Tel Aviv after dark: rooftops, clubs and live stages

Tel Aviv calls itself the city that never sleeps, and its night has a rhythm: a drink on a roof as the sun goes into the sea, dinner after nine, then the bars and bistros of Lilienblum Street and the south, and the clubs, which open around 11pm or midnight and rarely close before three or four, says the city’s tourism office. The legal drinking age is 18.

Sunset on the roofs

Begin high. The Rooftop Bar at Elkonin, the hotel that revives the city’s first of 1913, looks over the sea and the skyline; the rooftop of Leonardo Gordon Beach, open in season, sits over the beach by the Marina. At Herods, the lobby bar’s glass front turns romantic at dusk, and NYX, in the HaRakevet district, has a roof terrace with music under the stars.

Bars and food bars

Lilienblum Street and the streets around it are a focus of late-night bars and bistros, the city’s tourism office notes. Bellboy, on Berdichevsky Street, pours cocktails nightly from 6pm; Shishko, on HaKovshim Street by the Carmel Market, is a food bar of Bulgarian-inspired small plates, with a brunch on Fridays and Saturdays.

Clubs and live stages

Kuli Alma, opened in March 2014 on Mikveh Israel Street by a collective of DJs, artists and party people, takes its name from the Aramaic for “the whole world”. Teder, a radio station on Jaffa Road, runs its own stage, Rafi, and Levontin 7, on the street of the same name, hosts album launches and live bands. Mike’s Place on the promenade has live music and open-mic nights.

Start on a roof at sunset, eat late, and leave the clubs until after midnight.

Our advice

Our advice: dress is relaxed, but carry ID, as the drinking age is 18 and some clubs set their own; book dinner for nine or later, and check each venue’s own page for the night’s line-up, as hours change with the season and with Shabbat.