ISRAEL: Kibbutz Degania B Accommodations & Tours

Degania B Country Lodging, which began operating in 1994 with 20 units - five building with four rooms each - has gone full circle, renovating all of these rooms about one year ago, the most recent round of improvements that saw it grow over the years to about 60 units, all with a kitchenette - with a total of nearly 200 beds.

The multi-year renovations effort has included transforming the kibbutz’s Pioneer House about five years ago, into rooms, and reconstructing two additional buildings that served in the past to accommodate youth.

“The last 20 we refurbished had been our most Spartan accommodations,” says Idan Ben-Shalom, a kibbutz member and its unofficial historian, who is involved in just about every aspect of Degania B tourism, “and we have renovated and upgraded them so that every one of them can accommodate up to four people now - two in each of its two rooms.

All the units have been outfitted with two TVs, microwave and mini fridge - in addition to a kettle, which was there before; the rooms on the ground level feature a wooden entrance deck; Air-conditioning was added too, the shower was renovated, new beds were installed in the bedroom and a table with two chairs was also added. The next stage of improvements calls for landscaping the area fronting these buildings, to separate and shield them from the activity along a new road running by this part of the property.

“This latter project is in keeping with the direction we have been following since the last phase of renovations was completed,” Ben-Shalom explains. “Whereas most of our business before came from domestic tourism, our improved product and new approach have resulted in incoming group tourism being our major market nowadays. We have become less plain and common, so to speak, and the new landscaping will reinforce this perception.”

The Kibbutz Product at Degania B
Ben-Shalom is quick to emphasize that the rooms themselves are only one facet of what attracts tourists to Degania B. “At a time when most of the kibbutzim have become privatized, we are one of the last bastions of the original collective system,” he emphasizes, “and this is reflected in our tourism offerings too, such as the fact that our guests breakfast together with members in the communal dining hall and can feel part of our daily activities.”

Aside from dining with members, guests that so choose, can join a group tour Ben-Shalom conducts in English (and Hebrew) to learn about kibbutz life. It is usually free of charge to those staying at Degania B, certainly when 10 or more guests sign up, though if only one or two are interested on a certain day, there may be a charge.

“About two years ago, even before the last stage of our renovations activities had been implemented, the guest house manager decided that any guest interested in getting to know the kibbutz and the idea of the kibbutz in general, would be given the opportunity to do so,” he recollects.

“In support of this concept, I developed a kibbutz tour for our guests, our 95 years of history, but it has been so successful that it also is booked by groups staying elsewhere in the area, and we have started to market it as a package, with dates and a welcome drink, a short talk and lunch in the communal dining hall. No two tours are the same, and I try to adapt each to the nature of the group.

Chinese groups, for example, are usually less interested in Judaism and more in the practical nature of how a kibbutz works. We get groups of young people, business people, philo-Zionist Evangelicals - I see who they are and do my best to give them what they want.”

One of the highlights of every tour is a stop at the modest home of Levi Eshkol, a Degania B member and a former prime minister, who lived there after leaving office. The building now houses the kibbutz archives.

In addition to these general tours, the kibbutz also offers professional agricultural tours that cover the banana orchards, dairy operations, orchards, wheat fields and avocado, date and almond tree groves, depending on interest, in cooperation with the kibbutz managers of the various divisions.

Another product, which has appealed most to Evangelical groups, is meeting with kibbutz members in their home. Meetings take place in English, and these encounters are usually pre-booked via agents, Ben-Shalom states.

Galita Chocolate Activities
The Galita chocolate factory, though not a kibbutz industry, rents space on the kibbutz, and it offers a number of options for tourists, aside from the chance to purchase its products, prepared in front of its customers’ eyes. These include a short film on the history of chocolate - in English too - and hands-on workshops on chocolate making.