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From the city center, it's easy to head south to Jaffa and its ancient port and lively flea market—to get there the scenic way, saunter along the seaside promenade overlooking the beach—and the other southern neighborhoods like the gentrified Neve Tzedek and the more rough-edged Florentine.
Farther north, at the edge of Tel Aviv proper, lies the sprawling green lung of Tel Aviv, Hayarkon Park. You'll also discover the city's renovated port area, an ideal setting for a seaside breakfast or a toast at sunset with which to usher in Tel Aviv's famous inexhaustible nightlife.
Half a century ago, this magnificent tree-lined boulevard was one of the most exclusive streets in the city. Today it's once again what visionaries at the beginning of the 20th century meant it to be—a place for people to meet, stroll, and relax. Along the street are some of the city's best restaurants and bars, and many Bauhaus gems are on or just off the street.
This area has been more successful than many other Tel Aviv neighborhoods in maintaining its older buildings. Bialik has long been a popular address with many of the city's artists and literati, so it's not surprising that some of the houses have been converted into small museums, including Beit Ha'ir, Beit Bialik, the Rubin Museum, and the Bauhaus Foundation Museum.
This popular thoroughfare off Allenby Street has plenty of cafés and restaurants where you can watch passersby. This is where young people shop for the latest fashions: the sizes are tiny, the favored color is black, and some of the boutiques are so minuscule you'll think you walked straight into the dressing room.
Wander down this alley to see old Tel Aviv decorative architecture at its best. Two plaster obelisks at the entrance mark the city's first "gated" community. Note the stucco lion in front of
Think of Yefet as a sort of thread between eras: beneath it is the old market area, while all around you stand schools and churches of the 19th and 20th centuries. Several deserve mention. At No. 21 is the Tabitha School, established by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1863. Behind the school is a small cemetery where some fairly prominent figures are buried, including Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, the first to define Hodgkin's disease. No. 23 was once a French Catholic school, and it still carries the sign "Collège des Frères." At No. 25, the fortresslike Urim School was set up as a girls' school in 1882.
