--- title: "Palestine travel guide: the West Bank, the UNESCO sites and how to move | Wimup" description: "Palestine on Wimup: which parts of the West Bank current advice exempts, how the crossings and checkpoints actually work, the five UNESCO listings, what to eat in Nablus and Hebron, and the months that suit the highlands and the Jordan Valley." url: https://wimup.com/country/palestine type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-05 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Palestine, five World Heritage sites in a small country **Five UNESCO listings**, the oldest stone tower anyone has excavated, and hill terraces still watered by the channels the Romans cut. Palestine is small enough to cross in a morning and slow enough that almost nobody does, because the route is set by **checkpoints** rather than by distance. ## Quick answer 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. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Apr · May · Oct - **Ideal length:** 5–8 days - **Budget per day:** $55–120 - **Language:** Arabic & English - **Getting around:** Service taxis, buses & hired driver - **5,560,000** People - **5** UNESCO sites - **258m** Below sea level Palestine is two separated territories and today only one of them can be visited. The Gaza Strip is 365 square kilometres on the Mediterranean, closed to travellers and under advice against all travel from every major foreign ministry, so everything below describes the West Bank: 5,655 square kilometres of limestone highland running north to south, with the Jordan Valley dropping away to the east. It reads as four blocks. The centre is Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority governs and where the restaurants, the galleries and the Yasser Arafat Museum are, with Taybeh half an hour east, the last entirely Christian town in the West Bank and the home of the first Palestinian brewery, opened in 1994. South of that, the Bethlehem Governorate holds the Church of the Nativity, inscribed by UNESCO in 2012 as the first Palestinian World Heritage site, and the terraced valleys of Battir, listed in 2014 for an irrigation system still watering the same market gardens. Further south again, Hebron is the largest city in the West Bank and the most divided: the Old Town and the Ibrahimi Mosque were inscribed in 2017, and the covered souk beneath them explains the politics faster than any briefing. North of Ramallah, Nablus sits in the saddle between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal with the best old-city food in the country, and Sebastia stands on a hilltop about twelve kilometres northwest of it, the Iron Age, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader and Ottoman layers that UNESCO inscribed in July 2026 and placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger the same day. East, the ground falls to Jericho, 258 metres below sea level and the lowest city on earth, where Tell es-Sultan was listed in 2023 for ruins reaching back to the ninth millennium BC. Distances are short and journeys are not. Movement is shaped by checkpoints, settlement bypass roads and closures announced at no notice, so the practical unit of travel is the shared service taxi from each city’s own station, and any plan should be read against current government advice on the day. ## Know before you go - **Population:** 5,560,000 - **Area:** 6,020 km² - **Density:** 923.6 / km² - **Capital:** Jerusalem (declared), Ramallah (seat of government) - **Major cities:** Gaza City, East Jerusalem, Khan Yunis, Hebron, Nablus - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Israeli new shekel (ILS) Jordanian dinars and US dollars are taken for hotels and tours. Cards work in Ramallah and Bethlehem; carry cash for everywhere else and small notes for service taxis. - **Language:** Arabic English is widely used in tourism, hotels and the universities. Hebrew signage appears wherever a road comes under Israeli control. - **Visa:** Issued by Israel, not by Palestine There is no Palestinian visa. Israel decides entry at Ben Gurion or the Allenby (King Hussein) Bridge, and different rules apply to anyone on the West Bank or Gaza registries. Ask your embassy. - **Travel advice:** Read it on the day The UK advises against all travel to Gaza and parts of the West Bank, and all but essential travel to most of the rest. The exempt areas, Bethlehem and Jericho among them, change. Read the live page. - **Getting in:** Ben Gurion or the Allenby Bridge Most fly into Tel Aviv and continue through Jerusalem. The crossing from Amman lands beside Jericho and keeps shorter hours, and Jordan issues no visa on arrival there for the return. - **Getting around:** Service taxis & a hired driver Yellow seven-seat shared taxis leave each city's station when full, and buses cover the Jerusalem corridors. For two or three stops in a day, hire a local driver who knows which roads are open. - **Areas A, B and C:** Three jurisdictions, one map The 1995 interim agreement split the West Bank into Palestinian, shared and full Israeli control. Authority over a road can change twice in ten minutes, so a route is a legal question too. - **Calling code:** +970 - **Power:** 230V · type C & H - **Emergency:** Police 100 · ambulance 101 · fire 102 - **Tipping:** About 10% in restaurants - **Weekend:** Friday, and Sunday in Christian towns - **Water:** Bottled, and more of it in the valley ## When to visit - **Jan** (good): Cold and wet in the highlands, with snow possible in Ramallah and Hebron. The best month of the year for Jericho and the Dead Sea shore - **Feb** (good): Almond blossom on the terraces, still wet up top, still mild down in the valley - **Mar** (best): The hills go green and the wildflowers are out. Ramadan and Easter can both land in this month - **Apr** (best): The best month in the highlands: warm days, cool nights, everything open and nothing crowded - **May** (best): Dry, clear and warm before the summer sets in. The last comfortable month for Hebron and Nablus on foot - **Jun**: Hot and dry, and the Jordan Valley turns punishing by late morning - **Jul** (peak): The hottest stretch of the year, and the busiest, with diaspora families home for the summer - **Aug** (peak): Same heat, same crowds. Rooms in Ramallah and Bethlehem are at their tightest and their most expensive - **Sep** (good): The heat breaks slowly. Good for the north, still heavy in Jericho - **Oct** (best): The olive harvest, and the second best month of the year to be here - **Nov** (good): First rains, empty sites, mild walking weather - **Dec** (peak): Christmas fills Manger Square and every room in the Bethlehem Governorate. Cold and wet everywhere else ## 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 - **Myth:** Palestine is a war zone from end to end. **Reality:** The 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. - **Myth:** You apply for a Palestinian visa. **Reality:** There 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. - **Myth:** It is all pilgrimage. **Reality:** The 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. - **Myth:** Nothing is open. **Reality:** Hotels, 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. - 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**: National poet of thirty-odd collections, who wrote the 1988 Declaration of Independence. - **Ghassan Kanafani**: Novelist of 'Men in the Sun' (1963) and 'Returning to Haifa'. Killed by car bomb in 1972. - **Edward Said**: Jerusalem-born Columbia theorist whose 'Orientalism' (1978) founded postcolonial studies. - **Fadwa Tuqan**: The poet of Nablus, who moved Arabic verse from the classical ode to personal free verse. - **Suad Amiry**: Architect who founded Riwaq in 1991, and author of 'Sharon and My Mother-in-Law'. - **Elia Suleiman**: Director of 'Divine Intervention', Cannes Jury Prize 2002. Deadpan and near-silent. - **Hany Abu-Assad**: Twice Oscar-nominated, for 'Paradise Now' (2005) and 'Omar' (2013). - **Sliman Mansour**: Painter of 'Camel of Hardships' (1973), the most reproduced Palestinian image of its era. - **Naji al-Ali**: Cartoonist who created Handala, the barefoot boy seen from behind. Shot in London in 1987. - **Mona Hatoum**: Beirut-born installation artist of a Palestinian family, Turner Prize shortlist in 1995. - **Mohammed Assaf**: Singer from Khan Yunis who crossed out of Gaza to audition and won Arab Idol in 2013. - **Rim Banna**: Nazareth singer who remade Palestinian folk songs and rhymes as modern recordings. - **Hanan Ashrawi**: Spokeswoman at the 1991 Madrid talks, first woman elected to the PLO Executive Committee. - **Yasser Arafat**: PLO chairman from 1969, first Palestinian Authority president, 1994 Nobel Peace laureate. ## Must-try Palestinian food - **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. - **Kaak al-Quds**: The long sesame bread ring sold off carts in Jerusalem's Old City, eaten with za'atar. - **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. - **Tamriyeh**: Nablus semolina custard in thin dough, fried and buried in icing sugar. Gone by lunch. - **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. ## FAQs ### Can you travel to Palestine right now? Partly, and the answer differs by area. Gaza is closed: the crossings have not been open to general civilian traffic since May 2024, and every major foreign ministry advises against all travel to it. For the West Bank the UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to some parts and against all but essential travel to most of the rest, while exempting East Jerusalem, the Bethlehem Governorate, the Ramallah municipality, and Jericho and everything south of it, which includes the Allenby crossing. Those boundaries move, so check the current advice on the day you travel. ### Do you need a visa for Palestine? There is no Palestinian visa to apply for. The Palestinian Authority controls no border, so entry is decided by Israel at Ben Gurion Airport or at the Allenby (King Hussein) Bridge from Jordan, and the entry permission you are issued there is what admits you to the West Bank. Rules differ sharply for anyone registered in the West Bank or Gaza population registries, including foreign passport holders of Palestinian descent, so check your own case with your embassy before booking. ### How do you get into the West Bank? Two routes. Fly into Ben Gurion near Tel Aviv and travel on through Jerusalem, which is how most visitors arrive, or cross overland from Amman at the Allenby (King Hussein) Bridge, which lands you next to Jericho. The Jordanian side of that crossing does not issue visas on arrival, so a Jordan visa has to be arranged in advance if you plan to return that way. Queues at the bridge are long and unpredictable, and it keeps shorter hours than an airport. ### What currency is used in the West Bank? The Israeli new shekel is the working currency. Jordanian dinars and US dollars are accepted for larger payments such as hotels and tours, cards work in Ramallah and Bethlehem, and cash matters everywhere else. Keep small notes for service taxis, which do not give change happily. ### Is it safe to visit Bethlehem and Jericho? They are the two places current UK advice exempts from its all-but-essential warning, which is not the same as calling them risk-free. The practical risks are a checkpoint closing without notice, a demonstration you did not know about, and roads that change status between Areas A, B and C. Travel with a local guide or driver who knows the day's conditions, avoid crowds and confrontations, keep your passport with you, and register with your embassy if it offers that. ### How do you get between Palestinian cities? Shared service taxis, yellow, seven-seat and leaving from each city's own station when they fill. There is no timetable. They are cheap, frequent and the way almost everyone moves. Buses run the Jerusalem to Ramallah and Jerusalem to Bethlehem corridors. Hiring a driver for the day costs more and buys local knowledge of which roads are open this morning. ## Related countries - [Japan](https://wimup.com/country/japan.md) - [Philippines](https://wimup.com/country/philippines.md) - [All of Asia](https://wimup.com/asia) Part of [Asia](https://wimup.com/asia.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.mota.ps/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Travel advice](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/the-occupied-palestinian-territories?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.