There’s nowhere else in Israel—or in the entire Middle East—quite like Tel Aviv, said Adam LeBor in Condé Nast Traveler. Founded on the sands by Zionist pioneers in 1909, Tel Aviv is “more than a city—it’s an idea made manifest in bricks and concrete.” Stretching along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, Tel Aviv has “grown from nothing to a sophisticated metropolis” of about 390,000 people. Today, the second largest city in Israel “crackles with energy 24 hours a day” and has world-class restaurants, a pulsing arts and media scene, an internationally respected university, and an electric nightlife that lasts until dawn.
Not only is Tel Aviv Israel’s cultural capital, it has also become known as its “most easygoing” city. Tel Aviv stands as the “world’s first Hebrew city since the Jews’ Roman exile” and remains the center of modern Israeli culture, yet it is “extremely internationally minded.” You won’t find another city in Israel with a more “tolerant mentality” or a more “hedonistic lifestyle.” On the Tayelet—the waterfront promenade built atop an ancient port—“the cool sea breeze carries conversations in Hebrew and Russian, Amharic and English.” Most of the city’s residents see their home as a melting pot, “a place where cultures meet and evolve.”
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