About Holy Land Tours | Anderson Tours LLC

One of the most significant reasons people choose Anderson Tours is the comprehensive experience we provide and our group size. We have learned that the impact of the "Power of Place" experience is best when done in a small, manageable group where participants can have a personalized experience and not one that is large and impersonal. (We often are able to enjoy a meal in a local's home which is really amazing).

Another key element is trust and safety! Because of our frequent visits and robust relationships in country we have incredible support and enjoy safety and efficiency on our Tours, often being able to visit more sites and have deeper experiences not possible with larger, unseasoned groups.

Anderson Tours will maximize the participants experience and maintain that as its focus throughout instead of maximizing their profits by cutting corners and taking large groups which compromises the impact of the experience (we limit group size to one bus).

YOUR experience will be enhanced by OUR experience and by OUR keeping YOUR experience as our greatest honor and privilege! [The motives and experience of the providers of such a Tour cannot be overstated in terms of YOUR experience on historical and sacred Tours].

OUR focus in on YOU and YOUR experience! It will change your life in all the right ways.

For nine years (1962-1971) Gary served as the Institute Director at the Dixie Institute in St George, Utah and became mentor to one very bright student... Jeffrey R. Holland.

Elder Holland remembers, "Gary came into my life in one of those crucial moments that really has made an eternal difference to me. I was just newly back from my mission, wondering very much what to do with my life. I felt very much alone. I reenrolled at Dixie College but was really quite aimless as far as professional hopes and academic avenues open to me."

According to Elder Holland, Brother Anderson was an "instrument of the Lord in whispering to my soul, 'Church Education is what you are to do professionally.“…"Gary was knowledgeable and personally helpful about the ins and outs of the Church Educational System," says Elder Holland. "He told me how much he enjoyed it, how much it had blessed his life, and the good he felt that could be done with every generation of young college students who come along. That kind of counsel was good enough for me. I jettisoned plans for medical school, law school, business school, and any other kind of school that I had in mind and pursued a CES career, which has been a great blessing to me, my wife, and our children.” (BYU Religious Education Review, Fall 2011, pg.13)

Gary would be recruited and hired onto the BYU Religion Faculty from 1971 to 1995. During his time at BYU, Gary was selected to be a faculty member at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies on two separate occasions (1977 and 1986) which allowed the entire Anderson Family to live in Jerusalem for two entire semesters and learn about the culture, history, language, and ways of the Middle East. It played a very significant role in each of their lives and spiritual development.

In the year 2000 the name would be changed to "Anderson Tours" and they also added one of the new 7 Wonders of the World (Petra, Jordan) to their Holy Land Tour.

In 2002 they expanded their Tour offerings to include a deluxe and comprehensive Church History Tour the year the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated. Gary taught in the Church History Department on the BYU Religion Faculty for 24 years and had a deep passion for Church History. He also directed several Church History Tours for BYU Travel Study and took all of his children with him over the years. Gary was a dedicated disciple and passionate teacher. He loved the Savior and was passionate about all His teachings, but especially those teachings delivered through the Living Prophets (his professional passion).

2017 was the 20th Anniversary and would prove to be a pivotal time for Anderson Tours. The year would include a historic Church History Tour offering, adding our first ever Book of Mormon Land Tour to Mesoamerica, Service Cruise offerings. It also included Clark going to the Holy Land with a film crew to accrue 360 video footage for a Virtual Tour of the Holy Land.

In 2017 Clark also developed a Youth Tour to the Holy Land which he had been working on for years and presented it to HEFY. They together offered a "Pilot Tour" in June 2017 which was a smashing success and resulted in their Youth Summit Jerusalem program.

In the summer of 2018 Clark would direct 3 back to back Youth Groups for HEFY and remains their Pioneer Founder of their Youth program to the Holy Land.

[Clark is in the process of developing a more robust scripture and covenant based youth program including scholarships and an international program to include international members of the Church called Gather-NOW Israel (If and when the unrest in the Middle-East calms down we plan to launch in the summer of 2027)].

Now is a really unique and wonderful time to visit the Holy Land and Church History sites. [Believe it or not directly following a conflict is one of the best times to visit the Holy Land]. We would love to have you join us on a life changing experience with us. With our small groups, space is limited and we encourage early registration. Please visit with those who have gone with us in the past to get an idea of the variety of ways it will impact your life.

Enjoy the safety of our Holy Land Tour and if it is on your bucket list we invite you to make it a reality this year while it is still possible! No one provides a better experience! We humbly guarantee it!

We know from our Study Abroad experiences and living in the Holy Land and also our years of learning and teaching onsite, what makes for the most impactful experience to learn and feel the impact of the Power of Place in the Holy Land and on Church History and other scriptural sites.

What drives our Tour experience is the impact it will have on YOU (the participant) and not on anything else (except safety). We are not interested in being a big popular company and entity, our passion is to deliver the very best experience possible...an even better experience that we have ever had visiting sacred sites.

In 1995 Gary passed away unexpectedly at age 61 from pancreatic cancer and the family took a monumental healing trip to the sites he had made sacred throughout his life in the Holy Land. This would prove to be a very significant experience for the family and also be the catalyst for two of their sons, Clark and Ron, to organize and carry out Holy Land Tours. These Tours would help carry on Gary's legacy and philosophy of creating sacred experiences visiting sacred scriptural locations.

The "Power of Place" was Gary's focus and he planted deep into the souls of his children the reality of the Life & Ministry of Jesus Christ ensuring his children visited the places Jesus lived, taught, healed, including sited He visited in recent times as part of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A year after Gary's passing, his son Clark Anderson organized the first Holy Land Tour with brother Ron as a Co- Director in the summer of 1997 under the name of "Shalom Tours". Together they orchestrated an experience that would provide the basis and beginning of decades of taking hundreds and thousands of individuals and families to sacred sited providing them with life changing experiences at sacred sites.

In 1998 the Holy Land Tour expanded to include Egypt and climbing Mt Sinai. This important addition would remain a significant part of the Holy Land experience tying in the Old Testament with the New.

While Anderson Tours is a family legacy the concept was created and developed by Clark (7th child) and with Ron's (oldest child) directing help for the first 10 years. These two would build the onsite teaching legacy modeled by their father Gary. Brothers Hal (2nd child) and Kim (5th child) would also contribute greatly in recruiting and scholarship development. Their sister Tiffany (8th child) would serve as secretary for a critical time and the entire family has supported and helped it grow to be what it is today.

Both Clark & Ron followed Gary's footsteps professionally teaching in the Church Educational System and as such would be the primary directors. Ron began teaching in Seminary & Institutes in 1981 and in 1997 would join the BYU-Idaho Religion Faculty until his retirement in 2021. When BYU-I switched to a 3-semester system in 2001 his teaching schedule would restrict his ability to direct Tours and Clark took over full responsibility for directing. From 2001 to the present Clark has directed over 60+ Tours to the Holy Land and over 25+ Church History Tours (including 20+ Humanitarian Tours).

Clark taught Seminary & Institute for 20 years (1992-2012) and would get remarried and also retire early from the Church Educational System and dedicate full time attention to expanding Tour offerings leading up to the 20th Anniversary of Anderson Tours in 2017.