Luke says that Jesus leads the disciples out toward Bethany before blessing them and departing. Bethany was already familiar within the final Jerusalem narratives.
Its location on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives places the scene just outside the city while keeping Jerusalem immediately central to what follows.
Bethany lay east of Jerusalem on or beyond the Mount of Olives ridge. The area was close enough to Jerusalem for movement between village and city, yet outside the dense urban center. Luke's second volume, Acts, describes the ascension setting in relation to the Mount called Olivet.
The Gospel itself does not require an exact modern spot to be identified from the phrase 'as far as to Bethany.'
The geography joins departure and mission. Jesus leads the disciples away from Jerusalem for the blessing, but they immediately return to Jerusalem because that is where they have been told to wait.
The landscape that witnessed Jesus' approach to the city now frames his departure and the disciples' transition toward the mission narrated in Acts.