Jerusalem: where to stay and getting around the divided city

Overview

Jerusalem sits at about 750 metres in the Judean hills, which is the first thing to understand about it: it is cooler, drier and more exposed than the coast, and it feels different in the same season from anywhere an hour away. The second thing is that it is two cities pressed together. West Jerusalem is Israeli, modern, secular-and-religious by turns, built around Jaffa Road and the covered market. East Jerusalem is Palestinian, and the walled Old City — the reason most people come — sits on the seam between them. That division shapes everything a visitor does, from where the buses run to what is open on a Saturday.

It is not an easy city, and it is not trying to be. It is intensely religious, politically charged, and can feel tense in ways that are real rather than imagined. It is also compact, extraordinary, and layered in a way few places are. Come for the Old City and the weight of the place; do not come expecting a relaxing break.

Where to stay

The decision here is not just atmosphere — it is which half of the city you want to be in on Shabbat, and how close to the Old City you need to be. From Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall, West Jerusalem largely stops: buses and the light rail don’t run, and most Jewish-owned restaurants and shops in the centre close. East Jerusalem, the Christian and Muslim quarters, and Arab-owned businesses carry on as normal. That single fact separates a base that feels alive on a Saturday from one that feels shuttered.

Old City — near Jaffa Gate or the Christian Quarter

Staying inside the walls means stepping out of your door into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, the souk and the Via Dolorosa. The guesthouses here are mostly small, church-run hospices and simple family hotels, and they are the atmospheric choice for a first visit. Stay here if the Old City itself is why you came and you want to be in it early, before the day-trip crowds arrive from the coast. The trade-offs are real: the lanes are stepped and confusing, rooms are basic, luggage is a genuine hassle over the cobbles, and much of the Old City empties and shuts after dark, so evenings are quiet and you’ll walk out to the city centre or East Jerusalem to eat.

City centre — Jaffa Road, Mahane Yehuda & Nachlaot

The modern heart of West Jerusalem, strung along the light-rail line. Mahane Yehuda, the covered market, is the anchor: produce and rugelach by day, and after the stalls close its lanes turn into the city’s densest cluster of bars and small restaurants. The surrounding neighbourhood of Nachlaot is a warren of old courtyard housing. Stay here if you want restaurants, nightlife and the tram on your doorstep, and a short ride or 20-25 minute walk to the Old City. The trade-off is Shabbat: this is exactly the area that goes dark from Friday evening, so if your only free day is Saturday you’ll find the shutters down.

German Colony & Emek Refaim

South of the centre, this is Jerusalem’s leafy, well-off side: nineteenth-century stone houses built by German Templers, a café-lined main street, and a calm that the rest of the city lacks. Stay here for quiet, greenery and a slower pace, and if you’re happy to commute to the sights. The trade-offs are distance and price — you’re a tram-and-walk or a bus from the Old City, it’s among the more expensive areas, and like the rest of West Jerusalem it closes for Shabbat.

East Jerusalem — around Damascus Gate & Salah al-Din Street

The Palestinian commercial district immediately north of the Old City walls, a few minutes’ walk from Damascus Gate. Hotels here range from long-established institutions to plain family places, and rooms cost noticeably less than in West Jerusalem. The decisive advantage is that this half of the city keeps working on Saturday, so shops, food and transport carry on when the west is shut. Stay here if you want to be close to the Old City, spend less, and eat knafeh where it’s made. The trade-offs: fewer polished tourist services, streets that feel quieter and less comfortable to some after dark, and a location that puts you further from the West Jerusalem nightlife.

When to go

Spring (March–May) and autumn (September–November) are clearly the best: warm days, cool evenings, and the hillside light that makes the stone glow. Summer is hot and very dry, but the altitude keeps nights bearable and there’s essentially no rain — manageable if you start early and rest through the afternoon. Winter is cold, wet and genuinely raw at this elevation; snow falls every few years and briefly shuts the city down.

Time your visit against the religious calendar, which here is not background colour but the main event. Passover, the Jewish High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), Ramadan and Easter all transform the city — Yom Kippur stops traffic entirely across Jewish areas, and Easter and Ramadan pack the Old City. These periods are extraordinary to witness and hard to move around in; go knowing which you’re walking into.

Getting there & around

Ben Gurion, the country’s main airport, is down on the coastal plain, not in Jerusalem. The best link is the fast train from the underground Yitzhak Navon station, at the western end of the city centre, which reaches the airport in around 25 minutes and continues to Tel Aviv. Shared taxis (sherut) run the same route door-to-door and are the fallback when the train doesn’t — notably on Shabbat, when the train doesn’t run.

Within the city, the spine is the light rail (Red Line), which runs the length of Jaffa Road from the western suburbs through the city centre and past Damascus Gate. It covers most of what a visitor needs in West Jerusalem, and buses fill in the hills. A car is a liability — the centre is dense, parking is scarce, and you don’t need one. Note again that the light rail and city buses stop for Shabbat; plan Saturday around walking, and around East Jerusalem, where Arab buses and taxis keep running.

The Old City is walked, not driven, and it is smaller than it feels — but it is a maze of steps and covered lanes, so give yourself time to get lost. The Mount of Olives, with its view back over the walls and the Temple Mount, is a steep climb or a short taxi ride up from the eastern side.

Practicalities

Jerusalem is safe for ordinary tourism, but it is a place where you keep an ear to the ground: flashpoints exist, tensions rise around Fridays and religious dates, and it pays to know before you go somewhere that trouble is not expected there that day. This is normal caution, not alarm.

Holy sites demand dress and care. Shoulders and knees covered at churches, mosques and the Western Wall; the Wall’s prayer area is divided by gender. The Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif is the sharpest case: non-Muslims may enter only during set visiting hours and only through the wooden ramp beside the Western Wall, cannot enter the Dome of the Rock or Al-Aqsa mosque at all, and access closes entirely at times of tension and around Muslim prayer — treat it as something you fit your day around, not a fixed appointment.

Cards work almost everywhere and ATMs are plentiful; carry some cash for the Old City souk and East Jerusalem. On food, this is a city of hummus and falafel done seriously, of sabich and shakshuka, of the local me’orav yerushalmi (the “Jerusalem mixed grill” of chicken offal and lamb, the city’s own street dish), and — in East Jerusalem — of knafeh, the hot cheese-and-syrup pastry eaten by the slab. The one rhythm to internalise, above all else, is Shabbat: work out in advance where you will be, and how you will eat and move, on Saturday, and the city becomes far easier to enjoy.