The main tourist information office (Sun-Thurs 8.45am-4pm, Fri 8.45am-12.30pm; tel 625 8844), run by the city council, is in the City Hall complex, 3 Safra Sq, off Jaffa Road 200m from the northwest corner of the Old City. There's another office just inside the Jaffa Gate, on the left, run by Solan Communications (Sun-Thurs 8am-5pm, Fri 8am-1pm; tel 628 0382). Both are friendly and informative enough, offering leaflets and free publications, but can be less enthusiastic and informed in relation to all things Arab. For information about East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, therefore, you're better off going to the Christian Information Centre , across from the other offices and the Jaffa Gate, on Omar Ibn al-Khattab Square (Mon-Sat 8.30am-1pm; tel 627 2692, fax 628 6417, cicbarat@netmedia.net.il); the staff are patient and helpful, and have lists of hospice accommodation, as well as various maps and other information, mostly highlighting things of Christian interest.

 

A number of free publications provide listings information on what's going on in the city. The most useful is The Traveller, available at travellers' hostels, bars and eating places, giving the best bars and budget restaurants, together with a brief rundown of museums. Others include This Week in Jerusalem, which has information on museums and galleries; Jerusalem's Handiest Tourist Guide, handier indeed but harder to come by, listing sights and events; and Events in Jerusalem, put out by the municipality and featuring details on classical concerts, sights and exhibitions. All are available from the Jaffa Road and Jaffa Gate tourist offices and the more upmarket hotels. Your Jerusalem, the city council's free monthly events booklet, available at the tourist office in Safra Square and central West Jerusalem souvenir shops, lists exhibitions, concerts, talks and tours, though many of these will be of interest only to committed Zionists or religious Jews, and the paper itself has a very right-wing slant.

You can get a free, though not very detailed map from tourist offices, but the Arab Hotel Association puts out a rather better free one, available at hotels in East Jerusalem, which also covers Bethany and Bethlehem. Free maps of the Old City are given out by Stern's Jewellers, just inside the Jaffa Gate, but are really more a souvenir than an aid to navigation. For more detail, MAP's plan (33NIS; also available as a book) is the best, though it gives anglicized versions of the Hebrew names for streets, including those in the Old City and East Jerusalem, rather than the English names used on street signs. Its closest rival is Carta's map (27NIS). Both can be purchased from bookshops, where you can also get maps of the Old City and Bethlehem put out by the same publishers. A firm of Jewish Quarter residents called the Jewish Quarter Tourism Administration Ltd produce a detailed Old City map (available from Old City souvenir shops for 4-5NIS), based on an aerial photograph, though it shows the Jewish Quarter as extending most of the way up to the Damascus Gate!