It is becoming more and more popular for tourists to take a cruise to Israel, with the Israeli ports of Haifa and Ashdod featuring as stops on the itineraries of more and more cruise companies. The cruises stopping in Israel tend to stop for one night in Haifa and one night in Ashdod (south of Tel Aviv), although occasionally they’ll stop for two nights in one of these ports.

Flights from San Francisco to Tel Aviv with Continental Airlines, an expanding El Al fleet, direct flights between Israel and Lisbon with Sun D’Or, and possibly Chinese Hainan Airlines and Indian Airlines flights to Israel

Israel will become closer to the Danes with the launch of the first direct flights between Copenhagen and Tel Aviv expected to launch in November.

As Israel’s largest airline, El Al, announce that in August they will join carriers Arkia and Israir in flying the Tel Aviv to Eilat route, travellers suddenly have much easier ways of reaching Israel’s southern resort city.

Low-cost German airline, Air Berlin are upping their services to Tel Aviv this year with new direct flights from Cologne/Bonn, Dusseldorf, and Munich, as well as business class offerings on their current Berlin route.

Low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA plans to inaugurate a weekly Stockholm-Tel Aviv route in March. Norwegian Air Shuttle is Scandinavia’s second largest airline, flying between Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Portuguese national airline TAP are expected to launch direct flights between Lisbon and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport towards the end of the year greatly improving connections between Israel and Portugal and South America.

Easyjet, who started flights between London and Tel Aviv in November, are now expanding their service to Israel by launching flights from Basel in Switzerland.

Cruises are sailing back into Israeli ports after a ten year hiatus, and there are now more and more Mediterranean cruises including Israel on their itineraries.