Hey, I'm glad you're posting on here, man. I think you're a pretty good example of the college-student demographic that will be really interested in the INT once they find out that it even exists.

Once you're in-country and have your gear, hiking the trail is really cheap. Since you're walking everywhere, you won't have any transportation costs unless you decide to take a bus someplace. So the biggest expenses relate to where you choose to stay and how you choose to eat.

If you sleep outside every night, or stay with friends, then your lodging costs are zero. On the other hand, if you stay in a hostel every chance you get, you'll spend a lot of money.

Same goes for food -- it's possible to hike the whole trail eating only food that you buy from small stores in kibbutzim, etc. If you stick to that, then you won't be spending much more on food than you do normally. However, on the trail, you might be burning twice as many calories as you normally do. So if you don't want to lose too much weight, you'll eat a lot more, and if you're like me, you'll be tempted to eat at restaurants when you get the chance. When we stopped in Nazareth on our hike, we ate at the Tishreen restaurant and spent something like 300 shekels on dinner for three people. That was ridiculous, but it was one of the best meals I've ever eaten.

In short, once you're in Israel and have the necessary equipment, you can hike the trail for very little money. It's hard to give specific estimates -- maybe other hikers here can give some good methods of figuring out costs.

Yankale wrote (BTW: Kibbutzim don't sell food unless you are a kibbutz memeber...)

Hmm, I've bought food from lots of Kibbutz's on the Shvil. You just have to make sure that you get there after it opens/before it closes.

zx

I forgot -- we were also able to buy food at Kfar Giladi, but at Dvira, the guard was very nice, but he only allowed us through the gate to fill our water bottles, and then we left. I'm sure it depends on the nature of each kibbutz.

Yankale, You may be right about most kibbutzes, I've only been to a half-dozen on the trail. But I know some that are called "Kibbutz" on the map would sell us food (Maps don't always distinquish between traditional Kibbutzes and Moshav-style kibbutzes) but at least Tzuba, which is about as traditional Kibbutz as they come, sells to people on the trails.

Seth wrote What's the availability of other general supplies?  For instance, what if a boulder falls on my foot and break a shoelace... or what if I fall off a cliff and rip a huge hole in the seat of my pants?  Are there reasonable options (kibbutzim, small villages) for replacing some basics that wouldn't require catching a bus back to a bigger town and losing a day?

The real emergency number to contact in case you fall off a cliff and it's not just your pants only is: 100 or 02-6222211. For your pants and other basics there are some basic supplies in many places particularly in small villages where the food store is more like small supermarket.  And I'd recommend not to fall off a cliff  where your cell phone doesn't work...