EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Bethlehem , the birthplace of Christ, is just 10km south of Jerusalem. A major tourist attraction, it struggles at times to cope with all the pilgrims who flock here.

Local souvenir shops offer not only kitsch nativity scenes and holy water, but more traditional items - religious objects carved from olivewood, mother-of-pearl and coral - whose sale to tourists has brought the town much of its prosperity. Away from the busloads of pilgrims in its centre, Bethlehem is a charming little town, with friendly people, and Christian monastics of various sects going about with a dignified air of quiet devotion. The religious institutions here represent every shade of Christianity, and Christmas is celebrated three times: on December 25 by the Catholics and other Western churches; on January 6 by the Armenians who keep to the Eastern calendar; and on January 7 by the Greek Orthodox and other Eastern churches who follow the Julian calendar.

Bethlehem has a tourist information office, run by the PNA tourist ministry (Mon-Sat 8am-2.30pm; tel 074 1581). It's on the south side of Manger Square, on the second floor above ground level, and has maps of the town, as does the municipality in the southeast corner of the square. The post office (Sat-Thurs 8am-2pm), next to the municipality, is an ideal place to send Christmas cards, but remember that the PNA issues its own stamps, and Israeli ones are not valid here. Most people take in Bethlehem as a day trip from Jerusalem, but there are plenty of hotels here if you do want to stay, although they get well booked-up over Christmas, when prices rocket as a result.

Getting to Bethlehem from Jerusalem is straightforward enough: just take a service taxi minibus from HaNeviim Street opposite the Damascus Gate; the journey costs 2.50NIS and takes about twenty minutes. The service taxi drops you off on Hebron Road, at the corner of Paul VI Street, which then leads after a kilometre or so southeast to Manger Square in the town centre, or you could ask to be dropped off at Manger Street and take a taxi into town from there.