Holy Week in the city where it happened. Ten days from Lazarus Saturday to the Resurrection, or six for those who cannot be away as long.
Once a year the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is sealed, the lamps are put out, and the Orthodox world waits in the dark. What follows on Holy Saturday in Jerusalem is the oldest continuously recorded Paschal observance in Christendom, and there is no substitute for standing inside it.
Mystakidis Tours has been bringing Orthodox pilgrims to the Holy Land from Athens since 1959. For 2027 we are operating our largest Paschal programme to date, built for parishes and for individual pilgrims from the United States and Canada, with one unhurried base in Jerusalem for the whole of Holy Week.
Entry into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Holy Saturday is controlled by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem together with the Israeli police, who set the numbers admitted and operate checkpoints throughout the Christian Quarter. In recent years those numbers have been reduced substantially.
We apply to the Patriarchate on behalf of every pilgrim on this programme. No tour operator anywhere can guarantee entry, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we do guarantee is that your application is made, that you are led by staff who have worked this day in Jerusalem for decades, that you are positioned as early as the police lines allow, and that if the church itself is closed to our group we have secured fallback positions in the Christian Quarter where the Holy Fire is brought out and shared. Every pilgrim receives the Paschal candle and returns home with the flame.
Both programmes share the same hotel, the same guides and the same departure day, so a parish may send pilgrims on either and still travel home together. International flights are not included; you arrange your own flights into Tel Aviv and meet the group at the hotel. We send you the arrival window to book against and are glad to help with flight options on request.
Holy Week services in Jerusalem are set by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and their times are published only in the weeks beforehand. The order of days above will not change; the hour of an individual service may. Bethany, Bethlehem and Jericho lie in the West Bank; travel there is by arrangement with our Palestinian partners and is subject to conditions on the day. Holy Week Essentials joins on the afternoon of Holy Wednesday and follows days 5 to 10.
International airfare. Travel insurance, which is a condition of booking on this programme and is not optional. Lunches, and drinks at any meal. Gratuities to the guide, driver and hotel staff, about $110 for the full week. The single room supplement, $1,138 on the full programme and $638 on the Essentials. Any visa or electronic travel authorisation required for entry to Israel. Personal expenses, laundry, and anything not named above.
Per person, holds your place. We send a secure payment link once we confirm your request. No payment is taken on this page.
Per person, due Friday 16 October 2026.
Due Friday 22 January 2027, ninety days before departure.
Final travel pack and service times, Friday 9 April 2027.
Prices are per person in United States dollars and are held until Friday 16 October 2026. Full booking conditions, including the cancellation scale, are sent with your confirmation and are available beforehand on request.
Holy Saturday means rising before dawn, standing for many hours, moving through police checkpoints and dense crowds, and walking on stone and steps with no vehicle access. Holy Friday is close behind it. If you cannot stand for three hours, if you use a walking frame or a wheelchair, or if you have a heart or respiratory condition, please telephone us before registering. We will tell you plainly which days will and will not be possible. We would far rather have that conversation in September than in Jerusalem.
The United States Department of State currently places Israel and the West Bank at Level 3, Reconsider Travel, and Gaza at Level 4, Do Not Travel. The situation changes. We monitor it daily with our people on the ground, we will tell you what we are seeing rather than what is comfortable, and if we judge that the programme cannot be operated safely we will say so and refund what our suppliers release to us. Every pilgrim should register with their government's traveller programme before departure.
A passport valid until at least 3 November 2027 is required. Citizens of the United States and Canada do not need a visa for Israel but do need an electronic travel authorisation before departure; we send the current instructions with your confirmation and we will chase anyone who has not completed it. Please send a clear scan of the photograph page within fourteen days of registering, as the room list and the Patriarchate application are both built from it.
No, and anyone who promises you otherwise is not being straight with you. The numbers admitted are set by the Patriarchate and the Israeli police. We apply for every pilgrim, we position the group hours in advance, and if the church is closed to us we take our people to where the Fire is brought out. Every pilgrim receives the flame and carries it home in a lantern. That much we guarantee.
Not necessarily. We match solo pilgrims with a roommate of the same sex at no extra charge. If we cannot find you a match we will tell you by 26 February 2027, well before the balance is due, and you will not be charged the supplement without agreeing to it.
Not necessarily, and we have taken pilgrims older. It is less about age than about two specific days. Telephone us and tell us honestly how far you can walk and whether you manage stairs, and we will tell you plainly what is possible and what we would adapt.
The $400 deposit is not refundable, because Jerusalem hotels at Holy Week take our money a year ahead and do not return it. After that there is a sliding scale that firms up as we approach, set out in full in the booking conditions. This is precisely why we require travel insurance rather than merely recommending it.
No. Flights are not included. You arrange your own and meet us at the hotel in Jerusalem; we send you the arrival window to book against, and we are glad to look into flight options for you on request.
Yes, and it is how most people travel with us. Where ten pilgrims come from one parish, the priest travels with them as our guest on the land programme; at twenty, a second place. We handle every registration, payment and telephone call, and we provide the inserts, the announcement slide and an information evening. Please telephone and ask for the parish coordinator, or use our parish inquiry form.
Parish groups travel with their own priest. For individual pilgrims, we arrange for a visiting Orthodox priest to accompany the programme as chaplain wherever we can, and every service of the week is at the Patriarchate, where the clergy of Jerusalem serve. You will not lack for the sacraments.
Tell us who is travelling and which programme you want. A member of our team in Athens confirms availability and sends you a secure link for the $400 deposit, usually within one business day. Nothing is charged on this page.
Places are assigned in the order deposits are received. Jerusalem at Holy Week is the one week of the year when the hotels fill, and our room block is finite.
Thank you. A member of the Mystakidis Tours team will email and call you shortly to confirm your place and send the deposit link. No payment has been taken.
