Tel Aviv

The white city's blueprint

Walk through central Tel Aviv and the same kind of building keeps turning up: three or four stories, a flat roof, plaster somewhere between cream and white, balconies wrapped around rounded corners. This is the White City, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The street plan was drawn by the Scottish planner Patrick Geddes in 1925, and from the 1930s architects who'd trained in Europe and emigrated here built on top of it. They took cues from the Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and Erich Mendelsohn, but they didn't just copy Europe. Big glass surfaces shrank to small strip windows suited to the heat, and deep balconies made shade. Flat roofs became places for neighbors to gather. Rothschild Boulevard is lined on both sides with buildings from the early 1930s, which makes it a good first look at the White City.

Old Jaffa's lanes and port

At Tel Aviv's southern tip, a hill rises toward the sea: Old Jaffa. Jaffa was already a port town some 4,000 years ago, with Egyptian and Phoenician sailors coming and going. In 1909, a group of well-off merchants built a garden suburb called Ahuzat Bayit just outside Jaffa to the north, and it later took the name Tel Aviv. At Jaffa's entrance stands the Jaffa Clock Tower. It went up in 1902, under the Ottoman Empire, built to honor the accession of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Next to it, the Jaffa Flea Market is a jumble of new and second-hand goods. Some of the pubs and restaurants around it only open as the vendors pack up. Climb the stone lanes up the hill and Tel Aviv's coastline and towers open up to the north. You're standing on the hill of a port town thousands of years old, looking across at a city just over a century old.

Neve Tzedek and Carmel Market

Some neighborhoods are older than the name Tel Aviv itself. Neve Tzedek, founded in the 1880s and '90s as the first Jewish neighborhood north of Jaffa, still has two-story sandstone houses with tiled roofs on a hill sloping toward the sea. After all that white plaster, the change in wall color and rooflines tells you right away that Tel Aviv wasn't built all at once. Walk a little north and you reach Carmel Market (Shuk HaCarmel). The narrow aisles are packed with mounds of spices, barrels of pickles, seasonal fruit and flowers, fish and meat. Right next door, Kerem HaTeimanim, the old Yemenite Jewish quarter, is full of simple restaurants where you can get a meal at any time of day.

A day that starts with hummus

Here, hummus isn't a dip — it's a meal. Boiled chickpeas are ground smooth with tahini, a sesame paste, spread wide across the plate, and served with olive oil poured into the hollow in the middle. Tear off some warm pita, wipe from the edge inward, and the plate empties fast. Sabich is pita stuffed with fried eggplant, boiled egg, tahini and pickled vegetables; it's said to come from the Shabbat breakfast table of Iraqi Jewish families. Shakshuka, eggs cracked into a simmered tomato and pepper sauce and served in the pan, is said to have been brought over by immigrants from North Africa. If you want something sweet, look for malabi: a soft milk pudding set with starch, finished with rosewater syrup and chopped nuts.

A day on 14 km of coast

Tel Aviv's west side is sea from end to end. Thirteen beaches run along 14 km of coastline, and the sand never goes quiet: tock, tock, tock. That's matkot, two paddles knocking a small ball back and forth, and it's so common it's practically shorthand for Tel Aviv beach culture. The scene that stays with you is Friday afternoon. Amateur drummers have long gathered on the beach around Banana Beach and the Dolphinarium, which is why the area is also called Drummers Beach. The playing has tended to go on until sunset and the start of Shabbat. Ask at your hotel whether it's still happening before you go. The official swimming season runs from early May through October, when lifeguards are on duty most of the day at every city beach. The rest of the year, only four beaches have lifeguards, Gordon Beach among them. One of those, Nordau Beach, is a religious beach that's segregated by gender.

A 3-night, 4-day itinerary

Day 1 — Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport → check in → walk the beach promenade at dusk Day 2 — Rothschild Boulevard and the White City → Carmel Market → lunch in Kerem HaTeimanim → the lanes of Neve Tzedek Day 3 — Old Jaffa's clock tower and flea market → stone lanes up the hill → hummus for lunch → an afternoon on the beach watching matkot Day 4 — Shakshuka for breakfast → one last market run → airport If your trip includes a Friday, time Day 3's afternoon to the drums near Banana Beach (check first that they're still playing). If it includes a Saturday, do the markets before Shabbat starts (plenty of shops close on Saturdays), and book a taxi rather than the train for any airport run during Shabbat.

What to eat

• Hummus (chickpea purée with warm pita)
• Sabich (fried eggplant and boiled egg in pita)
• Shakshuka (eggs cooked in tomato sauce)
• Malabi (milk pudding with rosewater syrup)

Handy tips

• South Korea's foreign ministry lists all of Gaza and the area within 4 km of the Lebanese border at travel alert Level 4 (travel ban), and the rest of Israel, Tel Aviv included, at Level 3 (advised to leave) — checked October 2026. The airport can also be restricted without notice, so check the latest level on the ministry's travel safety site before you fly, and once you arrive, find out where your accommodation's shelter is in case the sirens sound.
• Visa-exempt visitors can stay up to 90 days, but since January 2025 you need an electronic travel authorization (ETA-IL) before you arrive. It costs 25 shekels and is valid for two years.
• Shabbat runs from Friday sunset to Saturday night, and most public transport, buses and trains included, stops. Taxis and shared sherut taxis keep running — except on Yom Kippur, when even they stop.