Weekend getaway
A tantalizing trio of music, food and wine is offered at the Pastoral Hotel in Kfar Blum
The Pastoral Hotel at Kibbutz Kfar Blum, known for its cultural vacations, this year is launching new programs featuring the Israeli Opera in February and soon, Trio weekends – three weekends of music, culinary delights and wine. These weekends include musical performances, culinary lectures and a visit to a local winery.
The cultural program continues a tradition of 17 years and offers unusual programs such as “American Dream” with American folk, country music and lectures. Another program is following the “Israeli National Trail-Shvil Israel” including leading Israeli singers such as Yehoram Gaon. A musical weekend with the soloists of the Israeli Opera will take place on February 21-23, 2019, which will focus on opera love stories such as The Marriage of Figaro, Romeo and Juliet, and others. There are also weekends of “pastoral words” about literature and current matters. In addition to the weekends, lectures will be opened to the residents of the Galilee based on availability, and some options for mid-week and Friday-to-Sunday stays will be offered.
The hotel has an excellent content department and each and every event is a major production that comes with surprises. For example, the welcome reception is accompanied by a harp and shiatsu “tasting.” Musical weekends vary from half-board to full-board. The full programs include the welcome reception, meals, high tea and a sweet farewell. In terms of program, there are lectures, concerts, yoga classes and a guided tour.
One of the advantages of staying during a concept weekend is the opportunity to socialize with the performing artists and musicians. They stay at the hotel and have their meals with everyone. It was nice to see Sassi Keshet and Yona Elian at breakfast, Gil Shohat and other celebrities at dinner and during receptions, and have an informal chat with them.
A new music and conference center named “Opera” was opened recently. It includes four performance halls of different sizes, covering a total area of 2,660 square meters, at a cost of NIS 14 million. The main hall contains up to 450 seats and can be divided into three spaces. The building has an enchanting Spanish facade, a well-groomed patio and a state-ofthe-art audio-visual equipment.
Hotel CEO Dubi Banari commented: “The construction of the new convention center and the additional boutique rooms was required due to the success in the specialization and branding of the Pastoral Hotel as a hotel of culture and music. For 17 consecutive years, the hotel has held musical weekends on various subjects. Every weekend of content there are three or four concerts, performances and lectures, and until now there have been about 160 weekends of content in the Pastoral, which have produced about 500 performances and concerts.”
THE PASTORAL HOTEL has 199 rooms, built on an area of 15,000 sq.m. Each building is dedicated to a cultural area (Hebrew poetry, theater, literature, children’s legends, opera, opera singers, jazz and blues, actors and film directors, orchestras, writers and sculptors) and each room at the hotel is devoted to a famous figure, which adds charm to the stay. We stayed at Shakespeare’s room and joked with one of the guests who stayed at the room named after the kinky Israeli author and satirist Dahn Ben-Amotz.
The hotel rooms are boutique rooms full of elegance and grace. The decor is classic European style that corresponds to the spirit of the period of composers and poets whose words and melodies are played here. The rooms are spacious and include a seating area, a fully equipped bathroom with bathtub and rain shower and a private balcony. One can sit on the balcony, swallow the snowy view of Mount Hermon and forget of the world!
Kibbutz Kfar Blum is located on the banks of the Jordan River. The Jordan promenade stretches from the kibbutz to the North and is beautiful during all seasons. Even though we stayed during the winter, it is a great starting point for trips in the Galilee and the Golan Heights. As part of the weekend in the Pastoral, the hotel organized a guided tour on Friday morning. The tour is divided into two levels of difficulty and explores nearby nature trails. Since we arrived immediately after a strong rain system, we took the car and went to see Saar Falls. The waterfall is a 25-minute drive from the hotel and an easy circular walk of 15 minutes, although it does require climbing a few steep steps.
The meals at Pastoral are a celebration of flavors, colors and smells. They are all buffet-style. The richness and diversity of the dishes is great and the presentation is exceptional, involving rows of small plates, salads and hot chef’s plates.
Chef Ohad Ivgi’s cooking and presentation is creative and combines Jewish, Eastern and Western cooking. At Shabbat dinner, as part of the endless buffet, he served gefilte fish, macaroons filled with Jewish-style chicken liver pâté, lamb chops with couscous and assado. There was something for everyone. Dinner was accompanied by complimentary Syrah wine from Galilee Mountain Winery.
On the sweet side, every meal had a full dessert buffet, which was like going into a pastry shop filled with rows of cakes, pies, brownies, truffles, and more. Pastry Chef Natalie Criden does an amazing job at making wonderful pareve desserts and overall.
The service at the hotel is outstanding – meticulous and courteous. All the hotel staff we encountered were attentive and happy to assist us. The hotel facilities are maintained at a very high standard, with an emphasis on the perfect landscaping of the hotel’s beautiful lawns and surroundings. The hotel has an excellent spa and a seasonal Olympic-sized pool.
Cultural weekends start from NIS 1,540 per night per room for the Trio weekends; NIS 2,100 for the music programs, and lower rates for regular stays. For more information, call 04-6836611, or visit kfarblum-hotel.co.il. The writer was a guest of hotel.