5 Days, 60 Vintage Cars, 1,000 Miles and 3,000 Years of History – An Amazing Journey Through the Remarkable and Diverse Culture, Climate and Terrain of Israel.
If vintage car tours are your bag and you’re looking for the next great and different one, I’m afraid you just missed it, the inaugural Holy Land 1000—yes, in Israel. It was held March 12-17. But there is hope that the organizers Elad Shraga and Amir Almagor will have the chutzpah to stage a sequel in a year or two. They are talking about it. In lots of ways the HL1000 was similar in format and execution, and as big a rush, as the best tours I’ve ever done in American locations like Colorado, California and Arizona (or even Italy), only more so, because it was in Israel. The top three things that give this road tour the edge over the other great ones are simple: location, location, location. Israel has all the scenery to rival the best of tours, but what Israel also has that the others never will is the Biblical and historic and geographic locales. Add to that what has to be without exaggeration the most flavorful produce grown on the planet, which they prepare and present so incredibly, and this has to be the best bang for the tour buck in the world.
The HL1000 was actually only about 900 miles of driving. Generally, one thinks Israel and naturally thinks religion, yet nothing about the Holy Land 1000 was denominational or religious, but it was in Israel, and that’s what made it so special, besides all the attention to detail and top notch organization that came with it.
Here is an incomplete list of what was so right with the HL1000: the routes, the scenery, the route book, the motorcycle escorts, the traffic control at intersections, the weather, professor Dan’s history lessons every day, the live music at dinners, the hotels and the best food fruit and vegetables in the world. In fact, part of what made the daily scenery so enjoyable was the abundance of crops, olive and fruit trees, and grape vines everywhere.
And what was wrong? Not much. Except maybe that we are spoiled by gas pumps in the U.S. that take credit cards at one quick swipe, whereas in Israel, it’s a dicey transaction, and while English is spoken most everywhere in Israel, it seems like it hasn’t made it to gas stations. But I’ll spot Israel that one.
Saturday evening was check-in at the David Intercontinental Hotel, by the sea in Tel Aviv. Sunday was about fetching the cars from the import warehouse in Tel Aviv and driving them caravan-style back to the hotel garage for the night. Come evening and the participants were taken by coach to a wedding-like, or should I say bar mitzvah-like, kickoff dinner extravaganza at the poolside Shraga estate in suburban Tel Aviv, one of several dinners on the HL1000 that were accompanied by live music.
Come Monday morning, and we had our introduction to Israeli hotel breakfast buffets, which are actually banquets in their own right. The HL1000 stayed at four hotels during the week and all excelled at breakfast. In this corner of the world, the first meal of the day is taken very seriously. Maybe because life is so uncertain, I don’t know.
Meanwhile, this is a car tour so the rubber must meet the road sometime, and it did right after breakfast as we were ceremoniously flagged off for the first leg, a cruise north from Tel Aviv, along the Mediterranean Coast, to Haifa. From there we swung east, within arm’s reach of the Lebanese border, and on to Tiberias, to spend the night on the Sea of Galilee, literally at the water’s edge. Day 2 was a winding drive east up into the Golan Heights, with a lunch break and a history lesson by Professor Dan, then back again to Tiberias and an Israeli-style barbecue dinner by the sea.
Day 3 took us up above the Sea again, to the west and then to the city of Nazareth, known as the Arab Capital of Israel, and then south to the Negev Desert, with a lunch stop along the way at a horse breeding estate—literally in the stables—and on to spend the night on the edge of the Great Crater of Ramon, nearly 1000 meters above sea level. This crater, so called, was actually formed naturally over millions of years through the forces of erosion and subsidence to be more than 500 meters deep, and is as amazing a geological spectacle as can be found anywhere. Day 4 and we drove down and through the Negev, past Masada and back north to the Dead Sea where we partook of yet another incredible catered lunch, this time on the beach, with the Dead Sea literally lapping at our feet, more than 300 meters below sea level and quite literally the lowest elevation on earth.
From there we made tracks to the capital city of Jerusalem and our hotel just a few hundred steps from the walls of the old city, with its Jewish, Islamic, Catholic and Armenian quarters. Dinner—another great one—was on the hotel rooftop, overlooking the old and new cities of Jerusalem. On the fifth and final driving day we were up early for what had to be a first ever happening, with our entourage of vintage cars escorted into the normally “closed to traffic” old town of Jerusalem, to meet up for a visit and a photo shoot on the inner plaza by the Western Wall, aka the wailing wall of the Jews.
With time up at the plaza, we were led back out of the old city center and back on the road for what was billed as a brunch, at a flower farm just outside of town, but turned out to be an elaborate alfresco lunch at a gorgeous plant nursery and catering facility that was a whole party in itself. I’ve travelled all over for food, but the outdoor wood-fired, oven baked pizza was without a doubt as good as it gets in Italy or anywhere.
The final leg was back to Tel Aviv, where the Israeli Classic Car Club met us for an informal car show and insight into what Israeli car guys collect, which is essentially a totally mixed bag of Euro, British and American iron with something for every possible taste. Name a car and it was likely there. Yes, there was a Renault 4CV, a ’49 Dodge and even a Corvair Corsa, among a hundred other eclectic autos.
Cars and participants on the HL1000 were from all over; the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Switzerland, Germany and, of course, Israel. And as for the cars, there was a model year cutoff of 1965. Among my favorites of the pre-war cars were a 4.5 Bentley, an 8C Alfa and an Aston Martin Ulster Sport, and among the post-war cars were two OSCAs, an Abarth barchetta, a ’58 Corvette, a pair of mid ’60s Thunderbird convertibles that really looked great cruising down the highways and backroads, and an early Pininfarina-bodied Bristol 400 cabriolet. My personal choice for the tour was an open cockpit Bertone-bodied Arnolt-Bristol Bolide, which was perfectly suited for the Israeli highways, the twistys, the elevation changes and splendid weather.
Here’s hoping for an encore HL1000, both for the lucky band who came to the inaugural event and as an opportunity for those who did not. Published in cooperation with VeloceToday.com
driven by Gal Schwartz of Israel.
That was certainly true of the cars on this event! Chuck Schoendorf and Steve Altus are leading the procession in Chuck’s Arnolt-Bristol Bolide