Jerusalem questions

Taxis with Arab drivers will be available during Sabbath, but I'm not sure where you would want to go? Absolutely everything, including tourist sites, will be shut down (except the Western Wall of course). I never found it to be a hardship, I simply used it for a day of rest and downtime to recharge my batteries...which is of course is what God intended;) Haifa and Tel Aviv are less strict and may be a better choice. Off the top of my head I guess the famous King David Hotel, and the YMCA is closest to the Old City.

Hi Tina,

The Israel Forums on TripAdvisor.com are very active and very helpful. There are a number of threads with recommendations from people who have stayed in the various hotels. The Harmony Hotel is one of the most recommended. It is very central and reasonably priced.

Taxis are available all over the city (mostly Jewish) and rides are short, not expensive. You could easily spend all of Saturday in the Old City on foot. Jerusalem is a terrible place to drive in (terrible traffic and worse for parking) - no one recommends having a rental car there.

If you have any other questions, either PM me here or visit tripadvisor.

I stayed at the Dan Panorama in Jerusalem and was very pleased with the room and services.

http://www.danhotels.com/Hotel-Jerusalem

It is centrally located.

There are arab taxi drivers that you can use during Shabbat.

There are elevators in the hotels that are pre-set during Shabbat and others for non-observant that are not.

Michael, I beg to differ. Everything in the Old City, except the Jewish quarter museums and the Temple Mount, is open and bustling on shabbat. The Israel Museum is open (among others), as are many cafes and restaurants. The churches are open too.

I specifically said the Western Wall area would obviously be bustling with religious activity during the Sabbath. My experience in Central Jerusalem was that absolutely no restaurants or shops are open in Jewish neighborhoods on Saturdays. Good to hear the Israel Museum is open.

Tina - I'm going to share with you (and everybody else) one of the best kept secrets for budget travelers in Jerusalem. Check out something called the Notre Dame Center, or as it's officially known, the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center. http://www.notredamecenter.org/index.phtml They have bare-bones (but satisfactory) lodging, and even some luxury accommodations if you're interested. They have a prime location right across the street from the Jaffa Gate, and their breakfast is fantastic. Despite all this, their rates are less than $90/night. Good luck finding that kind of value anywhere in Jerusalem. One thing to be aware of, the narrow entrance is a little obscured from the street and easy to miss. In fact, a seasoned taxi driver we hired to take us there made numerous passes going by it before realizing where it was. Good luck!

People take taxis or mainly walk on Shabbat. I think we stayed at the King Solomon hotel in Jerusalem. Friday evening we were at the Wall, where challah was distributed by an individual! Then we walked to the hotel. David's Citadel is open on Shabbat. I don't know if we already had tickets; don't remember. We went there after synagogue on Sat.

Our tour guide was Jewish and observant so we had the day off on Shabbat. We went to the old town and visited all the markets.

We stayed at the Eldan Hotel in September 2008. It was a great experience. It is centrally located and within walking distance to both Ben Yahuda, the old city (4 blocks from Jaffa Gate) and the nearby restaurants on Yosef Rivlin and the walkway leading there....(not to mention the King David across the street), but the most interesting part of our stay was the cultural experience of sharing the jewish traditions and culture in this "Kosher" hotel...everything was new to us (non-jewish guests)...right down to the shabbat elevator....breakfasts were indeed very good and even though shabbat breakfast was different, it remained a good experience. The staff was typically Israeli...by that I mean they can be totally indifferent and not customer focused or they can be helpful in a personal sort of way...all in all, I can't recommend them highly enough....a recent price check shows a rate of about $160 a night for a double, but I think you have to book directly with the hotel. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293983-d310981-Reviews-Eldan_Hotel-Jerusalem.html