Tel Aviv: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Jaffa is one of the oldest working harbours on earth and it is mentioned in Egyptian letters of the fifteenth century BC. Tel Aviv is a hundred and sixteen years old: in 1909 sixty-six families stood on the dunes north of Jaffa and drew building plots by lottery, using seashells with names written on them, and the photograph of that morning is the city’s founding image. This walk goes from the old port up through the first neighbourhood to the dune. Two and a half hours, flat except for the hill in Jaffa, and the flea market is closed on Saturday.
A short history of Tel Aviv
On 11 April 1909, 66 families gathered on the sand dunes north of Jaffa and divided plots among themselves in a lottery using seashells. The neighbourhood was called Ahuzat Bayit, and in 1910 it was given the name Tel Aviv, after Nahum Sokolow's translation of Herzl's book Altneuland. In the 1930s, with the arrival of immigrants from Germany, thousands of buildings in the International Style were built here. On 14 May 1948 the State of Israel was proclaimed in Dizengoff House on Rothschild Boulevard. In 1950 the city was merged with Jaffa, whose history can be traced back almost four thousand years. In 2003 the 'White City', about 4,000 buildings, was declared a World Heritage Site.
The ten best sights in Tel Aviv
1Independence Hall30 shekels, the room where the state was declared in 1948, and closed Saturday
2Tel Aviv Museum of Art50 shekels, closed Sunday, and the new wing is worth the visit on its own
3ANU — Museum of the Jewish People52 shekels, on the university campus, and allow three hours
4Eretz Israel Museum52 shekels, eleven pavilions around a real excavation, and a planetarium
5Bauhaus CenterA shop and a small exhibition, and the walking tour leaves Friday at ten
6Rubin Museum20 shekels, the painter’s own house on Bialik, and closed Saturday
7Ilana Goor Museum45 shekels, an 18th-century pilgrims’ inn, and the roof looks over the sea
8St Peter’s ChurchFree, Franciscan, and it is shut between noon and three
9Hassan Bek MosqueFrom the street only, 1916, and it stands alone between the beach and the road
10Habima TheatreThe national theatre, founded in Moscow in 1917, and the square is its roof
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Tel Aviv →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Tel Aviv:
Free walking tours in Tel Aviv
Four thousand years, then 1909
Jaffa is one of the oldest working harbours on earth and it is mentioned in Egyptian letters of the fifteenth century BC. Tel Aviv is a hundred and sixteen years old: in 1909 sixty-six families stood on the dunes north of Jaffa and drew building plots by lottery, using seashells with names written on them, and the photograph of that morning is the city’s founding image. This walk goes from the old port up through the first neighbourhood to the dune. Two and a half hours, flat except for the hill in Jaffa, and the flea market is closed on Saturday.
- Jaffa Clock Tower · Built in 1903 to mark twenty-five years of Sultan Abdul Hamid the Second, and it was one of about a hundred such towers put up across the Ottoman empire in the same campaign — the point was to introduce public clock time to towns that had kept time by prayer. The money was raised from Jaffa merchants, and the two stained-glass windows were added much later.
- Kikar Kedumim · Under this square is an excavation you can look down into, and the layers in it run from the Bronze Age through Egyptian, Philistine, Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Jaffa. The reason the hill is a hill at all is those layers: four thousand years of mud brick built on top of the rubble of the previous town, which is how a tell forms.
- Gan HaPisga · The top of the hill, and from here the whole arc of the city is in one frame — which is exactly what nobody saw in 1909, because everything between here and the Yarkon was sand. The white stone arch in the park is a modern sculpture of three biblical scenes, and the strange detail is that the hill itself is partly rubble: the British demolished a swathe of the old town in 1936 and bulldozed two straight roads through it.
- Jaffa Flea Market · A real second-hand market since Ottoman times, and still partly that: furniture restorers, Persian carpets, and two shops that sell nothing but doorknobs. Since about 2010 the bars have taken the lanes in the evening, and the rents have roughly tripled, which is a live argument in Jaffa about who the renewal is for. Closed Saturday; Friday afternoon it is both market and bar at once.
- Neve Tzedek · Built in 1887 by families who left crowded Jaffa, and it is therefore twenty-two years older than Tel Aviv itself — the city grew north and swallowed it. Agnon, who later won the Nobel Prize, lived here, and so did the painter Nahum Gutman. It was a slum scheduled for demolition in the 1960s and was saved by a residents’ campaign; now it is the most expensive square metre in the city.
- HaTachana · This was the Jaffa terminus of the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway, which opened in 1892 and was the first railway line anywhere in the Middle East. The journey to Jerusalem took three and a half hours and replaced a twelve-hour cart ride. The line closed to passengers in 1948 because the route crossed the new border, and the sheds stood empty until 2010.
The White City
Tel Aviv has about four thousand buildings in the International Style, the largest concentration anywhere, and Unesco listed the centre in 2003. They are here because of a precise sequence: the Bauhaus school was closed by the Nazis in 1933, its architects scattered, and several dozen of them arrived in a town that was building itself from nothing at exactly that moment. What they built is not Bauhaus transplanted — the windows got smaller, the balconies deeper and the roofs flat and usable, because the sun here is not Dessau’s. Two and a half hours, all flat, and the detail is above the ground floor.
- Independence Hall · This was Meir Dizengoff’s own house, then the art museum, and on the fourteenth of May 1948 the declaration of independence was read in the main hall. The ceremony took thirty-two minutes and was deliberately timed to end before Shabbat came in. The hall is kept as it was that afternoon, and the recording played to you is the original broadcast.
- Rothschild Boulevard · The boulevard follows the line of a seasonal stream bed, which is why it curves — the original plan put a wide planted strip where nothing could be built anyway. Patrick Geddes, the Scottish planner who drew the city’s 1925 plan, designed it as part of a network of green lanes feeding the sea breeze inland between residential blocks, and that is still how the wind moves here on a summer evening.
- Bialik Street · The shortest street in the city with the most restored buildings on it, and the house at number twenty-two is the one the national poet built for himself in 1925 — in an eclectic style with Islamic arches and a tiled dome, because the International Style had not arrived yet. He lived in it for only nine years before he died. Four doors up, the city’s first town hall is on the same street.
- Dizengoff Square · Genia Averbuch won the 1934 competition for it at twenty-five, with a design of curved white balconied façades around a circle. In 1978 the whole square was raised onto a concrete deck so cars could pass underneath, which killed it; in 2018 the deck was demolished and the square put back at street level. The kinetic fountain in the middle is by Yaacov Agam and it turns, plays music and burns gas.
- Habima Square · Habima was founded in Moscow in 1917 as a Hebrew-language theatre, toured Europe and America, and moved here in 1931 — it is the national theatre and it is older than the state by thirty-one years. The square in front was redesigned by Dani Karavan as a sunken garden, and the odd thing about it is that almost nothing grows at eye level, so you see the buildings and not the planting.
- Rabin Square · The city’s main public square, and the place where Yitzhak Rabin was shot on the fourth of November 1995 as he came down the steps from the city hall after a rally. The memorial is at the exact spot, on the north side, deliberately below street level and unmarked by any statue. The square is otherwise where every demonstration in the country ends up.
Markets, and what people actually eat
Israeli street food is an import list: hummus and falafel from the Levant, sabich from Iraq, shakshuka from Tunisia and Libya, burekas from Salonica, schnitzel from central Europe. Each of these arrived with a specific wave of people in a specific decade, and you can still eat the geography. This route is three markets and the quarters around them. Two and a half hours, and the whole thing only works Sunday to Friday — everything shuts for Shabbat from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening.
- Carmel Market · The market grew in the 1920s on the edge of Kerem HaTeimanim and it is still the city’s main fresh market, though the top third by the entrance has turned into juice and souvenirs. The rule for buying is simple: the further in you walk the lower the price, and the stalls at the far end are where restaurant cooks buy. Friday between ten and two is the busiest two hours of the week in the whole city.
- Kerem HaTeimanim · Built in 1904 by Yemenite Jewish immigrants — five years before Tel Aviv was founded, which makes it older than the city that surrounds it. The lanes were laid out without a plan and they are still too narrow for cars, which is why the quarter survived intact while everything around it was rebuilt. This is where the city’s hummus places are, and most of them close by three.
- Nahalat Binyamin · The craft fair here runs on Tuesday and Friday only, and it has one rule that makes it unusual: the person selling must be the person who made the object, and a committee checks. It has worked that way since 1986. On the days it is not on, the street is the city’s fabric and haberdashery trade, which is what it has been since the 1920s.
- Levinsky Market · This was the market of the Salonica Jews who came in the 1930s, and the shops that are left still sell what they sold: dried fruit, nuts, spices by weight, bourekas, and Balkan pickles. The spice shops here will mix a blend in front of you. The street has been half-gentrified, and the cafés that moved in sit next to delicatessens that have not changed hands in sixty years.
- Florentin · Named after the man who developed it in 1927 for the same Salonica arrivals, and it was a workshop quarter: carpenters, upholsterers, metal shops on the ground floor and families above. Many of those workshops are still there behind roller shutters, which is why the streets are dead at nine in the morning and full at nine at night. It is the cheapest rent left in central Tel Aviv, and that is why the bars are here.
- Jaffa Port · The harbour is still a working fishing port with a co-operative that sells the morning catch, and it is the oldest part of the whole conurbation that is still doing the job it was built for. Until the 1930s everything that entered the country came through here — passengers were rowed out to ships because the rock shelf stopped boats from docking, and there is a line of rocks offshore that wrecked ships for centuries.
Getting to Tel Aviv and getting around
- Ben Gurion Airport · The train to the centre is 20 minutes and does not run on Shabbat
- Savidor Central station · Trains north and south, and everything stops from Friday afternoon
- HaShalom station · Under Azrieli, and the closest station to the museum quarter
- Central Bus Station · Seven floors, half of them empty, and buses to everywhere in the country
Cheap eats in Tel Aviv
Almost nothing eaten standing up in this city was invented here. Hummus and falafel came from the surrounding Levant, sabich from Iraqi Jews in the 1950s, shakshuka from Tunisia and Libya, bourekas from Salonica, schnitzel from central Europe, and the half-pita everything is served in is the local compromise. A full plate is between twenty-five and forty-five shekels. The hard rule: hummus places open at eight and shut when the pot is empty, usually by two, and nothing anywhere opens on Shabbat from Friday afternoon.
- Abu Hassan · About 30 shekels, cash, and go before noon
- Abulafia · About 12 shekels, open very late, and cash is easier
- HaKosem · About 35 shekels, falafel and shawarma, and they hand you one free
- Miznon · About 40 shekels, no booking, and it is loud on purpose
- Hummus HaCarmel · About 28 shekels, inside the market, and finished by two
- Shlomo and Doron · About 30 shekels, in Kerem HaTeimanim since 1937, and cash only
- Café Levinsky 41 · About 20 shekels, standing, and closed Saturday
- Penso · About 10 shekels a bourekas, Salonica recipe, and from seven in the morning
Museums in Tel Aviv
A city a hundred and sixteen years old has a particular museum problem: there is not much old to show. What it has instead is modern art, a great deal of it bought early and cheaply, and museums about ideas and people rather than objects. Note the opening days — some close on Sunday, some on Saturday, and almost everything shuts early on Friday.
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art · 50 shekels, closed Sunday, and open till nine on Tuesday
- ANU — Museum of the Jewish People · 52 shekels, on the university campus, and three hours
- Independence Hall · 30 shekels, the original broadcast is played in the room, and closed Saturday
- Eretz Israel Museum · 52 shekels, closed Friday afternoon, and half a day
- Ilana Goor Museum · 45 shekels, open daily, and the roof is the best part
- Bialik House · 20 shekels, the poet built it in 1925 and died nine years later
- Rubin Museum · 20 shekels, the painter’s house and studio on Bialik, and small
- Bauhaus Center · Free to enter, and the Friday walking tour leaves at ten
Nature and day trips near Tel Aviv
The city is built on three sandstone ridges running parallel to the coast, which is why the streets perpendicular to the sea climb and the ones along it do not. Fourteen kilometres of continuous beach, a river park bigger than most European city parks, and a Crusader fort on a cliff twenty minutes north. From June to September the sun is unusable between eleven and four.
- Yarkon Park · Free, and the pedal boats are about 60 shekels an hour
- Tayelet promenade · Free, 14 kilometres unbroken from the port to Jaffa, and cyclists have their own lane
- Hilton Beach · Free, lifeguards till seven in summer, and the flags matter
- Gordon Pool · 70 shekels, open all year, and from six in the morning
- Jaffa Slope Park · Free, built on top of a closed landfill, and the cycle path runs its length
- Charles Clore Park · Free, lawn on the sea between the city and Jaffa, and the sunset is straight ahead
- Apollonia · 22 shekels, closed Saturday afternoon, and no shade
- Caesarea · 43 shekels, 45 minutes north, a Roman harbour and a theatre still in use
Things to do in Tel Aviv with kids
- Safari Ramat Gan · 79 shekels, the largest animal collection in the Middle East, and you drive through
- Yarkon Park · Free, pedal boats, a rock garden and a bird park, and shade along the water
- Eretz Israel Museum · 52 shekels, a planetarium and a real dig, and best for ages seven and up
- Frishman Beach · Free, lifeguards, shallow, and showers at the top of the ramp
- Tel Aviv Port · Free, a wooden deck that rolls like a wave, and open on Shabbat
- Azrieli observatory · 24 shekels, the 49th floor, and the whole coast is visible on a clear day
- Gan Meir · Free, a playground under big trees in the middle of town, and a dog run
- Jaffa Port · Free, fishing boats to watch and the hangar market behind
Live music in Tel Aviv
For a city of under half a million the live music count is disproportionate, and the reason is simple: it is the only place in the country where the audience for everything is concentrated in one square kilometre. Most venues run Sunday to Thursday and Saturday night; Friday night is for dinner, not shows.
- Barby · From 90 shekels, standing only, and the Israeli rock canon played it here
- Zappa · From 150 shekels, seated at tables, and quiet is actually enforced
- Teder · Usually free, open-air, and over by one
- Kuli Alma · Usually free before midnight, a gallery and two dance floors, and underground
- Israeli Opera · From 180 shekels, October to July, and the plaza outside shows it free in summer
- Cinematheque · 45 shekels, four screens, and the only place showing the archive prints
- Suzanne Dellal · From 120 shekels, and the courtyard is free
- Beit Kandinof · A gallery, a bar and a kitchen in one Jaffa house, and free to walk in
Nightlife in Tel Aviv
The night here starts late and the week is upside down: Thursday is the big night, Friday is early and ends early because the next day is the day off, and Saturday night restarts everything. Nothing fills before eleven. Alcohol is sold everywhere and a beer is twenty-eight to thirty-eight shekels; on Shabbat the buses stop but the bars do not, and a taxi or a scooter is the way home.
- Florentin · The cheapest bars in the centre, and the streets are the venue
- Port Said · A beer is about 30 shekels, no booking, and arrive before nine
- Jaffa Flea Market · The lanes turn into bars after eight, and closed on Friday night
- Rothschild kiosks · Open till two, you sit on the boulevard itself, and it is the cheapest drink out
- Allenby · The late strip, clubs till five, and it is loud and unglamorous
- Dizengoff Square · Open all night, the fountain runs on the hour, and people sit on the steps
- Tel Aviv Port · Bars on the deck till late, and it is the one area that works on Shabbat
- Hilton Beach · The beach bars stay open till midnight in summer, and the sand is the seating
Frequently asked questions about Tel Aviv
What is there to see in Tel Aviv?
The top sights in Tel Aviv are Independence Hall, Tel Aviv Museum of Art and ANU — Museum of the Jewish People. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Tel Aviv?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Tel Aviv without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Tel Aviv?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Tel Aviv, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Four thousand years, then 1909.
How do you get to Tel Aviv and get around?
The main ways are Ben Gurion Airport, Savidor Central station and HaShalom station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Tel Aviv, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Tel Aviv that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Tel Aviv for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.