Yesterday in Bethlehem, I asked our guide about child seat use. He is a resident of Bethlehem and has a small baby. It sounded like child seat use was not all that common, though they are readily available. He was considering buying one for his baby but found the prices very high, about the equivalent of US $100 for a Chicco model he had been considering. Most babies ride on their mother’s lap from what I understood.
That said, the driving didn’t seem to be as crazy, either in the West Bank or in Israel. People generally were not whizzing past everyone else in a great hurry. I haven’t observed a crash yet, something that seems almost daily sometimes in our suburban area. The roads are dominated by small and midzise sedans. There are some wagons, small SUVs and short wheelbase minivans. I have seen two small pickups (used on the grounds at tourist sites) and no large SUVs at all. Aside from that, you see mostly buses and full size vans for tours and deliveries. Not a trace of 18-wheelers and fewer large commercial trucks than you might expect. The vehicle fleet seemed relatively modern also, perhaps even more than what I see in the Chicago area.
Our guide in Bethlehem, Elias, was great. The whole experience was awesome and very much worth the time and effort of the border crossing into Palestine and back. I highly recommend him if you ever travel there. We were paired with him through Fred at Tours In English in Jerusalem, but his own company is Grace Tours located in Bethlehem. I left him a nice tip for his amazing service, including his way with crowds to get us some very nice photos. I hope he buys a nice convertible child seat for their baby!
Oh, I hope you get to go! There is a long walk to get into the city, but it’s truly amazing to walk through this skinny little canyon and then see the city suddenly open up before you.
We hadn’t planned on going to the West Bank. We hired a “cab” in Jerusalem and asked the guy to take us to Bethlehem. He tried three different checkpoints and kept getting turned away. I’m glad he did because after a while I was convinced he was going to kidnap me. He kept reahing into the back seat to hold my hand. By the third checkpoint I was shaking my head at the soldiers and mouthing “no.” Next time I’ll plan better.
I saw two full size minivans today- a Honda Odyssey and a Chrysler T&C (or twin). Other than that, I’ve only seen shorter ones like the Mazda 5, the short Kia Sedona and various European brands.
Too bad you couldn’t make it to the West Bank. I guess tourism and the whole economy in Bethlehem has taken a hit since the security wall was erected:-( Sad that political issues affect things like that. We zipped through the checkpoint getting there. It took a little longer to get back as the line wasn’t moving; presumably someone was having issues with their documents.
The trip to Jordan (Petra) is Tuesday by tour bus. I’m not sure if I will be going or not. Our 5 year and 11 year olds have not been doing well in the heat and sun when walking.
Awww…Elias is my son’s name 🙂
I, too, found driving in Israel (and Jordan–we tried to get into the West Bank but didn’t succeed) to be rather uneventful. Egypt was another story.