Try to remember that this is not personal

Q. What is the dark side of Israel as a tourist?

Vova Katz, Visited 23 countries and counting.

I got the chance to talk to quite a few people who have visited Israel as tourists, and almost all of them had only one negative experience, in addition to the mass of the positive experiences they have had here – which was the security check at the airport upon departure.

Israel has one of the best airport security systems in the world, which even attracts other countries’ border security to come and learn about it. However, an integral part of it is deep questioning of passengers based on their profile, which may be a little inconvenient. They would ask you detailed questions about where you have been and with whom, and the nature of relations with those people, and if you have visited Jordan, Egypt or the West Bank (which is very common for tourists here to do) the questioning may be a little longer.

Try to remember that this is not personal, everyone goes through this process to some extent, and they are only concerned about security, not your private matters, so if you are a naive tourist you have nothing to be afraid of, so be patient and candid.

The 2nd thing are the taxi drivers outside the airport that may try to rip you off, but this may be easily prevented by asking at the information center the approximate taxi rate to your destination.