Jerusalem Half Day Tour: Holy Sepulchre and Western Wall

If you wander around Jerusalem and read on google, you will likely enjoy your experience more than this tour. Tour guide was a bit gruff, not loud enough, and didn’t wait for the group to be together before offering explanations. Go visit the via dolarosa and western wall and holy Sepulchre with your guide book and save your money.

we got picked up at 7.50am as planned from a hotel nearby. 20min later we were standing somewhere in the middle of nowhere with other 100 people being allocated to different busses. After waiting for 20min for a big bus to arrive, we had to wait for another 20min together with around 25 people in the bus for 2 ladies who did bot show up. So around 9am (75min later) we started in the bus. the bus tour led to the university campus with a quick view over jerusalem and ended 15min later at zion’s gate. at 09.45am we arrived there. …when you book a half day tour, any delay is stealing valuable time. long story short: we rushed through the city with very little explanation of sights but 2 toilet breaks and ended up in front of the holy sepulchre which closed right in front of our eyes. then the tour guide pointed out th at 12pm is a bit late to enter the church indeed and blamed the group that it was our fault since we were always late and since some did not show us. So we did not see the church from the inside and ended up in a souvenir shop. Overall, terrible time management. one third we spent waiting. explanations were rather short. questions were not appreciated. And we did not visit the highlight of the tour.

Omri our tour Guide did cover every thing.He is excellent in what he does. The rain did not prevent him from doing all the stations . We are satisfied.

This was a great tour is a very comfortable bus. We stayed with the guide who was very knowledgeable about the city and it’s history. He was very helpful in guiding us to the Places where we wanted to go after this half day tour. It is a good tour and I would definitely recommend it.

Overall a good experience but too much wasted time in arranged souvenir shop with horrible overpricing on the souvenirs!

We took this tour which we really enjoyed. Our tour guide was Yehudi, I believe. We really loved going to the Western Wall and was able to touch it. The walk through old Jerusalem was interesting. Going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The tour did not take us to the Garden of Gethsemane, which really saddened me as that was one of the most interesting places I wanted to visit. We saw it from a distance but that was all this tour did. Our tour guide was amazing and allowed us to be dropped off at the end of our tour after having lunch with the others that were going on to other places with this guide. He dropped us close enough for us to walk down a hill and to visit the Garden of Gethsemane. That was amazing. The only thing was an uphill walk back into the old city through the different quarters to get back to our hotel. Overall really enjoyed the tour and an excellent gude.

I chose this trip for our extended family for two reasons - 1. the fact that it started with a panoramic view of Jerusalem and the old city from outside, and 2. the fact that it allowed us an overview of the different quarters of the Old City. We did not realize that this meant almost nothing of the Jewish Quarter would be formally toured - but the fact that we got to see a large part of the Christian Quarter, and parts of the Moslem quarter - that we would not have seen - or understood - had we explored ourselves - made this tour worthwhile. The inevitable shop visit was - well I guess inevitable but we find it uncomfortable to be compelled into a single store and would prefer to be chaperoned to an area and left for perhaps 20 or 30 minutes to look around / have a drink etc.

Ami was a great tour guide! We saw the Western Wall and went throughout the city of Jerusalem and we saw all the stations of the cross. Ami was very detailed in his descriptions. We only saw the Dome of the Rock from above the city, I would have liked to visit the mosque.

This half-day tour is not conducted as advertised. The sub-contractor that worked the tour did not fulfill as advertised. We were never 'at the Mount of Olives', we were never 'atop the Mount to view the Temple Mount or Dome of the Rock', which is a great view and vantage by the way...but not something we got to see from this or any other Viator tour that advertises that your tour starts from the Mount of Olives. We were first greeted with this revelation from the top of Mount Scorpus on the Old and New City Jerusalem tour which is farther away and next to the Mount of Olives. The guides even point to the Mount of Olives but don't like it when you question why the tour doesn't actually go there. We did not Kick off your sightseeing at the Mount of Olives for a scenic overview of the entire city of Jerusalem. This mountain ridge is east of the Old City of Jerusalem and named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. According to the gospels, a number of important events in the life of Jesus took place here, including where he ascended into heaven. The Mount has been a site of Christian worship since ancient times and continues to be a place of pilgrimage for Eastern Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant believers.From ATOP the mount, there is also a view of arguably Jerusalem's most recognizable landmark: the Dome of the Rock, a shrine located on the Temple Mount and one of the oldest works of Islamic architecture. We also did not do the following from the description of 'what you can expect': The tour then passes through the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, known as the place where Jesus prayed, and also where his disciples slept, the night before his crucifixion. So, two of the biggest sites to see you don't get to see except from afar off when you're on the road the runs around the Old City. They point to it from the bus windows where you can't take great pictures, not to mention that it's from the wrong vantage. You're supposed to be looking at the Old City from the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane Church, not from the roads on the opposite side. This was essentially the Old City tour which was part of an earlier tour we'd taken. I didn't appreciate the manipulation of words the guides used to say that 'all of the mounts' are part of the same chain that make up the mountains of olives so technically they're fulfilling the tour description. That's just not honest. Don't take any tours that state they start from the Mount of Olives. You have to take a taxi and negotiate your own tour to visit these sites on the actual Mount of Olives. I saw tour coaches on top of the Mount of Olives every day but evidently not the ones contracted by Viator. This is also the second time my review was submitted because it was deleted previously.

It is a good overview of Jerusalem. The guide took us to Mount of Olive and showed some sites and then stop by the good spot overlooking the dome of the rock and other domes to explain each of the structures. Then to the old city with all the important sites. Good introduction of Jerusalem and recommended.