Israel on the Sabbath

We are docking for two nights / 3 days in Haifa. For the first day (Saturday) we have booked a Jerusalem / Bethlehem tour - how will it being the Jewish Sabbath affect us? I am hoping for light traffic - maybe I am naive!

Israel is not a religious country. The majority of people do drive during the sabbath. You will have lighter traffic than during a week day, but you will have traffic all the same.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

No problem driving on Sabath.

If you're in Jerusalem at that time, there might be places where you won't be able to enter with a car/bus (but I'm not sure you'd want to go there anyway...).

Since Jerusalem is a multi-religion city, it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Other than that, most of us "natives", who are not religious do drive on Saturdays.

You might find less shopping places open on Saturdays. Restaurants are usually open.

We were in Isreal (Haifa) for a couple of days last February (a Fri and Sat). We were looking to do our own thing on the Friday, which we did having looked into it first. Problem was that trains and (I think) long distance buses stopped about 2pm ish on Friday afternoons as they do not run on on the sabbath which starts at sundown on Friday and the train route had to be completed.

We went to Acra by train and did stay beyond 2-3pm, but had to get a local shared taxi (forget what it is called) back to Haifa - we got a local taxi to drop us at the correct stop for the shared taxi as we would never had found it. We then ended up at the top of the hill in Haifa and had to get a taxi down to the ship. The alternative would have been a taxi from Acra to Haifa which would have been very expensive - Isreal is not a cheap country.

We really enjoyed our time that day and are glad about what we did, but left me a bit nervous about getting back. We had some problems getting hold of local cash as well and we went into a restaurant by the sea and where surprised they did not take card payments. So anyone not booked on a tour should be careful and find out details first.

A shared taxi is a Sherut.

Many things, particularly in Jerusalem will be closed - sites and most restaurants, shopping. But there is still so much to do. If you are coming with a group they will already take this into account. If you are using a private guide, they will as well. :-). If you are coming on your own - David Citadel Museum gives a great overview of Jerusalem history, walk on the walls, Arab Shuk(market), western Wall, Church of the Holy Sepulcher.... Enjoy

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