For Elara’s spring break, we spent 10 days in Israel! For the first time ever, my husband wanted to go somewhere for their food. He is obsessed with hummus, pita, falafel, and other Arabic foods! We also heard that Israel was super toddler-friendly, which was very true! We spent 2 days in Tel Aviv, which ended up being my favorite city that we visited. Tel Aviv is like a mini San Francisco, lots of cafes and startups. It’s actually #2 startup capital behind Silicon Valley! Because of this, it’s pretty multicultural. We met lots of Americans and European expats that worked in the tech industry in Tel Aviv.
Things you should know before going to Israel/Tel Aviv
- If you have a passport stamp from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, or any Islamic majority country – be prepared for a mini interrogation at Customs when coming in. If you are remotely Arabic-looking or have dark skin, be prepared for personal questions at Customs. When we were coming into and leaving Israel we were asked our parents names, the villages in India they were from, how far they were from Pakistan, if we were Hindu, what our names meant, where we were born, what my maiden name was, and more. Unfortunately, Israel does racially profile people for additional questioning and we fit the look, so be ready for it.
- The Palestinian and Israel issue is real. Be open-minded and learn about what’s going on. Luckily I was able to chat with people and learn about with from people on Instagram and via book recommendations. I wasn’t able to go to a Palestinian city (Ramallah, Hebron, etc) because we couldn’t get in and I had injured myself (I tripped and totally ate it) during my trip, so I was pretty immobile for the last bits of it. It’s a sensitive topic, people were moved, pushed out, and their culture appropriated. I’ll be touching more on this in future posts.
- It is expensive. Hotels, food, parking, gas – it’s pricey. Make sure you budget for it! In total, we spent $5,400 for a family of 5 including flight, car, hotel, activities, and food for an 11-day trip.
- The entire city pretty much shuts down on Shabbat (Friday to Saturday night). Make sure you hit up a grocery store beforehand so that you have food. We made the mistake of trying to go out and find an open restaurant and we ended up driving around for almost 90 minutes before we gave up and went to an open grocery store. Shabbat is another reason I’d recommend staying in an Airbnb, having a kitchen made everything easier!
Day 1 Tel Aviv and Jaffa
We rented a car from Thrifty ($250) at the airport. They drive on the same side of the road as the United States so we were very comfortable driving here. However, if you don’t want to drive you can totally take taxis and ride electric scooters (Bird, Lime, Leo, etc), which you can find EVERYWHERE around the city. We got an Airbnb ($340 for 5 people) in the Kerem HaTeimanim neighborhood in Tel Aviv-Yafo. I chose Kerem HaTeimanim because it was walking distance from the beach, near Caramel Market and the beach. Parking is super hard to find in Tel Aviv and even harder to understand. All the parking signs are in Hebrew and had lots of hard to understand rules. We ended up playing it safe and parking in Caramel Market Parking Lot which had tons of spots and cost us $8 for 24 hours. I’d definitely suggest getting an Airbnb with parking on site or saving yourself the stress and parking in a paid lot.
On our first day in Tel Aviv, we decided to take a 20-minute walk to Jaffa Port along the coast. This would be a nice path to take an electric scooter or a bike down, however, since we had Elara with us, that wasn’t really an option. If you have young children, this walk is super stroller friendly. I bought some bagels and za’atar bread from a stall along the path for breakfast and we just took in the view and ocean breeze. It may sound weird but I loved the way it smelled on this walk, it smelled like ocean mixed with fresh bread and suntan lotion. P.S the sun is pretty strong so be sure to lather up in some sunscreen before going out! Rhut ended up burning his cheeks and shoulders. We stopped at an ice cream shop to get Elara sugared up so that she wouldn’t fall asleep early due to jet lag and it worked!
When you get to Jaffa Port you’ll see a staircase with a sign saying “Welcome to Old Jaffa”. If you go up those stairs there are little alleyways and staircases lined with small art shops and boutiques. Elara has a blast running up and down the stairs (the ice cream kicked in at this point). I loved the windows and doorways that were painted blue to contrast the tan sandstone buildings – super Instagrammable! At the top of the stairs, there is an open space lined with restaurants and a park. We walked around, checking out the view of all of Jaffa and hanging out near the fountain. Eventually, my in-laws and Elara were a little tired, so we sat in the park to rest a little before heading out to lunch. We had lunch at Puaa Cafe in Jaffa Market, the wait was 20 minutes long but totally worth it! Puaa Cafe has this super kitschy aesthetic with mismatched cups, plates, tables, and chairs (which I think is a part of the charm!). They also had high chairs for children. This place was hands down the best food I had during my trip! The food is served family style and the fried cauliflower, mung bean and cherry tomato salad, and red tahini were by far my favorite! Everything came out quickly and was surprisingly light and fresh.
In the evening, my in-laws took Elara home for a nap around 5 PM while Rhut and I got some rare time alone. We walked over to the Neve Tzedek neighborhood and grabbed some dessert. Neve Tzedek is an up and coming neighborhood with little cafes, restaurants and boutique shops. It’s a nice place to stroll in the afternoon or early evening. Our first stop was L’amande d`Or, where they had super unique flavored French macarons like pear and wasabi! We ended up feeling super guilty and brought home some macarons for Elara and my in-laws. Afterward, we got the best gelato I’ve ever had at Anita Gelato. I got white chocolate and pistachio gelato and it seriously was perfect. Super creamy and not too sweet! Then Rhut decided he wanted to be an Instagram husband and took tons of photos of me while I awkwardly walked around.
Once we got home we were too exhausted and jet-lagged to move and went to sleep early.
Day 2 Tel Aviv
The next morning we walked through Caramel Market to get to our car and grabbed some falafel, fresh pomegranate juice and bread for breakfast! Caramel Market is a huge market filled with vendors selling spices, sweets, food, fresh juices, and souvenirs. It’s definitely worth a visit and you can get some great food for super cheap here if you come towards the end of the market. The falafel cost us only 7 shekels (~$3)!
My in-laws are huge museum buffs so we drove to The Yitzhak Rabin Center’s Israeli Museum to learn more about the history and creation of Israel. The museum is clearly biased but had lots of information and history on the events that led up to the creation of Israel. We spent about 3 hours at the museum. Elara ran around the spiral building. There aren’t any exhibits for kids here but there is a large patio overlooking Tel Aviv that we took her to play around in. We also visited the Palmach Museum which gives you an hour and a half guided tour through the history of the Israeli military, Palmach, and it’s role in the creation of Israel.
In the afternoon we headed over to Old Tel Aviv Port where they have a boardwalk ad massive playground structure. It’s basically an open mall with playgrounds dotted throughout the boardwalk. We grabbed some dinner and watched Elara play in the sand for a bit while we relaxed.
That evening we walked over to Banana Beach. It was a little too chilly to go in the water, but there are small playgrounds every few hundred feet which Elara loved! We sat and people watched and made sand castles. We stopped for some gelato at Stefan Gelato where we met the owner who used to be in the pharmaceutical industry and now makes natural gelato for a living! We headed home to sleep before our drive to Jerusalem the next day.
