We were the first time in the Saas Valley and had booked a double room with half board through a travel agency for a walking holiday. In comparison to other hotels, the brochure of the Hotel Monte Rosa looked really good and we were sure to have made a good choice. When we got there, we had to look for the hotel: it is not in fact on a conventional road, but quite away on a hill and is only with difficulty to reach a badly paved narrow footpath. On the road there is a tiny parking for three cars, one parking space was constantly used by the owner. We thought: “OK, we have booked, so we also have to try and make the most out of the whole situation - and dragged our luggage up the hill to the hotel. A reception or the like did not exist; only a narrow corridor, where the landlady us the keys handed over to a double room with the remark that this was the only remaining free double room. Somehow we sensed there was anything but good. Unfortunately, we were right: the room was tiny with a very depressingly low ceiling, which was underscored by the dark wood panelling and the few badly-worn furniture. The bathroom had a small shower, sink and toilet… and room for a slim person. With our friendly question for another room told us the hostess, the rooms were all so - the hotel is just historically and come from the year 1850. At breakfast we noticed immediately because of the number of covered tables, that the house was far from being fully booked, but not more than 30% occupied. The whole breakfast was very basic, really spartan and drab. Fruit or other ingredients did not exist. The dining room had the character of a small canteen with its meager equipment. The single dinner without alternative was captured in a relatively short period in the style of a hostel. After clearing was later than at 21:30hrs curfew - a lounge, it was unfortunately not. When we come to the Saas Valley again, we will certainly book another hotel based on our experience. We can recommend the Three-Star Monte Rosa not!”
It used to be that if you were an observant Jew, traveling was like a military operation. It required days or weeks of planning.
You had to research your destination, scout out hotels within walking distance of kosher restaurants (if there were any), figure out which supplies to take (cans of tuna? Crackers? Dried fruits and nuts?), and hope that you would be near enough to a market to buy the fresh fruits or vegetables to prepare with the knife and cutting board you had brought.
Half of your suitcase would be food and utensils. You hoped you might meet someone who would take you in for a Shabbat meal - again, assuming there were any Jews in the area where you were staying!
You could enjoy the sights, but eating would be a challenge. If you were not near an established Jewish community, Shabbat was likely to be a very quiet, very lonely day.
But it is not like that anymore. Now there are kosher tour companies that enable you to pack your clothes and personal items and leave the worries about meals and Shabbat to them.
Do not leave for the hotel without preparing: bread & bread knife (there is not sliced bread in the shops!), small amount of disposables to tidy your over until you buy locally, drinking water (summer is quite hot!), do not drop litter – always dispose of your rubbish as top priority!
When you take a kosher tour, your guide, a shomer/et mitzvot, will check the kitchen and to make sure all the ingredients that will go into your meal are kosher - from meat and fish to checking vegetables for bugs, and ensuring that all preparation and cooking is done using only kosher utensils - which will either be prearranged at the location or brought along with the group. Kosher foodstuffs not available locally are carried with the group.
Kosher travel today offers tourists all of the benefits that they require.
Someone else has worried about a good hotel, a good location, and flights that make the most of the time available. Someone else has the experience to plan travel at your destinations in the most efficient manner, taking you from place to place using the shortest routes, pacing the traveling so that it is varied and neither too strenuous nor too sedentary. Your kosher travel company will be informed as to opening hours and best times to visit, and will employ local guides who speak the native language as well as English to accompany you in addition to the company's guide who is with you for the entire tour.
Together they will bring you to see the highlights of each place you travel, including the history, customs, lifestyle and current issues in the locales you visit, while maintaining an interesting and entertaining vibe throughout. The company arranges for tickets to performances and enables you to meet with local people and to begin to understand their lifestyles and world views. In addition, your kosher travel company makes sure to locate places of Jewish interest wherever you go.
People who take kosher tours with a group of strangers inevitably find they are traveling with friends - people with similar interests and people who like themselves are adventurous and interesting. Typically, travelers keep in touch with each other after the tour and many times choose to travel together again.
Traveling with a kosher travel company enables you to have experiences you never dreamed of!
You can travel with us the Jewish and Kosher way all around the world, to the following destinations: Japan, China, Vietnam, Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru, Mexico and Guatemala, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, South Africa and of course in Europe, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Switzerland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and more.
We offer Kosher vacations in Switzerland and Holland as well – the perfect summer experience.
So pack your bags, bring along your sense of adventure and your camera and leave home all of your stress, tension, and worries! Kosher travel is simply an adventure!
Rona Michelson and Einat Shoval, 03/07/14 14:58 –
Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/182165#.U6wc8fldXTo
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