
I guess since I mentioned that I was in Israel for a while it should come as no surprise that I read some travel books on the area. They were all informative in their own way. I read
Culture Shock Israel
before I went, and was prepared for things such as seeing soldiers in the streets carrying guns, etc. This was an excellent book that helped me prepare for things like the slower paced lifestyle, etc. In the rental car office, we were wanting to leave, and the man looked at us and said, "Ah, what is your hurry?" Our hurry was we had already been there for over 30 minutes and the paperwork was done, we just needed the keys to our car. The most helpful travel book was, of course,
Lonely Planet Middle East
I even did something I'd never done before -- ate at a place recommended by a travel guide. We decided the food was mediocre, but the view was excellent. We had a great view of the Dome of the Rock from the rooftop cafe, but the food wasn't anything very special.
Christian Traveler's Guide to the Holy Land
was helpful in being able to find out what happened in the different places we visited. Where was the Dead Sea mentioned in the Bible? What about Ein Gedi? Massada? This book made it easy to look up and find the answer, even if we did sometimes look it up after the fact.