YidventureThe Jewish travel guide to the world

About the data

Yidventure is a travel guide for Jewish travelers: pick a destination and a hotel, and see how close it is to a minyan and kosher food. There are no paid listings, no made-up reviews and no star ratings here. When you want reviews, every place links straight to its Google Maps page.

Shuls, Chabad houses, kosher food and hotels

These come from OpenStreetMap, the open map that volunteers keep up to date (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). We include places mapped as Jewish places of worship, synagogue buildings, places with “Chabad” in the name, places mapped as kosher (fully kosher or with kosher options), mikvaos, and hotels. Right now there are 1,401 shuls and Chabad houses, 1,409 kosher places and 20,167 hotels.

The map is not complete. Many shuls and kosher restaurants are not mapped yet, especially outside the big Jewish neighborhoods. Pages with thin coverage say so at the top. If you know a place that is missing or wrong, the “Report a correction” link opens OpenStreetMap so it can be fixed, and fixes there flow into the next update of this site.

Walking times

Straight-line distance multiplied by 1.3 to allow for streets, at about 80 meters (260 feet) a minute. They are estimates for comparing hotels, not exact routes.

Phone numbers, emails and websites

Contact details for shuls, Chabad houses and kosher places come from OpenStreetMap where volunteers have added them. For cities where the open map is thin, we added places by hand from real sources we checked in November 2026: chabad.org and each Chabad house’s own website, kashrut agency lists and local Jewish community websites. Every hand-added place shows the page its details came from. Contact details for attractions come from Wikidata (official website, phone). If a place has no phone or website on record, we show only directions and its Google Maps page.

Driving times

Road routes without traffic, calculated with the open-source OSRM router on OpenStreetMap roads. Real driving takes longer at rush hour and when parking. Where no route could be calculated we show an approximate time marked “≈” (straight line × 1.4 at about 30 km/h). Distances are shown in kilometers and miles.

For every traveler

The Health help (hospitals with an ER, 24-hour pharmacies, urgent care and clinics), Rainy day, Kids & parks, Views & nature and Restrooms sections on each city page come from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), read on November 8, 2026. We show the nearest 8 to 15 places per section, with straight-line distance from the city center. A hospital is marked “Has an ER” only where the map says it has an emergency department; a pharmacy is listed only where the map says it is open 24/7. Hours, phone numbers and stroller notes appear only where the map has them. Each place links its OpenStreetMap entry. Call ahead: hours and services change. Tipping lines in the country box come from Wikipedia’s “List of tipping customs by country” and Wikivoyage country pages, checked November 8, 2026; a country with no source is left blank.

Phrases and translator

Cities where English is not the main language have a Phrases section: 390 phrases in 21 languages (hello, thank you, how much, where is the toilet, I only eat kosher food, the check, help and more), each with the local script and how to say it. They come from the English Wikivoyage phrasebook for each language (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on November 9, 2026, and shortened for the page; each section links the exact page version it used. A phrase the phrasebook does not have is left out. The listen button uses your phone’s own built-in voices and is hidden when the phone has no voice for that language. The translate box only opens Google Translate in a new tab with your text filled in; this site has no translation feature of its own and does not keep what you type.

Converter

Cities outside the US have a Converter in the country box. Money: the local currency against the US dollar, both ways. Rates are fetched live in your browser from the European Central Bank’s reference rates (through frankfurter.dev) or, for currencies the ECB does not publish (such as the Moroccan dirham, Dominican peso, Argentine peso, Aruban florin and UAE dirham), from open.er-api.com. The last rates are kept on your phone so the converter works offline, and the date of the rates is always shown. They are approximate. Units: km and miles, °C and °F, kg and pounds, liters and US gallons, using the exact definitions.

Save a city for offline

Each city page has a “Save this city for offline” button. It downloads that city’s page, its lists (shuls, kosher, hotels, mikvaos, health help and the other sections), its photos and its phrases onto your phone, and shows how much space it took. A saved city opens without internet; maps, live weather and new exchange rates still need a connection. Saved cities are listed on the home page and the Saved page, each with a Remove button. Nothing is sent anywhere; it is stored only in your browser.

Holy sites

The Holy Sites section (מקומות הקדושים) lists 241 kevarim of tzaddikim and holy places. Each one was checked against the sources linked on its card (420 pages in all): Wikipedia and Wikidata, OpenStreetMap, the European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF), Jewish community and ohel-committee websites. Map pins show the ohel itself where a source gives it, otherwise the cemetery, and the card says which. Yahrzeits follow the common custom; the date shown for this year is calculated on your device with the Hebrew calendar. Facilities such as a guest house or mikvah are listed only where a source mentions them.

Zmanim

Calculated in your browser with the standard NOAA solar formulas for the city center: dawn at 16.1°, sof zman Shema and tefillah by the GRA, candle lighting 18 minutes before sunset, and nightfall at 8.5°. Always follow the local shul’s calendar.

Weather

A live forecast from Open-Meteo.

Maps

Map tiles © Esri, map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Maps by Leaflet.

Photo credits

Photos of landmarks and scenery come from Wikimedia Commons, each under the license shown.