Best Day Trips From Jerusalem

Jerusalem makes a superb base for day trips. Here are the ones actually worth your time, and why I'd guide each one rather than have you go it alone.

Jerusalem makes a superb base for day trips, since so much of Israel's most striking landscape and history sits within an hour or two's drive. Here are the ones actually worth your time, and why I would strongly encourage doing each with a guide rather than alone.

The Dead Sea

The lowest point on earth, and an experience unlike anywhere else, floating in water so dense you cannot really sink. It pairs well with a stop at Masada or Ein Gedi. I guide Dead Sea trips myself, and the logistics, timing around the heat, and which access point to use are exactly the kind of details worth getting right rather than guessing, covered in more depth in my guide to a Dead Sea trip from Jerusalem.

Masada

A dramatic desert fortress with one of the most gripping stories in Jewish history, best visited early to beat both the heat and the crowds.

Bethlehem

A short trip that requires a bit more planning around crossing points and timing than people expect, and is far better handled with someone who does it regularly.

The Jordan Valley and Jericho

One of the oldest continuously inhabited places on earth, often overlooked in favour of the bigger names nearby.

Every one of these trips involves logistics that are easy to get wrong alone: opening hours, checkpoints, heat timing, and how much time each site actually deserves. I would always rather help you build a day trip properly than have you find out the hard way what a guide would have caught in advance.

Written by Orit Kropp

Licensed by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, Jerusalem-based, and endlessly enthusiastic about bringing the Tanach to life on the ground where it happened.