Proudly secular and downright sexy, Tel Aviv pulses with cutting-edge energy. The people are beautiful, the bars close at 7am, and a thick strip of Mediterranean is visible from every street corner. Exuberant youth spend their time shopping for navel rings in trendy boutiques and bronzing at the beach on Shabbat. They have forged their city into a mecca of youth culture; as college students bounce between political cafes and fusion sushi restaurants, Tel Aviv’s only underrepresented group may be adults.
Tel Aviv sprouted from Jaffa (Yafo, or “beautiful,” in Hebrew; Yafa in Arabic), its neighboring city, at the end of the 19th century, when Jewish settlers founded the first two exclusively Jewish neighborhoods in 1887 and 1891. In 1909, a new, third suburb was named Tel Aviv (Spring Hill) after the town Theodore Herzl had envisioned in his turn-of-the-century utopian novel, Altneuland (Old-New-Land). The Jewish state that Herzl portrays in his novel is a beacon of art and political liberalism. Perhaps in an echo of that ideal, Tel Aviv is now the ultimate middle-class city, and it is defined by the culture of idiosyncrasy and exploration that develops from the leisure time that the upper classes can afford. Tel Avivians scribble in notebooks, shop at art fairs, cruise through skyscraper shopping malls, and debate the state of the world in eclectic cafes. The city is a bastion of the literati, most Israeli bands rocket to stardom from local clubs, and dozens of theater groups perform everything from Broadway exports to avant-garde Israeli plays.
Far from forgotten, Jaffa is still an integral part of Tel Aviv and one of the oldest functioning harbors in the world. Though once the busiest port in the region, Jaffa has primarily harbored small fishing boats since the rise of modern shipping centers in Haifa and Ashdod. Restaurants and galleries cater mostly to tourists, but the city is still home to a vibrant group of Arab Israelis. Next to Tel Aviv’s sky-scraping hotels and glossy storefronts, the winding cobble-stone alleys and stunning sea vistas of Old Jaffa provide a breath of salty Mediterranean air.
Flights: Ben-Gurion Airport ( TLV; ☎ 03 972 3344; in English 972 3388; automated flight reconfirmation ☎ 972 2333; www.iaa.gov.il/Rashat/en-US/Airports/BenGurion), 22km southeast of Tel Aviv in Lod ...more
Located in the center of Israel’s Mediterranean coastline, Tel Aviv is 63km northwest of Jerusalem and 95km south of Haifa. The two main points of entry into Tel Aviv are Ben-Gurion Airport and the ...more
Tel Aviv is mostly manageable by foot. On a hot August afternoon, though, a NIS5.50 bus ride may seem like the deal of the century. Buses in Tel Aviv are frequent, air-conditioned, and comfortable; they ...more
Tourist Office: Tourist Information Center, 46 Herbert Samuel Promenade (☎ 03 516 6188), on the tayelet at the corner of 2 Geula St. Small but incredibly helpful. Free maps and brochures in a variety ...more
Tel Aviv does not have as many hostels as Jerusalem does, but the hostels here really have their act together. There’s a bed for every budget, and most places come with all the fixings travelers crave ...more
Come mealtime, Tel Aviv rises above and beyond the call of duty. Restaurants range from Asian fusion to French haute cuisine to hummus and pita effectively sold by the pound. Most actual restaurants here ...more
While Tel Aviv may not boast a laundry list of ancient synagogues and castles, its youthful and quintessentially cool neighborhoods supplement the short list of highlights. Neve Tzedek, just west of ...more
TBeit Ha-Tfutzot (The Diaspora Museum). This museum chronicles the history of Jewish life outside of the land Israel, from the Babylonian exile (596 BCE) to the present day. A display of synagogue ...more
If there’s one thing Israelis love more than 80s music, it’s huge shopping malls. Plan your dream wedding or the debutante ball you never had in the ritzy shops in Little Tel Aviv around Dizengoff ...more
Young Israeli rock bands have appointed Tel Aviv their headquarters and play at the clubs nightly. In addition, two amphitheaters at Hayarkon Park hold concerts. Ha-Ir (The Cirt), a weekly Hebrew magazine ...more
It’s not clear what grown ups do in Tel Aviv—based on empirical observation, there might not actually be any. At night, Tel Aviv is ruled by the young, and the city’s thriving nightlife has made ...more
Walks. Tel Aviv is easy to navigate (see Orientation), but with few prominent historical landmarks or must-see-sights to use as reference points it can be a difficult city to actually get to know ...more
Founded in 716 by the formidable Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik, Ramla is the only town in Israel established and developed by Arabs. Until the arrival of the Crusaders in the 11th century ...more
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For 52 years, we have published the world’s favorite budget travel guides, written entirely by students and updated every year. With pen and notebook in hand and a few changes of underwear stuffed in our backpacks, we spend months roaming the globe in search of travel bargains.
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