Three days in Bethlehem: most people give it an hour, which is the mistake

Two nights in the town itself, the Church of the Nativity in the evening when the coaches have gone, the shepherds' fields at Beit Sahour, and the wall paintings on the way out.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Bethlehem
Places
6 across 3 days
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Almost everyone arrives in Bethlehem on a coach at eleven in the morning, queues for forty minutes, sees the grotto for ninety seconds and is gone by one. That is a shame, because the town is far more interesting than the twenty minutes it is usually allotted, and after four o'clock it belongs to the people who live in it.

It sits eight kilometres south of Jerusalem on the same limestone ridge, close enough to see, and separated from it by the barrier and a checkpoint. Getting here is a short, cheap and entirely ordinary bus ride, and the practical business of crossing is dealt with below.

What you get for two nights is the oldest working church in the country, an old town of vaulted alleys and olive wood workshops, the field where the shepherds are said to have been standing, and an evening in a place with a serious restaurant scene and no curfew on coaches.

Highlights

  • The Church of the Nativity at six in the evening, empty, with the Armenian and Greek lamps burning over the grotto stairs
  • The crawl through the Door of Humility, an entrance cut down to shoulder height so nobody could ride a horse in
  • Three Christmases in one town, in December, January and January again, each in a different church calendar
  • Wall paintings and slogans along the barrier, the most photographed political art anywhere and still surprising up close

Where to stay

Bethlehem, two nights

Everything in the town is within a couple of kilometres of Manger Square, and the outlying sites are a ten shekel taxi ride, so two nights in one place covers all of it comfortably.

The town is majority Muslim now, with one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East still living alongside, and the two calendars run side by side: church bells, the call to prayer, and shops that close on different days depending on the street.

Day by day

Day 1 in Bethlehem

Manger Square and the grotto, once the coaches have gone

The tour buses clear out of Manger Square between two and four, and the church that had a ninety minute queue at eleven is close to empty by six. Time your arrival for the second half of the day if the flights allow it.

The basilica and the grotto below it are one visit, and the small chapel with the milk story is two minutes' walk away, so the first evening is a short and very good one.

  1. 17:00

    Church of the Nativity

    Religious

    The oldest church still in use in the country: Justinian rebuilt it in the sixth century over the fourth century basilica Constantine put here, and the mosaic floor of that first church survives under trapdoors in the nave. A recent restoration uncovered gold mosaics along the walls and a set of painted columns nobody knew were there. Down the stairs, a silver star set in the floor of a cave marks the traditional site of the birth. The main door was walled down to shoulder height centuries ago and you go in bent double.

  2. 19:00

    Milk Grotto Chapel

    Religious

    A chapel over a soft white cave two minutes from the basilica, where tradition says Mary spilled milk while feeding the baby. Women hoping to conceive have come here for centuries and the powdered rock is still sold at the door. Quiet, free, and stranger than the church.

  3. 20:00

    Dinner off Manger Square

    Eat

    Bethlehem eats well and late: mezze, msakhan, maqluba and grilled meat, with local wine from the Cremisan slopes if you ask. This is a Christian majority old town, so alcohol is served without ceremony.

With more time: The mosque on the other side of Manger Square, built in 1860 and the only one in the old town, faces the basilica across the same paving. Whether the square is silent or full of noise depends entirely on the hour of the day you walk into it.

Day 2 in Bethlehem

The wall, the old town, and the fields at Beit Sahour

Start at the barrier on the northern edge of town. The concrete here is eight metres high and covered in stencils, murals and slogans that have accumulated since 2005, including several by Banksy, and there is a steady trade in guides, taxis and souvenir stencils around it.

Then come back into the old town for the quarter nobody photographs: the vaulted lanes above Manger Square, the olive wood workshops, and a restored press that explains why every hill around here is terraced.

In the afternoon go down to Beit Sahour, the village below Bethlehem, where two churches stand in two different fields and each says the shepherds were in theirs.

  1. 09:30

    Banksy: Girl checking soldier

    Other

    A stencil of a girl frisking a soldier, painted on the wall near the checkpoint and one of the pieces people come specifically to find. Guides will take you along the barrier to half a dozen more, and the paintings on it are as much local as international by now.

  2. 11:30

    Al-Badd Museum for Olive Oil Production

    Culture

    A small museum in a restored old house around the stone press that used to crush the town's olives, with the crushing wheel, the beam and the weights all still in place. Olive wood carving is Bethlehem's oldest industry and the workshops in the surrounding lanes are the reason every souvenir shop from here to Jerusalem sells the same nativity sets.

  3. 13:00

    Lunch in the old town souq

    Eat

    The vegetable market and the alleys off it do falafel, shawarma and hot bread for a few shekels. It is busiest and best in the late morning.

  4. 14:30

    Shepherds' Fields

    Religious

    Two rival sites in Beit Sahour, one Catholic and one Greek Orthodox, a couple of kilometres apart in the same valley of terraced fields and caves. The Catholic chapel is a small round modernist building of 1954 designed to catch the light like a shepherd's tent; the Orthodox site has a cave church and a great deal more incense. Go for the view over the Judean desert as much as the theology.

With more time: The tomb of the matriarch Rachel, one of the most visited Jewish sites in the country, is at the northern edge of Bethlehem but has been enclosed on the Jerusalem side of the barrier for years and can only be reached from there. It is not somewhere you can walk to from Manger Square.

Day 3 in Bethlehem

Herodian reservoirs, then the bus back

The last morning is for the thing that actually made a town possible on this ridge: water. Three enormous stone reservoirs sit in a pine wood south of Bethlehem and supplied Jerusalem by aqueduct from Herod's time until the twentieth century.

Then take a taxi to the checkpoint and the bus back to Jerusalem, which is twenty minutes away when the crossing is quiet.

  1. 09:00

    Solomon's Pools

    Other

    Three rectangular reservoirs cut into the hillside on a stepped line, holding a hundred and sixty thousand cubic metres between them and fed by springs and rain, with the remains of the aqueduct that carried the water north to the Temple Mount. The setting, a pine forest with hills on all sides, is as much of the point as the archaeology. Access has come and gone over the years, so ask at your guesthouse before setting out.

  2. 12:00

    Bus back to Jerusalem

    Travel

    Taxi to the checkpoint, walk through with your passport, and pick up the bus on the far side, or take the 231 all the way. Allow an hour and a half in total if you have a train or flight to catch.

With more time: With a car and a driver instead, Herodium is five kilometres east: a volcano shaped hill that Herod had raised by hand around his palace, with his tomb halfway up the side and a view across the desert to the Dead Sea. It is administered separately from the town and reached by a different road, so it is a half day with a driver rather than a stroll.

Before you go

Getting there and back

Buses 231 and 234 leave from the station opposite Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem, take about forty five minutes and cost a few shekels. They drop you inside Bethlehem, from where the centre is a short taxi ride or a twenty minute walk uphill.

Israeli hire cars are not insured or permitted for Area A, which includes Bethlehem, so do not drive yourself in. Palestinian taxis wait at the checkpoint and at Manger Square, and agree the fare first.

Coming back you pass through the checkpoint, on foot through a walkway or on the bus, and you will be asked for your passport. Carry it, allow extra time in the morning rush, and expect the arrangements to change from time to time. Check the current position locally before you plan a tight connection.

Where to stay and what it costs

Stay near Manger Square or in the old town if you want to walk to everything, or in Beit Sahour, twenty minutes downhill, which is quieter and has most of the family run guesthouses.

Prices are a fraction of Jerusalem's for the same standard of room, and the guesthouses here are unusually good at feeding people. The shekel is the currency, cards are accepted in hotels and restaurants, and cash is easier everywhere else.

When to come

Bethlehem keeps three Christmases: 25 December for Catholics and Protestants, early January for the Greek and other Orthodox churches, and mid January for the Armenians. Manger Square is spectacular and completely full on each of them, and rooms are booked out months ahead.

Otherwise spring and autumn are ideal, the summer is hot and dusty, and January and February can be genuinely cold on this ridge, at eight hundred metres above sea level. Ramadan changes opening hours and makes the evenings livelier.

Sunday morning is the worst time at the basilica because of services, and midday any day is the worst for queues.

Bethlehem rewards the extra night in a way few day trip towns do. The church is the reason people come and the least of what is here: the town around it has a market, a wine industry, a serious tradition of hospitality and a rate of return visits that the coach passengers never find out about.

Two nights, a taxi driver you trust, and dinner somewhere off Manger Square is all it takes.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

Can I visit Bethlehem from Jerusalem instead of sleeping here?
Yes, and most people do: buses 231 and 234 from Damascus Gate take about forty five minutes each way and half a day covers the basilica and Manger Square. Staying two nights is what gets you the town in the evening, the shepherds' fields, the old souq and dinner at Palestinian rather than Jerusalem prices.
Do I need a visa or a permit?
No separate visa. Bethlehem is entered on the same stamp or entry card you were given on arrival in Israel, and there is no passport control on the way in. Coming out, your passport is checked at the checkpoint, so carry it with you at all times.
When is the Church of the Nativity quietest?
Early morning before the coaches, or after four in the afternoon when they leave. Avoid the middle of the day, Sunday mornings, and the three Christmas weeks in late December and January unless the crowds are the reason you came.
Is it easy to get around the town?
Taxis are plentiful, cheap and the normal way to reach Beit Sahour, the reservoirs or the wall. Agree the price before getting in. The old town itself is walkable, steep in places, and paved in stone that is slippery in the rain.
Can I change these days around?
Copy it into the planner and move the days, keeping the basilica in the late afternoon or the early morning if you can.