City Layout

Tel Aviv and Jaffa (Yafo in Hebrew) together form a large urban area. But the Tel Aviv-Jaffa you'll get to know is actually the downtown seafront section, extending east only to the thoroughfare of Ibn Givirol Street. This is a 6km (4-mile) strip at least 1km (1/2 mile) wide, but only certain sections are of interest to visitors -- the rest of the turf is residential or industrial.

Main Arteries & Streets -- Moghrabi Square is where Allenby Street, a major shopping artery (named after the British general who took Palestine from the Turks in 1917) meets Ben-Yehuda Street, which becomes Allenby's northern continuation. Between Moghrabi Square and the waterfront is a short section of Allenby Street, which ends in Allenby Square at the water's edge. Here Tel Aviv's original opera house once stood (in which the very first Knesset sessions were held in 1948). It's symptomatic of Tel Aviv's short, intense existence that 6 decades provided ample time for the beachside Opera House to be built, to thrive, to decline into decrepitude, to be pulled down, to be long forgotten, and then commemorated by a luxury skyscraper and shopping mall: the Opera Tower. At the side of Allenby Square, facing the sea, is the Hotel Metropole (1920s-30s) with its Art Deco ground-floor arcades that hint at the waterfront Doge's Palace and Piazza San Marco in Venice. More like Venice, California, it became the crux of Tel Aviv's red-light district as the neighborhood declined over the decades. Recently, it was saved from demolition and renovated.

Running north from Allenby Square along the seafront is the Herbert Samuel Esplanade, and half a block inland, parallel to the Mediterranean, is Ha-Yarkon Street, where most of the better and middle range hotels are located. On Ha-Yarkon, overlooking the beach, you'll also spot the big U.S. Embassy building (the United States and most other countries have not recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and maintain their embassies here in Tel Aviv). The Ha-Yarkon-Ben Yehuda is filled with restaurants that cater to tourists to tired to get over to Tel Aviv's really wonderful dining districts; only a few places in this area are really worthwhile

North of the Dan Hotel, the huge hotels march along the beach: the Sheraton, the Renaissance, the Holiday Inn, the Sheraton Moriah Plaza, and the Hilton. Right next to the Sheraton Moriah Plaza Hotel, where Ben-Gurion Boulevard joins Ha-Yarkon Street, is Namir, or Atarim, Square (Kikar Namir), a modern multilevel, sometimes scuzzy plaza with inexpensive restaurants, mini-carnival rides for kids at times in summer, and views of the sea. In the distance, the massive Hilton Hotel is the northernmost of the towers, and in front of the Hilton is Independence Park, a meeting place and pickup point for the city's gay community.

South of Moghrabi Square, off Allenby Street, you'll find a number of interesting enclaves. At the intersection of Allenby and King George streets, the vast, outdoor Carmel Market is filled with stalls selling vegetables, fruits, and meat, interspersed with bargain clothing, pastries, and all kinds of oddities. Colorful and full of life, it's an interesting place to observe Tel Avivans on the hunt for their daily bread. Just south of the Allenby-King George Street entrance to the Carmel Market, you'll find the Nahlat Binyamin Pedestrian Mall, which hosts a wonderful outdoor crafts market on Tuesdays and Fridays. This neighborhood has many architecturally interesting buildings from the 1920s and '30s. Still farther south is the Neve Tzedek area, Tel Aviv's oldest neighborhood, with the new Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and the Performing Arts at its heart. This was a dilapidated, partly demolished region of cottages and workshops from Tel Aviv's first decade of existence; it is now beginning to fill up with interesting boutiques, cafes, and shops for designer furnishings and accessories. Nearby, the shaded, elegant Rothschild Boulevard and the adjacent Ahad Ha'Am and Montifiore streets are the center of the city's most prestigious dining and barhopping area, and also the center of Tel Aviv's financial district.

At the inland side of the intersection of Allenby and King George streets, opposite the entrance to the Carmel Market, bear to the right for Tel Aviv's archetypal Sheinkin Street: Tel Avivans love its cafes and general ambience; visitors either adore its authenticity or find it too typical to be of much interest. Bear to the left at this intersection, and follow bustling King George Street, with its many bakeries, nut stands, and local fast food joints, to the Dizengoff Tower Shopping Mall, at the start of Dizengoff Boulevard. The stretch of Dizengoff northward to Dizengoff Square was once filled with elegant cafes; now its mostly tacky and home to international chains such as McDonald's. North of the Square, Dizengoff begins to fill up with more interesting shops.

Dizengoff Square (actually a circle) is the very heart of Tel Aviv. Its 1930s design -- "the Etoile of Tel Aviv" -- was altered in the 1970s when it was covered with an elevated pedestrian plaza perched above busy Dizengoff Street near the intersection of Pinsker and Zamenhoff streets. There are proposals to return Dizengoff Square to its original state.

All the way at the northern end of Tel Aviv, just south of the Yarkon River, is a section of small streets filled with restaurants and clubs, popular with a youngish tourist crowd as well as Tel Aviv's yuppies. The crossroads for this area is the intersection of Dizengoff and Yirmiyahu streets. The northern stretch of Dizengoff (and to some extent, Ben-Yehuda) Street is increasingly filled with top-of-the line and designer clothing shops, and stores devoted to interior design, a concept unknown in Israel until a few years ago. Up here, along the seafront, you'll find The Old Tel Aviv Port, now packed with restaurants, cafes, pubs and shops, many with sea views.

Just north of the Yarkon River, you'll find Ha-Yarkon Park, the city's major park, with botanical gardens, artificial lakes and boat rental facilities, an outdoor amphitheater, and an ecology center and museum. Further north, in the suburb of Ramat Aviv, is Tel Aviv University, with the famous Diaspora Museum (Beit Hatfutsot) on its campus.

Inland, at the center of town, is Malchei Israel Square, recently renamed Itzhak Rabin Square, where Ibn Givrol Street, Ben-Gurion Boulevard, and Frishman Street meet. It is dominated by Tel Aviv's city hall and a great plaza. Although this is merely the Tel Aviv Municipal Government complex rather than a national center, the plaza competes with sites in Jerusalem as the focus of many national political demonstrations and marches. It was here that Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated in 1995 after addressing a peace rally. Another important inland location is Tzimoret Square, with the Ha-Bimah National Theater and Mann Auditorium (home of the Israel Philharmonic). Tzimoret Square is bounded by Dizengoff, Tarsat, Ahad Ha-Am, Rothschild, and Marmorek streets. A few blocks to the south, down Carlebach Street, is the Tel Aviv Cinémathèque. Ha'Arba'a Street, next to the Cinémathèque, is lined with sophisticated restaurants and bars. To the north, on Shaul Ha Melech Boulevard, is the Tel Aviv Art Museum complex and the Golda Meir Center for the Performing Arts.

Finally, there's Jaffa (Yafo), a large working-class community. Visitors come mostly to enjoy the picturesque hilltop section overlooking the sea known as Old Jaffa and the nearby, Fellini-esque flea market district on the inland side of Yefet Street near the Clock Tower. Old Jaffa is a wonderful place for a romantic evening stroll, and offers some of the best, and most unusual restaurants in the area. Further south, in a residential area overlooking Jabalya (Givat Aliyah) beach, are some excellent Arabic style seafood restaurants, including some friendly, inexpensive places with gardens.

Getting Connected in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is one of the most Web-connected places on earth. You will never want for places to get online. Convenient to the hotel district, Web Stop Internet Lounge, 28 Bogroshov St. (tel. 03/620-2682; www.webstop.co.il), is a home away from home for anyone who needs to feel connected. There's a coffee bar and a real bar (though limited) on the premises, as well as classy computer desks that seat two, log-on sites for laptop users, red velvet sofas, a computer with a minicam, and snacks that don't exactly say "tech-head" (such as sun-dried tomato and brie sandwiches). It's the kind of place with lots of regulars, where everybody knows your name. Private Link, 78 Ben-Yehuda St. (tel. 03/529-9889), is convenient to the Hotel district.