[refurb]

Just random observation - when I visited Israel I was astounded how nearly complete the sabbath shutdown is. In the US, the only day that comes close is Christmas Day and it’s still not even close. My wife and I struggled to find dinner and drove around for an hour or so until we found an Arab place that was open. Pretty much the only place in town that was open.

Then sunset comes and everyone comes out. If you travel to Israel, plan for it!

[bszupnick]

I live in Israel and always felt terrible for tourists who accidentally got stuck! Depending where you are you can end up with no public transportation, no grocery stores, restaurants, shops, museums, anything!

[Auracle]

My wife and I arrived in France the same day as a holiday. All the grocery stores and restaurants were closed and we had absolutely no food - we spent an hour driving/walking from place to place. Defeated and on our way back to our car to go to our rental, our savior appeared.

A pizza truck.

[apexalpha]

Do all shops and restaurants stay open on holidays in the US?

[refurb]

It’s not too hard to find open shops and restaurants in the US during holidays.

The only day I’d say things really shutdown is Christmas Day, but even then many grocery stores have limited hours (open from 9am to 2pm).

[ludamad]

Is there a party scene at all on the Sabbath?

[ponsin]

sure, in cities with a large non-religious population like Tel Aviv or a large Arab population like Haifa

[snovv_crash]

Come to Switzerland, it's like that on Sundays. Only kiosks at train stations and a small fraction of restaurants are open.

[refurb]

It used to be like that in Canada when I was growing up. Stores were fined for opening on Sundays. That went away in the 1990's.

But Israel truly stops. No buses, no trains, no stores, no restaurants. In the town of 50,000 we were in, we found 1 single fast food place.

[saargrin]

its all fun and games until you live here and you dont have a car