Arriving Israel: Terminal 3 at Ben Gurion Airport

What does Ben Gurion Airport look like? Let’s take a look! If you arrive by budget airline, the shuttle bus might take 10 minutes!  

 

Follow the crowd. After taking escalator 2 times you will arrive “ground floor”.

 

And you will see an area for the crew. Just follow everyone to baggage claim.

 

This passage is the memory for many people. If you are leaving Israel by air, you will be on the other side of this glass partitioner. Now let’s head to the immigration.

 

Keep on going. The yellow signage is where the WC is. I think this is the first washroom I saw since getting off the plane…

 

Should you turn right for WC or go straight to immigration? After the “Welcome” sign, it is the immigration!

 

Try to remember נשים is women, just in case.

 

Well, nothing is too special here.

 

But you can rate how you feel about your experience in this washroom. This is the first time I discovered that “ 😐  ” means good?  And ” 🙂” means very good?

 

In case you are thirsty! But I didn’t like the taste of water here.

 

Back to immigration. I don’t think it is that strict, at least not in my case. Probably because I’m Asian? But you see, if someone with this Indian/Pakistani outfit can visit Israel, I guess there is nothing to worry about the questions you’ll be asked.

 

About “lining up”, it’s a mess. Try to figure everything out on your own. Or watch and learn. It’s hard to explain.  The immigration process took like 10 minutes for the 2 of us.  It might be different case for different people. And after passing through the immigration, here’s the baggage claim.

 

It’s quite unique in Israeli airport, no one is using a trolley? They just picked their luggage and left…..

 

The reason… well… a single time usage is 10NIS, and for 5 hours maximum. I guess that is why no one is using it.

 

After picking up your luggage, if there’s nothing to declare, go straight. But remember to withdraw some money from ATM. This is the sign for ATM.

 

It’s the same.

 

You can withdrawl up to ₪2000 a day, that’s an equivalent to $540. The service fee is ₪5 per transaction.

 

After “nothing to declare”, then that is the arrival hall!

 

The arrival hall is on ground floor. If you are taking the bus to Jerusalem, go to level 2.

 

If you are going to Tel Aviv by train, then go to your left. Don’t go up.

 

You can buy local SIM card from the airport for $27. Not this one. There’s another one though. Check this article about buying a local SIM card in airport or else where in Israel.