Base in Bethlehem or Ramallah and run day trips: the Church of the Nativity and the Battir terraces from one, Taybeh and the Jordan Valley from the other. Jericho, warm when the highlands are wet, holds the oldest excavated town on earth. Nablus and Hebron repay the effort but sit outside the areas UK advice exempts, so check it on the day and go with someone local. April, May and October are the months. Gaza is closed, and every major foreign ministry advises against all travel to it.
Fun fact
The Tower of Jericho at Tell es-Sultan, raised around 8000 BC, is 8.5 metres of undressed stone around a staircase of 22 steps, the oldest stairway known. No human structure stood taller until Djoser's step pyramid rose in Egypt some 5,000 years later.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThe advice has lines drawn on it. The UK advises against all travel to Gaza and parts of the West Bank, and all but essential travel to the rest, exempting East Jerusalem, the Bethlehem Governorate, the Ramallah municipality, and Jericho and south of it. Those lines move, so check on the day.
The realityThere is nothing to apply for. The Palestinian Authority controls no border, so Israel decides entry at Ben Gurion Airport or the Allenby (King Hussein) Bridge, and the permission issued there admits you to the West Bank. People with West Bank or Gaza family registration face different rules.
The realityThe Christian sites bring most visitors and are a slice of what is here. Jericho is prehistory, Nablus a working old city with the best food in the country, Sebastia six civilisations on one hill, Ramallah galleries and bars, and Battir farm engineering that outlived every empire that used it.
The realityHotels, restaurants, museums and guides all run. The hard part is the road. Closures and checkpoint queues turn a short drive into an afternoon without notice, so local drivers plan the day and an itinerary holds two things, not five.
How to get it right
- Dress modestly in the old cities and at religious sites. Shoulders and knees covered, a scarf for women entering a mosque, shoes off where everyone else's are off.
- Ask before photographing people, and do not photograph soldiers, checkpoints or military installations. Breaking this rule has real consequences.
- Hospitality is not a formality. Coffee will be offered constantly, and waving off the first cup reads as a rebuff. Take it, and take your time over it.
- Ramadan reorganises the day. Kitchens close in daylight, opening hours shift late, and the hours after iftar are when the cities are at their best.
- Politics comes up, because it is the weather here. Listening is welcome. Arriving with a settled verdict is not.
- The weekend is not fixed. Friday is the day off across most of the West Bank and Sunday in the Christian towns, so opening hours depend on which town you are standing in.
Famous Palestinian faces
Mahmoud Darwish
Ghassan Kanafani
Edward Said
Fadwa Tuqan
Suad Amiry
Elia Suleiman
Hany Abu-Assad
Sliman Mansour
Naji al-Ali
Mona Hatoum
Mohammed Assaf
Rim Banna
Hanan Ashrawi
Yasser Arafat
Must-try Palestinian food
Kaak al-Quds
The long sesame bread ring sold off carts in Jerusalem's Old City, eaten with za'atar.
Tamriyeh
Nablus semolina custard in thin dough, fried and buried in icing sugar. Gone by lunch.
Musakhan
Roast chicken on taboon bread soaked in olive oil, under sumac onions. The national dish.
Maqluba
Rice, fried aubergine and meat in one pot, turned out upside down at the table.
Mansaf
Lamb cooked in jameed, a dried fermented yoghurt, over rice. Shared with Jordan.
Maftoul
Hand-rolled wheat pearls, bigger than couscous, steamed over chickpea and chicken broth.
Qidreh
Hebron's rice, lamb and whole garlic, sealed in copper and baked in the bakery oven.
Warak dawali
Vine leaves rolled around rice and lamb, cooked in layers with chops and lemon.
Hummus
Breakfast, with foul, olive oil and raw onion, and finished before the shops open.
Falafel
Fried to order as flat discs in much of the West Bank, stuffed into bread with tahini.
Za'atar taboon
Wild thyme, sumac and sesame on dough, baked on hot stones. A West Bank morning.
Knafeh Nabulsiyeh
Sweet white cheese under orange semolina in syrup, in Nablus trays near a metre across.
Sumagiyya
Gaza's dish of chard and chickpeas with tahini and sumac, eaten cool with bread.
Rummaniyya
Gazan lentils and aubergine cooked sour with pomegranate, made when the fruit comes in.
Zibdiyit gambari
Shrimp baked with tomato, chilli and dill, served in the clay dish it cooked in.
Taybeh beer
From the first brewery in Palestine, in the hills east of Ramallah since 1994.
Maramiya
Black tea with wild sage, poured sweet and small. The afternoon offer in a home.