Crossing border - Jordan to Israel; Eilat to Jerusalem; day trips to Nazareth & Bethlehem

Mari, have you asked these questions on a destination specific forum like TripAdvisor....where you may have actual locals answering your questions? Also, something like Bradt or Lonely Planet guide books for advice of sequence of countries to visit? I know our cruise ship is going to Isreal before Jordan. Not sure if there are political reasons for this or not.
Also check out rome2rio website. They offer travel options between cities. When I looked Eilat to Jerusalem there was an alternate shuttle company. Booking, however, was on yet a different website and that company offers shuttle from Petra to Jerusalem including border crossing.
Also keep in mind people tend to love to give negative reviews rather than take the time to write a positive one. Might be why they are hard to find.

Mari,

This local guide has a very informative youtube channel and a website. He also has small travel guides (amazon) that can be purchased as booklets or downloaded as ebooks. We have a trip next year and I've been doing research on his platforms.

Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkeTA80xeSa9POCGRpWTIfQ

Website:
https://www.travelingisrael.com/

Happy travels!

I used the Arava crossing two years ago, but in the opposite direction, as we were in Israel with a rented car, left our car at the border, walked across to Jordan, took a taxi to Aqaba, visited there and then took a taxi back to the border, walked across and picked up our car in the parking lot again on the Israel side.

Still, I can answer some of your questions.

1)Yes, you literally walk across the border. If you have luggage you bring it with you while you're walking. I don't remember whether or not there were taxis waiting on the Israeli side, sorry, but generally taxis in Israel (and in Jordan) are very safe. I would guess there would be taxis there since we saw a number of foreign family groups walking across the border with luggage. (We had no luggage as we were day tripping.)

2)You cannot use US currency either in Israel or Jordan. (Except possibly as a tip.) We changed money at the border very easily. They have a kind of trailer at the border for that - it's well marked and the people manning it speak English.

3)According to this website, there are 4 buses a day from Eilat to Jerusalem.
https://www.touristisrael.com/eilat-to-jerusalem/16369/
However, the border crossing point is not exactly on the main road and you would need transportation to get to a bus stop. You wouldn't need to go all the way to Eilat to pick up the bus as that is about 30 minutes in the opposite direction. There is a bus stop for your bus at each of the kibbutzim near the border crossing.
I suggest you ask your Jerusalem hotel about this, as they are likely to know whether or not you really need a reservation for the Eilat-Jerusalem bus. It probably partly depends which day of the week you're traveling and what time of year.

Have a fun trip. It's not really a difficult area to travel in!

Hi Mari. First, I responded to your question on another thread about the border crossing.

You need to take a bus, taxi or private driver to the border in Aqaba (yes, that's the Arava crossing). You can change any leftover Jordanian dinars to Israeli shekels at the money changer before crossing. I imagine you could also do it at the Israeli side. There are ATMs on the Israeli side that you can get shekels from (also in Jerusalem). You will need to pay an exit tax of around 8 dinars. Then you schlep your luggage about 300 meters or so to the Israeli side where there's a security check similar to airports.

There are taxis at the Israeli side. According to this is the official Egged bus website you can book tickets by phone in English. Here is the bus schedule (#444) on a weekday (note there is a second page of the timetable). According to the website the bus stops at the border crossing about 2 minutes after it leaves the central bus station in Eilat. NOTE that the last bus on Friday is at 1 pm (and may be earlier, depending on the time of year) and that the first bus on Saturday is at 3.30 pm. If you book in advance allow plenty of time to cross the border. If you get stuck behind several groups, it can take a really long time.

Bethlehem is a very few kms from Jerusalem but you can get stuck at the border. You need to take a bus or taxi from East Jerusalem near Damascus Gate of the Old City (Israeli vehicles are not allowed to cross into Bethlehem) and it's no more than a 1/2 day tour. You could do that on the same day as your Jerusalem tour if the timing works. Nazareth is at least a 2 hour drive from Jerusalem and traffic in Nazareth can be awful, taking well over 1/2 hour to get to/from the center to the highway. You can get recommendations for tour guides on the tripadvisor Jerusalem forum. There may be guided tours available from East Jerusalem to both cities.