My family just returned from Israel where we celebrated my son’s Bar Mitzvah with our family and close friends. It was an experience of a lifetime and we owe most of the success of the trip to our travel agent Susan Weissberg. Susan was an absolute pleasure to work with, and she quickly earned our absolute trust. She was meticulous, and accommodating, yet provided thoughtful and clear guidance in the decision-making process. Our group included 14 people, ranging in age from 3 to 80 years old, and we came from New York, Boston, and Florida. With this diverse a group, we needed to pay attention to a variety of issues and interests. She very effectively coordinated the trip planning, including flights, transfers, hotels, and impressed us with her knowledge of the important details that we needed to pay attention to in order to make the trip seamless and enjoyable.

Susan coordinated our flights perfectly, including our last minute addition of one of our party about a month before the trip. When we arrived in Ben Gurion we were quickly met by the VIP service that she had arranged, and were happily whisked through the long lines and met our tour guide, Eilon. Eilon (or “JaJa”) as we called him, immediately felt like a close friend of the family and we were thrilled to have him as our guide for the whole trip. He was knowledgeable and entertaining. We found him to be a complete pleasure to have with us. He made an effort to connect with every individual in our group, which was much appreciated. Travelling with children, and particularly teens and tweens, can be challenging. And he was a master at making the history and sightseeing come alive for all of the ages within our group.

The Bar Mitzvah Day at the Kotel in Jerusalem was probably the greatest highlight of our trip. Susan arranged it masterfully starting with two musicians, dressed in biblical robes, who met us at the Dung Gate. They escorted us to the entrance of the Western Wall. Their music set the stage for the event to feel special and festive. We even saw some tourists taking pictures of us! We then entered the area by the wall, and my son read from the Torah with our family and friends watching. It was a beautiful ceremony. I think that we all, but
particularly my son, could sense the spiritual importance of the experience.

Our trip through the country took us from Jerusalem, to the Galilee and Golan Heights, Safed, and Tel Aviv. Every detail of the trip was meticulously planned, and overseen by Eilon and Susan’s staff in Israel. We could not have asked for a more beautiful and enjoyable experience. Susan is a master at her job and we would recommend her wholeheartedly and enthusiastically to anyone looking for a special experience in Israel.

Susan Weissberg is simply the best! Susan listened to our needs, concerns and what we were seeking in our “trip of a lifetime” and came through on every aspect!

During the planning stage, Susan was attentive and always available. She listened and helped us build a perfect itinerary striking the right balance of activities, sight-seeing and family time. Weeks before our trip, we received a well-organized and beautiful trip planner. Our extended family was visiting at the time and everybody, including those who had traveled to Israel several times, was impressed with the attention to detail that Susan and her staff provided us. We were extremely concerned about our guide/driver. Susan selected Lior for us and we were delighted and felt fortunate we were able to spend many days with him as our guide.

Our fabulous experience began in Jerusalem where we met our warm, personable and good-natured guide, Lior Eitan. We knew we were in good hands! His English was superb and he so clearly wanted to make our trip run smoothly and allowed us to enjoy our time while not having a care in the world: he was beyond accommodating and anticipated each of our family’s needs. He is beyond knowledgeable about every historical sight and provided us with his wonderful insight into life in Israel. He made every visit even more meaningful.

Traveling with teenagers can sometimes be challenging. Susan insured that our children were engaged and amused which made our trip so enjoyable every step of the way. Susan interspersed the wonderful “must-see sites” with fun activities including our life-changing experience when we met with Israeli soldiers shortly after missiles had been fired from Lebanon on to Israeli soil. We met with a leader at a nearby kibbutz who was engaging and warm and happy to take the time to show us around. We then went to meet and speak with some soldiers near the Lebanon Border, it’s difficult to put into words how incredible these brave boys were and their love of the country was infectious.

Other highlights and unusual experiences included our ATV sojourn on the Syrian border. One example of Lior’s expertise was that we were originally set up to go on a jeep ride. Once Lior met us, he knew we would prefer to each drive our own ATV. Plus the weather was threatening on the day we were planning our great adventure. While we were at a museum in Jerusalem, Lior rearranged our trip to accommodate our ATV experience. Between Susan’s staff in Israel and Lior, our trip was re-organized so that we could engage in all our wonderful experiences without allowing the rain to put a damper on our journey. And we were not aggravated by the details because the new arrangements were all made while we enjoyed the other sites.

Another unique experience that Susan planned was our trip to Caliber 3. This is an anti-terrorist training center. There we met with a wonderful officer who taught us how to spot a terrorist and how to shoot guns. We even had a competition amongst our family. This experience was fun and educational. A not-to be-missed experience! Other fun-filled days included our afternoon at The Dead Sea where Susan set us up at a wonderful hotel for swimming, relaxing, lunch and lots of laughter!!! We loved our afternoon that we spent digging at an excavation where we uncovered a stairway…it was so exciting and just great time spent together with our family.

One other unforgettable adventure….Susan set us up for the most decadent Shabbat dinner with Iris, our gracious and talented hostess for the evening. I surprised my family with this culinary and treasured evening. Iris warmly welcomed us into her home for a fun-filled night of food, drink and wonderful conversation. What an unforgettable evening!

There were other unusual activities…too many to mention but included a bike tour of Tel Aviv and walking tours and journeys with Lior…all of which added up to one incredible journey. Susan and Lior were a great team!!

We just came home from the most wonderful trip to Israel where we celebrated our son's Bar Mitzvah! Susan Weissberg at Wyllys travel and her team in Israel made our trip!!! We are recommending her to her everyone we know.

It all started with the planning process a year ago. Susan listened to what our family wanted through out the trip and vision for our son's Bar Mitzvah. Her first priority was to find us a guide that she thought would suit our group (we were 20 people ranging in age from 5-80). Some people on our trip had been to Israel many times and some had never been so it was quite a balancing act. She nailed it-- she found us the perfect guide. Elad, a great story teller, captivated the kids and adults at every sight. Also he was very good at "sensing our pulse" and was able to make real time suggestions to our itinerary depending on the group's mood. Even when he was "off duty" he was always just a phone call away to help us. We got lost one night on our way to dinner and Elad made sure we found the restaurant and received amazing service. In addition, our driver David was a delight! He barely spoke English yet he captured the attention of all the children with his shadow puppets and magic tricks. Susan definitely found us a great team.
The Bar Mitzvah day was amazing. Susan and her local agents made wonderful suggestions that we would never have thought of. For example, local drummers greeted us as we arrived and really set the tone for the ceremony and the celebration. There was no detail too small. Our ceremony at the Haas Promenade and our lunch at the Harp of David followed by the scavenger hunt left us with amazing memories.
As we have been reflecting on the trip we continue to talk about some of the highlights, including, but not limited to, meeting the Israeli soldiers, going to local basketball game as VIP's, planting a kiwi tree on the Lebanon boarder etc. The list goes on and on.
Last, the hotels and restaurants Susan and her team chose were perfect. Every time we arrived at a new hotel we were treated as VIP's. The transfers back and forth to the airport were truly top notch. The team never left left our sides through long airlines delays over night and into the early morning hours. Susan and her team were taking care of us constantly, smoothing out the unforeseen bumps.

We can't wait to plan our next trip to Israel with Susan and her team!

My husband and I, our 3 children, their spouses, and our 6 grandchildren ages 9 to 18 took a fabulous trip to Israel in December to celebrate my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. The logistics of planning a trip for 14 people from 4 families traveling from 3 locations and arriving and leaving at 3 different times was enormous, but our travel agent Susan Weissburg arranged it to perfection. The adventure started the minute we landed in Tel Aviv and were met at the plane by her representatives, who whisked us through baggage claim and customs and on to our hotel. The private mini-bus, driven by Inon, our guide, was comfortable and able to accommodate us and all of our luggage.

Susan and I worked closely to plan the itinerary and she was able to accommodate our special requests. For example, I wanted to be at the Wall on Friday night, my son and his family wanted to go to Bethlehem as a side trip, and she and my daughter were in constant contact about arrangements for my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah on Masada. Susan included activities that would interest us all, given the differences in ages and physical abilities.

Inon, the guide Susan selected for us, was wonderful. He was interesting, knowledgeable, and obviously passionate about his country, yet he was honest and forthright when discussing current issues. Most important for us was that he was able to understand our family dynamics. He was flexible enough so that we were able to make changes to the itinerary at the last minute, and often at his suggestion when he had something special that he wanted us to do. He managed to squeeze Safed into our schedule because he thought it was important. He also took us to the ruins of a 13th century fortress because my family loved to climb and explore, and we went through an actual Israeli bunker on the Golan Heights overlooking Syria. He even took us to the kibbutz on which his wife grew up so that my grandchildren could understand what kibbutz life was like.

Then on to the Dead Sea, floating when we usually sink, a unique experience made even more enjoyable because Susan rented 2 private changing rooms for us. Each came with bathrobes, slippers, refreshments and packs of “mud”, which we took to the beach and smeared on ourselves (and others.) What a happy crew we were!

Of all of the wonderful things that we did, I think the one that was most meaningful was going to the Israeli/Lebanese border to meet with young IDF soldiers, some of whom were my granddaughter’s age, who were actually on patrol there. They allowed us to go in and on their armored vehicles. Then, accompanied by their group leader, my family walked to the Lebanese border and my grandson planted a tree at the border in honor of his Bar Mitzvah. He will never forget that! And he will never forget his beautiful Bar Mitzvah service held in the ruins of Masada, surrounded by history and drama, when he became a Jewish adult.

Taking my family to Israel was a dream come true, and my husband and I have to thank Susan and Inon for making it so memorable and so special. Shalom Israel! You will ever be in our hearts.