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Well, have you?
I visited there, near the end of winter, so the weather was pleasant rather than hot. I was in Tel Aviv, saw Joppa where Peter had his vision of the sheet being let down from heaven, floated in the Dead Sea, saw David's Wadi (spring) where he was hiding from Saul, and walked around Jerusalem and up the Mount of Olives.
There are many wonderful things about it - it's a lovely country, the Arab food was good, it's very modern, I liked all the "vacation" things I did, like the spa near the Dead Sea -- but the best was being someplace that I'd heard about all my life, where people I've heard about all my life actually lived, worked and walked (Our Lord must have been very fit, that's some hard terrain!). It was almost like coming home. It didn't feel like *my* home, but very familiar, as if going to the home of a dear friend.
It made everyone in the Bible seem more real. Even though the ground has shifted in the last few thousand years, here was where they were and what they saw. The locations are real, the flora and fauna must be the descendants of the ones that were there in Biblical times, and praise God, so must be the people, at least some! It made the Bible seem not just a book about mythical lands and mythical people - it made it seem as real and everyday as, well, Oakland, California, which is the nearest city to me. (San Francisco does seem a bit mythical still 4laugh )
I would definitely go back if I had the chance - money, time and traveling companion would all be factors.
I was also scared quite a bit of the time - but that, sadly, was also part of the experience. You never knew if you were going to be in the next place that a terrorist would bomb.
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