Bethlehem, Jericho and Jordan River Day Tour from Jerusalem

The $150 per person price buys a full 10-hour day in an air-conditioned vehicle with a driver, transport between every stop, the one bottle of water per person and, most importantly, the licensed local guide who takes over in Bethlehem. That Bethlehem guiding is the core of what you are paying for. The listing holds a 4.7 rating across 565 reviews, which puts it among the stronger rated options in this catalog.

What is not in the price

Food and drinks are on you for the whole day, so bring lunch money or pack something. Two Jericho entries are paid on the day: Hisham's Palace at 10 NIS ($3.23) and Old Jericho, the Tell es-Sultan mound, at 10 NIS ($3.23). That is $6.46 extra in cash per adult at most.

Tips are not mentioned either way in the listing.

The practical rules, straight from the listing:

• Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, with reserve now and pay later available
• Passport or ID card required, and Israeli passport holders are not permitted to join, in line with Israeli regulations
• Children must be accompanied by an adult
• Modest dress for the churches and religious sites
• Not suitable for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments
• Groups run up to 55 people, so it is a coach day rather than a small group

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority. The bus reaches it in about 30 minutes from Jerusalem and changes vehicle at the entry point, where your licensed local Palestinian Christian guide joins. Security checks can happen entering or leaving Bethlehem and the listing describes them as routine.

Carry your passport or ID card.

The guided block runs about two and a half hours across four stops. You get a full 1 hour at the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto Christians hold as the birthplace of Jesus. It is the oldest major church in the Holy Land, first built around 330-333 after Constantine's mother Helena visited, rebuilt by Justinian in the 6th century and largely unchanged since.

The compound covers about 12,000 square metres with Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox monasteries around it. Access to the birth grotto itself depends on crowd levels and local conditions, and the listing is upfront that it cannot be guaranteed.

Shepherds' Field, the Milk Grotto and the workshop

From Manger Square the day moves to Beit Sahour, the town next to Bethlehem that tradition calls the City of the Shepherds. The Chapel of the Shepherds' Field gets 30 minutes, at the spot where the Gospel places the angels announcing the birth. The Chapel of the Milk Grotto gets 15 minutes.

That Catholic chapel was built in 1872 over the site of a 5th-century Byzantine church, where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered during the flight into Egypt. The last Bethlehem stop is 30 minutes at an olive-wood workshop and community store in Beit Sahour, where artisans carve religious items and sculptures. There is no obligation to buy anything.

After Bethlehem the coach runs about 1 hour east through the Judean Desert, descending to the Jordan Valley and the lowest city on earth. Jericho sits about 258 m (846 ft) below sea level under the Mount of Temptation, and the listing calls it the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Archaeologists have found more than 20 successive settlements on the site, the first about 11,000 years ago, and Tell es-Sultan, the old mound in the centre, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023.

The Bible calls Jericho the city of palm trees. There is a photo stop at the sea-level marker above the city on the way down.

What you see in Jericho

Jericho is not guided on this trip. You explore on your own with the driver present, in self-guided blocks of 15 to 30 minutes. The stops are the Jordan River first, then Hisham's Palace, then Deir Hijleh, then Ancient Jericho, with the Sycamore Tree of Zacchaeus and Elisha's Spring, the oasis mentioned in the Bible, worked in along the way.

Hisham's Palace is an Umayyad palace from the first half of the 8th century, 3 km (2 mi) north of central Jericho, and holds one of the largest continuous mosaic floors in the world at nearly 850 square metres.

Because the stops are short and unguided, the honest advice from the listing is to read up before you go. Thirty minutes covers the headline sight at each, but you will not get the deep history a guide would give you. If you want the whole day narrated instead, the Ramallah option in the comparison table below runs with a local guide throughout and in a group of up to 20.

For the history of the oldest town on the route, see Jericho on Wikipedia.

Yes, you visit the Jordan River itself. The baptism site near Jericho, known as Qasr al-Yahud, is where the listing places the traditional site of the baptism of Jesus. You get 30 minutes there on a self-guided basis.

The site sits in Area C of the West Bank and is run as a national park, and directly across the river is Al-Maghtas, the Jordanian side known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan. This is a visit, not a baptism ceremony. The listing does not arrange baptism with a priest, and there is no mention of changing facilities, so treat it as a 30-minute stop at the water.

Deir Hijleh, the St Gerasimos monastery, gets a 15-minute self-guided stop. It is rooted in early Christian monastic life in the Jordan Valley. It is one of the quieter stops of the day and a good contrast with the crowds at the Nativity.

Between the river, the monastery, the palace and the ancient mound, the afternoon covers a remarkable amount of ground for a single valley.

More on the river stop is in the Qasr al-Yahud baptism site guide.

The day starts and ends at the David Citadel Hotel, King David St 7, Jerusalem. The start time is shown at checkout, and you are back at the same point in the late afternoon. Bring a passport or ID card, comfortable shoes, a hat, sunscreen and cash for the two Jericho entry fees and lunch.

Modest dress is required for the churches, which means covered shoulders and knees. There is walking at every site but nothing strenuous.

Documents and eligibility are the strictest part of this listing. Israeli passport holders are not permitted to join, in accordance with Israeli regulations, and children must travel with an adult. It is not suitable for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments.

Booking terms

Free cancellation applies up to 24 hours before the start, and the listing offers reserve now and pay later, so you can hold a place while you finalise the rest of your Jerusalem plans.

Two listings in the catalog combine Bethlehem, Jericho and the Jordan River in one day: this one and the Ramallah route. The closest alternatives are the half-day Bethlehem trip, which drops Jericho entirely, the Ramallah route, which guides the whole day and adds lunch in a small group, and the Galilee day, which swaps the West Bank for the north and a different baptism site on the Jordan. Figures current for Q4 2026.