Transportation between Turkey and Israel

This means travelling through Syria if you're overland. But as far as I know, you can't travel through Syria with a stamp from Israel - not a problem if it's one way. Or you could try a ferry to Cyprus and onto Israel - but it's not clear these ferries are running because there are conflicting stories.

Sorry, not much help.

From So. Turkey go to Rhodes and then to Greek Cyprus. Cyprus Airways has very cheap flights from Larnaca to Tel Aviv, as low as 69 euro plus about 37 euro taxes.

http://www.cyprusairways.com/main/default.aspx

Have you checked out flights between IST and TLV? What have you found? Have you also looked at flying into Amman?

One option is to fly into Ercan (N. Cyprus - which is under Turkish rule/control). A number of the Turkish carriers fly into this airport. From Ercan catch a cab to Nicosia probably about $20 - cross the green line into Cyprus proper. Take a bus or cab from Nicosia to Larnaca airport and then a flight into Tel Aviv.

While Cyprus Airways does have cheap flights, I found last year that they can also be very expensive for a very short flight depending on when you are traveling. Arkia airlines (Israeli LCC also flies between TLV and LCA but only on certain days).

Overland, you will have to cross into Syria (visa costs $131 from embassy in DC), and then into Jordan (visa around $35?) and then into Israel. When you add in transportation costs, you may be better off flying. This option only works one way - on the return you will not be able to cross either Syria or Lebanon with an Israeli stamp as noted by a previous poster.

In summary, not sure what your definition of economical is - my guess is at a minimum you will need to spend at least 200-300$ in transport costs per person to get to Israel.

Last year we traveled through all of these countries and didn't find any ferries between Israel and Cyprus though these used to exist in the past.

Our route was as follows (in case it helps you)
- flew from Istanbul to Gaziantep, taxi to Killis, another taxi to the border and then onto Aleppo in Syria

• travel through Syria (Hama, Palmyra, Krak des Chevaliers, Tartous)

• Lebanon (Tripoli, Beirut, Baalbeck)

• Back to Syria (Damascus) as no crossing into Israel

• Jordan (Amman, Madaba, Mt. Nebo, Jordan River, Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum)

• Crossed into Israel at Eilat on the Red Sea

• Jerusalem, Palestinian territory (Bethlehem), Tel Aviv

• Flew on Arkia airlines to Cyprus (Larnaca), taxi to Nicosia as the buses weren't running

• After a few days in Cyprus, crossed into N. Cyprus and flew out of Ercan into Istanbul and then back to the US.

On this route, we only needed to arrange for visas for Syria ahead of time - though word on the thorntree forum indicated that US passport holders could get them at the border but would probably have to endure a wait of 6-8 hrs while permission was obtained from Damascus. Didn't want to deal with this as we were traveling with the kids. The visas were very easy to get from the Syrian embassy in DC.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Looks like flying is best alternative.