I recently got back from my Jewish Birthright experience in Israel. To be honest, I was pretty pissed when I first returned because I got really screwed on my trip (shitty group, shitty group leader, lots of wasted time on pointless nonsense), but I still believe that I got a good feel of what Israel is like.
There were basically two places that I would recommend checking out if you go there: Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The rest was basically nowheresville desert.
Okay so now onto my summary.
The Atmosphere
It's pretty hardcore. The country is surrounded by huge concrete fences with barbed wire on the top. It's pretty much like this on all of the borders because, well, everybody hates Israel lol.
As you would imagine, there is tons of desert everywhere. Despite the view that we are given here in the US, Israel is very much a third world country. It had that feel to it both in the rural and city areas. I would say it feels much more like a third world country than, say, Bangkok.
As you would imagine, religion is a BIG deal over there. Jerusalem shuts down from Friday 8 PM to Saturday 8 PM for Shabat. I also heard stories of discrimination against less religious Jews and non-Jews from the hardcore Orthodox/Hasidic Jews, which wouldn't surprise me. Judaism there had a bit of a cult feeling to it.
I assumed before coming there that all of the people that I would meet were Jews, but this wasn't the case. There was a significant Arab population that I met there. Some were Muslim. Some were Christian. Of course, most of the country is made of Jews though.
However, I didn't see one Asian person there. None at all. And we traveled through the entire country and went out at night. So that is certainly something to consider.
EDIT: After thinking about it a bit, I DID see black people there...a lot of them. They generally worked in menial jobs (janitors, etc) and seemed to not be valued much. It did have a bit of a racist feel to it, tbh.
The Food
The food was pretty bad, imo. It was mostly falafels. Those things were extremely hard to get away from. They're everywhere and they taste pretty awful in my opinion. There were other dishes, but it was mostly tasteless and bland. The food might actually be a dealbreaker to me if I would ever think about moving there.
Also, food prices are quite high. It's not what I would expect from a third world country. Many of the places I ate at, even the less touristy places, had prices as high as the US or even higher for way worse quality food.
The Girls
In my opinion, this is a good country to meet girls. They're feminine, friendly, and hot. I would say the average girl I saw walking around would be a high 6 to 7 in the US. As you would imagine, Israel girls have darker tints to their skin (though, not THAT much darker) than white girls and have Middle Eastern features.
Jerusalem is a good place to go for sweet, friendly girls, especially during the day. We met some girls there during the day and didn't game them at all. The nightclubs were a bit tougher. Though, the place we went to (well, we forced to) was very touristy. So it's possible that the girls I was talking to weren't even from there. Either way, it was similar to a club in the US. We were just nice, straightforward, got their numbers, and hung out. Simple.
The girls were hotter overall in Tel Aviv, but they were also more difficult. During the day, we walked around and tried to meet some. After trying to talk to a few girls, we realized that being nice and normal (the way we were with Jerusalem girls) wasn't going to work here. So we changed our tactics a bit and the girls responded well.
The night clubs in Tel Aviv were insane. I was some of the hottest Arab girls there that I ever saw in my life (some were beyond 10s on American standards). Again, this was tough. If you come out to one of these places and want to hook-up with girls at these places, your game has to be on-point. It's worth it though if you're looking for extremely high caliber girls in the looks department.
Overall, it was a good time. I doubt I would ever live there, but I'd like to go back and visit on my own terms (with freedom to do whatever I want).
EDIT: Another interesting note (since this came up in another thread) is that none of the girls that I met there actually asked if I was Jewish, even girls that I hung out with a significant amount of time.
My feeling is that unless the girl is very religious (and there are plenty there that aren't), it won't really matter all that much if you're not Jewish.
Of course, I wasn't there long enough to date or get into a relationship with any of them. I'm almost positive that not being Jewish will affect you down the line somewhere, almost definitely in marriage. So that's something to consider.
