The Jesus Trail through the Lower Galilee, from the old city of Nazareth to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, in the trail's own four walking days: Zippori, Cana, the Beit Keshet Forest, Kibbutz Lavi, the Horns of Hattin, Arbel and Tabgha.
Best season: October to November and February to mid-May. Check access before you go: Israel’s Home Front Command and the Nature and Parks Authority publish restrictions and closures, and they can change at short notice. The trail’s founders give October to November and February to mid-May as the best seasons; December and January are rainy, and June to September too hot, with a real risk of dehydration. Before you go
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Checking the seasons, closures and current conditions for today…
Four walking days, the trail's own, each of about 14 to 19 km by our line. Check access first with the Home Front Command and the Nature and Parks Authority, before you book and again before each day. Choose a plan, or pick your own start, finish and nights below.
Changing where you stay suggests a new number of days: the fewest that keep each day under 8 h of walking and in daylight, where a place to stay allows.
Days end where the route has a stay, a camp or a village.
Stage 1: Through the old city of Nazareth into the Galilee hills, by Zippori National Park, to Cana: 14.3 km by our line; the trail's own site gives no distance or time. KKL-JNF's notice, read 13 October 2026, says sewage has reached the Tzipori stream: keep away from the water. Camping is not allowed in Zippori National Park.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
Kafr Kanna; the trail passes through the town. The trail's own site lists the Cana Wedding Guest House and the Cana Palace here.
Or a room in the village. Find your own accommodation; TrailSplits has not checked what is open.
Stage 2: Through the Beit Keshet Forest and along old Roman roads to Kibbutz Lavi: 13.9 km by our line. KKL-JNF's notice, read 13 October 2026, closes the scenic road through the forest to cars from 19:00 to 07:00, and the trail from the Nahal Barak side in those hours: walk this day in daylight.
Overnight
Hotel
Pick a date to check the season.
A kibbutz with a hotel about 0.75 km east of the trail. The trail's own site also names a pay camping area, Yarok Az, at Ilaniya.
Or a room in the village. Find your own accommodation; TrailSplits has not checked what is open.
Stage 3: Past the kibbutz farm, the Horns of Hattin and Nebi Shu'eib to Moshav Arbel: 17.1 km by our line.
Arbel Town or village
Moshav Arbel, a village about 0.35 km from the trail. The trail's own site lists Arbel Holiday Homes and the Shavit family's rooms, and names the village as a pay camping area; TrailSplits could not place the rooms on the map, so check them yourself.
Find your own accommodation; TrailSplits has not checked what is open.
Stage 4: Through Arbel National Park and Wadi Hamam down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, by the church at Tabgha, to Capernaum: 19 km by our line. Camping is not allowed in Arbel National Park.
Longest day: day 4, 4 h 57.
Days end at a stage end with a refuge or a village, or in a village the route passes through. Walking times are measured on each stage's mapped line by our route analysis (terrain heights and our hiking-time model, moving time only): no time is published for these stages.Outside Switzerland our walking times often run short of the times route operators publish; treat them as optimistic. Running times use 7.5 km/h plus one hour per 700 m of climb: a steady reference, not a prediction. Daylight is sunrise to sunset where the day starts; the time left is for breaks, meals and delays.Refuge dates come from the operator's own pages; when they are not published, we say so. For villages we count the places to stay OpenStreetMap lists; we have not checked which are open. A plan is not a booking: reserve every night before you commit to these day lengths.
Where each stage ends, the 2026 and 2027 seasons the operator publishes, and how to book. Read from the operators' pages on 13 October 2026; each stage page shows the sources and the grade profile.
| Stage | Night at | 2026 | 2027 | Booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Nazareth to Cana | Cana Wedding Guest House | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking method not published |
| 2. Cana to Kibbutz Lavi | Kibbutz Lavi Hotel | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking method not published |
| 3. Kibbutz Lavi to Arbel | Arbel · accommodation in town, not checked | Each host has its own season | Book with a host | |
| 4. Arbel to Capernaum | Mount of Beatitudes Guest House | 2026 dates not published | not published | Booking method not published |
Loading the forecast for low point (-210 m) and high point (503 m)…
Typical weather on this trail: at the lowest point (-210 m) and the highest point (503 m). Select a month to see why it is rated as it is.
| Month | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weather | Good | Good | Good | Good | Mixed | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Mixed | Good | Good |
| Stages rated good on typical weather | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 0/4 | 0/4 | 0/4 | 0/4 | 0/4 | 0/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 |
| High point, day / night | 13°/6° | 15°/7° | 18°/8° | 22°/11° | 26°/15° | 29°/19° | 31°/21° | 31°/21° | 29°/20° | 26°/17° | 21°/12° | 16°/8° |
| Low point, day / night | 18°/10° | 19°/11° | 22°/13° | 25°/15° | 29°/19° | 32°/23° | 33°/25° | 34°/26° | 32°/24° | 30°/21° | 25°/15° | 20°/12° |
| Rain, mm | 166 | 122 | 62 | 25 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 75 | 132 |
| Snow at high point | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Daylight | 10 h 13 | 11 h | 11 h 55 | 12 h 57 | 13 h 49 | 14 h 18 | 14 h 07 | 13 h 24 | 12 h 25 | 11 h 25 | 10 h 30 | 10 h 01 |
Source: TerraClimate 1991–2020 monthly averages. Averages for the area at each point’s elevation (4 km grid, corrected for height). Not a forecast or a report of current trail conditions. Snow at the high point is estimated with a simple snowpack model from these temperatures and precipitation, not observed; steep islands and high summits can hold more snow than it shows. Daylight is for the 15th of each month. Hut, transport and park seasons are separate: check them for your dates.
Before you go
Arrange your stays, food and travel first, then check conditions again near departure.
Check access first: the Home Front Command and the Nature and Parks Authority publish restrictions and closures, and they change at short notice. There is no permit or booking for the trail itself; book each night with the host, from the list on the trail's own site (archived January 2026). That site also names a 5-day self-guided package by Abraham Tours, with private rooms, luggage transfer and an orientation, from 2,800 shekels. Camping is not allowed in national parks and nature reserves, Zippori and Arbel among them; the site names pay camping areas, such as Yarok Az at Ilaniya and Arbel village. Plan the first and last days around Shabbat, when most buses and trains stop (the trail's own transport page, checked 13 October 2026 in its January 2026 archive copy).
The Home Front Command and the Nature and Parks Authority publish restrictions and closures for the area, and they can change at short notice. TrailSplits could not read either site when it checked on 13 October 2026, so this guide cannot tell you whether you may walk the trail or enter its national parks. Check both before you book, and again before each day.
Home Front CommandThe trail passes through Zippori National Park on the first day and Arbel National Park on the last. Ask the Nature and Parks Authority whether you may enter them, and at what hours, before you go. Camping is not allowed in national parks and nature reserves.
Israel Nature and Parks AuthorityKKL-JNF's notices for the north, read 13 October 2026 and not dated, say sewage has reached the Tzipori stream, so keep away from its water, and that the scenic road through the Beit Keshet Forest is closed to cars from 19:00 to 07:00, and the trail is closed from the Nahal Barak side in those hours: walk it in daylight.
KKL-JNF: notices for the northJune to September is too hot for the trail, its founders say, with a real risk of dehydration. Carry enough water: they give 5 litres a person a day for drinking and cooking, from the trail's own site (archived January 2026).
Jesus Trail (jesustrail.com)Only the home page of jesustrail.com loaded when checked on 13 October 2026; its other pages, the GPX files and the guidebook updates returned errors. The facts here from those pages come from the trail's own site (archived January 2026): check them with each host when you book.
Jesus Trail (jesustrail.com)Closures and notices last checked 13 October 2026: KKL-JNF: notices for the north · KKL-JNF: reopening list 2026 · Jesus Trail: official site. Check them again before you set out.
Getting there
Choose a stage or journey above to narrow the travel searches.
Google Maps journey searches, not confirmed services. A mountain endpoint may need a booked transfer or an additional walk.
Buses reach Nazareth from the rest of the country. Egged and most national lines, and the trains, do not run from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening; the local Nazareth bus companies usually do, the trail's own site (archived January 2026) says. It suggests the Moovit app to plan trips.
Egged: timetablesPlan the buses to and from Cana, Kibbutz Lavi and Arbel with Moovit, the app the trail's own site suggests, and check access first before each day.
Egged: timetablesThe trail ends at Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee. The 5-day package's transport takes walkers on to Tiberias. Walking alone, plan the bus out before you set off, and do not end on Shabbat.
Jesus Trail (jesustrail.com)Take your trip with you
Prepare each day while you still have a connection, and check the official access pages again before you set off.
Keep your route and maps on your phone for places without a signal. For multi-day trips, prepare them in the installed TrailSplits app.
Saving a bookmark is not a map download. Storage can be cleared by your device; keep a backup map for remote trips.
The trail's own site gives about 65 km in four walking days, and publishes no stage times or distances, in 4 sections on our map. The guide's day planner offers a 4-day plan on the overnight stops, and you can choose your own nights.
October to November and February to mid-May. Check access before you go: Israel’s Home Front Command and the Nature and Parks Authority publish restrictions and closures, and they can change at short notice.
Buses reach Nazareth from the rest of the country. The "Connect your journey" section has the travel details, with 2 more travel notes.
There is no permit or booking for the trail itself; book each night with the host, from the list on the trail's own site (archived January 2026).
Yes: the whole route and every section, free, for a GPS watch or a phone. The guide also saves your plan for offline use in the app.
Check access first: closures here can follow the security situation, and TrailSplits could not read the Home Front Command's or the Nature and Parks Authority's pages when it checked on 13 October 2026, so ask them, and your hosts, before you set out. Closures we know of are shown on the days and sections they affect, in the day planner and on the stage pages. We watch 3 official notice pages (KKL-JNF: notices for the north; KKL-JNF: reopening list 2026; Jesus Trail: official site); the date we last read them is shown with the notices on this page. Check them again before you set off.
Route & sources
The trail's own site (jesustrail.com) gives the Jesus Trail as about 65 km from the old city of Nazareth to Capernaum, walked in four days: Nazareth to Cana, Cana to Kibbutz Lavi, Kibbutz Lavi to Moshav Arbel, and Arbel to Capernaum. It publishes no stage times or distances; its FAQ only asks walkers to manage about 16 km a day. The line here is the route on OpenStreetMap (relation 364191, from the planet of 11 October 2026), without its alternative variant: 64.2 km, cut at those four overnights, 13.9 to 19 km a day. The distances, climb and times on each stage are ours, measured on terrain heights, not official. The site also offers a 3-day plan that takes a shuttle from Cana to Arbel. Only its home page loaded on 13 October 2026; facts from its other pages come from the trail's own site (archived January 2026).
Official guidance and mapped-source comparison checked 13 October 2026. Map data is a route reference, not confirmation of today's path, weather or accommodation availability.
Jesus Trail (jesustrail.com)Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · Source relation
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