City of David Tour: Underground Jerusalem Day Trip

What Is Included

You pay $89 per person and nothing at the ticket desks of the sites on the route. The City of David sells its own tickets through its website, so visiting independently means handling that booking yourself and paying the site's own prices. On this listing the entry fees sit inside the tour price.

Transport is by air-conditioned coach, and the operator lists hotel pickup and drop-off in Jerusalem as included, which saves the walk to a meeting point at the start of a 9-hour day. A live guide in English is part of the package.

What You Pay for on the Day

Lunch is not included. The itinerary puts a lunch break in the Jewish Quarter and you buy your own food there. Drinks are your own too, so carry water for the walking sections, especially in July and August, when Jerusalem averages a daily high of about 30 °C. Gratuities are not included.

No optional paid extras are stated on the listing, and no mandatory extras are listed either.

The Line by Line Breakdown

This table compares what the listing states as included against what it leaves out, so you can see exactly where the $89 stops. The figures and inclusions come from the operator's own listing text on GetYourGuide.

The Honest Note

No group size cap is stated. If you want a group capped at 20 with two narrators, the dual narrative tour caps numbers at 20 for $65. And if your priority is the walled Old City itself rather than the digs below it, compare tours of the Old City of Jerusalem before you book, because this route spends its hours outside the walls.

Pickup and the First Panorama

The day begins with hotel pickup in Jerusalem, or at the listed meeting point of the David Citadel Hotel on King David St 7 if you make your own way there. The coach then climbs to the Mount of Olives or Mount Scopus for the opening panorama. The Mount of Olives rises to 826 m and its Jewish cemetery holds about 150,000 graves.

Into the City of David

The coach drops you near the Dung Gate and the group enters the City of David, an archaeological site of about 50 dunams (12.3 acres) in the Wadi Hilweh part of Silwan. From the overlook you look down on the Kidron Valley and ancient burial caves while the guide explains why a king would choose this ridge. The route then passes the remains associated with King David's palace, a Proto-Aeolic capital and a four-room house.

The Gihon Spring on the eastern slope comes next, and it is generally seen as the reason the city first grew at this spot.

The Pool of Siloam and the Pilgrimage Road

From the spring the route continues to the Pool of Siloam, rediscovered in autumn 2004 during sewer work, its three sets of five steps now exposed. You then ascend the Pilgrimage Road, a stepped street from the Second Temple period built over the ancient Jerusalem water channel. A reviewer on the listing warns of tight squeezes in the tunnels and suggests anyone with claustrophobia think twice.

The listing does not name Hezekiah's Tunnel, which is a separate City of David route of about 533 m.

Lunch and the Finish on Mount Zion

The group stops in the Jewish Quarter for the lunch break, at your own cost, and finishes on Mount Zion, which stands at about 765 m above sea level just outside the southern wall. The day closes at King David's Tomb, traditionally placed on the lower level of the Gothic Cenacle building, and the Room of the Last Supper above it. Most historians do not regard the tomb site as the actual burial place of King David, so hear the guide's framing with that in mind.

Hotel drop-off returns you at the end.

Claustrophobia, Wheels and Small Children

The itinerary includes about 3 hours of walking, and a reviewer warns of tight squeezes in the tunnels, so anyone uneasy in enclosed spaces should choose a surface-level route instead. The tour is not suitable for wheelchair users, and not suitable for children under 4. For a shorter option, the Old City half-day tour runs 3 hours at $39.

Dress Code and the Coach Format

Shorts, short skirts and sleeveless shirts are not allowed. No group size cap is published, and the listing gives no return time. If you want a route that stays entirely inside the walls with a fixed start and end at Jaffa Gate, the Old City walking tour or the Shabbat experience walk fit better.

Who Should Pick a Different Listing

If you are traveling from Tel Aviv, this tour starts in Jerusalem, so the day tour from Tel Aviv handles the transfer for you. If your interest is the Christian route rather than the archaeology, the Footsteps of Jesus walking tour covers the Mount of Olives churches and the Via Dolorosa instead, at the same $89 over the same 9 hours.

Reaching the David Citadel Hotel

The listed meeting point is the David Citadel Hotel on King David St 7. Jerusalem's Red Line light rail has stops named Jaffa Center, City Hall and Damascus Gate, and the Western Wall Foundation gives the walk from City Hall to Jaffa Gate as 5 to 7 minutes. Trains run every 3 minutes at rush hour and every 6 minutes otherwise, with no daytime service on Shabbat.

If you are coming up from Tel Aviv for the day, the train to Jerusalem and the bus 480 are the standard options, and the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem guide sets out the routes.

What to Add on Your Own

The tour does not enter the walled Old City's paid sights, so you can stack them before or after. The Ramparts Walk lets you stroll on top of Suleiman's walls, which run about 4.5 km with 35 towers. The Tower of David Museum by Jaffa Gate lists an adult ticket at ₪55 on its own price list.

The Western Wall Tunnels run guided routes underground along the wall, with the Great Stone Route open Sunday to Thursday 9:00 to 22:00 and the Great Bridge Route Sunday to Thursday 7:00 to 23:00, and tickets are booked in advance through the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. Entry to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is generally free, and the Western Wall is a 15 to 20 minute walk from Jaffa Gate.