Challenge Tours, a new way to experience Israel

By Michael Orbach

Issue of Dec. 12, 2008 / 15 Kislev 5769

Sad to say, you can get tired of Ben Yehuda after a while. Ditto for Café Rimon, Fro-yo and Rechov Yaffo. If you agree with this contentious sentiment (some may not), then Challenge Tours in Israel may be for you. Founded by two ex-soldiers from elite IDF units, Challenge Tours is the latest in personalized extreme tours of Israel.

Admittedly, this is not going to be everyone’s idea of a relaxing vacation.

“People usually see the Old City, but they don’t see the middle of the desert, [and] the North,” said Channan Zucker, who along with ex-Golani infantry soldier, Yacov Guri, founded the company in 2006. “They don’t go down steep mountains to the most beautiful views in Israel.”

Part of the motivation for starting the company, Zucker explained, was to show American tourists a different side of Israel, far from the cosmopolitan cities and deep into the heart of Israel’s natural environment. Activities on Challenge Tours include rappelling down mountainsides, overnights in the desert, rope obstacle courses, and swimming in waterfalls; actual itineraries depend on what members of the group want.

“Have you ever seen Rambo 3?” Zucker quipped.

Actually, he wasn’t kidding; a rappelling scene from Rambo 3 was filmed in Israel and one recent Challenge Tours excursion copied the scene, rappelling off a mountainside into the mouth of a series of small caves, lit by candles, for a picnic and a late night kumzitz. The kumzitz wasn’t in the movie, of course.

Extreme touring is a perfect fit for Israel’s geography since it’s one of the most varied in the world, with Mount Hermon covered in snow all year round and Israel’s Dead Sea at 420 meters below sea level the lowest dry land on earth. Zucker, whose parents are American, said that he had been through all the national parks in America and found the same edifices in Israel.

“The whole beauty of Israel is you take all the landscapes and you put it one place,” Zucker said. “It’s all here, just much smaller. “

Challenge takes all different groups, from families to girl’s seminaries to army units and even according to Zucker, “two old ladies in their forties” who discovered a late life interest in rappelling. The tours are also personalized, from paintball excursions to rope obstacle courses that stress building teamwork and trust, whether for an infantry unit, a class of students, or a five-member family.

Among the locations Zucker favors include Bikut Hokanea in the Judean desert, a relatively unknown Masada-like settlement on a mountain top, and Kikur Shacho in Nachal Gitar, though they also take people to rare locations inside familiar sites like the mountains in the Geder Avi Noam outside the Old City.

A day of touring with Challenge usually costs three-thousand shekel for a small group, which is a relatively small price to pay to see a country you’ve always known, in a way you’ve never seen before.

More information is available on their web site at www.challengetours.org or via their e-mail at challengetours@gmail.com.