Can You Fly to Bethlehem, Palestine? Airports, Routes and Distances

You cannot fly to Bethlehem, Palestine directly, because Bethlehem has no airport and there is no working civilian airport anywhere in the West Bank. Visitors fly to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, or to Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan, and finish the journey by road through Jerusalem or across the Jordan River.

Bethlehem is only about 8 km (5 miles) south of Jerusalem, so most trips are really a trip to Jerusalem with a short onward leg. Travel conditions in the region change quickly. This page describes the general routes and distances; it is not travel advice, and you should read your government's current official advice before you plan anything.

Which airport do you fly to for Bethlehem, Palestine?

There are two realistic choices. The distances below are our own straight-line calculations between coordinates, with road distances estimated from OpenStreetMap routing.

Be careful when you search for flights. Booking sites often return airports for Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the United States, which has its own regional airport nearby. That is a different Bethlehem.

• Ben Gurion Airport (TLV), near Tel Aviv, Israel: about 45 km (28 miles) from Bethlehem in a straight line and roughly 57 km (35 miles) by road. This is the closest international airport.
• Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), Amman, Jordan: about 75 km (46 miles) in a straight line, but roughly 118 km (73 miles) by road, because the route crosses the Jordan River at the Allenby Bridge, also called the King Hussein Bridge.

How to get to Bethlehem from the airport

From Ben Gurion, the usual route is to travel first to Jerusalem, about 54 km by road, using the rail and road links between the airport and the city. From Jerusalem, Bethlehem is a short drive south. Buses and taxis from East Jerusalem have traditionally served the route, and many visitors go with an organized tour or a hotel-arranged driver.

Whichever way you go, the road from Jerusalem into Bethlehem passes through an Israeli checkpoint in the separation barrier. Carry your passport and the entry card you were given on arrival. The UK Foreign Office notes that visitors arriving at Ben Gurion get an entry card instead of a passport stamp and should keep it until they leave.

From Amman, travelers cross at the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge, then continue by road past Jericho and up to Bethlehem, about 54 km from the bridge. Border crossings between Jordan and the West Bank are controlled by Israel, opening times change, and the UK Foreign Office warns that entry stamps issued there can restrict where a traveler may go. Check the crossing's current status with official sources before relying on it.

Map of Jerusalem and Bethlehem: how close are they?

On a map, Bethlehem sits almost directly south of Jerusalem's Old City, in the same range of hills. Encyclopaedia Britannica gives the distance as 5 miles (8 km), and UNESCO describes the Church of the Nativity as 10 km south of Jerusalem. By road it is roughly 11 km (7 miles) from center to center.

The two cities are close enough that they would form one urban area if the map had no lines on it. In practice Bethlehem is in the West Bank, and the separation barrier and a checkpoint lie between it and Jerusalem. Bethlehem runs into the neighboring towns of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour; Britannica counts 28,248 people in Bethlehem itself and 54,728 in the three towns together (2017).

For a wider view of where Bethlehem sits among the West Bank's cities, see our guides to Nablus and the cities around it and to the size of Palestine.

How far is Nazareth from Bethlehem?

Nazareth is about 111 km (69 miles) north of Bethlehem in a straight line. By modern roads the distance is roughly 150 km (93 miles).

Nazareth is in the Lower Galilee in northern Israel, and Bethlehem is in the hills of the southern West Bank, so the journey runs from the north of the country to the hills just south of Jerusalem. Nazareth to Jerusalem is about 103 km (64 miles) in a straight line.

Many people ask this question because of the Christmas story. The Gospel of Luke describes Mary and Joseph traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. The text does not give their route, so any figure for how far they walked is an estimate, but it would have been well over 100 km on foot.

What visitors come to see

Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus according to Christian tradition, and the Church of the Nativity has been a place of pilgrimage since the 4th century. UNESCO, which listed the church and its pilgrimage route as a World Heritage site in 2012, records that a church was first completed on the site in 339 CE and rebuilt after a fire in the 6th century. A silver star inside marks the traditional spot of the Nativity.

The church faces Manger Square, the center of the old town. Christmas is marked three times: by Western churches on 24 and 25 December, by Orthodox churches in early January, and by the Armenian Apostolic Church on 18 and 19 January. Britannica notes that tourism and pilgrimage are the cornerstone of the town's economy, alongside handicrafts and agriculture.

Check official travel advice before you go

We cannot tell you whether a trip is safe, and nobody can promise that conditions will be the same next month. Governments review their advice often, and it differs from one part of the West Bank to another.

As of 2 October 2026, the UK Foreign Office advice for Palestine, last updated on 22 July 2026, warned of regional tensions, possible flight cancellations and airspace closures, and advised against travel to several areas. Read the current version rather than relying on this summary.

• UK Foreign Office: Palestine travel advice, including entry requirements and the areas it advises against visiting.
• US State Department: Israel, the West Bank and Gaza travel advisory.
• Your airline and travel insurer. The UK advice notes that insurance can be invalidated if you travel against official advice.

If you cannot visit, you can still help

Many people who look up Bethlehem do so because they care about the people who live in Palestine today. About 70 km to the southwest, families in Gaza are living through a humanitarian emergency.

Fight for Palestine funds food, clean water, medical aid and shelter in Gaza through local partner teams. You can read about ways to help without money, learn how to donate safely, or give now.