Israel’s public telephones are almost all operated by the national phone company, Bezek. They take prepaid phonecards, which are sold at post offices, shops and lottery kiosks. They are available in denominations of 20 units (13 NIS), 50 units (29 NIS) or 120 units (60 NIS). Calls made from 10pm to 1am and all day Saturday and Sunday are 25 per cent cheaper than the standard rate. Calls made between 1am and 8am are 50 per cent cheaper. To dial abroad using Bezek, the international access code is 014.

Bezek competes for custom with other telephone companies, including Golden Lines (012 to dial abroad) and Barak (013 to dial abroad). These rival services are often cheaper than Bezek, although it does depend on the country you are calling. You can also make discounted calls from Solan Telecom, whose offices are found throughout Israel. Visitors can rent mobile phones on arrival at Ben Gurion Airport. Rental rates start at about US$1 per day. Israel’s mobile network does not have reciprocal roaming arrangements with many countries. Anyone who plans to take their mobile with them should check with their home service whether it can be used in Israel.

In the west bank and Gaza Strip, the Palestinians have their own telephone network with their own phonecards. These Palestinian phonecards can be purchased in Arab post offices and some shops. They cannot, at present, be used in Israeli phones.

Jordan’s telephone network is creaky, but it is in the process of being upgraded. International calls can be made from public cardphones, for which the cards are purchased from nearby shops. However, phonecards for international calls only come in the denomination of JD 15. A better option is to use one of the many unofficial telephone bureaus, where you write the number you want on a piece of paper and the desk clerk makes the call. These calls are charged by the minute and, with a great many offices competing for custom, rates are reasonable.

The Egyptian telephone network in Sinai also uses phonecards. These come in denominations of LE 15, 20 or 30 and they can be bought at post offices.

Using Israeli post offices is a very straightforward procedure. The exception is if you are sending parcels or bulky items; this entails a series of security inspections. When it comes to posting letters, the yellow post boxes are for local correspondence and the red are for the rest of country and abroad. Post offices are open in the mornings and evenings, and are shut in the middle of the day, the afternoons and Tuesday. Postal rates vary according to the type of post and its weight, but a standard airmail letter to Europe or the US costs the equivalent of half a US dollar.

The Palestinian Authority also has its own postal service, and issues its own stamps, but it is not as efficient as the Israeli service.

A letter posted in Jordan can take anything up to two weeks to reach Europe and a month to the US. It can help to speed things up if you post your letters at a five-star hotel or a main post office, rather than a post box on the street. Post offices are closed Friday.

English-language readers are well catered for in Israel. The leading English-language publication is the daily Jerusalem Post  (no Saturday edition). This is worth picking up on Fridays for its extensive cultural supplements and entertainment listings. The weekly Jerusalem Times  is a Palestinian publication, which is usually available only in East Jerusalem and Arab areas of the Old City. In Jordan, look out for the Jordan Times , published daily except for Fridays. Foreign newpapers and magazines, such as The Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek , are widely available, and are usually just one or two days old.

Israeli TV has two state channels, both of which show a large number of subtitled English-language programmes. Most hotels also offer satellite channels such as BBC, Sky News and CNN. In Jordan, Channel 2 devotes a lot of screen time to US programmes, and has English-language news nightly at 10pm. Most hotels have satellite TV.

Israel Radio broadcasts news in English each weekday evening at 6:16pm.

Despite being an extremely computer literate society, there are few internet cafés in Israel. This is possibly because most Israeli families have internet access of their own at home. There are only a few internet cafés in Jerusalem, and a handful dotted around the country. Jordan has an excellent internet venue, books@cafe , located in central Amman. There are further internet cafés in Jordan at Wadi Musa (Petra), Madaba and Aqaba. In Sinai the internet is available at many hotels and there is an internet cafe near the Fayrouz Hilton in Sharm el-Sheikh. Internet services are also offered at various shops in Dahab. Online time is usually charged by the half hour.