Tel Aviv-Yafo, the port and the white city

By the ULTIMATE Tel Aviv Editorial Team

The old port on the hill

Jaffa’s stone lanes climb from the fishing harbour to St Peter’s Church and a view north along the whole shore. Around the Clock Tower, old buildings have become The Setai and The Jaffa, the flea market fills the streets below, and the Noga quarter hides OCD’s counter.

Jaffa →

A Bauhaus city by the sea

Tel Aviv, founded in 1909 on the dunes north of Jaffa, became from the early 1930s the White City: white walls, long balconies and ribbon windows built by architects trained in Europe, on Patrick Geddes’s plan, and inscribed by UNESCO in 2003. Walk Rothschild Boulevard and Bialik Street, and look up.

The White City →

A promenade the length of the city

The promenade runs from Jaffa’s harbour to the old port in the north, past the beaches, the hotels of HaYarkon Street, Gordon Pool and the Marina. At sunset the whole city seems to come down to the water.

The promenade and the port →

From the market to the chef’s counter

The Carmel and Levinsky markets feed the city’s kitchens, from Ouzeria’s small plates to Eyal Shani’s HaSalon and North Abraxas, Popina in Neve Tzedek and OCD in Jaffa. Breakfast is long, lunch is hummus, and dinner starts late.

Where to eat in Tel Aviv →

A day away

Jerusalem is a day trip by train or road; Caesarea’s Roman port lies up the coast, Haifa’s Bahá’í Gardens further north, and Masada and the Dead Sea a long day to the south-east.

Jerusalem →   Masada and the Dead Sea →   ULTIMATE Cairo →

Questions and answers