th tragedy. I will discuss the 2nd recent trip as we wrote about our first wonderful, touring and spiritual trip already.
The pre-trip planning was perfect, I was understood, and a trip was created for me to do what I wanted to do, which was to volunteer and physically work with and for the Israeli people. I wanted first class accommodation and day trips to the various activities at local charities, Kibbutzim, towns and with IDF soldiers. I met hundreds of people and soldiers and came away with a real understanding and appreciation of how hard Israel and its people were hit by the devastating attack on October 7th, which lasted a couple of weeks in Israel and is still ongoing today in Gaza.
The reservations were all perfect, no problems or negative issues. I requested and got a wonderful and knowledge tour guide who also drove a comfortable SUV. Keep in mind I was not visiting sites but going to devastated places and volunteer sites. I also requested a guard for safety, just in case. I wanted that we all volunteer which made the experience fuller and more meaningful as I did not travel in a group. Sometimes we joined others in the work and sometimes it was just us, but it was all so meaningful, and I felt we were doing something real, useful and appreciated by my little group and the people we were assisting in small and very big ways. We helped prepare food, deliver food and other items to families and IDF units, visited devastated towns and Kibbutzim, cleared land and did yard work and talked or rather listened to soldiers and everyday people who were attacked or who fought or just experienced the October massacres.
I could not have done it alone. I could have joined a tour, but I wanted an individualized, personal and tailormade experience that I felt would be, and was, more meaningful and fulfilling. Mayever did all that for me. I am forever grateful and humbled by their enthusiasm to participate to show and learn with me. Each Mayever member I met I loved are now my friends. Thank you all and Shalom.
I traveled twice this year to Israel, once with family on a Bar/Bat Mitzvah tour with my wife and two 13 year old kids and a second time alone, on a volunteer tour after the October 7th tragedy. I will discuss the 2nd recent trip as we wrote about our first wonderful, touring and spiritual trip already.
The pre-trip planning was perfect, I was understood, and a trip was created for me to do what I wanted to do, which was to volunteer and physically work with and for the Israeli people. I wanted first class accommodation and day trips to the various activities at local charities, Kibbutzim, towns and with IDF soldiers. I met hundreds of people and soldiers and came away with a real understanding and appreciation of how hard Israel and its people were hit by the devastating attack on October 7th, which lasted a couple of weeks in Israel and is still ongoing today in Gaza.
The reservations were all perfect, no problems or negative issues. I requested and got a wonderful and knowledge tour guide who also drove a comfortable SUV. Keep in mind I was not visiting sites but going to devastated places and volunteer sites. I also requested a guard for safety, just in case. I wanted that we all volunteer which made the experience fuller and more meaningful as I did not travel in a group. Sometimes we joined others in the work and sometimes it was just us, but it was all so meaningful, and I felt we were doing something real, useful and appreciated by my little group and the people we were assisting in small and very big ways. We helped prepare food, deliver food and other items to families and IDF units, visited devastated towns and Kibbutzim, cleared land and did yard work and talked or rather listened to soldiers and everyday people who were attacked or who fought or just experienced the October massacres.
I could not have done it alone. I could have joined a tour, but I wanted an individualized, personal and tailormade experience that I felt would be, and was, more meaningful and fulfilling. Mayever did all that for me. I am forever grateful and humbled by their enthusiasm to participate to show and learn with me. Each Mayever member I met I loved are now my friends. Thank you all and Shalom.