Insight Guides - Insight Guides Explore Jerusalem & Tel Aviv (Travel Guide eBook)

How To Use This E-Book

This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With top-quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the worlds most exciting destinations.

Best Routes

The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destinations many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also excursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments options are shown in the Food and Drink box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

Directory

Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised AZ of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafs and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, plus a handy language guide and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Recommended Routes For...

Beaches

Tel Aviv has 14km (8 miles) of beaches; Israel has a Mediterranean coastline that stretches for 273km (170 miles). Explore Tel Avivs beaches ().

iStock

Foodies

Sample Israels unique culinary fusion in Jerusalems Makhanei Yehuda market ().

Haim Yosef

History buffs

Israel is as much about history as it is religion. Visit the Herodian fortress of Masada ().

iStock

Markets

Practice your bartering skills at Jerusalems Arab market () in search of hidden gems.

Shutterstock

Museums

Visit the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to see the Dead Sea scrolls () to experience the story of the Diaspora.

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Night owls

Tel Aviv is the city that never sleeps. For the best nightlife, try the western end of Rothschild Boulevard ().

Alamy

Sacred sites

Israel is the Holy Land and Jerusalem is the Holy City. The Old City () take in the most sacred sites.

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Views

Israel is a country of hills and breathtaking panoramas. Get a unique perspective of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives ().

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Explore Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

Jerusalem prays while Tel Aviv plays. A 30-minute drive separates Israels two largest cities, yet they are worlds apart. Sacred and profane, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv represent the countrys religious past and its high-tech future.

Tel Avivs seafront

iStock

Jerusalem is as old as Tel Aviv is new. Sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the alleyways of Jerusalems Old City resonate with three millennia of religious significance, from the remnants of King Solomons Temple, to Christs last journey down the Via Dolorosa, to the Dome of the Rock, from where it is believed Mohammed ascended to heaven.

Outside the city walls, Jerusalem is home to its parliament and national institutions, and has been revived over the past century by the Jewish return to Zion. Controversy shrouds Jerusalems status as Israels capital; both Israelis and Palestinians regard the city as their capital. Whilst Jerusalem is not universally recognised in the world as Israels capital, Israelis feel passionately that it should be. It is a city of nearly 1 million, fiercely contested by the Israeli majority and Palestinian minority, home to a socially fragmented Jewish population, from the fast-growing black-hat ultra-Orthodox enclaves, through an array of modern-Orthodox and traditional communities and onto a dwindling secular minority. Yet the city hangs together in an uneasy truce with a surprising degree of harmony and an even more surprising flourishing nightlife scene.

In contrast, Tel Aviv, Israels commercial capital, the capital of cool, is brazen and brash. It is the city that never stops, from its golden beaches and glistening high-tech office towers, to its innovative culinary and cultural scene and pulsating nightlife. Tel Aviv itself has a population of 550,000, and is at the heart of a metropolitan area that is home to over 4 million.