When it opened in 1978, this was regarded as one of the world’s most innovative museums. It is still worth setting aside several hours to visit. Instead of showing historical artifacts, it uses thematically arranged dioramas, interactive displays and short videos to illustrate aspects of life in the Jewish diaspora, past and present, throughout the world, and the influence of Jewish arts and literature on other cultures. One of the highlights is a display of beautifully made scale models of synagogues from various countries. The permanent collection is supplemented by temporary exhibitions. There is also a genealogy centre, where Jews from around the world can trace their lineage.

Built around the site of Tel Qasile, where excavations have revealed layers of human habitation dating back to 1200 BC, this museum depicts the history and culture of the land of Israel. It comprises a number of themed pavilions, all containing permanent exhibitions. One has a very fine collection of ancient and Islamic-era glass; others are devoted to coins, ancient pottery, Judaica, copper mining, postal history and philately, and to ancient crafts, with demonstrations by artisans. Additionally there’s a square with a collection of beautiful mosaic floors from early synagogues, churches and mosques; an old olive oil press; a reconstructed flour mill; and a 1925 fire engine given by the city of New York to the Tel Aviv volunteer fire brigade in 1947.

North of the centre, at the point at which the Yarkon River empties into the Mediterranean, Tel Aviv’s port was developed in the late 1930s to lessen Jewish dependence on the Arab port of Jaffa. It was decommissioned in 1965, when bigger facilities were created in Ashdod to the south, and lay neglected for around 30 years until the site was revitalised in the 1990s. It is now a lively area of bars, cafés, restaurants, nightclubs and shops. There is even an antiques market on Saturdays. Many of the businesses are on the boardwalk facing the sea; many also have a view of the disused power plant just across the river, which serves as the venue for the Ha’aretz Art Festival every autumn.

A white-sand beach stretches right along the seafront of central Tel Aviv, backed by a long promenade, modern hotels and Miami-style condominiums. It is possible to walk all the way from the Old Port in the north down to Jaffa in the south along the promenade. At its northern end this takes the form of a big, rolling wooden deck, which in parts gently undulates like sand dunes. This is a favourite area for fishermen and for wedding couples, who have their photographs taken with the Mediterranean Sea as a backdrop.

Further south, in the vicinity of Independence Park  (Gan Ha-Atzmaut), there’s a small children’s playground. Beside this, a section of beach is screened off for the use of Orthodox Jews (men and women on different days).

The city centre stretch of beach is dominated by the huge, pink Opera Towers , with shops and restaurants at street level, and a distinctive stepped profile. The beach here is crowded all summer with sun-seekers and, after dark, with open-air concert- and disco-goers. Strong sea currents mean that you should swim only where you see white flags. Red flags mean that it is dangerous; black flags that it is forbidden.

The city’s main shopping street is named after Tel Aviv’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. It is at its liveliest around the junction with Frishmann Street, where there are plenty of street cafés with pavement seating and a large branch of the Israeli chain bookstore Steimetzky’s. Also here is the Bauhaus Center , which is dedicated to raising awareness of Tel Aviv’s unique architectural heritage. To this end, the Center runs two-hour English-language tours at 10am each Friday visiting some of the city’s Bauhaus buildings.

One block south of the Bauhaus Center is Dizengoff Square , an irregularly shaped concrete platform raised above a traffic underpass. It sports a drum-like fountain by Israeli artist Yaakov Agam that has water jets programmed to perform hourly light and music shows. At the weekend, the square is host to a flea market. On the east side are two beautifully renovated Bauhaus buildings, one of which is now the Hotel Cinema Eden ; it’s possible to take the elevator up to the fifth-floor roof terrace to enjoy the city views.

A large, rectangular plaza in the eastern part of central Tel Aviv, Rabin Square is overlooked by City Hall , a brutal concrete block that is only slightly softened by having its windows painted in different colours. The square is a venue for demonstrations, celebrations and concerts. It was at one such gathering – a peace rally on 4 November 2021 – that the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. The basalt stones of the Rabin Memorial  on Ibn Givrol Street, beside City Hall, occupy the very spot where he was shot. Nearby is a wall covered with graffiti drawn by mourning citizens and now preserved behind glass.

At the centre of the square is another memorial, the Monument of Holocaust and Resistance , a huge glass and iron structure erected in the 1970s and designed by well- known and often controversial Israeli artist Yigal Tumarkin.

There are some good shops on the west side of the square, notably Tola’at Seferim, a bookshop with a pleasant café, and Mayu, a youthful fashion boutique. Across on the east side is Brasserie, an excellent Art Deco, French-style restaurant.

Israel’s most important collection of 19th- and 20th-century art includes works representing the major trends of modernism: Impressionism (Degas, Renoir, Monet), Post-Impressionism (Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne), Cubism (Braque, Leger, Metzinger) and Surrealism (Miró), as well as key pieces by Pablo Picasso.

Other works range from 17th-century Flemish to modern Israeli. In addition to the permanent collections, there are excellent temporary exhibitions. A ticket also covers entrance to the Helena Rubenstein Pavilion  on Habima Square, where additional contemporary art shows are held.

Bialik is one of the city’s most historic streets. At No. 14 is the Rubin Museum , the former residence of one of Israel’s most famous painters, Reuven Rubin (1893–1974). It now contains a permanent collection of 45 of his works, as well as a historical archive of his life. Changing exhibits feature other Israeli artists. A few doors along, Bialik House  (Beit Bialik) is the former home of Haim Nahman Bialik (1873-1934), Israel’s national poet. The house has been kept as it was during Bialik’s time, and includes a library and paintings by some of Israel’s best-known artists.

At the end of the street is a striking mosaic-covered fountain by Nahum Gutman.

A little south of Bialik, Bezalel Street  is home to a street market famed for cut-price fashion. South again, Sheinkin Street  was a centre of alternative culture in the 1980s. That is no longer the case, but it still boasts many independent shops and cafés.

A masterplan for Tel Aviv was drawn up by Scottish urban planner Sir Patrick Geddes at the request of Mayor Dizengoff in 1925. This influenced the growth of the city for decades to come. The Yemenite Quarter (Kerem Ha-Temanim), however, predates the Geddes plan, and its maze of small streets contrasts sharply with the orderly layout of the rest of the city. The architecture also predates the arrival of the Bauhaus style that characterises much of the rest of Tel Aviv. Here, buildings instead employ motifs from Classical, Moorish and Art Nouveau styles. This is most apparent on Nakhalat Binyamin Street , which boasts many curious, if slightly faded, examples of this eclectic architecture. The street is especially worth visiting on Tuesdays and Fridays, when it hosts a busy craft market. This is also one of the busiest nightlife streets, in particular the area around the junctions with Rothschild Avenue and Lilienblum Street.

The other local landmark is Carmel Market  (open 8am– 5pm Sun–Fri), which is on Ha-Carmel Street and is the city’s largest and busiest open-air market. It begins near the junction with Allenby Street with stalls selling cheap clothing and household items, before switching to fresh fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, spices and herbs, breads and biscuits, and nuts and seeds. Many of the side streets off Ha-Carmel specialise in different food produce.

One block west of Nakhalat Binyamin Street, this austere, 1960s office building sits on the former site of Israel’s first secular Hebrew school. At the time of its construction, the tower was the tallest structure in Israel (it is now surpassed by the radio tower near the Tel Aviv Museum). There are impressive mosaics in the lobby area, shops on the first and second floors, and a wax museum on the third, but the main attraction is the observation area on the 34th (top) floor. On a clear day, the view stretches all the way north to Mount Carmel near Haifa and inland to Jerusalem and the Judaean Desert.

This is one of Tel Aviv’s most elegant old thorough-fares, lined with palm trees and some of the city’s finest examples of Bauhaus buildings. Independence Hall  (Beit Ha-Tanakh) at No. 6 was once the residence of the first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. This is also where Ben Gurion declared the independence of Israel on 14 May 1948. The museum’s Hall of Declaration remains as it was on that day, with original microphones on the table and a portrait of Herzl, the Zionist leader. Nearby 23 Allenby Street is now the Haganah Museum . The Haganah was the clandestine pre-1948 military organisation that later became the Israeli army.

Manshiye is the coastal neighbourhood that acts as a buffer between the twin municipalities of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Its most distinguished landmark is the little Hassan Bek Mosque  on the main seafront road, built in 1916 by a governor of Jaffa of the same name. During the 1948 War, Arab soldiers used the mosque’s minaret as a firing position; this is one of the episodes recorded in the nearby Etzel Museum 1947– 1948 , which is dedicated to the Israeli defence forces and their role in this particular conflict. Historical documents, photos, newspaper clippings and weapons are exhibited in a purpose-built, black-glass structure in attractive Charles Clore Park  on the seafront. The park is a venue for many of the city’s big open-air events, including the annual Love Parade.

Neve Tzedek is where Tel Aviv began. The settlement was founded on empty sandy flats in the late 1880s by a group of Jewish families keen to escape overcrowding in the port of Jaffa. Today, the area retains the feel of a small village, with narrow lanes lined by high walls and a strange mix of architectural styles. Decades of neglect are currently being reversed by an energetic programme of renovation and restoration.

At the heart of the district is the Suzanne Dellal Centre  for dance and drama. It boasts four performance halls in a building that was once a local school. The main courtyard, with orange trees and tiled murals, is a popular place to meet and relax.

Nearby, the Rokach House Museum  occupies the former home of Shimon Rockach, one of the founding fathers of Neve Tzedek. Inside, photos and documents illustrate the daily life of the community at the end of the 19th century.

A few doors away, the Nahum Gutman Museum  is dedicated to another of Israel’s best-known artists, a Russian-born painter who was also admired for his children’s books. As well as displaying a small collection of Gutman’s work, the galleries are used for temporary exhibitions.