Tel Aviv is a great place for a family-friendly vacation. The combination of beach holiday and city break is a winner with kids and grown-ups and means whatever the weather, you can find something to do.
Here are our top tips for a summer break in this super-cool city by the sea.
1. Take the scooter
Unfortunately, I can’t lay claim to this genius idea—a friend in TLV suggested it—but it is GENIUS. Especially if you have a reluctant walker in the family. We took our daughter’s scooter and she rode it everywhere. The wide pavements are made for two-wheeling and the promenade is perfect. We covered miles this way, MINUS the whingeing. If you have older kids, you might want to try out the city’s electric scooters instead of taking your own. But take a helmet!
2. Skip the midday heat
There are plenty of places to hide from the heat in this city. Take a few hours out of the middle of the day to explore the great indoors. We enjoyed the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and Nirit Levav Packer’s quirky art gallery in Jaffa, where she takes junk modeling to a whole new level. Kids will love the dogs made out of bicycle chains and dresses made from lightbulbs and watches.
3. Enjoy as many beach sunsets as you can
Beach afternoons can easily merge into evenings and then you’re perfectly positioned for a Mediterranean sunset. There are bars and restaurants on every beach in Tel Aviv, or you can opt to take your own sundowner picnic. You can even get a Wolt delivery to the beach. Don’t be in a rush to get home—it’s cooler when the sun goes down and, after dark, this city really comes alive. Take a stroll down the promenade and try to dodge the joggers and dog walkers.
4. Don’t miss HaYarkon Park
A great swathe of greenery sliced by the Yarkon River, this park is HUGE and has great play areas, bike hire, and boat hire. We took a pedalo out on the river and spotted kingfishers and cranes, but we barely skimmed the surface of this green oasis. We missed the rock garden, the tropical garden, the bird sanctuary, the water park, and the hot air balloon rides.
5. Eat ice cream!
Obviously THE most efficient way to cool down in the Tel Avivan sun is to eat ice cream. And this city has its pick of top-notch gelato or glida in Hebrew. We are long-standing fans of Golda, which has branches all over Israel—including a brand new one at Gordon Beach. But we discovered Otello on Dizengoff on our last trip, and it’s definitely worth a detour. Other prime purveyors of ice creamy goodness are Arte Italian Ice Cream on Nachalat Binyamin and Gelateria Siciliana, also on Dizengoff.
Where to stay
We stayed at Mr. Carmel, one of several properties managed by TLV2GO and Window Seat, booked through Plum Guide.
You can read all about our family-friendly Tel Aviv holiday in the blog post, Tel Aviv two ways.
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