israel-on-blog's Reviews

Tel Aviv Sea - To Sea And To Be Seen

Tel Aviv Has a promenade, a long promenade, running along the seashore that makes up the western edge of Tel Aviv – Jaffa. There, we walk or jog, ride bikes, sit on benches, fill out lungs with fresh air. A glorious 8.7 miles of open views, blue horizons, white sails bobbing on the waves, kitesurfers and windsurfers all around.

There’s a daytime promenade, and there’s the nighttime version. Dozens of restaurants, cafes, and ice cream parlors are busy al day long, while pubs, discos and jazz clubs blossom after dark. Regardless of the hour, human attractions abound – clowns, caricaturists, tattoo artists, hair-braiders, magicians and of course, the ever-changing parade if people strolling by the nearby beaches beckon. Clean sand, lounge chairs, ice-cream vendors and diehard beach-lovers that swim daily, winter and summer, no matter what. Each beach has its own unique character. A few tips: On the Dolphinarium beach on Friday afternoons, for instance, you can join an improvised percussion festival, and the Brazilian martial arts/dance/music combination called capoeira. Go to the Gordon beach for beach volleyball. The religiously observant will find gender-segregated swimming close to the Tel Aviv port. The gay-lesbian community will gravitate to the stretch near the Hilton, which has earned the unofficial little of Tel Aviv’s gay-friendliest beach. At the Metzitzim beach, you can let your dogs and your hormones run wild among the assembled babes and hunks. There’s a playground for kids, easy chairs and restaurant – of playground – to provide the ultimate Tel Aviv beach cuisine: cold, sweet, juicy watermelon accompanied by salty white Bulgarian cheese. The narrow strip of sand near the marina is less crowded and more peaceful; at the yacht basin, you can rent windsurfers, surfboards, sailboats, motorboats and diving equipment.

Tel Aviv’s beaches are well-equipped with changing room, showers and toilets; some have lifeguards year-round. On the beaches and the major tourist centers, tourist police provide a sense of security, as well as assistance and information services.

Reviewed on: October 24, 2007