Day Trips from Jerusalem: Masada to Petra, Compared

One day, first visit to the region

Take the Masada and the Dead Sea Day Trip from Jerusalem. It bundles the two sights most people come for, the fortress and the lowest water on earth, and the entry fees are already paid. Hotel pickup means no navigating.

Walkers who want Ein Gedi

The Masada, Ein Gedi and Dead Sea Tour from Jerusalem is the only one that hikes into the Ein Gedi oasis, two hours among springs and waterfalls, plus 2.5 hours at a private beach. It costs $99, but you pay 167 NIS in entry fees yourself on the day.

Christian sites in half a day

The Half-Day Bethlehem Guided Tour from Jerusalem gets you to Manger Square, the birth grotto, Shepherds' Field and the Milk Grotto in four hours with a licensed local guide. It is the best rated trip on this site.

Bethlehem plus Jericho and the Jordan River

The Bethlehem, Jericho and Jordan River Day Tour from Jerusalem covers Bethlehem with a guide, then the baptism site, Hisham's Palace and Old Jericho. Only Bethlehem is guided, the rest is self-guided with the driver.

The West Bank cities and their present

The Best of the West Bank Tour from Jerusalem: Ramallah, Jericho and Bethlehem runs in a group of up to 20 and is the only trip into Ramallah, with Arafat's Tomb, the separation wall, the Banksy works and a stop at Aida refugee camp. Lunch is included.

The Galilee

The Nazareth and Sea of Galilee Tour from Jerusalem is a 10-hour loop through Nazareth, Capernaum, Tabgha, Tiberias and the Yardenit baptism site. The drive is about two hours each way.

The Mediterranean coast

The Caesarea, Haifa and Akko Day Tour from Jerusalem is the only coast day here: the Roman harbour at Caesarea, the Old City of Akko and the Bahá'í Gardens in Haifa. Entrance fees are on top.

A short desert outing

The Judean Desert Jeep Tour from Jerusalem: Mar Saba and the Desert Cliffs is a four-hour off-road ride to a summit and a viewpoint over the Mar Saba monastery. It suits anyone who does not want a full day.

Petra

Petra is too far for a day. The 2-Day Petra Tour from Jerusalem with Madaba, Mount Nebo and a Bedouin Camp crosses at the Allenby Bridge, sleeps in a Bedouin-style camp and gives you about six hours at the site.

Some of these routes work well without a tour. Buses cover the Dead Sea shore and Bethlehem, and both are simple enough to arrange the evening before, though timetables change so check the day before you travel. Petra, the Galilee and the coast are a different story: they are long days with several stops, which is why a coach tour is the simple option there.

What a tour saves you

A tour bundles the transport, the entry tickets and the guide into one booking. On the West Bank trips it also handles the checkpoint: the vehicle change at Bethlehem, the local guide who takes over there, and the routine security checks both ways. On Petra it handles two border crossings, the Jordanian guide from the bridge and the night in the camp.

Who is fine alone

Bethlehem and the Dead Sea are the honest answers. The buses run outside Shabbat and the routes are short. Travellers with a hire car should note that cars rented in Israel cannot cross into Bethlehem.

Every full-day trip starts early and gets back to Jerusalem in the evening. The half days are done by lunchtime. Here is how they compare and how long you actually spend at the main stops.

The early starts on the northern days

The Galilee day is the longest drive on this list, about two hours each way, and on some days it starts with a 5:50 transfer to Tel Aviv to meet the guide before the tour proper. Drop-off at the end is at 10 Jerusalem hotels after about 10 hours.

The half days

Two trips end before the afternoon. The Bethlehem half day is back at the David Citadel Hotel after 4 hours. The jeep tour takes 4 hours and meets at the Giv'at HaTahmoshet light rail station on weekdays, or the bus stop at Ha-Nevi'im St 67 on Saturdays.

Masada

Masada is a mountain-top fortress on a natural plateau rising over 400 m (1,300 ft) above the land around the western shore of the Dead Sea. Herod the Great built palaces, storerooms, bathhouses and a water system here, including a three-terrace palace on the northern cliff. In the First Jewish-Roman War it was the last holdout of Jewish rebels until the Romans broke through in 73/74 AD after building a siege ramp.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Both Masada tours go up by cable car.

Floating in the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is a salt lake whose surface sits 439.78 m (1,443 ft) below sea level, the lowest land on Earth. At about 34% salt, nearly ten times the ocean, its density makes swimming feel like floating. The lake has shrunk from 1,050 km2 (410 sq mi) in 1930 to 605 km2 (234 sq mi).

Both Masada days end with a float and mud at a beach, 90 minutes on one, 2.5 hours on the other.

Ein Gedi

Ein Gedi is a nature reserve on the western shore with springs, waterfalls and native wildlife such as ibex. Only the Masada, Ein Gedi and Dead Sea tour walks in, for two hours on the trail. Entry is 31 NIS on the day.

On the standard Masada day you see the oasis from the road.

Qumran

The Qumran caves above the Dead Sea are where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The Masada day with fees included passes them on the road rather than stopping, so factor that in if they are a priority.

The Church of the Nativity

In Bethlehem, built over the grotto Christians hold as the birthplace of Jesus. Commissioned by Constantine after his mother Helena visited in 325-326, first built around 330-333 and rebuilt by Justinian in the 6th century, it is the oldest major church in the Holy Land. The compound covers about 12,000 square metres with Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox monasteries.

It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Entry to the birth grotto depends on crowd levels.

The Milk Grotto and Shepherds' Field

The Milk Grotto is a Catholic chapel built in 1872 on the site of a 5th-century Byzantine church, where tradition says the Holy Family sheltered. Shepherds' Field lies in Beit Sahour next to Bethlehem, where the Gospel places the angels announcing the birth. Both Bethlehem tours include them.

Jericho and Hisham's Palace

Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world, with more than 20 successive settlements, the first about 11,000 years ago. Tell es-Sultan, the old mound, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2023. The town sits about 258 m (846 ft) below sea level under the Mount of Temptation.

Hisham's Palace, an Umayyad palace 3 km (2 mi) north of the centre, holds a mosaic floor of nearly 850 square metres. Entry to Hisham's Palace and Old Jericho is 10 NIS each on the day on the Jericho tour.

Qasr al-Yahud and the Jordan River

Qasr al-Yahud is the baptism site on the Jordan River near Jericho, in Area C of the West Bank and run as a national park. It faces Al-Maghtas, the Jordanian side known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan. The Bethlehem, Jericho and Jordan River day stops 30 minutes, and the Ramallah loop stops 45 minutes.

Ramallah and Aida

Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the West Bank and holds the tomb of Yasser Arafat. Aida is a refugee camp 2 km (1.2 mi) north of central Bethlehem, right against the separation barrier and Checkpoint 300. Only the Best of the West Bank tour reaches Ramallah, and it adds the wall and the Banksy works in Bethlehem.

If access to Ramallah is restricted, the day adds time in Jericho and Bethlehem instead.

Nazareth

Nazareth is the first stop on the Galilee day, an hour at the Basilica of the Annunciation and St Joseph's Church. The basilica is a Catholic church built over the place tradition holds as the house of the Virgin Mary, and the listing calls it the largest Roman Catholic church in the Middle East. The route passes Cana on the way north.

Capernaum and Tabgha

Capernaum was a fishing village on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee with about 1,500 people in the 1st century AD. The remains of two ancient synagogues stand there, plus a house held as Saint Peter's. Tabgha nearby is the traditional site of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, its name from the Greek for seven springs.

Capernaum entry is included on the Nazareth and Sea of Galilee tour.

Yardenit

Yardenit is a baptism site on the Jordan River just south of where it leaves the Sea of Galilee, run by Kibbutz Kvutzat Kinneret. The tour stops about 15:30-16:15 for an hour. The company does not arrange a baptism with a priest, so travellers organise that with the site themselves.

Caesarea, Akko and Haifa

Caesarea was a Roman port city Herod the Great enlarged and dedicated to Caesar Augustus, the provincial capital for about 650 years and now a national park with an aqueduct. Akko is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements on Earth and was the Crusaders' great port, its Old City UNESCO-listed. In Haifa the Bahá'í terraces and the Shrine of the Báb climb Mount Carmel, also UNESCO-listed.

The coast day gives 1.5 hours at Caesarea, 1.5 in Akko and 2 in Haifa, and runs four times a week. Entrance fees are not included.

Mar Saba and the desert by jeep

Mar Saba is a Greek Orthodox monastery on the cliffs of the Kidron Valley between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, one of the oldest almost continuously inhabited monasteries in the world. Women may not enter the main compound, only the Women's Tower. The jeep tour sees it from an observation point above the gorge after an off-road 4x4 ride to a panoramic summit, about an hour at each.

No entry fees on the route.

Petra

Petra is the Nabataean capital in southern Jordan, carved into rose-coloured sandstone, with the Treasury dating from the 1st century AD. It was unknown to the West until Burckhardt reached it in 1812, and it is one of the New 7 Wonders and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From Jerusalem it takes two days: over the Allenby Bridge, a night in a Bedouin-style camp, and about six hours in Petra on day two.

Madaba and Mount Nebo on the way

Day one of the Petra tour stops at Mount Nebo, about 700 m (2,300 ft) above sea level, where the Bible says Moses saw the Promised Land, and at the Madaba Map, a 6th-century floor mosaic in St George's Church, the oldest surviving original map of the Holy Land and Jerusalem.

The headline price is not always the whole cost. Some trips bundle every entry fee, others leave gates to pay at the site, and Petra adds border charges. This is where the real difference in value sits.

The Masada and Ein Gedi fees on the day

The cheaper Masada ticket pays at the gates. Masada National Park is $11.94 (37 NIS), the cable car $17.43 (54 NIS), the Ein Gedi Reserve $10.01 (31 NIS) and the private Dead Sea beach $14.53 (45 NIS). That totals $53.91 (167 NIS) per person on top of the ticket price, so bring cash.

On the standard Masada day all of that is already in the price.

The Petra border fees and visa

The Petra tour adds about $133.20 per person on top of the ticket: the Israel exit fee, the Jordanian visa and the Jordan exit fee. Israeli border taxes can be paid in shekels, euros or dollars, but the Jordanian fees are only accepted in Jordanian dinars in cash, and there is currency exchange on the Israeli side of the Allenby Bridge. The crossing sits 381 m (1,250 ft) below sea level, the lowest fixed water crossing in the world.

Three of the trips cross into Palestinian areas of the West Bank and one crosses into Jordan, so documents matter more here than on most city day trips. Read the rules before you book, not at the checkpoint.

• Bring your passport on the Bethlehem and West Bank trips. The half-day Bethlehem listing also asks for a valid Israeli visa.
• Israeli passport holders cannot join any of the tours that enter Bethlehem, Jericho or Ramallah, as the listings state.
• The Bethlehem, Jericho and Jordan River day changes vehicle when it enters Bethlehem, where a licensed local Palestinian Christian guide takes over.
• Security checks may happen entering or leaving Bethlehem. The listing calls them routine.
• For Petra, carry your original passport and have visa rules checked in advance. Israeli border taxes take shekels, euros or dollars, the Jordanian fees only JOD cash, with exchange on the Israeli side.
• The Petra tour's free cancellation closes 3 full days before the start, not 24 hours like the others.
• The Masada day with entry included also says a valid passport is essential, so carry it even on trips that stay in Israel.

Qasr al-Yahud, the baptism site near Jericho, sits in Area C of the West Bank and is run by the Israeli Civil Administration and the Ministry of Tourism as part of a national park. It faces Al-Maghtas on the Jordanian side. Access is straightforward on the Jericho day and on the Ramallah loop, which both stop there.

Summer

July averages about 30°C (86°F) in Jerusalem but about 38°C (101°F) at the Dead Sea shore, roughly 1,200 m (3,900 ft) lower. Start early, wear a hat and drink far more water than you think you need.

Winter

January averages about 13°C (55°F) for a daytime high in Jerusalem, with lows around 7°C (45°F), and most of the year's rain falls from December to February. Pack a rain layer for the north. The Dead Sea shore stays mild, with January highs near 19°C (66°F), so the float is comfortable all year.

Spring and autumn

April, May, October and November are the comfortable middle, with Jerusalem highs from about 20°C (68°F) to 26°C (79°F) and little rain. These months suit the Galilee and coast days best, since the desert is warm without being punishing. Figures come from the Jerusalem climate record and Dead Sea shore data.

The listings are specific about dress, ages and wheels, and a few of the rules catch people out. The main points, straight from the operator pages.

• Modest dress for churches on every Bethlehem, West Bank and Galilee trip: shoulders and knees covered, no shorts, short skirts or sleeveless tops.
• No children under 4 on the Masada day or the Galilee day.
• The jeep tour is ages 13 and over only.
• The Bethlehem and Galilee trips are not suitable for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments.
• The jeep tour is not recommended for spinal injuries, pregnancy or poor heart health.
• Bring swimwear, a towel and water shoes for the Dead Sea, plus sun protection.
• Infant seats are available on the West Bank tour and the Petra tour, both of which take all ages.
• The Petra night in the Bedouin-style camp needs warm clothes, even after a hot day.
• The West Bank listings suggest a scarf or shawl as well as covered arms and legs.

Every trip except Petra offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start, which makes shortlisting low risk.