After ditching the final pieces of Covid-related paperwork along with testing, Israel is open to visitors once more in a way that it hasn’t been for almost three years. And if you’re planning a long-awaited return trip for 2023, there’s plenty to tempt you to book.

“There’s something new, new for everybody who comes,” says Pini Shani, deputy director general at Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.

“Seeing what happened in Tel Aviv in the past few years, seeing what’s happening in Jerusalem on a daily basis, that’s something that tourists can enjoy very much.

"That’s before we start talking about the cuisine, the wine in Israel, the desert, exploring Israel on foot.”

With tourist numbers bouncing back once more, here are some of the highlights to look forward to in 2023.

New openings

There’s an exciting new exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Sigalit Landau: The Burning Sea, featuring objects transformed by the salty waters of the Dead Sea.

Sigalit Landau, De Deux tutu dress coated in salt crystals 12 CREDIT The Israel Museum

Sigalit Landau De Deux tutu dress coated in salt crystals (Photo: The Israel Museum)

With many pieces seen for the first time, the exhibition includes a wide array of sculptures, installations, video works and photographs. It runs until June 2023.

Watch out too for a new museum opening in the visitor centre at the Davidson Center in Jerusalem next spring. The archaeological park near the Western Wall traces 5,000 years of history from the time of the Canaanite civilisation through the First and Second Temple periods and into more modern times.

Megiddo National Park is also home to a new visitor centre, featuring innovative video technology to transform the exhibitions in the Unesco World Heritage site. The model of Tel Megiddo was first on display in the 1950s, and new displays tell the story of the site over the years, alongside artefacts uncovered at Israel’s most excavated archaeological site.

Tel Megiddo 13885704577 b8c71be670 o CREDIT Itamar Grinberg IMOT

Tel Megiddo (Photo: Itamar Grinberg/IMOT)

Looking further ahead, there are also plans for a new Albert Einstein Museum at the Safra Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As well as containing the world-renowned physicist’s entire archive of work, the museum will house a reconstruction of his office and library.

Flights

Flight numbers from the UK to Israel are almost back to 2019 levels, with a string of low-cost airlines, national carriers — including British Airways and El Al, as well as Virgin Atlantic — now operating much as normal again.

And while there are no new direct flights yet announced from the UK to Israel, El Al is expanding its routes with a new flight from Dublin. First announced pre-pandemic in late 2019, it’s launching in 2023.

Queues at Ben Gurion Airport are also set to get shorter as plans by the Israel Airports Authority to digitise procedures for overseas flights come into effect during 2023. The aim is to shorten check-in lines and get rid of the initial security check, with passengers weighing their own suitcases and printing baggage labels at new kiosks.

Hotels

Boutique hotel group Stay has opened its first hotel in Eilat, joining the brand’s three hotels in Jerusalem.

Stay Eilat8

Pool at Stay Eilat (Photo: Stay Hotels)

The adults-only property near Ha’Arava Park is around 20 minutes from the beach, and home to Mamo restaurant, with Mediterranean-inspired sharing plates on the menu.

There are big plans to increase the number of hotel rooms elsewhere in Israel, with new hotels along the Dead Sea as well as a new luxury property in the Negev.

Work is already under way on the 110-room desert resort Midbar, on the border of the Negev region in Arad.

The five-star resort, owned by the Fattal hotel brand, will be managed by the group’s boutique hotel side, 7Minds, and is expected to open in 2025.

As many as 5,000 rooms are also set to be added along an extended promenade at the Dead Sea by 2026, doubling the existing tourist accommodation, plus new guest cottages perched on stilts in the sea itself, and a series of man-made islands and inlets.

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