Talk:Tel Aviv

The recommended Billiard place is located in Kikar Atarim. As a resident of Tel-Aviv, I would rather avoid directing tourists to that place. Kikar Atarim is the single most disppointing and embarrassing tourist attraction in the city. The first sight that welcomes you as you climb past the stairs is the rotting, crumbling remains of what once was Tel-Aviv's top club. Don't let the scaffolding fool you- it's only there for placing new advertising banners on the bare skeleton. The next prominent thing you see is the mall. People don't usually go in there, not even for the toilets, because the place is creepy and empty, the derelict and foul shadow of its former self. If you choose to go down to the beach, you can either go down the internal stairs, which lead into another desperate-looking underground cluster of shops, with almost all them closed, and a frequently used (and noisy) road. The road leads outside to the beach. The other option is going down the external stairs, which provide a nice view of the rusting remains of an old restaurant that closed down. I don't think it's appropriate to badmouth a place in the article itself, so let's do the next best thing and drop it out as a recommended site.

Staying Safe
Every year we hear reports about tourists getting dehydrated and being evacuated to hospitals. Most of them are not used to Israeli climate and don't know just how much water they have to drink to keep healthy.

Take a water bottle with you wherever you go, and remember: it's better having to go to the toilet every 5 seconds than spending your vacation at a hospital.

Getting there, by car
I have edited the "By Car" section for some grammar and style. However, I have a problem with this sentence: "Survival chances on Israeli roads are certainly high, but require time for acclimation." It gives the impression that driving in Tel Aviv is a matter of survival, i.e. of life and death. I didn't change it, but I think someone else should. (WT-en) EngineeringCat 20:06, 7 November 2006 (EST)

Sections
The sections seem standard and well-organized. Where would be a good place to put information about power and plug adapters? -- (WT-en) Fff1959 12:49, 20 June 2008 (EDT)

Florentin - article structure
I've been editing http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv/Florentin, which I then realized is not linked to from any of the other Tel Aviv pages, as far as I can see. Should it be incorporated into the disappointing http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv/South, or should it be kept as its own page and linked to from http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv and / or http://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv/South? (WT-en) Topdog 08:31, 21 September 2009 (EDT)
 * I think we should merge it into Tel Aviv South, as it's not really large enough to deserve it's own page yet and the Tel Aviv South page is not very large. (WT-en) Maximilianklein 11:59, 8 August 2011 (EDT)

Safety
It's ridiculous that terror bombing is talked about so much in the safety section. It's so incredibly rare, and even if it does happen there's very little chance that a tourist will be the one to notice the alert signs before the locals. Talking about it does more harm than good, distracting tourists from the real dangers. I suggest to rewrite the section, dismissing the terror issue in one sentence and talking about the real dangers, like crime and dehydration. -Anonymous Israeli


 * Plunge forward! --(WT-en) Peter Talk 15:03, 12 November 2009 (EST)

Districts
There are currently more articles for Tel Aviv than the current districts show. In addition to those listed under the districts, we have the following articles:
 * Tel Aviv/Florentin
 * Tel Aviv/Kerem Ha'Temanim
 * Tel Aviv/Neveh Shaanan

Are these legitimate district articles? Are these areas encompassed under any of the listed districts? Perhaps they should be merged? (WT-en) ChubbyWimbus 02:35, 10 December 2009 (EST)
 * They should be merged into the listed districts. (WT-en) –sumone10154 00:17, 24 March 2011 (EDT)

Updated Dan Bus System
There were recently major changes made to Dan Bus route and price structure. As my Hebrew is not great I do not fully understand the details of it, but it would be important to add into this as I have heard that prices increase drastically if you go between the new different zones

Hotel listings
Instead of districting all the hotel listings, people are adding new listings in the article for the entire city. Is it time to delete all of the listings? If not, would someone who knows the city well please district all of them and then delete them? Ikan Kekek (talk) 10:02, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Alternative banner for this article?


In the Hebrew Wikivoyage we are currently using this banner instead of the one which is currently used here. Do you think too that this banner would would better than the existing one? ויקיג&#39;אנקי (talk) 04:04, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Right now Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv/Central Tel Aviv have very similar banners - night time skyline. What do you think of replacing this page's banner with the following, to increase the diversity? ויקיג&#39;אנקי. --Ar2332 (talk) 21:17, 26 June 2016 (UTC)


 * If you like. I think the current banner is probably a better composition, though. I don't know Tel Aviv nearly well enough to know if the current banner would represent Central Tel Aviv well. If it would, it's a significantly clearer photo than the current pagebanner for that article and could be swapped out with it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:39, 26 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I know Tel Aviv quite well (I used to live there), and in my opinion the current banner is preferred for the main article about Tel Aviv. I will find a better banner though for Tel Aviv/Central Tel Aviv which represents that area quite well. ויקיג&#39;אנקי (talk) 03:52, 27 June 2016 (UTC)


 * No strong view on which is aesthetically better, although I think that I would get a better 'feel' of the city from the proposed one. --Andrewssi2 (talk) 03:55, 27 June 2016 (UTC)


 * File:Gush_Dan_Banner.jpg, which I created initially for a Gush Dan article, isn't good mainly because 40% of the buildings you see in it are actually of Ramat Gan and not Tel Aviv. Beside that, it doesn't really show any famous landmarks or major attractions of the city. ויקיג&#39;אנקי (talk) 02:24, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

Hotel listings
I've gotten impatient with all the touting in these listings, all of which should be moved to district articles, so I'm planting them here for now. Whoever would like to detout and move them would be doing a good service. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:55, 2 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I just cleaned up the listings (somewhat) and added them to the district articles. Deleted the listing from here to keep things clean. Ar2332 (talk) 17:18, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Move to district
This article is blatantly in violation of Wikivoyage policies that districted cities should not have any templated listings. The "Learn" section shouldn't have any listings at all, per the policy of not listing in the "Learn" section any educational institution that doesn't give ~2-weeks-or-less (-fewer?) courses for visitors. But there are various other sections with listings, including "Sleep", where my pruning of listings hasn't lasted. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:09, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I'm willing to put some work into this. Can you suggest a foreign city to use as a template? (The first one I thought of was Prague) Ar2332 (talk) 20:45, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Among Category:Star cities, there are some districted ones (Chicago, Copenhagen, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.). See how they handle this. Ikan Kekek (talk) 20:50, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Misc ideas (from a local)
Get around: A link to the Moovit app (live bus and sherut route info) might be useful. It's by far the easiest way to manage bus travel as a tourist and is in English.

Perhaps should mention that most buses and trains now have USB chargers, so you can charge your phone if you have your cord on you?

Moniot sherut: I think sherut should be under it's own "By minibus" category rather than under taxi. They might technically be called taxis, but they follow bus specific routes (comprable to bus routes sharing their number but not identical), they cost the same as the buses, and they will soon be payable by the same Rav-Kav transport cards as buses and trains. (Note: Article says they are cheaper than buses, but that is no longer the case.)

Plus, since the sherut system is essentially now the bus system's extension into shabbat and nighttime hours, I think the process of using a sherut deserves a paragraph of it's own. Things I think should be added include: romanization of phrases to ask the driver to stop (they do NOT stop at bus stops unless requested), the variation in fares for specific routes and times, and the fact that they don't allow standing passengers (so groups seeking rides during busy hours in the middle of routes might find the driver rejecting them while allowing a single passenger on instead).

Taxis: I think the issue of taxi drivers scamming tourists should get a mention. Whenever I have friends visit from abroad I tell them to use the GetTaxi app since taxis can be such a PITA. It gives the fixed price or meter price directly to you, allows for credit card payment (none of the "I have no change" nonsense), and you can put in your specific destination and see that the driver isn't taking a roundabout route to run the meter up.

And maybe mention that by law all Uber cars are just taxis that register with the Uber system and use the same fee system as taxis regularly do?

Eat: "Tafrit b'anglit" = English menu. Vegetarian and vegan food everywhere. (However pescatarian and vegetarian aren't well differentiated in Hebrew so don't be shocked if you meet a "vegetarian" who eats fish.)

Clubbing: Perhaps the wristband system should be mentioned?

Gay scene: Saying there are many gay clubs is no longer true; most of them have closed as the younger generation of gay Israelis just go clubbing with their straight friends. Many clubs do have gay nights, though.

I think it's important to mention that it's safe in Tel Aviv for gay couples to express physical affection to the same extent as straight ones, and can do so on all beaches (the "gay beach" is good for pick-ups, but safety isn't limited to there). I also think LGBTQ+ travelers might appreciate an idea of where the gay community is physically centered (Part of Nahalat Binyamin? Ben Yehuda/Frishman?) especially since the gay beach is not anywhere near there.

Safety section: Soldiers are definitely NOT required to keep their weapons on them at all times. Only specific units or soldiers in basic training do so now (weapons all the time was more common a generation back). I think the prevalence of uniformed soldiers is far more noticable than people with gun. Perhaps more useful to mention that most Israelis aged 18-20 are doing mandatory service, so uniformed teens are everywhere, especially all over transport systems on Friday afternoon/Sunday morning when many are going between home and their bases. (Often with huuuuuge bags of laundry for their parents to wash.) You also see tons of soldiers in Sarona during lunch because it's next to the base there (and the food on base is terrible).

Cultural differences: Watch out for bikes/scooters on main sidewalks. Smoking in restaurants is limited to specific parts of their outdoor seating. Dogs wearing muzzles on public transit are not agressive monsters--there's a law requiring muzzles on buses and trains (that is sporadically enforced). It's socially acceptable to swat at street cats (still not nice!) but dogs are beloved. Taking kids to cafes and restaurants is completly normal, and the malls usually have kid play and breast-feeding areas. Israelis can be pretty agressive about cutting in lines; don't feel guilty about body-blocking little old ladies, cause they have no problem taking advantage of tourists to cut half a line. Shabbat is less dramatic in than the rest of Israel, but things like pharmacies and super markets close on Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, which can be important to keep in mind. Finding restaurants and bodegos ("makolet"s) open during Shabbat is very much neighborhood dependant.
 * Get around, Moniot Sherut, Safety, Cultural differences - I added most of your suggestions to this page.
 * Taxis, Eat - I added your suggestions to Israel.
 * Gay scene - I added some of this, you are welcome to go ahead and remove mentions of clubs that have closed.
 * Clubbing - feel free to add that, I'm not enough of a partier to know about it :)
 * In general, you seem to be thoughtful and literate enough that I would recommend you go ahead and edit what you think is appropriate :) The rest of us can edit after the fact as needed. Ar2332 (talk) 23:37, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

Weblink on spam list
I just tried archiving the stuff on this talk page that is six years and older and was told that this action is not possible as there is a link that is on the spam blacklist. (Apparently it has been added since being first posted here). Should we remove that link? Or should we disable the filter for the one edit of archiving the stuff as is? Whom should I tagg for this question? Hobbitschuster (talk) 01:17, 17 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Which link is it? (Post whatever you can that makes it recognizable and doesn't trigger the filter.) Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:01, 17 June 2018 (UTC)

Date-stamping / updating
Very few of the listings are date-stamped, tho from Talk it looks like most are from sometime around Lag BaOmer 5776 (is that the issue?) It's a huge destination which maybe needs, what, say a three-year renewal cycle? Update a third each year so it stays generally fresh and updating doesn't become too daunting a task? Anyhow I've made a start. Grahamsands (talk) 19:05, 28 December 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 13:54, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
 * ISR-HW20.png
 * ✅ ARR8 (User talk:ARR8 | Special:Contributions/ARR8) 16:20, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

New banner for eurovision 2019
City skyline at the banner is outofdate, how can I change the banner? —The preceding comment was added by 212.32.225.231 (talk • contribs)
 * Find an image you prefer, and post it here, and then the community can vote on the new banner. Thanks for asking! --Comment by Selfie City  ( talk  |  contributions ) 23:29, 4 April 2019 (UTC)

Day trip to Jerusalem
I wonder if information and suggestions for a day trip to Jerusalem could be added. Not concerning what to do in Jerusalem, but how to organize such a trip from Tel Aviv, which public transportation to use, time required, others useful hints, etc. Ppso (talk) 11:43, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Public transit in Israel shall cover it for you --Arseny1992 (talk) 12:09, 13 August 2023 (UTC)