SATURDAY
Illinois International Travel will arrange a round-trip flight from your hometown city to New York’s Newark Airport. Upon arrival you will be transferred to the Newark Airport Country Inn and Suites that has an indoor swimming pool and fitness center. Here you will be able to meet friends from many other parts of the country including your tour escort who will review the day-by-day Bethel Tour Vacation with you.

SUNDAY
This morning a complimentary buffet breakfast will be served in the hotel dining room. Everyone will then depart the hotel on our private motorcoach and drive through the Lincoln tunnel from New Jersey to Manhattan. Here you will enjoy a sightseeing tour of New York City, known as the Big Apple. Your tour escort will point out such interesting sights as the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue, Central Park, Chinatown, the Garment District, Wall Street and much more. You will soon see how so many people live in the different cultures that make this city one of the most unique in the world. Even the skyscrapers are amazing in their architecture. The afternoon is at leisure in Manhattan or you can take an optional boat cruise around Manhattan Island as you sail under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. While cruising, you will have a view of all the Watchtower buildings and other famous landmarks and towering skyscrapers. Balance of the day is free in Manhattan to do as you please. At 5:00 p.m., our chartered bus will return everyone to the hotel or you can remain in Manhattan and your tour escort will explain how easy it is to return to the hotel by bus or train at your leisure. Located across the street from your hotel is New Jersey’s largest indoor outlet mall that has a variety of restaurants, a food court and several movie theaters.

MONDAY
Today everyone will depart on our private motorcoach for a beautiful drive through upstate New York to Wallkill to visit the new factory and Bethel Home at Watchtower Farm. You will see the various printing facilities and presses in the new factory that is all automated and equivalent in space to 125 Kingdom Halls or larger than nine football fields. You’ll be amazed at the new MAN presses that are 18 feet high and how over 90,000 Watchtower and Awake magazines are printed per hour. One roll of paper weighs 38,000 pounds, is 14 miles long and is gone through in 25 minutes. (See WT 12/1/05, p. 8)
The bindery line has 33 machines that can produce 50,000 books and Bibles a day or 120 per minute. The paperback book line assembles and packages as many as 100,000 books a day. In the shipping department, you will see how literature requests for over 12,000 congregations are processed each month on special conveyors that are 1.5 miles long. A congregation order of 350 magazines can be completed in just 14 seconds. There is also a display of magazines in several languages, as there are now over 300 different languages that are always in stock. You’ll see how literature is printed differently for those who are in prisons or for those that can only read Braille. You will then have time to enjoy your included box lunch in the picnic area. (If you know someone at Bethel, you may contact them ahead of time to see if you can be invited as their guest for lunch on this day at Wallkill or on Wednesday at Brooklyn Bethel in the “30 Dining Room.”) Each year thousands of friends from around the world travel to New York and Wallkill to visit the New Factory and all of the amazing printing facilities (See WT 12/1/05 p. 8). After lunch, it is a one hour drive to Patterson where you will visit the new Educational Center at Patterson Bethel. Here you will see displays describing the work done in the Society’s offices, including the service, art, legal and translation services departments. Other offices oversee the activities of missionaries, relief efforts in disaster areas and direct the teaching programs for congregations throughout the world.
You’ll see the large dining room, kitchen, laundry and the Gilead School Auditorium. You will be amazed at this beautiful project, including the courtyard that was completed mostly by volunteer workers. (See WT 11/15/99, p. 9) Following the tour, you’ll return to the hotel. Balance of the evening is free.

TUESDAY
Enjoy your complimentary breakfast at leisure and then the entire day and evening will be free to do as you please. Your tour escort will have several suggestions on places to visit and how easy it is to take transportation into Manhattan where there is a variety of things to see and do during your free time. You can then return at leisure to your hotel. You will have plenty of time to visit the Empire State Building, Times Square, Macy’s Department Store, Chinatown and other great shopping areas plus there is a variety of restaurants and several world-renown museums. Be sure to try some New York style cheesecake and pizza. In the evening you may want to attend a Broadway Theatre to see a musical or some other live performance. Don’t miss the indoor outlet mall across the street from your hotel. Here you will find name brand stores with merchandise at discounted prices.

WEDNESDAY
This morning your private coach will depart from the Country Inn to visit the beautiful Jersey City Assembly Hall. It was originally known as the Stanley Theater back in 1928. After being closed for several years, it was then purchased and renovated by Jehovah’s Witnesses to be used as an Assembly Hall. In just nine months, 5,500 volunteer workers finished a complete renovation. You will be amazed how all the chandeliers, stained glass, brass and copper were restored. Even the lobby has beautiful murals of Bible scenes painted by the Watchtower staff.
Next, you will visit the Brooklyn Bethel Office known as the “30 Building” where the work of over a hundred Branch Offices is coordinated by the administration departments. This is where the Governing Body is located, plus writers, researchers, proof readers and secretaries that handle all materials related to the preaching activity worldwide. You will see interesting displays of all the various committees. The Public Relations Department has a display of the awards and even an Emmy for their outstanding public services by the way of our tapes and DVD’s. Under the direction of the writing committee, material is prepared here that will be published worldwide. Considerable research is done before being put into written form, which means it must be thoroughly checked and proof read for spelling and accuracy, after which it is reviewed by the writing committee. It is then sent to branches around the world so that it can be translated into different languages for all nationalities to understand.
Following this tour, you can enjoy your included box lunch at noon as there are benches on the promenade next to Bethel that have a beautiful view overlooking Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. After lunch, you will proceed to 117 Adams Street where there is a display in the lobby of the worldwide work. The highlight will be seeing how the newly fully automatic laundry system takes up two floors to cover the needs of 3,000 Bethelites. You will also tour the Sands Residence Building to see the lobby, kitchen, dining room and a Bethelite apartment. At the end of the tour, you will take an elevator to the rooftop of the Sands Building for a fantastic view of New York City. You will then return from your Bethel Tour Vacation to the hotel and the balance of the day will be free to do some more exploring or shopping on your own.

THURSDAY
This morning breakfast is again included. Depending on your return flight schedule, you have your choice of either returning home or departing Newark Airport and flying with our group on one of our tour dates listed below to Reagan Airport in Washington D.C. Upon arrival in Washington, you will enjoy a sightseeing tour to view the United States Capitol Building, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, Washington Monument, Smithsonian, and the White House. Later, check-in at the beautiful Hilton Alexandria Mark Center Hotel. Balance of the day is at leisure.

FRIDAY
This morning our tour escort will take everyone on the Metro Subway (tickets are $2.00) to visit the Holocaust Museum where we have included special tickets so you can spend as much time as you please. The museum is dedicated to presenting the story of how more than 30,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses and others were persecuted by the Nazis. It has many artifacts, documents, historical photographs, videotaped eye witness accounts and interviews with over 70 of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were victims of Nazi rule. You will be able to see the actual coats with the purple triangle badges that identified only Jehovah’s Witnesses in the concentration camps. (For additional information on the Holocaust Museum see Awake,3/8/05, p. 16 and 11/8/93, p 16) Balance of the day free to do as you please or to tour the famous Smithsonian Museum.

SATURDAY
Entire day free to visit the United States Capitol Building, White House, Bureau of Engraving and Printing of money, Washington Monument, Library of Congress, National Archives, Smithsonian, Air and Space Museum, and many other points of interest. All attractions are free of charge.

SUNDAY
This morning, everyone will take the hotel shuttle bus to Reagan Airport for their return flight home with many Bethel Tour Vacation memories.

2008 TOUR DATES TO NEW YORK
- June 7-12 or 15
- September 13-18 or 21
- October 4-9 or 12
- October 18-23

- On these dates you can return home after the 5-day New York tour or take the optional 3-day tour to Washington, D.C.
• This date includes the New York and Canadian Bethel Homes plus Niagara Falls

OPTIONAL TOUR: The dates with a (-) indicate you can take our regular tour to New York or you can then continue on to Washington, D.C. for an additional three nights at our special group rate. This must be indicated by checking the Bethel plus Washington, D.C. box for the optional extension on the reservation form. You will stay at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center Hotel.

NOTE: You can travel to New York on any of the above dates from any departure city listed above. Please indicate the city and departure date you prefer on the reservation form. If your city is not listed, please note your preference and we will inform you of the total cost from your hometown.

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SPECIAL SAVINGS: All rates are per person based on two adults sharing one room. Some rooms have two double beds that can accommodate up to four persons. You may deduct $200.00 from the above prices for anyone under 18 years old rooming with 2 adults. Deduct $50.00 per person from the above prices if there are three or four adults sharing a room. If you do not have a roommate, we will attempt to assign one for you or you can pay a supplement for a single room.

ALL BETHEL TOUR HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
• Round-trip airfare from any departure city to Newark
• Hotel accommodations
• Complimentary breakfast buffet daily
• Transportation to Brooklyn, Patterson and Wallkill
• Two box lunches including soft drinks
• Sightseeing tour of New York City
• Services of an experienced tour escort in New York

Washington D.C. HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
• Airfare from Newark to Washington, D.C.
• Transportation between the airport and hotel
• Hotel accommodations at the Hilton
• Sightseeing tour of Washington, D.C.
• Tickets are included to the Holocaust Museum
• Services of an experienced tour escort in Washington, D.C