How can I plan a memorable first trip to Palestine without rushing?

Entry is the planning problem. Israel controls access to the Palestinian territories, and the FCDO sets out the sequence: an Electronic Travel Authorisation has been required of visitors since 1 January 2025, costing 25 new Israeli shekels, valid for 2 years and permitting stays of up to 90 days; your passport must remain valid for at least 90 days after arrival; and you must present both your passport and an Israeli immigration slip to cross between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The route matters as much as the paperwork. Allenby/King Hussein Bridge is 1 of 3 crossings between Jordan and Israel, and land crossings to Jordan may close at short notice, including during trade union strikes. Some travelers arriving at Ben Gurion Airport have been asked to sign an undertaking not to enter Palestinian Authority-controlled territory without prior Israeli authorization, with deportation and a bar of up to 10 years as the stated penalty for breaching it. British-Palestinian dual nationals in the West Bank or Gaza may only leave via Allenby or Rafah and must return by the same route.

Allow for the shape of the country rather than a loop. With 5 inscribed World Heritage properties and 23 Tentative List sites, there is far more than a week's material in the West Bank alone, and checkpoint closures make a hub-and-spoke pattern from 2 or 3 bases more realistic than daily repositioning.

The Allenby crossing is the hinge of the whole itinerary: a single land bridge over the Jordan whose stamp can quietly decide which half of your plan survives.

The stamp you are given at the border is a routing instruction, not a souvenir. A "Palestinian Authority only" endorsement restricts onward movement, so the order in which you plan your days — and which crossing you choose on the way in — can close off places you had intended to visit later in the trip. Decide the full route before you reach the border, not after.

• Before you fly — Secure the Electronic Travel Authorisation. It has been mandatory since the start of 2025 and covers 2 years, so it outlasts a single trip.
• On arrival — Keep the immigration slip with the passport. Without it you cannot cross between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
• On the ground — Work from fixed bases. Closures across the West Bank make long single-day loops unreliable.

The FCDO advises against all travel to parts of the Palestinian territories and against all but essential travel to others, and cannot support applications for permits to enter or leave Gaza. The US advisory sets the West Bank at "Reconsider Travel" and Gaza at "Do Not Travel"; the Erez pedestrian crossing is closed and the Rafah crossing has shut without warning for long periods. US government personnel are limited to daylight-hours visits to Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour via Checkpoint 300 — a useful measure of how tightly movement is controlled even in the calmest corner of the itinerary.

Pair this with the Palestine when-to-visit answer for the Bethlehem access rule and with the places answer for the inscribed properties worth the extra days.