A Mediterranean beach city, a walled Old City an hour inland, the lowest shore on earth and a coral reef at the bottom of the map. Israel is small enough to cross in a day and runs on a weekly clock most visitors underestimate.
1
City guide
10,178,000
People
9
UNESCO sites
Live destination map
AllTel Aviv & the coastJerusalemGalilee & the northNegev & the Dead SeaRed Sea
By Wimup EditorialUpdated September 202613 min read
Best months
Mar · Apr · Oct
Ideal length
8–12 days
Budget / day
$120–220
Language
Hebrew & Arabic
Getting around
Trains on the coast, buses inland, a car for the Galilee & Negev
Region ▾City or desert ▾Season ▾Trip length ▾Getting around ▾1 guides
Two bases cover a first trip, and they are nothing alike. Tel Aviv is the coast: a beach the length of the city, the 1930s White City behind it, the old port at Jaffa on its southern edge, and the food and the late hours. Jerusalem is an hour inland and asks for a slower week, with the four quarters of the walled Old City, the Israel Museum and Yad Vashem on the western ridge, and Mahane Yehuda between them. Add one drive north and one south. North runs up the coast past the Roman harbour at Caesarea to Haifa, the Crusader tunnels of Akko and the Galilee behind them: Nazareth, the hill town of Safed and the Sea of Galilee at Tiberias. South drops to the Dead Sea, the fortress at Masada and the canyons of Ein Gedi, then into the Negev for the crater rim at Mitzpe Ramon and, four hours further, the reef at Eilat. A week does Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and one of those directions. Ten days does both.
A makhtesh is a landform found in only two deserts on earth, the Negev and the Sinai, and Makhtesh Ramon is the largest of them: roughly 40 kilometres long and about 500 metres deep at its steepest. It is neither an impact crater nor a volcano. Water hollowed out the soft rock inside a hill over some 200 million years and then breached one end, leaving the rim you stand on at Mitzpe Ramon.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to behave once you land.
"It is a small country, so a few days covers it."
The realityThe distances are short and the switching is not. Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is under an hour, and in that hour you go from a Mediterranean beach city to a walled Old City with a different rhythm, a different dress code and a different week. South of that the ground drops below sea level, then climbs into hyper-arid desert, then reaches a coral reef. Each of those asks for its own pace. A week covers two of them properly, not five.
"Everything shuts on Saturday, so the weekend is a write-off."
The realityHalf of it shuts, and the half that does not is worth planning around. Trains and most buses stop from Friday afternoon to Saturday nightfall, and Jerusalem goes very quiet. Tel Aviv keeps its beaches and restaurants. Haifa has always run some buses through Shabbat. Nazareth, Akko and Jaffa keep ordinary hours, which makes Saturday the obvious day to spend in them. The thing that actually catches people out is the other end of the week: Sunday is a working day.
"It is a religious-sites trip."
The realityThe pilgrimage route is real and it is one layer of several. The same country holds the largest collection of 1930s International Style buildings anywhere, a Red Sea reef you can swim to from the beach, an erosion crater with some of the darkest skies in the hemisphere, wine country in the upper Galilee, and the Rift Valley flyway that funnels migrating birds between three continents twice a year.
"The Middle East is cheap, so this will be too."
The realityIt is one of the most expensive countries in the OECD, with a price level roughly a third above the average across the member countries and food further above it still. Hotels, restaurants and car hire all price closer to Western Europe than to anywhere nearby. What is good value is the street food, which is excellent and everywhere, the national parks pass, and public transport, which is cheap and covers most of what a first trip needs.
Everyone has an opinion, and you will hear it before you have asked for it.Hummus is a meal rather than a dip, and the best place is a permanent argument.The queue is a suggestion, and so is the lane marking.Somebody will give you directions, then decide it is easier to walk you there.Friday afternoon empties the roads and Saturday night refills them.The meal starts with more salads than anyone ordered and none of them are optional.
Israeli etiquette, briefly
The week runs Sunday to Thursday. Friday is a half day, Saturday is the day off, and offices, banks and government services follow that calendar rather than yours.
Bag checks at the entrance to malls, stations and bus terminals are routine. Open the bag, say hello, keep moving.
Cover shoulders and knees at the Western Wall, in churches and in mosques. Men are handed a paper kippah at the Wall; women should have a scarf in the bag for the churches.
Ask before photographing people at prayer. In the Old City quarters and in the ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, photography on Shabbat is unwelcome and taking it anyway will be said out loud.
On Holocaust Remembrance Day and on the memorial day for fallen soldiers, a siren stops the country for two minutes. People get out of their cars and stand still. Do the same.
Directness is not rudeness. Conversation here is blunt by design, questions are personal early, and a flat no is a normal answer rather than the start of a negotiation.
Learn toda and shukran. Which one lands depends on which town you are in, and using the right one is noticed.
Famous Israeli faces
The names behind Israeli writing, science, music, screen and sport. Pick a field.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Born in Jerusalem and raised in the United States, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Black Swan in 2011 and later directed a Hebrew-language film of Amos Oz’s memoir, A Tale of Love and Darkness.
Gal Gadot
Gal Gadot
From Petah Tikva by way of Miss Israel and the Fast & Furious films, and the lead of the Wonder Woman films, which made her the best-known Israeli actor working.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
The only Hebrew-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1966 and shared with Nelly Sachs. His Jerusalem house is now a museum.
Amos Oz
Amos Oz
One of the most translated writers Israel has produced, and the author of A Tale of Love and Darkness, a Jerusalem childhood that doubles as the country’s early biography.
David Grossman
David Grossman
Novelist and essayist, and winner of the 2017 International Booker Prize for A Horse Walks into a Bar, the first Israeli writer to take it.
Ada Yonath
Ada Yonath
The Weizmann Institute crystallographer who mapped the structure of the ribosome, sharing the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and becoming the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel.
Daniel Kahneman
Daniel Kahneman
Born in Tel Aviv, and the psychologist who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics for the work with Amos Tversky that founded behavioural economics.
Aaron Ciechanover
Aaron Ciechanover
A Technion biologist in Haifa who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose for discovering how cells tag and destroy their own proteins.
Ofra Haza
Ofra Haza
The voice that carried Yemenite-Jewish song into international pop. Im Nin’alu, built on a seventeenth-century poem, was a hit across Europe in the late 1980s.
Idan Raichel
Idan Raichel
The pianist whose Project put Ethiopian, Arabic and Hebrew singers on the same records, and the most exportable thing in Israeli music since Haza.
Netta Barzilai
Netta Barzilai
Won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 with Toy, a looped-vocal performance that brought the contest to Tel Aviv the following year.
Shira Haas
Shira Haas
Carried the Netflix series Unorthodox almost single-handed and was nominated for an Emmy for it, the first Israeli actor nominated in a lead category.
Lior Raz
Lior Raz
Co-creator and star of Fauda, the series that turned Israeli television into an export business and put Hebrew and Arabic dialogue on screens worldwide.
Linoy Ashram
Linoy Ashram
Won the individual all-around gold in rhythmic gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, ending two decades of Russian wins in the event.
Artem Dolgopyat
Artem Dolgopyat
Took gold on floor at the same Tokyo Games, Israel’s first Olympic gold in artistic gymnastics.
Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Born in Kyiv, raised in Milwaukee, and Israel’s prime minister from 1969 to 1974, the first woman to hold the office and still the only one.
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
Held almost every senior office over six decades, twice as prime minister and as president from 2007 to 2014, and shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.
Must-try Israeli food
Chickpeas, aubergine, tahini and whatever came out of the oven overnight. Pick a category.
Hummus
Served warm as a meal in its own right, with a pool of olive oil and either whole chickpeas, ful or minced lamb in the middle, and pita to push it around. A proper hummusia opens in the morning and sells out by early afternoon.
Meorav Yerushalmi
The Jerusalem mixed grill: chicken hearts, livers and lamb griddled hard with onion, cumin and turmeric, invented in the grill houses on Agrippas Street beside the Mahane Yehuda market.
St Peter’s fish
Tilapia from the Sea of Galilee, split and grilled whole, eaten at Tiberias or on the lake shore. The name is the pitch and the fish is genuinely good.
Falafel
Ground chickpeas fried to order and stuffed into pita with salad, pickles, tahini and as much chilli as you agree to. The test is whether the queue is locals and whether the oil is clean.
Sabich
An Iraqi-Jewish sandwich that Jaffa made famous: fried aubergine, hard-boiled egg, potato, salad, tahini and a slick of amba, the pickled mango sauce that carries the whole thing.
Bourekas
Flaked pastry filled with cheese, potato or spinach, sold by the tray in bakeries and bus stations. Traditionally shaped by filling, so regulars order by silhouette rather than by name.
Shakshuka
Eggs poached in spiced tomato and pepper and brought to the table in the pan. A North African import that became the national breakfast and, in most places, lunch as well.
Israeli breakfast
The kibbutz dining-room institution that hotels still run: eggs to order, a table of chopped salads, cheeses, olives, herring, bread and coffee. It is designed to remove the need for lunch.
Jachnun
Yemenite-Jewish dough rolled thin, curled and baked overnight in a low oven until it is dark and sweet. Eaten on Saturday morning with grated tomato, a hard-boiled egg and a drop of skhug.
Knafeh
Shredded pastry or semolina over stretchy white cheese, soaked in syrup and stained orange. Best in Akko, Jaffa and Nazareth, cut from a tray the size of a table and eaten hot.
Malabi
A milk pudding set soft, poured with rose syrup and covered in coconut and crushed peanuts. Sold from street windows in a plastic cup, which is the correct way to eat it.
Halva
Tahini worked with sugar into a dense slab, cut by the kilo in the Mahane Yehuda and Carmel markets and flavoured with pistachio, chocolate or coffee. Sellers hand out slivers; take one.
Arak
The aniseed spirit of the eastern Mediterranean, drunk long with water and ice, at which point it turns cloudy white. Ordered by the glass in Jaffa and by the bottle at a long table.
Israeli wine
The upper Galilee and the Judean Hills carry most of the serious vineyards, and the reds have got much better in twenty years. Many wineries open for tastings and sit within an hour of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
Limonana
Lemonade blended with fresh mint and ice into a slush. It is on every menu from June onward, and there is nothing better after an afternoon in the Old City.
Israel travel FAQ
Do you need a visa for Israel?+
Most short-stay visitors from Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia do not need a visa, but they do need an ETA-IL. It has been mandatory since 1 January 2025 for every traveller from a visa-exempt country, it is applied for online through the Population and Immigration Authority for a small fee, and the authority asks for it at least 72 hours before you fly. An approval lasts two years or until your passport expires and covers stays of up to 90 days. Airlines check it at the gate, and it is permission to reach the border rather than permission to cross it: an officer still decides on arrival.
Is it safe to travel, and what should you check?+
Advice for this region is written area by area and it changes, so the honest answer is that no travel guide can hold it. Read your own foreign ministry's current page before you book and again in the week you fly, note which border zones and crossings it advises against, and check that your insurance covers what you have planned rather than assuming it does. Beyond that, ordinary travel sense applies: bags are checked at the entrance to malls, stations and bus terminals, which is routine rather than a signal, and the Home Front Command app carries the official alerts in English.
What actually closes for Shabbat?+
Trains and most buses stop on Friday afternoon and restart after nightfall on Saturday, and most Jewish-run shops and offices go with them. Jerusalem is the strictest and the quietest. Tel Aviv keeps its beaches, restaurants and bars going. Haifa is the one Jewish-majority city that has always run buses through Shabbat, and Arab-majority towns such as Nazareth, Akko and Jaffa keep normal hours, which is why Saturday is a good day to visit them. Shared taxis, called sherut, run when the buses do not, and hire cars are unaffected. Remember that Sunday is a working day here, so the week ends and starts a day earlier than you expect.
When is the best time to visit Israel?+
March to May and October, in that order. The country is green in spring, the desert is comfortable, and the nights are cool without being cold. July and August are humid on the coast and punishing in the Negev and at the Dead Sea, and August is also school holidays, so prices climb. Winter is mild at Eilat and the Dead Sea and genuinely wet in the north, with snow in Jerusalem some years. Check the Jewish calendar before you fix dates: Passover in spring and the September and October high holidays fill hotels and close things, and Yom Kippur shuts the country and the airport for a day.
How long do you need, and what is a sensible first trip?+
A week is enough for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and one direction out of them. Ten days to a fortnight covers both directions properly. The route that works for most first trips is three or four nights in Tel Aviv with a day at Caesarea and Akko, three or four in Jerusalem, then either north to the Galilee around Tiberias and Nazareth, or south to the Dead Sea, Masada and the crater at Mitzpe Ramon. Eilat is worth adding only if you want the reef, since it is four hours beyond the crater.
Do you need Hebrew, and how do you pay?+
No. Hebrew is the state language and Arabic carries a special status, both appear on road signs alongside English, and English is widely spoken in the cities and in anything tourist-facing. Payment is by card almost everywhere, including markets and buses, but carry cash for restaurant tips, which are expected at 10 to 12 percent in notes rather than added to the terminal. Public transport runs on the Rav-Kav smart card, sold at stations, and it covers trains, intercity buses and the light rail in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Know before you go
The essentials for planning an Israel trip, entry paperwork first.
Travellers from visa-exempt countries have needed an approved ETA-IL since 1 January 2025, and arriving without one means being turned away at the gate. It is applied for online through the Population and Immigration Authority, costs a small fee in shekels, and the authority asks for it at least 72 hours before departure. An approval is valid for two years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first, and covers stays of up to 90 days. It is permission to reach the border, not permission to enter: a border officer still decides that.
Guidance for this region is written area by area rather than for the whole country, and it moves. Your own foreign ministry publishes the current position, including the border zones and crossings it advises against, and most travel insurance follows that guidance rather than your own reading. Check it when you book and again in the week you fly.
Currency
New Israeli shekel (ILS)
Cards work almost everywhere, including in markets and small cafés. Keep some cash anyway: restaurant tips are expected in notes rather than added to the card, and a shared taxi will not take plastic.
Language
Hebrew, with Arabic in special status
The 2018 Basic Law made Hebrew the state language and gave Arabic a special status rather than the official standing it held before. Both still appear on road signs, alongside English. English is widely spoken in the cities and in anything tourist-facing, and thinner in small towns.
Power
230V, 50Hz, type H sockets
Type H is used almost nowhere else on earth. The good news is that a standard European type C plug fits the same socket, so a Europe adapter usually works and a British or American one will not.
Emergency
Police 100 · Ambulance 101 · Fire 102
101 reaches Magen David Adom, the national ambulance service. 112 also connects.
Shabbat
Friday afternoon to Saturday nightfall
Trains and most buses stop before sundown on Friday and restart on Saturday evening. Jerusalem closes almost completely; Tel Aviv keeps its restaurants and beaches; Haifa is the one Jewish-majority city that has always run some buses through it; Arab-majority towns such as Nazareth, Akko and Jaffa carry on as normal. Shared taxis, or sherut, run when the buses do not.
Yom Kippur
The one day the country stops
For roughly 25 hours in September or October, Ben Gurion airport closes, broadcasting stops, no public transport runs and the roads empty to the point that children ride bicycles down the motorways. Nothing is open. If your dates touch it, plan to be somewhere you are happy to stay on foot.
Getting around
Rav-Kav card, trains and buses
One smart card covers the trains, the intercity buses and the light rail in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and an anonymous card is sold at stations for a few shekels. Israel Railways is fast along the coast and up to Jerusalem; the Galilee and the Negev need a car.
Masada, Caesarea, Ein Gedi, Beit She’an and most of the ruins are run by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which sells multi-site tickets valid for two weeks. Two or three sites are usually enough to make it worth buying.
Tipping
10 to 12 percent, in cash
Service is rarely on the bill in restaurants, and card terminals often cannot split a tip through to staff. Leave notes on the table. Taxis are rounded up rather than tipped.
Water
Tap water is safe to drink
Supply is heavily desalinated and treated to a standard the health ministry publishes. Carry more of it than you think you need between May and September, and considerably more in the Negev and at the Dead Sea.
Consular help
Most embassies are in Tel Aviv
Jerusalem is the seat of government, but most countries keep their embassy in Tel Aviv, which is where consular assistance usually sits. Find your own before you travel rather than after something goes wrong.
Costs
Among the most expensive countries in the OECD
OECD price comparisons put Israel near the top of the group, roughly a third above the average across the member countries, with food further above it still. Street food and national parks are good value. Hotels, restaurants and car hire are not.
Time zone
UTC+2, and UTC+3 on daylight time
The clocks change in spring and autumn on dates set locally, so for a few weeks a year the gap to Europe is not what you expect.
When to visit Israel
Two comfortable seasons, one difficult one, and a holiday calendar that moves every year.
Best: March to May and late October, warm days, cool nights and a green north Peak: August at the coast, and the Jewish holidays in April, September and early October Good: February, June and November, the quiet shoulders either side of the heat Hardest: July and August, humid on the coast and extreme in the Negev and at the Dead Sea
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