In short
Tel Aviv is a little over a century old — founded in 1909 on dunes — and its youth shows: it is a seaside city, horizontal, turned towards the beach and the nightlife, very different from Jerusalem an hour away.
The White City holds the largest ensemble of Bauhaus buildings in the world, World Heritage listed: some four thousand buildings put up in the 1930s by architects trained in Germany.
Neve Tzedek is the oldest quarter, Florentin the alternative one, Rothschild the central avenue, and Jaffa, to the south, a port city thousands of years old absorbed by the metropolis.
Arriving and getting around
Security and entry conditions in the region can change rapidly. Consult your own foreign ministry's travel advice before booking anything, and check it again before departure: this page establishes no state of the situation at any given date.
Ben Gurion airport is some twenty kilometres out, linked by train.
The city is flat and rides well; cycle paths and share bicycles cover the centre.
Shabbat changes the logistics: from late Friday afternoon to Saturday evening, public transport stops and part of the trade closes. Taxis and some private services continue, and Tel Aviv is more open than the rest of the country, but the effect is real.
What it really costs
Tel Aviv is regularly ranked among the most expensive cities in the world, housing and eating out included. It is the dominant parameter of a stay.
The markets — Carmel, Levinsky — remain the affordable option.
When to come
April–June and September–November. Summer is hot and very humid; winter is mild and wet.
What nobody tells you
The beaches are municipal, free and patrolled in season, with sections put to distinct uses — including a beach with separate hours for religious bathers.
Jaffa is far older than Tel Aviv: its port is mentioned in ancient texts, and its flea market is today a quarter of restaurants and antique dealers.
Tel Aviv's Bauhaus was adapted to the climate: deep balconies, narrow windows, buildings raised on pillars to let air through. The Bauhaus Center runs visits of this heritage.
The city has a recognised food scene, largely built on the cuisines of the diasporas that arrived during the twentieth century.