The Old City end to end
7 stops · 4 h · on foot (all pedestrian) · 7 stops
- Puerta de Jaffa
- Torre de David
- El Cardo y la Hurva
- Muro Occidental (Kotel)
- Monte del Templo / Haram al-Sharif
- Vía Dolorosa
- Santo Sepulcro
150 places · Time Out, La Liste, Israel Nature & Parks · no Eater coverage · 5 routes
Tap a route and it gets drawn on the map, stop by stop.
Tap a pin to see photos, rating and how to get there by light rail, bus, sherut or on foot. Turn on a route to follow the numbered path.
This interactive map of Jerusalem (Israel) brings together 150 hand-picked places: 60 attractions, 48 restaurants, 24 cafés and 18 shops. It also includes 5 walking routes with their stops in order. For every place you get what it is, a practical tip and how to get there by public transport. It is free, works on your phone and needs no sign-up.
· Curated by the HOLASIM team · How we make the maps
Tap a route to see it drawn on the map, stop by stop.
7 stops · 4 h · on foot (all pedestrian) · 7 stops
6 stops · 3 h · walking downhill from the summit · 6 stops
6 stops · 3 h · on foot + Red Line light rail · 6 stops
6 stops · 5 h · on foot + light rail to Mount Herzl · 6 stops
6 stops · 4 h · on foot along Park HaMesila · 6 stops
Old City · Jewish Quarter
The most visited wall on earth. Notes in the cracks, prayer at every hour and a plaza that never sleeps.
Tip: Open 24/7 and free. Separate men's and women's sections; loaner kippahs at the entrance. Security screening is mandatory.
🚇 Dung Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Western Wall Heritage Foundation · UNESCO
Show on mapOld City · Jewish Quarter
488 m of Herodian wall below street level, with 500-tonne stones. The invisible half of the Kotel.
Tip: Guided tour only and you MUST book online ahead: it sells out weeks in advance. Closed on Shabbat and holidays.
🚇 Dung Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Western Wall Heritage Foundation
Show on mapOld City · The esplanade
The world's most famous esplanade: 35 acres of cypresses, fountains and the golden dome that defines the skyline.
Tip: Non-Muslim visitors: Mughrabi ramp only (next to the Wall), in morning and early-afternoon slots, Sunday to Thursday. No religious items of other faiths, and no bare shoulders or knees.
🚇 Dung Gate · 7 min walk via the Mughrabi ramp
Featured in: Jerusalem Islamic Waqf · UNESCO
Show on mapEsplanade · Centre
Turquoise tiles, 80 kg of gold on the dome and a perfect octagon from the year 691. Impossible not to photograph.
Tip: The interior is reserved for Muslim worshippers; from outside, the best light is mid-morning when the sun hits the tiles head-on.
🚇 Dung Gate · 7 min walk via the Mughrabi ramp
Featured in: Jerusalem Islamic Waqf · UNESCO
Show on mapEsplanade · South
The lead-domed mosque at the southern end of the esplanade, holding thousands of worshippers.
Tip: The interior is for Muslim worshippers only. You can see it whole from the esplanade; Friday midday gets crowded, so skip that slot.
🚇 Dung Gate · 4 min walk via the Mughrabi ramp
Featured in: Jerusalem Islamic Waqf · UNESCO
Show on mapOld City · Christian Quarter
Six Christian denominations share one roof over Golgotha and the tomb. Incense, domes and an electric hush.
Tip: It opens at 4 or 5 am: come at dawn and you'll almost have it to yourself. Two Muslim families have kept the keys for centuries, and the ladder on the facade hasn't moved since the 18th century.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 5 min walk via David St. and the souq
Featured in: Status Quo of the Holy Places · UNESCO
Show on mapOld City · Muslim Quarter
Fourteen stations marked in bronze, from Lions' Gate to the Holy Sepulchre, threading between spice stalls.
Tip: On Fridays at 3 pm the Franciscans walk the whole route and anyone can join. The first nine stations are on the street; the last five are inside the Holy Sepulchre.
🚇 Lions' Gate · 9 min walk
Featured in: Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapOld City · West entrance
The gate everyone crosses first: it links modern Mamilla to the stone souqs in thirty paces.
Tip: The wide breach beside the arch was cut in 1898 so Kaiser Wilhelm II's carriage could ride in. Classic meeting point for any walk.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 8 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Walls National Park · UNESCO
Show on mapOld City · North entrance
The most theatrical gate in the walls: amphitheatre steps, zaatar sellers and the direct way into the souq.
Tip: Friday mornings it turns into a full-blown market. The original Roman gate sits below and is visited separately.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Damascus Gate stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Walls National Park · UNESCO
Show on mapOld City · East entrance
Four carved big cats guard the start of the Via Dolorosa and the descent into the Kidron valley.
Tip: Come in here and leave by Jaffa Gate: you cross the whole Old City east to west without repeating a street.
🚇 6 min walk from the Church of All Nations
Featured in: Jerusalem Walls National Park
Show on mapOld City · Armenian Quarter
Riddled with 1948 bullet holes and still standing. It links Mount Zion to the Armenian Quarter in a minute.
Tip: It's the least used gate: ideal for reaching the Jewish Quarter without crossing the whole souq.
🚇 2 min walk from the Cenacle
Featured in: Jerusalem Walls National Park
Show on mapOttoman walls · Jaffa Gate
Walk on top of Suleiman's wall, peering down into the courtyards of all four quarters. The city's best cheap view.
Tip: There are two sections: the northern one (Jaffa to Lions') is longer and prettier. Entrance at Jaffa Gate; it closes early afternoon and earlier on Fridays before Shabbat.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 1 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Walls National Park
Show on mapOld City · Citadel
The Herodian citadel reborn as a state-of-the-art museum, with a rooftop that gives the best Old City panorama.
Tip: It reopened fully renovated after years of works. At night a light show is projected onto the walls: separate ticket, book ahead.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Tower of David Museum · Jerusalem Walls National Park
Show on mapOld City · Jewish Quarter
The main avenue of Byzantine Jerusalem, original columns still standing with craft shops between them.
Tip: Look for the mural reproducing the 6th-century Madaba map: it shows the Cardo as it was. The covered stretch works in the rain.
🚇 Zion Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Jewish Quarter Development Company
Show on mapOld City · Jewish Quarter
A white dome ruling the Jewish Quarter skyline, rebuilt in 2010 stone by stone as it stood in the 19th century.
Tip: Pay the extra to climb to the dome gallery: the 360° view over the Temple Mount is worth every shekel. Closed on Shabbat.
🚇 Zion Gate · 6 min walk
Featured in: Jewish Quarter Development Company
Show on mapOld City · Muristan
Its bell tower has 178 steps and delivers the closest, most vertical view over the Holy Sepulchre's domes.
Tip: Climb the tower first thing: the staircase is narrow and single-file, and it's endless with people ahead of you.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 6 min walk via David St.
Featured in: Evangelisch-Lutherische Erlöserkirche
Show on mapOld City · Muslim Quarter
The most perfect Crusader acoustics in Jerusalem: every group that walks in starts singing. Outside, the Roman pools.
Tip: Sing a note inside even if you're tone-deaf: the echo lasts seven seconds. It shuts for a couple of hours at midday.
🚇 Lions' Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Missionnaires d'Afrique · Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapOld City · Via Dolorosa
A slice of Vienna in the middle of the souq: a garden terrace, strudel and the Old City's most famous rooftop view.
Tip: Go up to the roof (small entry fee) and order Apfelstrudel with Viennese coffee at the Wiener Kaffeehaus downstairs.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 4 min walk via Khan al-Zeit souq
Featured in: Österreichisches Hospiz · Time Out Israel
Show on mapOld City · Armenian Quarter
Hundreds of oil lamps hanging over blue tiles, in the quietest and least visited corner of the Old City.
Tip: It only opens for vespers, roughly 3 to 3:30 pm daily. Arrive ten minutes early and go in quietly.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Show on mapOld City · Muslim Quarter
The liveliest covered souq: mountains of spices, hot knafeh, cardamom coffee and zero calm.
Tip: Covered end to end: the perfect plan in the rain. It opens on Saturdays, when half the city is shut.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 3 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Development Authority
Show on mapMount of Olives · Lookout
The definitive postcard: the whole Old City, the golden dome and the walls in one horizontal frame.
Tip: Go first thing: the sun rises behind you and lights the Old City head-on. By afternoon it's backlit.
🚇 Bus, Chapel of the Ascension/Rabi'a Al-Adawiya stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Municipality · Lonely Planet
Show on mapGethsemane · Kidron Valley
Violet half-light, golden mosaics on the facade and the rock of the agony at its centre. Outside, millennial olive trees.
Tip: The alabaster windows mute the light on purpose: come in from strong sun and let your eyes adjust. It closes at midday.
🚇 6 min walk from Lions' Gate
Featured in: Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapGethsemane · Olive garden
Eight olive trees with over a thousand years of roots, fenced and silent, at the foot of the Mount of Olives.
Tip: It's small and takes ten minutes: pair it with the basilica next door and the climb to Dominus Flevit.
🚇 5 min walk from Lions' Gate
Featured in: Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapMount of Olives · West slope
A teardrop-shaped chapel with a window that frames the Dome of the Rock like a painting. The most sought-after shot.
Tip: The altar window is free and there's hardly a queue. Walk down from the lookout: five minutes downhill.
🚇 6 min walk from the Mount of Olives lookout
Featured in: Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapMount of Olives · West slope
Seven golden onion domes that look teleported from Moscow and planted among olive trees. Unreal at sunset.
Tip: It opens very few hours, Tuesday and Thursday mornings. If it's shut, the domes from outside already justify the climb.
🚇 8 min walk from Lions' Gate
Featured in: Russian Ecclesiastical Mission
Show on mapMount of Olives · Summit
The Lord's Prayer in over 170 languages, on ceramic panels across the cloisters. Find yours.
Tip: There are Spanish, Portuguese, Guaraní and Quechua versions. The cloister garden is the coolest spot on the mount.
🚇 2 min walk from the Mount of Olives lookout
Featured in: Carmélites du Pater Noster
Show on mapMount Zion · Summit
A Rhineland-looking conical tower over Mount Zion, with a mosaic crypt almost nobody goes down to see.
Tip: Go down to the crypt: the zodiac floor mosaic is the best part and it's always empty.
🚇 Zion Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Benediktinerabtei Dormitio
Show on mapMount Zion · Summit
An empty Gothic Crusader hall with a Muslim mihrab on the south wall. Three religions in twenty paces.
Tip: It's free and there's almost always a group singing. Right underneath is David's Tomb, entered by a different door.
🚇 Zion Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Israel Ministry of Tourism · Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapMount Zion · Ground floor
A cenotaph draped in embroidered velvet, with an active prayer hall and separate sections. A pilgrimage site since medieval times.
Tip: Free entry, but you need your head covered (kippahs provided) and shoulders and knees covered too.
🚇 Zion Gate · 3 min walk
Featured in: Israel Ministry of Religious Services
Show on mapMount Zion · East slope
A crypt cut into bedrock, a golden rooster on the roof and a terrace looking over Silwan and the valley.
Tip: The Roman stairway at the entrance is original and runs down to the City of David: the best shortcut on foot.
🚇 Zion Gate · 6 min walk
Featured in: Assumptionist Fathers
Show on mapSilwan · Outside the walls
The dig that tells the city's 3,000-year origin story, with tunnels that take you down to the water.
Tip: Book online and start early: the full circuit with the tunnel takes three hours. It closes Friday midday and all Saturday.
🚇 Dung Gate · 6 min walk
Featured in: Israel Nature and Parks Authority
Show on mapCity of David · Below ground
533 m of 8th-century-BC tunnel with knee-deep water and total darkness. Israel's best urban adventure.
Tip: Bring a torch (or use your phone), sandals that can get wet and a spare pair of trousers. There's a parallel dry tunnel if you're claustrophobic.
🚇 Dung Gate · 9 min walk
Featured in: Israel Nature and Parks Authority
Show on mapOld City · Temple Mount foot
The steps Second Temple pilgrims climbed, plus the Herodian street crushed by the stones of 70 AD.
Tip: Far emptier than the Wall thirty paces away. The virtual reconstruction of the Temple is worth the ticket.
🚇 Dung Gate · 1 min walk
Featured in: Israel Antiquities Authority
Show on mapWalls · Under the Muslim Quarter
A 9,000 m² quarry hollowed out under the Old City: cool, silent and with cathedral acoustics.
Tip: The entrance sits between Damascus and Herod's gates, nearly hidden. The strangest and coolest indoor plan in summer.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Damascus Gate stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: East Jerusalem Development Company
Show on mapMount Herzl · Mount of Remembrance
The world's foremost Holocaust memorial, a concrete prism that ends by opening onto the forest.
Tip: Free admission. Allow three hours and don't skip the Children's Memorial. Closed Saturdays; early closing on Fridays.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mount Herzl stop · 10 min walk
Featured in: Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Show on mapGivat Shaul · Mount Herzl
White-stone terraced gardens holding the national cemetery and the museum about Zionism's founder.
Tip: The gardens are free and always immaculate. Free shuttles run from here to Yad Vashem.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mount Herzl stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Mount Herzl National Memorial Site
Show on mapGivat Ram · Museum campus
The country's biggest museum: archaeology, modern art, a sculpture garden and the Second Temple model.
Tip: The 1:50 model of Jerusalem in 66 AD comes with your ticket and is the best way to orient yourself before the Old City. Closed Friday afternoon, open Saturday.
🚇 Bus, Israel Museum/Wise stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Show on mapGivat Ram · Israel Museum
A white dome shaped like a jar lid, holding the Dead Sea Scrolls inside in controlled half-light.
Tip: The complete Isaiah scroll sits at the centre in a circular case. Covered by the same Israel Museum ticket.
🚇 Bus, Israel Museum/Wise stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Show on mapGivat Ram · Government quarter
The Israeli parliament, with three Chagall tapestries in the reception hall and a bronze menorah facing it.
Tip: Free guided tours run Sundays and Thursdays, with a passport and advance booking. Check the calendar before you go.
🚇 Bus, Kaplan/Ruppin stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Knesset Visitors Department
Show on mapGivat Ram · Government quarter
One of Israel's most awarded buildings: a pyramid, overhead light and a staircase quoting the Old City walls.
Tip: Free guided tours in English run Sunday to Thursday. Bring your passport and check the day's schedule.
🚇 Bus, HaLe'om Parking/Yitshak Rabin Boulevard stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Supreme Court of Israel Visitors Centre
Show on mapGivat Ram · University campus
Everything can be touched, pulled and built. The foolproof plan with kids once the Old City has worn them out.
Tip: Closed Sundays and on Shabbat; Fridays mornings only. The outdoor yard has giant physics toys.
🚇 Bus, Science Museum/HaMuze'onim Blvd stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Bloomfield Science Museum Jerusalem
Show on mapGivat Ram · By the campus
Six continents of plants around a lake, a tropical forest under glass and a little train for kids.
Tip: It opens on Saturdays, when nearly everything else in the west is shut: the best Shabbat plan with kids.
🚇 Bus, Safra Campus/Zweig Dormitories stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Botanical Gardens
Show on mapMalha · Manahat valley
One of Israel's most visited sites: animals named in the Bible in a green valley with a lake and a cable car.
Tip: It opens on Shabbat, which is exactly when local families pack it. Arrive at opening and start from the top.
🚇 Train, Biblical Zoo station · 13 min walk
Featured in: Tisch Family Zoological Gardens
Show on mapBaka · Old Ottoman depot
The 1892 railway depot turned into a food and culture promenade with terraces, live music and weekend fairs.
Tip: One of very few spots in west Jerusalem alive on Shabbat. Park HaMesila, the walk along the old tracks, starts here.
🚇 Bus, Hahan/David Remez stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: First Station Jerusalem · Time Out Israel
Show on mapMamilla · Facing Jaffa Gate
A jet fountain that dances to music and coloured light, right opposite the floodlit walls.
Tip: The water show starts at dusk, every half hour. Kids run right in: bring a towel.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 4 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Foundation
Show on mapCity entrance · Kiryat Moshe
Santiago Calatrava's bridge, 66 cables shaped like a harp. At night it changes colour and steals the skyline.
Tip: It has a glass pedestrian walkway: cross on foot and look down. Best photo from the plaza on the east side.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Central Station stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Municipality
Show on mapArmon HaNatziv · East Talpiot
A 1 km stone balcony with the whole Old City face-on. Jerusalem's best sunset, no argument.
Tip: Arrive 40 minutes before sunset: the city's stone turns gold and then pink. Always open and free.
🚇 Bus, Armon HaNatziv Broadwalk A stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Foundation · Lonely Planet
Show on mapEin Kerem · The village
A stone village of cypresses, galleries and bell towers inside the city. It looks Tuscan and sits 20 minutes from the centre.
Tip: One of the few corners of west Jerusalem where some places open on Saturday. Comfortable shoes: it's all slope and steps.
🚇 Bus, En Kerem/HaMa'ayan stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Municipality · Time Out Israel
Show on mapEin Kerem · South slope
Sixty steps up through cypresses to a courtyard with the Magnificat in 42 languages and the whole valley below.
Tip: The climb is steep but short. It shuts for a couple of hours at midday: go early or after 2:30 pm.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Medical School stop · 11 min walk
Featured in: Custodia Terrae Sanctae
Show on mapEin Kerem · Hadassah
Twelve Marc Chagall windows, one per tribe, in a tiny synagogue inside a hospital. Pure colour.
Tip: Guided visits Sunday to Thursday plus Friday morning; closed on Shabbat. It's free and takes half an hour.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Hadassah Ein Kerem stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Hadassah Medical Organization
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Facing the wall
A white 1938 palace with a cloister, a pool and the carved beams from Al-Aqsa. Empty and magnificent.
Tip: Entry is included with your Israel Museum ticket. It's almost always empty: the courtyard is one of the calmest spots in town.
🚇 Herod's Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Israel Antiquities Authority · The Israel Museum
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Nablus Road
An immaculate English garden with a rock-cut tomb, a few steps from the din of Damascus Gate.
Tip: Free entry and volunteer guides in several languages. Closed Sundays: the classic traveller's mistake.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Damascus Gate stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: The Garden Tomb Association
Show on mapYemin Moshe · Mishkenot Sha'ananim
The 1857 windmill that launched the city beyond the walls, ringed by Jerusalem's most photogenic neighbourhood.
Tip: Take the Yemin Moshe stairs down into the valley: one of the prettiest and least walked routes in town.
🚇 Bus, Cinematheque/Hebron Road stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Foundation
Show on mapValley of the Cross · Rehavia
An 11th-century Georgian fortress-monastery standing alone in an olive valley, in the middle of the modern city.
Tip: The interior frescoes are 17th-century and nearly intact. It opens few hours and closes on Sundays.
🚇 Bus, Hazaz Blvd/Herzog stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem
Show on mapMea Shearim · Haredi quarter
An 1874 neighbourhood living in another century: Yiddish signage, closed courtyards and a rhythm set by the calendar.
Tip: Very modest dress is required (long sleeves and skirts), do not photograph people, and avoid Shabbat and Friday afternoon.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Shivtei Israel stop · 10 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Municipality
Show on mapCentre · Stone lanes
The second neighbourhood built outside the walls, now a pedestrian maze of bars, galleries and vine-covered terraces.
Tip: At night this is where the centre goes out. Friday at dusk nearly everything shutters until Saturday night.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Municipality · Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Pedestrian mall
Jerusalem's most classic pedestrian mall: buskers, ice cream, souvenirs and pavement tables.
Tip: Best time is Saturday night, when Shabbat ends and the street wakes up all at once.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Municipality
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · The shuk
By day, mountains of dates, halva and spices. By night, Solomon Souza's painted shutters and bars till late.
Tip: Friday afternoon, the pre-Shabbat shopping stampede is a show in itself. Saturday it shuts entirely; Saturday night the bars reopen.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Mahane Yehuda Market Association · Time Out Israel
Show on mapMamilla · Centre to the wall
An open-air stone promenade of international brands and sculpture that runs straight into Jaffa Gate.
Tip: The stone facades are original, numbered and reassembled one by one. Shops close on Shabbat; the promenade stays open.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Alrov Mamilla Avenue
Show on mapHinnom Valley · Hebron Road
Art-house cinema with a terrace looking straight at Mount Zion and the walls. A better view than many lookouts.
Tip: It opens on Shabbat, when almost nothing else in the west does: terrace coffee at sunset, a screening after.
🚇 Bus, Cinematheque/Hebron Road stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Cinematheque
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Beit Yaakov
The restaurant that changed Jerusalem: open kitchen, music at full blast and chefs banging on the pots.
Tip: Book weeks ahead or grab a bar seat without a reservation right at opening. Order the mushroom polenta and the broken-glass dessert.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · La Liste · Haaretz
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Beit Yaakov
Machneyuda's little no-reservations brother: a bar, small plates to share and the same energy at half the price.
Tip: No bookings: arrive at 6:30 pm and wait standing with a glass. Closed Friday afternoon for Shabbat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Mahneyuda Group
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Mashiach Borochoff
Everything comes out of the wood oven: bread, whole vegetables and fire-cooked cuts. Kosher, same family as Machneyuda.
Tip: Start with the bread straight from the oven and the house butter. Being kosher, it's shut from Friday afternoon to Saturday night.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Mahneyuda Group · Time Out Israel
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Iraqi Market
Pots on kerosene burners from 6 am. The stuffed aubergine and the broad-bean soup are a genuine urban legend.
Tip: Lunch only, closing mid-afternoon: show up at 3 pm and it's all gone. Order the aubergine slow-cooked overnight.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · The Jerusalem Post · Haaretz
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Iraqi Market
Azura's neighbour and eternal rival: kubbeh in red broth, meatballs and zero décor. Pure market cooking.
Tip: Ask for kubbeh hamusta, the green sour one: it's what locals pick. Lunch only, Sunday to early Friday.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · The Jerusalem Post
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · HaShikma
Shamburak: Kurdish dough stuffed with lamb, potato or cheese, baked in front of you and served with tahini and roast tomato.
Tip: Order the lamb one with the egg on top and plenty of hot sauce. Shut for Shabbat from Friday afternoon.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · The Infatuation
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · The shuk
Georgian khachapuri: dough boats of molten cheese and egg, made to order in a shop the size of a cupboard.
Tip: Cheap and very filling: the shuk's best quick lunch. Eat it standing in the street, with your hands.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Mako
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · HaTut
Pick your pasta and sauce, watch it cooked in a minute and eat standing at the market counter. A forever classic.
Tip: The queue moves fast even when it looks long. Ask for the ricotta and lemon sauce, which most guides miss.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Mahane Yehuda Market Association
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Agripas
An old-school neighbourhood grill: chicken liver, kebab, shishlik and skewers straight off the coals.
Tip: Order meorav yerushalmi, the Jerusalem mixed grill of offal with onion and spices, in a pita.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Mahane Yehuda Market Association · Mako
Show on mapAgripas 121 · Facing the shuk
The house that invented meorav yerushalmi back in the 60s. Open till dawn, with zero aesthetic concessions.
Tip: This is the 1 am plan, once everything else has shut. Order a half portion: the full ones are enormous.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: The Jerusalem Post · Mahane Yehuda Market Association
Show on mapAgripas 83 · Mahane Yehuda
The city's most famous sabich: fried aubergine, boiled egg, amba and salads in a pita that barely shuts.
Tip: Say yes to everything on offer and ask for extra amba. Closed from Friday mid-afternoon until Sunday.
🚇 Bus, Kiach/Yafo stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Mako
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · Etz Chaim
A hundred Israeli craft beers on tap and in bottles, right in the shuk alley turned night bar.
Tip: After dusk the market lowers its painted shutters and transforms: this is the best place to start.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Mahane Yehuda stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Beer Bazaar
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · HaEgoz
A market cocktail bar using produce from the stall next door: herbs, citrus and arak drinks in a tiny alley.
Tip: Come Saturday night, when Shabbat ends and the shuk fills in an instant. Let them pick your drink.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · King George
Low light, a long bar and generous Mediterranean plates until the small hours. The night restaurant par excellence.
Tip: The kitchen runs late, one of the few still going after midnight. Book for Thursdays and Saturdays.
🚇 Bus, King George/KKL stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Haaretz
Show on mapCentre · Old Bezalel Academy
1906 stone vaults, linen tablecloths and refined Mediterranean cooking. The place for a long, calm dinner.
Tip: The stone courtyard under the pines is the best part: ask for it when you book. Closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Bus, Shmuel HaNagid/Betsalel stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · La Liste
Show on mapCentre · Ticho House
Italian cooking in the garden of a 19th-century mansion, run as a social training project for young people.
Tip: Ask for a table in the Ticho House garden, free to visit before or after. Closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · The Israel Museum
Show on mapNachalat Shiva · Feingold Court
A Balkan-Sephardi bistro hidden in a 19th-century courtyard. Family cooking, local wines and a loyal crowd.
Tip: Order the fried kubbe and the Balkan-style liver. The vine-covered courtyard is the best table in Nachalat Shiva.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Haaretz
Show on mapCentre · Rabbi Akiva
A downtown institution since the 90s: huge focaccias, a grill and an inner gallery that's always full.
Tip: The goat's cheese focaccia and the chicken salad are the house orders. Closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Koresh
Soups only, vegetarian, in clay bowls with unlimited bread. Improvised live music most nights.
Tip: Open evenings only and the menu changes by the day. The perfect refuge when it's cold and raining.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Bezalel
The design quarter's canteen: market cooking, sensible prices and a courtyard that fills with students.
Tip: The weekday lunch menu is one of the best value deals downtown.
🚇 Bus, Bezalel/Trumpeldor stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Ben Hillel
Vegetarian Indian curry served on thali trays, in a tiny room scented with toasted spices.
Tip: Order the full thali: it feeds two. Closed Friday afternoon and Saturday for Shabbat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 6 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapNachalat Shiva · Yoel Moshe Salomon
Open almost round the clock, Shabbat included: breakfast at 3 am and international cooking with no schedule.
Tip: One of very few in west Jerusalem that doesn't close on Shabbat: note it for Saturday lunch.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · King George
The reference kosher hummus in west Jerusalem: creamy, hot and served with boiled egg and onion since 1958.
Tip: Order it masabacha, with whole chickpeas on top. There's a queue at lunch but it moves fast.
🚇 Bus, King George/Ben Yehuda stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: The Jerusalem Post · Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Ben Sira
Hummus until dawn on a little street full of bars. The dish that closes every night downtown.
Tip: It stays open very late and the place is tiny: show up at 2 am and you'll still find a seat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Mako
Show on mapMamilla · By Jaffa Gate
A brasserie with a terrace on the Mamilla promenade, thirty paces from the floodlit wall. Dinner with a view.
Tip: Book an outside table at dusk: the stone of the wall turns orange right in front of you.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 4 min walk
Featured in: Alrov Mamilla Avenue · Time Out Israel
Show on mapOld City · Al-Wad 63
Jerusalem's most argued-about hummus, right on the Via Dolorosa: thick, green olive oil and endless pita.
Tip: It opens early and runs out of hummus by mid-afternoon. Order the ful alongside and mop it all with hot pita.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 6 min walk
Featured in: The Jerusalem Post · Time Out Israel
Show on mapOld City · Aqabat al-Khanqah
Family hummus going back decades, steps from the Holy Sepulchre. Whole chickpeas, thick tahini and real garlic.
Tip: The perfect breakfast after seeing the Holy Sepulchre at dawn. Open Saturdays, when the west is shut.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 6 min walk
Featured in: The Jerusalem Post · Time Out Israel
Show on mapDamascus Gate · Corner
Hummus and ful on the best corner in the city: an open terrace above the Damascus Gate steps.
Tip: Sit outside and have breakfast watching the gate's traffic: Jerusalem's best free theatre.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: The Jerusalem Post · Time Out Israel
Show on mapOld City · Armenian Quarter
A few steps down into a vault covered in hand-painted Armenian tiles. Lahmajun, kebab and house wine.
Tip: Order the lahmajun and the su-beureg. One of the few Old City spots serving alcohol and open at night.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 3 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Lonely Planet
Show on mapOld City · By Jaffa Gate
A courtyard with a fountain and stone arches, thirty paces inside Jaffa Gate. Textbook Palestinian mezze.
Tip: Get the full mezze spread to share and save room for the musakhan. Open every day.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Lonely Planet
Show on mapOld City · Aftimos / Muristan
A rooftop with a 360° view over the Holy Sepulchre domes and, beyond, the Mount of Olives. Classic Arab cooking.
Tip: Go just for coffee or mint lemonade at sunset even if you don't eat: the view alone pays for the stairs.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Lonely Planet
Show on mapOld City · Christian Quarter
A 16th-century house with a courtyard, arches and antiques, hidden in a Christian Quarter alley.
Tip: It's tucked into a passage with no big sign: look for the wooden door. Order the maqluba if they have it.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Lonely Planet · Time Out Israel
Show on mapSheikh Jarrah · Shimon HaTzadik
A garden with a loquat tree, stone arches and contemporary Palestinian cooking. One of the city's loveliest courtyards.
Tip: Book a table in the garden. It opens Saturdays, when almost all of west Jerusalem is shut.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Shim'on HaTsadik stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Visit Palestine
Show on mapSheikh Jarrah · Shimon HaTzadik
Palestinian mezze banquet-style: twenty small plates before the main, in a room with a garden.
Tip: Go at least three so the full mezze makes sense. Ask for the musakhan with sumac and onion.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Shim'on HaTsadik stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Visit Palestine · Time Out Israel
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Salah ad-Din
A high-ceilinged room with a bar, modern Palestinian cooking and East Jerusalem's young creative scene.
Tip: Check their calendar: they run live music and screenings. Open on Shabbat, like most of East Jerusalem.
🚇 Bus, Ministry of Justice/Salah al Din stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Visit Palestine
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · By the wall
Textbook Arab breakfast: ful, hummus, eggs, zaatar and hot bread, facing the northern wall.
Tip: It opens early: the ideal breakfast before going in through Herod's Gate to walk the Muslim Quarter.
🚇 Herod's Gate · 1 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Visit Palestine
Show on mapTalbiya · Keren HaYesod
Produce-led Mediterranean cooking with a serious Israeli wine list, in a warm room of stone and wood.
Tip: Ask them to pick a Judean Hills Israeli wine: the local list is far better than people expect.
🚇 Bus, Jabotinsky/David HaMelech stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Haaretz
Show on mapTalbiya · Chopin 5
A wine bar and bistro next to the Jerusalem Theatre: boards, small plates and a glass before or after the show.
Tip: Pair it with a show at the Jerusalem Theatre next door. Closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Bus, Jerusalem Theatre/Frederic Chopin stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapFirst Station · HaTachana
A Franco-Italian bistro inside the old Ottoman depot, with a terrace, a long wine list and a late kitchen.
Tip: Sit outside on the old station platform. One of the few open Friday night and Saturday.
🚇 Bus, Hahan/David Remez stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · First Station Jerusalem
Show on mapTalbiya · Washington 4
Fine-dining kosher meat and fish in a stone house with a garden, a block from the King David.
Tip: Book and ask for the patio. Being kosher, it closes Friday afternoon until Saturday night.
🚇 Bus, David HaMelekh/Mapu stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Haaretz
Show on mapFirst Station · Old workshop
A railway workshop turned into a huge restaurant, with fire-driven cooking and communal wooden tables.
Tip: The space is vast and noisy in the best way. Great for groups; book if you're more than four.
🚇 Bus, David Remez/Hahan stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · First Station Jerusalem
Show on mapGerman Colony · Emek Refaim
Long brunches, cocktails and outdoor tables on Jerusalem's most strollable avenue. Southern neighbourhood life.
Tip: Friday morning brunch is the local ritual before Shabbat starts. Get there before 11.
🚇 Bus, Beit Lehem Road/HaRakevet Road stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapGerman Colony · Emek Refaim
Emek Refaim's long-standing café-restaurant: huge breakfasts, salads and a pavement that's always full.
Tip: Order the Israeli breakfast for two: eight small plates arrive and you won't need lunch. Kosher, closed on Shabbat.
🚇 Bus, Emek Refa'im/Hatsfira stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapTalbiya · By Liberty Bell Park
Fresh fish and Mediterranean mezze in a calm room two blocks from the windmill and the King David.
Tip: The weekday lunch deal includes a starter and main at a fixed price. Kosher: closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Bus, Jabotinsky/David HaMelech stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapEin Kerem · Main street
A terrace under the trees in the village centre, with long breakfasts, fish and pasta. The Ein Kerem classic.
Tip: One of the few in Ein Kerem open on Saturday: it fills with Jerusalem families. Book for lunch.
🚇 Bus, En Kerem/HaMa'ayan stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapEin Kerem · HaMaayan 1
Meat and seasonal cooking in an old stone house with a courtyard, facing the village spring.
Tip: Book the courtyard at dusk and walk down from the Church of the Visitation: five minutes downhill.
🚇 Bus, En Kerem/HaMa'ayan stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapYemin Moshe · By the wall
Biblical cuisine: wild herbs, hyssop, maqluba and soup served in a pumpkin, with the chef telling each dish at your table.
Tip: Take the full tasting menu and let them lead. Kosher: closed from Friday afternoon.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 4 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · The Jerusalem Post · La Liste
Show on mapNotre Dame · Facing New Gate
The Notre Dame centre's rooftop, with cheese, wine and the cleanest head-on view of the Old City walls.
Tip: Go up at dusk with a cheese board: the wall lights up exactly as the sun drops. Open daily.
🚇 New Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Pontifical Institute Notre Dame · Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Shlomtzion HaMalka
A French patisserie opened in 1967 by a Moroccan family: croissants, tarts and downtown's most ordered breakfast.
Tip: Get there before 9 or wait standing. Order the almond croissant and a café hafuch. Closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Haaretz
Show on mapNachalat Shiva · Yoel Moshe Salomon 5
A bookshop café in a 150-year-old house, hidden up a courtyard. Amos Oz wrote here and readings still happen.
Tip: The entrance is through a passage and up stairs: invisible from the street. Order the shakshuka and the cheesecake.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Haaretz
Show on mapRehavia · Azza 17
Rehavia's neighbourhood café: shakshuka, pancakes and a rooftop terrace almost nobody knows about.
Tip: Ask to be seated on the roof if there's room. Weekday mornings are when it's best.
🚇 Bus, Aza/Radak stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Bezalel
By day, a dairy and vegan café with sunny tables. By night, a bar with live music and art on the walls.
Tip: The inner courtyard is the best spot in the Bezalel quarter to work on a laptop in the morning.
🚇 Bus, Bezalel/Trumpeldor stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Luntz 4
A downtown institution for decades: two floors, a terrace over the pedestrian street and an endless breakfast menu.
Tip: It reopens on Saturday an hour after sunset, when Shabbat ends: the pedestrian street fills all at once.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · OpenStreetMap
Show on mapCentre · Bezalel quarter
An art-student café: good espresso, giant pastries and vegan options on downtown's most bohemian street.
Tip: Friday mornings there's a street fair on Bezalel: coffee here, then a loop around the stalls.
🚇 Bus, Shmuel HaNagid/Betsalel stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Bezalel
Their own roastery and baristas who weigh everything: the specialty coffee Jerusalem was missing, done properly.
Tip: Order a filter and ask for the week's origin. They sell the roasted beans on the spot to take home.
🚇 Bus, Shmuel HaNagid/Betsalel stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Isrotel Coffee Guide
Show on mapMahane Yehuda · HaAfarsek 20
The shuk branch: specialty coffee right among the spice stalls, with pastries and craft beer.
Tip: The best pause halfway through the market. It shuts Friday afternoon along with the whole shuk.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Isrotel Coffee Guide
Show on mapCentre · Helena HaMalka 5
A vegan café with a hidden courtyard, loose cats and downtown's youngest crowd. Homemade pastry all day.
Tip: Find the entrance through the passage: from the street it looks like any other house. The whole menu is vegan.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · OpenStreetMap
Show on mapNachalat Shiva · Yoel Moshe Salomon
French pastry on the stone pedestrian lane: éclairs, fruit tarts and proper baguette sandwiches.
Tip: Take an éclair and eat it sitting on the Nachalat Shiva steps. It closes early on Friday.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapOld City · Austrian Hospice
Apfelstrudel, Sachertorte and Viennese coffee in an inner garden, on the Via Dolorosa itself. Perfect surrealism.
Tip: Order the strudel with cream, then go up to the hospice roof: the view comes with the same ticket.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 4 min walk
Featured in: Österreichisches Hospiz · Time Out Israel
Show on mapOld City · Armenian Quarter
A Palestinian café with a terrace, cardamom coffee and mint lemonade, on a quiet corner away from the crowds.
Tip: Order the Turkish coffee with cardamom and sit down to read: nobody rushes you here. Open Saturdays.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 4 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Visit Palestine
Show on mapOld City · Cotton Merchants' Market
Arab coffee served inside a vaulted 14th-century Mamluk market, one of the city's most photogenic corners.
Tip: The passage is covered and cool even in summer. Drink your coffee standing and look down the vaulted length.
🚇 Dung Gate · 7 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Jerusalem Islamic Waqf
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Bab a-Zahara
A roastery and Arab café where the bean is ground with cardamom in front of you. You smell it a block away.
Tip: Buy ground coffee with cardamom to take home: the most Jerusalem edible souvenir there is.
🚇 Bus, Damascus Gate Terminal/Antara Ben Shadad stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapSheikh Jarrah · Nablus Road
A patisserie and café in Sheikh Jarrah: tarts, cheesecake and the best sweet stop in the city's north.
Tip: It opens Saturdays: one of the plans that saves Shabbat when nothing in the west is open.
🚇 Bus, Derekh Schem/Tobler stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Visit Palestine
Show on mapGerman Colony · Lloyd George
The café of Jerusalem's oldest cinema (1928): worn armchairs, art-house screenings and apple cake.
Tip: Check the listings: they screen with English subtitles. It also opens on Shabbat, which here is near-miraculous.
🚇 Bus, Emek Refaim/Lloyd George stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapGerman Colony · Emek Refaim
A tiny room with hundreds of antique grinders hanging up and bean blends from half the world.
Tip: Ask for the house blend with cardamom and take half a kilo ground. Five people and it's full.
🚇 Bus, Azriel Hildesheimer/HaMagid stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · Isrotel Coffee Guide
Show on mapFirst Station · HaTachana
A huge terrace on the old station platform, with all-day breakfasts and tables in the sun.
Tip: It opens Friday night and Saturday, rare in the west. Perfect for Shabbat breakfast.
🚇 Bus, Hahan/David Remez stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: First Station Jerusalem
Show on mapCentre · Hahistadrut
A house taken over by artists and turned into a café-gallery: shows in every room, a courtyard and impromptu gigs.
Tip: Walk in and tour the upper floors even without ordering: it's free and something is always installed.
🚇 Bus, Mamila/Agron stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel · HaMiffal
Show on mapJaffa 78 · On the way to the shuk
A specialty coffee counter on Jaffa Street, right on the walk between downtown and Mahane Yehuda.
Tip: A must-stop if you're walking to the shuk along Jaffa. It shuts Friday afternoon with the whole area.
🚇 Red Line light rail, HaDavidka stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Isrotel Coffee Guide
Show on mapKatamon · Hizkiyahu HaMelech 24
A fromagerie and café: Israeli cheese boards, salads and bread, in a neighbourhood shop that smells of rind.
Tip: Order the board with Negev goat's cheeses and ask which one is at its peak that week.
🚇 Bus, Misgav-ladach/Hizkiyah HaMelekh stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapCentre · Ben Sira 1
A café by day and a bar by night on downtown's liveliest little street, tables outside until dawn.
Tip: The whole of Ben Sira street is downtown's night axis: start here and go door to door.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: Time Out Israel
Show on mapAgripas 74 · Mahane Yehuda
An old-school Haredi bakery: braided challah, warm chocolate rugelach and bourekas by the tray.
Tip: Friday morning the Shabbat challah comes out and the queue spills onto the pavement: that's the moment.
🚇 Bus, Mahane Yehuda Market/Agripas stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Mahane Yehuda Market Association
Show on mapOld City · Khan al-Zeit
Trays of fluorescent-orange knafeh, baklava and Arab sweets cut to order in the middle of the souq.
Tip: Ask for knafeh nabulsiyeh straight out, hot and dripping with syrup: cold it isn't worth it.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Visit Palestine
Show on mapOld City · New Gate
Hand-painted Armenian ceramics by a family at it for generations: plates, tiles and cobalt-blue mezuzahs.
Tip: Ask them to paint your name on a tile: they do it on the spot. They close on Sundays.
🚇 New Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem · Time Out Israel
Show on mapHutzot Hayotzer · Below the wall
Jewellery, blown-glass and engraving studios in stone vaults, with the artists working in front of you.
Tip: Buy straight from the artist and ask about shipping: several send abroad without fuss.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Development Authority
Show on mapOld City · Central souq
Vaulted lanes of spices by the kilo, scarves, lamps, zaatar and olive-wood rosaries. Haggling compulsory.
Tip: First price and final price are far apart: offer half and meet in the middle, always smiling.
🚇 Dung Gate · 7 min walk
Featured in: Jerusalem Development Authority
Show on mapOld City · Khan al-Zeit
A bazaar of copper, trays, coffee pots and Arab kitchenware in the middle of the souq. The souvenir you'll actually use.
Tip: Buy a copper pot for Turkish coffee: light, cheap and it won't break in your suitcase.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 5 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Salah ad-Din
An Arab sweets house over a century old: layered baklava, date maamoul and Aleppo pistachio.
Tip: Get a mixed half-kilo box: the gift that lands best and survives the trip home.
🚇 Bus, Wadi Al Joz/Al-Muqadasi stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · Time Out Israel
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Salah ad-Din
An English and Arabic bookshop on the region's history, politics and literature, with a café upstairs.
Tip: Go up to the first-floor café: tables with sockets and the best spot in East Jerusalem to read a whole afternoon.
🚇 Bus, Omar Ben El'as Junction stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap · The Guardian
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Salah ad-Din
The shopping arcade at the heart of East Jerusalem: clothes, electronics and cafés the neighbourhood actually uses.
Tip: Open Saturdays and Jewish holidays: if Shabbat caught you planless, Salah ad-Din keeps going.
🚇 Bus, Sultan Sulliman Terminal stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapEast Jerusalem · Sultan Suleiman
A street greengrocer with figs, fresh dates, pomegranates and herbs, facing the northern wall.
Tip: In October the fresh dates and pomegranates are at their peak: buy a kilo and eat as you walk.
🚇 Damascus Gate · 3 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapCentre · King George & Jaffa
Israel's historic department store, on Jerusalem's most central corner. Six floors of everything.
Tip: The cosmetics basement carries the full Dead Sea range cheaper than the airport.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 3 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapCentre · Jaffa Street
Israel's oldest bookshop chain, with a solid English-language section all about Jerusalem.
Tip: Look for the folding historical maps of the Old City: the best pocket souvenir going.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapCentre · Shlomtzion HaMalka
A German bookshop founded in 1908 and still going: Judaica, history and editions you won't find elsewhere.
Tip: Ask about the out-of-print section at the back: that's where the good stuff is. Closed Friday afternoon and Saturday.
🚇 Red Line light rail, City Hall stop · 4 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapCentre · Shivtei Israel
A social workshop where the city's elderly make ceramics, textiles and Judaica by hand. You buy and fund the project.
Tip: You can tour the workshops and watch the makers at work. Open Sunday to Thursday plus Friday morning.
🚇 Bus, Safra Square/Shivte Israel stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: Lifeline for the Old · Time Out Israel
Show on mapMea Shearim · Kikar Shabbat
Menorahs, mezuzahs, kippahs and kiddush cups in the quarter where none of it is a souvenir but daily kit.
Tip: Dress very modestly to enter the quarter and don't photograph anyone. Closes Friday midday.
🚇 Bus, Yehezkel/HaShabbat Square stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapNachalat Shiva · Centre
Contemporary Israeli design jewellery: geometric pieces in brass and silver, made in the country.
Tip: Genuine local design, not a souvenir. A good lightweight gift. Closed for Shabbat.
🚇 Red Line light rail, Jaffa – Center stop · 5 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapNachlaot · Nissim Bachar
Curated second-hand and vintage clothing, in Jerusalem's most bohemian warren of stone lanes.
Tip: Pair it with a wander through Nachlaot: the stone lanes are the city's best unplanned walk.
🚇 Bus, Bezalel/Nissim Behar stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapMamilla · Promenade
Israeli cosmetics with Dead Sea salts and muds, soaps and oils, on the promenade leading to Jaffa Gate.
Tip: Compare prices with the HaMashbir ground floor before buying: it's usually cheaper there.
🚇 Jaffa Gate · 2 min walk
Featured in: Alrov Mamilla Avenue
Show on mapRehavia · Ussishkin
A neighbourhood roastery where you buy beans by weight and have them ground in front of you, cardamom blend included.
Tip: Ask for the hel (cardamom) blend: it's the local coffee flavour and works in any pot.
🚇 Bus, Ussishkin/Narkis stop · 1 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on mapMalha · City south
Jerusalem's largest mall: three floors of international and Israeli brands, a cinema and a food court.
Tip: It shuts entirely Friday afternoon and Saturday for Shabbat. The rain plan if you travel with teenagers.
🚇 Bus, Malha Mall/S.A. Maccabi stop · 2 min walk
Featured in: OpenStreetMap
Show on map