The Galilee · Where to stay
Where to stay in the Galilee
Eighteen of the twenty hotels in the listing snapshot behind this page stand in Tiberias or on the Sea of Galilee shore, which tells you most of what you need to know about where the Galilee keeps its beds.
VAT on a hotel bill
18%
Isrotel publishes its rates without it and states that Israeli citizens are charged it
Galei Kinneret opened
1946
Built by Lotte Eisenberg on the Tiberias shore; 123 rooms today, and no guests under 12
Saturday room handover
18:00
Leonardo Plaza Tiberias gives out rooms from 18:00 on Shabbat and festivals, against 15:00 midweek
Highest pick on this page
600 m
Galilee Hills stands on Mount Hazon, well above the lake basin where the rest of these sit
People do sleep in the Galilee, in numbers, but not evenly across it. The beds are concentrated in one basin. Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee shore hold hotels of two and three hundred rooms with pools, spas and kids' clubs, while the hill country most visitors came to walk in, Safed and Meron and the Hula and the ridges above Nazareth, runs on timber cabins, kibbutz guesthouses and field schools. Choosing a base here is really choosing which of those two economies to sleep inside.
That decision matters more than which hotel you pick. From the lake shore almost everything in the Lower Galilee, the Jordan valley and the Golan is inside an hour's drive, and the lake is the warmest, lowest and busiest part of the region. From a hill village you are cooler, closer to Safed and the Upper Galilee, and eating wherever you sleep, because there is rarely anything else within walking distance after dark.
The nine places below were researched from the operators' own pages: room counts, check-in arrangements, what the spa contains, what the beach below the lawn is and is not. Ratings and vote counts are not in the writing. They render from the dated listing snapshot in their own panel, so you can see when they were pulled. Nightly rates are not here either, because they move week to week and would be wrong before you read them.
9 places to stay
The places to stay worth the trip in The Galilee
Our pick and why, then everything the listing knows, with the date it was pulled.
01
Magdala Hotel
Sleeping on top of the archaeology
The guesthouse stands on the shore at Migdal at the foot of Mount Arbel, on ground that turned out to be the first-century town of Magdala: the site was uncovered in 2009 during preparatory excavations for the building itself, and the dig produced what the project describes as the best preserved first-century synagogue in Israel, along with villas, spring-fed mikvaot, a marketplace and a port. The property runs to more than 150 rooms and suites, every one with a balcony or terrace, plus the Tarichaea buffet restaurant on the first floor over the atrium, a lobby bar, meeting spaces, a gym and an outdoor pool. Duc In Altum, the prayer building on the same grounds, holds daily mass and doubles as a hall for choral and classical music. It is run by the Magdala project rather than by a chain and its guests are largely pilgrims and groups, which sets the tone at breakfast. The trade is that Tiberias and its restaurants are a drive away, and you get gardens, a lake frontage and an excavation instead.
Reservations are handled directly by the project at reservation@magdala.org.
“The property, room, grounds, food, and overall experience was top-notch.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.6833 ratings92% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-620-9900
- Website
- magdalahotel.co.il
02
Galei Kinneret
The old Tiberias shoreline, done properly
Galei Kinneret opened in 1946, built by Lotte Eisenberg as one of the first luxury hotels in the country, and its flagship suite is still named for David Ben-Gurion, who stayed here with his wife Paula. It has 123 rooms on a private stretch of the Tiberias shore, with a Roman pool looking out over the water, a heated indoor current pool, the GALEI spa with rest areas, a dry sauna, a hammam and treatment rooms, the LOTTE restaurant, a beach bar and a boat kept for guests. Brown Hotels reopened it after a long refurbishment and puts it at the head of its own Icons collection. It takes guests aged 12 and over only, which makes it the wrong answer for a family with small children and the right one for two people who want the lake quiet. Parking is free on a first-come basis, and rooms are sold by what they face, so book the lake side deliberately rather than hoping.
“Rooms super clean and modern with excellent views of lake and mountains.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.51,337 ratings87% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Eli'ezer Kaplan Blvd 1
- Kitchen
- Resort hotel
- Phone
- +9724-670-7070
- Website
- brownhotels.co.il
03
Nof Ginosar Hotel
A kibbutz on the water, with the boat next door
Nof Ginosar is Kibbutz Ginosar's own hotel, on the north-western shore below the Arbel cliffs and facing the Golan across the water, and it feels like a kibbutz guesthouse rather than a resort. Next to it is the Yigal Allon Center, where the timber boat found in the lake bed in 1986 and radiocarbon dated to between 100 BC and 100 AD has been displayed since the hall built for it opened in 2000. The hotel's own answers are refreshingly plain: there is no spa, the adjoining beach is what it offers instead, and the pool runs from 10:00 to 18:00 with lifeguards on duty throughout. The Shabbat rhythm is unusual and worth planning around, because rooms are handed over about an hour after the day goes out and departing guests have until 16:00. Book the museum for a weekday: it opens Sunday to Thursday and takes Friday and Saturday visitors only as groups of at least twenty arranged in advance.
“The food is great the rooms are very clean.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.43,860 ratings85% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-670-0320
- Website
- ginosar.co.il
04
GalileeHills - Resort & Suites
A hilltop to yourselves, well above the lake
This is not a hotel but a privately owned estate on Mount Hazon at 600 metres above sea level, near the Druze town of Maghar, made up of one flagship villa with a penthouse and two designer suites. Each residence is self-contained with its own keys and kitchen, and the heated saltwater infinity pool, the hot tub, a strength gym, a barbecue pavilion and the breakfast terrace are shared between them, with the whole property available as a buyout for a group of roughly sixteen to twenty. Breakfast is Druze and made on the mountain: warm laffa, olive oil, labneh, cut salads and local cheeses. Check-in is owner-hosted and contactless, which is the trade against having a front desk to solve your problems at ten at night. It suits a family or a group that wants to cook and drive, and anyone who would rather look down on the Sea of Galilee than swim in it.
“Fully equipped kitchen, wonderful pool and jacuzzi.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.851 ratings98% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- 806
- Kitchen
- Resort hotel
- Phone
- +97258-780-5084
- Website
- galileehillsresort.com
05
Gomeh Hotel
Families who want a pool and no complications
Gomeh is Isrotel's 212-room hotel on the north-western shore at Migdal beach, built squarely for the domestic family week: connecting rooms and family complexes, a heated half-Olympic pool, a toddlers' pool, a children's club, a gym and a long terrace over the view. Isrotel is candid about two things on its own page, and both are the sort of thing a brochure usually leaves out. The lake has retreated with the natural level changes, so the water line is now a short walk out from the hotel grounds, and the shore below is not a declared bathing beach, carries no lifeguard cover and is not the hotel's responsibility. Parking beside the hotel is organised but charged, under the local council's directives, and there are four electric vehicle charging points. On Shabbat and festivals cars are not admitted at the gate before 16:00 and rooms are given out from 18:00.
“Beautiful hotel, beautiful people, great service, delicious food.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.41,337 ratings86% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Migdal Shore
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-679-8882
- Website
- isrotel.co.il
06
Astoria Galilee Hotel
Walkers, cyclists and anyone counting
The Astoria is a 100-room hotel on four floors in the town of Tiberias, about a kilometre's walk from the lake shore, and its own site puts its founding 93 years ago. It reads as a town hotel rather than a resort: a dining room with a buffet serving breakfast and dinner, a bar in the afternoons, a seasonal pool, a green terrace it calls the English garden, three function rooms and a private car park. The management writes about working to a slow-tourism idea, buying and promoting local products rather than running an all-inclusive, and the hotel takes in cyclists, jeep groups and walkers coming off the Israel National Trail as much as it takes in couples. The trade for the price and the quiet is the position: you are in a residential neighbourhood above the promenade, and the walk back is uphill.
“very good hotel in a great location - very tasty food, nice service.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.0812 ratings72% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Brurya St 13
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-672-2351
- Website
- astoria.co.il
07
Ron Beach Hotel
A balcony over the water, and a kitchen that is not kosher
Ron Beach sits on the shore north of Tiberias town and has 136 rooms, all of them with a balcony facing the lake, the Golan and Mount Hermon, which is not something most hotels here can say. There is an outdoor pool immediately beside the water, a garden of tropical trees running along the shore, a basketball court, a fitness room, a cafeteria and a playground. The hotel states plainly on its own site that its meals are not kosher, which around this lake is the exception, and it is the most useful single fact about the place: it is the right answer if you want a kitchen free to cook whatever it likes, and the wrong one if you keep kashrut. Nothing about it is designed or fashionable. The view and the balconies do the work.
- Kashrut:
- Not kosher
“Excellent view of sea of Galilee, sumptuous buffet spread n good facilities”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.5791 ratings89% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-679-1350
- Website
- ronbeachhotel.com
08
Caesar Premier Tiberias
Town-centre spa, glatt kosher kitchen
Caesar Premier stands on the Tiberias promenade in the middle of the town's shops and restaurants, which makes it the easiest hotel here to use on foot after dark. It has 220 rooms plus seven suites and two presidential suites looking out to the lake and the Golan, and the Hamat Caesar spa attached to it runs a heated indoor pool, twenty treatment rooms, salt baths, a sauna and a gym, which is a genuinely large spa by the standards of this shore. The hotel holds a kashrut certificate from the Tiberias Rabbinate at the basar chalak standard. Check-in is from 15:00 and checkout by 11:00, with separate Shabbat and festival arrangements published on its own page. It is large, busy and unpretentious, and the spa is the reason to choose it over its neighbours on the same street.
“Fair prices, very good meals, pleasant services.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.67,691 ratings90% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- הטיילת 103
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-672-7272
- Website
- caesarhotels.co.il
09
Leonardo Plaza Hotel Tiberias
A Shabbat-observant stay in the middle of town
Leonardo Plaza is at HaBanim Street 1 on the Tiberias promenade, three minutes' walk from the Tiberium water and light show on the Yigal Alon promenade by the hotel's own reckoning. Fattal publishes the Shabbat arrangements in more detail than anyone else on this page: a Shabbat lift runs, a Shabbat key card is issued on request at check-in, there is a synagogue in the building and three more within walking distance, and the hotel says it will not provide a hotplate or an urn for safety reasons. Rooms are handed over from 15:00 midweek and from 18:00 on Saturdays and festival evenings, with checkout at 11:00 and 14:00; a late departure costs 250 shekels where the hotel can offer one, meals not included. Six rooms are accessible and there is wheelchair access to the pool, the restaurant and the spa, which is more than most hotels on this shore publish. The outdoor pool looks over the lake and has a toddlers' pool and a summer snack bar beside it.
“Great customer service, nice room, gorgeous view, solid pricing.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.34,375 ratings82% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Ha-Banim St 1 ב
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9724-671-3333
- Website
- fattal.co.il
The decision
One lake, one set of hills, and the case for two bases
The Kinneret basin is the default and there are good reasons for it. It is the only part of the Galilee with hotels at any scale, it sits at the hinge between the Lower Galilee, the Jordan valley and the Golan, and the Christian sites on the northern shore are strung along a few kilometres of road. The cost is heat. The lake lies well below sea level and is reliably hotter than the ridges an hour west of it, which in July and August is not a small thing.
Within the basin there are two different stays. Tiberias town gives you a promenade, restaurants, buses and a hotel every hundred metres: Leonardo Plaza reckons the Tiberium water show on the Yigal Alon promenade at three minutes' walk from its door, and Caesar Premier sits in the middle of the shopping streets. The north-western shore at Migdal and Ginosar gives the opposite: lawns, the Arbel cliffs behind, and Capernaum, Tabgha and the Mount of Beatitudes on one short road. You give up somewhere to walk to in the evening.
Above the basin the character changes completely. Galilee Hills stands at 600 metres on Mount Hazon by the Druze town of Maghar, and the vegetarian village of Amirim, on the slopes below Mount Meron, is a hillside of privately run timber cabins looking out over the Galilee hills, the Kinneret and the Golan. From up here Safed, Meron and the Hula valley are close and the lake is a drive. This is also where you find the quiet that people say they want when they book a lake view and then discover a pool bar underneath it.
If Akko, Rosh Hanikra or Nazareth is the main object rather than a day trip, sleep there rather than on the lake. Akko is on the coastal railway from Haifa and Tel Aviv, which no lake hotel is, and the drive across the Galilee is slow enough to eat two hours of the day. For a week the honest answer is usually two bases: three or four nights on the water, then two in the hills or on the coast.
The stock
Resort hotel, kibbutz guesthouse, zimmer, field school
The lake hotels are resort hotels in the Israeli sense: several hundred rooms, a heated pool, a spa, a children's club and a buffet twice a day. Isrotel's Gomeh has 212 rooms on Migdal beach; Caesar Premier has 220 on the Tiberias promenade with a spa of twenty treatment rooms attached. They are built for the domestic family week rather than for foreign couples, which is why the pool matters more than the lobby and why half board is offered everywhere.
Kibbutz guesthouses are their own category, and the Galilee has the best of them. Nof Ginosar belongs to Kibbutz Ginosar and stands on the kibbutz's own shore, with the Yigal Allon Center and its first-century boat a walk away across the grass. The style is plainer than a chain hotel and the answers are plainer too: the hotel says outright that it has no spa and that the adjoining beach is what it offers instead.
A zimmer is the Israeli country cabin, and in the hills it is the dominant form. At Amirim one long-established family operation runs seventeen timber cabins and suites down a terraced hillside, from a unit for two to a whole house for eighteen, each self-contained and with no restaurant on site. Read the descriptions rather than the photographs: the better operators say plainly which of their cabins is a view cabin and which is not, and that line is the whole difference between two units at the same address.
Below that sit the field schools and the pilgrim houses. The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel runs field schools at Hermon, the Golan, Achziv and Alon Tavor, with a camping site on Mount Meron, offering private and family rooms as well as pitches, and they put you at a trailhead rather than at a pool. Magdala, on the lake at Migdal, is a guesthouse run by a Christian project rather than a chain, with a prayer hall and an excavated first-century town on the same grounds.
The week
What Friday afternoon does to a hotel
An Israeli hotel does not close for Shabbat, but its clock changes and the change catches people out. Leonardo Plaza Tiberias hands rooms over from 15:00 midweek and from 18:00 on Saturdays and festival evenings, with checkout at 11:00 and 14:00 respectively. Isrotel's Gomeh will not let a car through the gate before 16:00 on Shabbat and festivals, and gives rooms out from 18:00. Nof Ginosar puts it most starkly: guests go into their rooms about an hour after the day has gone out, while the previous night's guests have until 16:00 to leave. A Friday afternoon arrival is fine. A Saturday morning one is not.
The observance itself is handled quietly and thoroughly. Leonardo Plaza publishes the fullest list of any hotel here: a Shabbat lift runs, a Shabbat key card is issued on request at check-in, there is a synagogue in the building and three more within walking distance, and the hotel states that it will not supply a hotplate or an urn, for safety reasons. Take that last point seriously if you are used to hotels that do.
Breakfast is included in almost every rate here and is the meal Israeli hotels take most seriously: a long buffet of salads, cheeses, eggs cooked to order, smoked and pickled fish, bread, pastries and fruit. Where the kitchen is under rabbinical supervision the buffet is dairy, which is why there is no bacon and why the fish counter is as good as it is. Dinner is an upgrade rather than an inclusion: Leonardo Plaza's standard booking is room and breakfast, with half or full board added in advance.
Kashrut is worth checking in whichever direction you care about. Caesar Premier Tiberias holds a certificate from the Tiberias Rabbinate at the basar chalak standard. Ron Beach states on its own site that its meals are not kosher, which around this lake is the exception. Neither position is hidden, and both decide what your evening looks like.
The bill
VAT, parking, and what the rate does not cover
Israeli value added tax runs at 18 per cent, and hotel accommodation for a non-resident is the country's best-known exemption from it. Isrotel states the operator's side of it in two lines: rates are published without VAT, Israeli citizens and Israeli passport holders are charged it, and reservations for foreign citizens or residents are quoted in euros or dollars rather than shekels. It is not an airport refund scheme. It comes off the bill at the desk and it turns on documents, so carry your passport and the entry slip issued at passport control to check-in and settle the room in a foreign currency. Israeli citizens living abroad on a second passport do not qualify, and the conditions are set by the Tax Authority rather than by the hotel: confirm them when you book, not at checkout.
Parking is the small charge that surprises people, because it varies hotel by hotel in the same town. Isrotel says there is organised parking beside Gomeh and that under the local council's directives it is charged. Galei Kinneret lists free parking on a first-come basis. Astoria has its own car park. In Tiberias proper, where the promenade hotels sit on a narrow shelf between the water and the hillside, assume nothing and ask when you book.
Late departures are priced, not negotiated. Leonardo Plaza charges 250 shekels for a late checkout where it can offer one and says the fee does not include meals; Nof Ginosar charges 300 shekels with reception's approval. Both are subject to how full the hotel is that day, which on a Saturday in August means the answer will be no.
One more thing the rate does not promise: a swimmable lake. Isrotel notes that the shore below Gomeh is reachable but is not a declared bathing beach, has no lifeguard cover and is not the hotel's responsibility, and that the water line has moved a short walk out from the grounds as the lake level has fallen. Nof Ginosar's supervised swimming is its pool, open 10:00 to 18:00 with lifeguards, with the beach beside it. A hotel on the shore and a hotel with a supervised beach are different things.
The full list
Every place to stay we found in The Galilee
All 20 that Google Maps returned for this area, ranked by rating weighted for how many people rated it, so a five from three people does not outrank a four and a half from three thousand.
| Name | Kind | Rating | Ratings | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U Boutique Kinneretמלון יו בוטיק כנרת - U Boutique Kinneret | Hotel | 4.7 | 1,833 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Amirey Hagalil Hotelמלון אמירי הגליל | מלון בוטיק לזוגות בצפון | Restaurant | 4.7 | 1,540 | n/a | Amirim |
| Caesar Premier Tiberias | Hotel | 4.6 | 7,691 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Magdala HotelMagdala Hotel - מלון מגדלה טבריה | Hotel | 4.6 | 833 | n/a | Migdal |
| GalileeHills - Resort & Suites | Resort hotel | 4.8 | 51 | n/a | Maghar |
| Galei Kinneret | Resort hotel | 4.5 | 1,337 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Ron Beach Hotel | Hotel | 4.5 | 791 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Nof Ginosar Hotel | Hotel | 4.4 | 3,860 | n/a | Ginosar |
| Gomeh Hotel | Hotel | 4.4 | 1,337 | n/a | Migdal |
| Leonardo Plaza Hotel Tiberias | Hotel | 4.3 | 4,375 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Leonardo Hotel Tiberias | Hotel | 4.3 | 3,642 | n/a | Tiberias |
| David’s Harp Galilee ResortDavid’s Harp Galilee Resort | נבל דוד גליל ריזורט | Hotel | 4.3 | 684 | n/a | n/a |
| Kinar Galilee HotelKinar Galilee Hotel - מלון כינר גליל | Hotel | 4.2 | 3,179 | n/a | n/a |
| Sofia Sea of Galilee HotelSofia Sea of Galilee Hotel - מלון סופיה טבריה, כנרת | Hotel | 4.1 | 840 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Prima Galil HotelPrima Galil Hotel מלון פרימה גליל | Hotel | 4.1 | 1,538 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Astoria Galilee Hotel | Hotel | 4.0 | 812 | n/a | Tiberias |
| The Setai Sea Of Galilee | Hotel | 4.0 | 3,940 | n/a | n/a |
| Lake House | Hotel | 3.7 | 1,025 | n/a | Tiberias |
| King Solomon Tiberias HotelKing Solomon Tiberias Hotel - מלון המלך שלמה טבריה | Hotel | 3.4 | 2,281 | n/a | Tiberias |
| Club Hotel Tiberias | Hotel | 3.0 | 3,876 | n/a | Tiberias |
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings and counts move daily and this table does not: it is a snapshot, and it is here so the ranking above can be checked rather than taken on trust. Prices are Google's own price band, not a menu price.
Practical
What to know before you go
- Book the side of the building, not just the hotel. At Ron Beach every room faces the water; almost everywhere else the lake view is a room category with a price attached, and Galei Kinneret sells rooms of the same size facing either the lake or the hills.
- Do not plan a Saturday morning arrival. Rooms on Shabbat and festivals go out from 18:00 at Leonardo Plaza and Gomeh, and at Nof Ginosar about an hour after the day ends. Friday afternoon is fine; Saturday lunchtime means a long wait in the lobby.
- Settle the room in a foreign currency and have your passport and entry slip at check-in. The 18 per cent VAT exemption on hotel accommodation for non-residents comes off the bill at the desk, not back at the airport.
- Ask about parking before you book a promenade hotel. Isrotel charges for the parking beside Gomeh under local council rules, Galei Kinneret gives it free when there is space, and Astoria has its own car park up the hill.
- Price half board where you are staying outside Tiberias. At Ginosar, Migdal or on a hilltop there is nothing within walking distance after dark, and the upgrade has to be added in advance rather than decided at dinner.
- A hotel on the shore is not the same as a supervised beach. Isrotel says the shore below Gomeh is not a declared bathing beach and has no lifeguard; the lake has also retreated far enough that the water is a walk from the lawn.
- Check kashrut in whichever direction matters to you. Caesar Premier holds a Tiberias Rabbinate certificate at the basar chalak standard; Ron Beach states its meals are not kosher. Both say so on their own front pages.
- The museums keep Shabbat even when your hotel does not. The Yigal Allon Center next to Nof Ginosar opens Sunday to Thursday from 08:00 to 17:00 and takes Friday and Saturday visitors only as pre-arranged groups of at least twenty.
The figures
Numbers behind this page
Each figure carries the year it belongs to and links the source it came from.
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Israeli VAT rate | 18% | 2026 | isrotel.com |
| Rooms at Gomeh, Migdal beach | 212 | 2026 | isrotel.co.il |
| Rooms at Caesar Premier Tiberias | 220 | 2026 | caesarhotels.co.il |
| Rooms and suites at Magdala | More than 150 | 2026 | magdala.org |
| Rooms at Galei Kinneret | 123 | 2026 | brownhotels.co.il |
| Rooms at Ron Beach, all with balconies | 136 | 2026 | ronbeachhotel.com |
| Rooms at Astoria, Tiberias | 100 | 2026 | astoria.co.il |
| Height of Galilee Hills on Mount Hazon | 600 m above sea level | 2026 | galileehillsresort.com |
The rest of the The Galilee guide
Sources and further reading
Every link below was opened and checked when this page was written. Official statements are marked as such: they are the subject's own account, not an independent one.
- OfficialMagdalamagdala.orgMagdala Guesthouse
Room count, the 2009 excavation that preceded construction, Duc In Altum and the Tarichaea restaurant.
- OfficialBrown Hotelsbrownhotels.co.ilGalei Kinneret Hotel
1946 founding by Lotte Eisenberg, 123 rooms, spa and pools, the age-12 minimum and free parking.
- OfficialKibbutz Ginosarginosar.co.ilNof Ginosar Hotel
Shabbat check-in and checkout, pool hours and lifeguard cover, and the hotel's own statement that it has no spa.
- OfficialYigal Allon Centeren.yigal-allon-centre.org.ilThe Ancient Boat
The 1986 discovery, the radiocarbon range, the 2000 exhibition hall and the museum's opening hours.
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.co.ilGomeh Kinneret
212 rooms, the receded water line, the undeclared beach, charged parking and Shabbat gate times.
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comTerms and Conditions
The 18 per cent VAT position, who is charged it, and pricing for foreign citizens in euros or dollars.
- OfficialFattal Hotelsfattal.co.ilLeonardo Plaza Tiberias
Shabbat lift, key card, synagogues, the refusal to supply a hotplate, check-in times, late checkout fee and accessible rooms.
- OfficialCaesar Premier Hotelscaesarhotels.co.ilCaesar Premier Tiberias
220 rooms, the Hamat Caesar spa, and the Tiberias Rabbinate certificate at the basar chalak standard.
- OfficialRon Beach Hotelronbeachhotel.comRon Beach Hotel
136 rooms with lake-facing balconies, the pool and gardens, and the hotel's statement that its meals are not kosher.
- OfficialAstoria Galileeastoria.co.ilAstoria Galilee Hotel
100 rooms over four floors, the walk to the shore, the slow-tourism approach and the guests it caters for.
- OfficialGalilee Hills Resortgalileehillsresort.comGalilee Hills Resort and Suites
Mount Hazon at 600 metres, three self-contained residences, shared pool and gym, Druze breakfast and buyout option.
- OfficialOhn-Bar, Amirimamirim.comOhn-Bar Guesthouse, Amirim
A working example of a Galilee zimmer cluster: seventeen units on a terraced hillside, and which of them face a view.
- OfficialSociety for the Protection of Nature in Israelteva.org.ilField schools
The field school network, including Hermon, the Golan, Achziv, Alon Tavor and camping at Mount Meron.
Where to stay in the Galilee: common questions
Where is the best place to base yourself in the Galilee?+
For a first visit, the Sea of Galilee shore, and within it either Tiberias for restaurants and buses or the north-western shore at Migdal and Ginosar for quiet and the Christian sites. The lake is the only part of the region with hotels at scale and it sits at the hinge of the Lower Galilee, the Jordan valley and the Golan. If your trip is really about Safed, Meron, the Hula or walking, a hill base saves an hour of driving a day and is several degrees cooler in summer. Over a week, two bases beat one.
Is Tiberias a good base, or is it too touristy?+
It is the practical base and it is unashamedly a resort town. The promenade carries most of the region's hotel rooms, the restaurants and the evening life, and it is the only place on the lake where you can leave the car and walk to dinner. In exchange you get a busy, workaday town rather than a picturesque one, hotels packed onto a narrow shelf between the water and the hillside, and Israeli school holidays at full volume. The north-western shore is the quieter alternative fifteen minutes away.
Do tourists pay VAT on hotel bills in Israel?+
No, non-residents are exempt from the 18 per cent VAT on hotel accommodation, and the exemption is applied to the bill rather than refunded afterwards. Isrotel's English site states the operator's side of it plainly: rates are published without VAT, Israeli citizens and Israeli passport holders are charged it, and reservations for foreign citizens or residents are quoted in euros or dollars. Bring your passport and the entry slip issued at passport control to check-in and settle the room in a foreign currency. Israeli citizens living abroad do not qualify, even on a second passport.
What happens in an Israeli hotel on Shabbat?+
The hotel stays open and busy, but the clock and the services change. Rooms are handed over much later on Saturdays and festivals: from 18:00 at Leonardo Plaza Tiberias and at Isrotel's Gomeh, and at Nof Ginosar about an hour after the day has ended. Leonardo Plaza runs a Shabbat lift, issues a Shabbat key card on request and has a synagogue in the building with three more within walking distance, but states that it will not supply a hotplate or urn for safety reasons. Plan a Friday afternoon arrival rather than a Saturday morning one.
Is breakfast included, and what is it like?+
Almost always yes, and it is the meal Israeli hotels are best at: a long buffet of salads, cheeses, eggs to order, smoked and pickled fish, bread, pastries and fruit. Where the kitchen is under rabbinical supervision the buffet is dairy, which is why there is no bacon and why the fish is as good as it is. Dinner is normally an upgrade rather than an inclusion. Leonardo Plaza's standard booking is room and breakfast with half or full board added in advance, which is the usual arrangement across the lake.
What is a zimmer, and is it worth it?+
A zimmer is the Israeli country cabin: a self-contained unit with its own kitchen, usually one of several in a family's garden or on a terraced hillside, with breakfast supplied rather than served. In the Galilee hills it is the dominant form of accommodation, and at Amirim a single long-running operation runs seventeen cabins and suites ranging from a unit for two to a whole house for eighteen. It is worth it if you have a car and want quiet and space. Read the unit descriptions rather than the photographs, because the good operators state which cabins have a view and which do not.
Can I stay on the lake and still see Safed, Nazareth and Akko?+
Safed and Nazareth, comfortably; Akko, at a cost. Both hill towns are inside an hour of the lake by car and make straightforward day trips. Akko is on the far side of the Galilee near the Mediterranean, and a day trip from Tiberias spends a good part of itself driving, which is why the coast is better attached to a separate night or reached by train from Haifa. None of this works well without a car: the bus network thins out sharply from Friday afternoon to Saturday night.
Do hotels here have parking, and is it free?+
Almost all of them have parking, but whether it is free varies within the same street. Isrotel says the parking beside Gomeh at Migdal beach is organised but charged, under the local council's directives. Galei Kinneret lists free parking on a first-come basis, and Astoria in Tiberias has a private car park. Ask when you book rather than on arrival, because the promenade hotels sit on a narrow strip with limited ground of their own.
Can I swim in the Sea of Galilee from my hotel?+
Sometimes, but a hotel on the shore does not automatically mean a supervised beach. Isrotel states that the shore below Gomeh is reachable but is not a declared bathing beach, has no lifeguard cover and is not the hotel's responsibility, and that the falling lake level has left the water a short walk out from the grounds. Nof Ginosar's supervised swimming is its pool, open 10:00 to 18:00 with lifeguards, with the beach alongside. Galei Kinneret and Ron Beach both hold their own shore frontage. Check what the operator actually claims before you count on it.
Are there hostels or cheap beds in the Galilee?+
There is no real hostel scene on the lake, but the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel runs field schools at Hermon, the Golan, Achziv and Alon Tavor, plus a camping site on Mount Meron, with private and family rooms as well as pitches. They put you at a trailhead rather than at a pool and are booked directly through the society. In Tiberias itself, Astoria is the closest thing to an independent town hotel rather than a resort, and the seasonal shoulder months are where the savings really are.