My wife and I stayed here for a few days for our nephew's Bar Mitzvah which was held in the hotel. The first thing you need to know is that this is a kibbutz hotel, not a resort.

The view from the hotel is amazing but the hotel itself is a little of the beaten path. Its up in the hills of Abu Gosh outside of Jerusalem. This is not a hotel for people who do not rent cars.

The room was comfortable enough and was simply a basic hotel room. The room was clean and we had all we needed but our needs are not that much. A hotel room for us is a base of operations.

The food was very good and always buffet style. Most of the staff spoke English well enough and were courteous if not overly friendly. All of the people who work in the hotel, live and work on the Kibbutz. Ma'ale Hachamisha is still a working Kibbutz after all.

Lastly, there is a nice pool and health club in the basement for people who want to work up a sweat though the ice cream for sale at the front desk is very tempting.

I would say that if you are looking for a nice, comfortable hotel, out of the way, this is you place. If you're looking for the lap of luxury, this aint it.

This is a beautiful locale, although the hotel itself is basic. It has more of a feel of religious retreat type place, as its way up in the hills. I agree with the other reviewer- the hotel staff were ok except in the canteen- its not a restaurant- where I could never get their attention. At least once I ate at a dirty table with other peoples stuff still on it because the staff were absent.

Saying that, the place is what it is- part of one of the original Kibbutzes from 1923. There was quite a lot of historical info around the place about the famous five settlers who were murdered- but everythings in Hebrew and no English translations. Thats crazy because I bet 90% of the people who stay there are Americans or British. Oh well.

My biggest problem was its more than 30 mins by taxi to Jerusalem- way to far out if you are mainly going to be doing stuff in Jerusalem.

An OK hotel to stay at if you run out of options! The hotel staff was nice, for the most part, though the food staff seemed like they wanted to be anywhere BUT there. And they had wonderful amenities like an indoor pool and a beautiful outdoor pool area.

Certain things, however never felt clean. Fresh towels would have gunk on them, dishes in the restaurant would have gunk on them. I'm not a neat freak at all, but I want to feel like the shower I'm stepping into hasnt been shared with 300 people.

I wont stay there again if I have the choice.