Hey there,
I'm getting into Israel (Tel Aviv) on Christmas Eve and am hoping to be in Bethlehem on Christmas Day.
Just wondering, does anyone have any experience of Bethlehem on Christmas Day? Are there a lot of pilgrims in town? Would there be significant waits at the checkpoints getting into Bethlehem as a result of tourists? I'm not at all religious but living abroad and figured, what better way to spend Christmas than in Bethlehem. Any advice or suggestions for what I should do with my time there?
I'm flying out of Amman on the 30th December so have very little time in Israel (am spending New Years in Beirut) so any suggestions people can give for what to do with the few days I've got would be much appreciated.
I'm hoping to see Petra, so will probably need to be in Jordan for the 28th December, which leaves me with four days to do Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Palestine. Is this just a pipedream then, or can I get this all done?!
I'm thinking I'll catch the night bus south to get into Petra as, although I have a pre-arranged Jordanian visa, my friend doesn't. We'd be hoping to cross back to Tel Aviv via the Allenby bridge as we're returning to Tel Aviv from Amman on the 3rd Jan (and flying out again on the 5th Jan from Tel Aviv). Both my friend and I have two passports (mine Aussie and Irish, my friend UK and Aussie). My Irish passport has stamps from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq (Kurdish region) in it. Has anyone got experience of having Iraqi stamps in their passport and trying to enter Israel? Would I be better off flying into Israel on my Australian passport and entering Jordan on my Irish?
On the other hand, will having an entry stamp for Jordan from Aqaba cause me problems when I'm trying to enter Lebanon? What would be the best way to handle this? I'm assuming I can't get the Jordanian entry stamp on a seperate piece of paper?
Also, I'm going to try and cross from Amman to Tel Aviv via the Hussein/Allenby Bridge, but I won't be getting to the border until about 12pm on the day in question. Anyone have experience of what the delays are like at this time of day? Considering it'll be 'low season' (January) are the odds in my favour at all that the wait won't be too long? Or do waits have more to do with the kind of passport you hold and where you've been? I'd travel back to the south of Jordan to get back to Israel but I have to make it to Tel Aviv from Amman in one day so I'd rather not if at all possible.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
