The Olive Tree Hotel, Jerusalem


Our base for three nights in Jerusalem was the newly opened Olive Tree Hotel. We should have stayed at the Jerusalem Tower, but that was full. The Olive Tree represented an upgrade.

About a mile from the wall to the Old City, The Olive Tree Hotel is just across the street from the historic American Colony Hotel.

The hotel is named after an Olive Tree under which King David is said to have rested. There is no reference in the bible to this and it is hard to believe the hotel's claim that the gnarled Olive Tree which dominates the hotel Atrium is the same one. The setting is however very attractive.
The Hotel definitely has a sense of style and cannot be accused of being plain and functional. The numbers by the rooms are stone plaques and the signs by the lift on various floors illustrate the gates into the Old City.

On the Sabbath, orthodox Jews are not allowed to operate machinery, so the electronic door locks on their rooms are disabled and one of the lifts goes into Sabbath mode, going slowly up and down stopping at every floor on the way.

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Perhaps the view from our room explained why the tour company was able to use such a high quality hotel. In almost every direction, the hotel was surrounded by building sites, where work continued late into the night and restarted early in the morning.

 

The picture on the left shows the large hole next to the hotel, taken from our room.

The building site on the right was just over the road from the hotel. All four sides were almost vertical, so obviously the equipment will ultimately need to be lifted out.

Last updated: May 27, 2000