Sunsets and swagger on the Med
Tel Aviv holidays mix fun, food and glamour. This Mediterranean metropolis has a fine beach and an infectious swagger – you’ll go home with a renewed taste for the finer things in life. It’s got plenty of culture, too. Tel Aviv’s White City is a central district that’s full of elegantly simple Bauhaus buildings, built by artists and architects who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. East of here, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art houses a phenomenal collection of Impressionist paintings in a surreal venue that looks like a giant crumpled envelope.
Smaller galleries and music venues can be found across the city, along with countless places to eat and be merry. Food markets, kebab stalls and cutting-edge restaurants offer experiences to suit any occasion – the hummus and seafood here are superb. Beachfront and rooftop bars offer inventive drinks, from the healthy to the wild, and a wide range of clubs push on until dawn. But the definitive experiences Tel Aviv provides are often on the beach. The city’s sands stretch for 14 kilometres, offering swimming, surfing and paddle ball. Holidays to Tel Aviv reveal sunsets that bathe the Mediterranean in an other-worldly glow, offering a moment of contemplation in a city that pulses with excitement.
All resorts in Tel Aviv
Three tips for a top trip
Best attractions to see in Tel Aviv
Gordon Beach
The city’s main beach, with soft sand, sunloungers, restaurants, ice-cream sellers, volleyball courts, DJ bars and a boardwalk. The place to go to watch the locals unwind.
Carmel Market
Another great place to visit, this market is a cheerful hubbub of food vendors and other stalls. It’s a good spot to pick up a traditional snack or two.
Bauhaus architecture
Tel Aviv’s Bauhaus buildings are a Unesco World Heritage Site. Get a sense of the White City by strolling along Bialik Street, home to the old City Hall.
Your Tel Aviv questions, answered
Beach season is April to October. Outside the season, the water can still be pleasant, but fewer beaches have lifeguards and beach vendors are less common.
Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, but Tel Aviv is home to the country’s largest university and only stock exchange, and has a sizeable population of more than 450,000.
It’s warm and sunny all year round, so Tel Aviv is always a good choice weatherwise. Visitors from around the world descend in June for Gay Pride. In the spring, the valleys and hillsides surrounding Tel Aviv are carpeted in wildflowers. It’s a stunning time to visit if you’re looking to have adventures away from the city. If you’re interested in religious ceremonies, visiting during Christmas, Passover or Ramadan is extra special. With Jerusalem so close, you can easily get to the holiest sites and then dip back to Tel Aviv’s beach and sea scene.
Tel Aviv is perched beside the sea and is all about beach life, so it’s a great place for families. Some parks are perfect for family time. Meir Park has playgrounds, free ping-pong tables and shaded spots for picnics. In Park Hayarkon, there’s a petting zoo and boat rentals. And Gordon Pool is an Olympic-size swimming pool right on the boardwalk with the sea in the background. There are separate areas for children and toddlers, and huge areas of decking with sun loungers and parasols.
Excellent, with a mix of classic Middle Eastern street eats (basically, anything you can fit in a pitta) and international cuisine. Sushi and ice cream are also popular.
If you want to be by the beach, you’ll find the big hotel chains lining the strip. A kilometre inland is the White City area, famous for its Bauhaus architecture and the city’s cultural hub. It’s home to boutique, designer and ultra-luxury hotels. Thirty-minutes walk from the centre is historic Jaffa, the place to stay for quirky, one-of-a-kind hotels. Florentin is the latest trendy neighbourhood, with artists taking over and revitalising the derelict buildings. It’s known for its eccentric cocktail bars and cafes, and the most affordable accommodation in the city.
Some of the traditional foods here date back thousands of years. You can expect pitta bread, shawarmas and hummus. But, with an international community altering the food scene, you can now get anything and everything. From markets and street food to the highest quality restaurants, you’ll find it all here.
Tel Aviv itself is a relatively new city, only founded in 1909. It started as a suburb of Jaffa, one of the world’s oldest ports, and the clash of old and new makes for a wonderfully unique city. It’s as known for its Bauhaus architecture as its wild nightlife – said to be the best in Europe. There’s a huge stretch of beach flanked by a vast promenade, and the city is dotted with parks and open spaces. Come here for great food, wild nights, and days as idle or action-packed as you like.
Yes, and it’s thought to be the best in Europe. The touristy boardwalk gets busy in the evenings with people crowding on the rooftop bars to watch the sunset. But the real party only gets going after midnight when the locals head out. There are clubs throughout the city with every kind of music scene. Many of the bars in Jaffa’s Old Town are known for putting on free concerts. While the party grows even wilder in the summer, don’t expect it to calm down much in the winter months.