BEFORE YOU GO…
Currie Co. Travels
Atlanta-based luxury travel veteran Betty Jo Currie and her team of well-traveled agents can create a full itinerary based on your interests, abilities and budget, from hotel stays and restaurant reservations to custom art and architecture tours.
Go Israel
The country’s official guide on what to do and where to go can offer suggestions by interest (culture, history) or region, as well as what to know about weather, safety and money.
Ayelet Nahum is the guide to culinary Israel, leading ultra-insidery eating and drinking tours throughout the country with a hyper-focus on Tel Aviv, where she spent time as a chef.
TEL AVIV
Eat:
Dr. Shakshuka
A Friday afternoon favorite with plenty of outdoor seating in the eclectic Jaffa neighborhood. The Libyan-born chef-owner serves up variations on the spicy egg and tomato breakfast dish all day long.
Ha’achim
Order up a family-style mezze platter—hummus, roasted aubergine and cheeses and more—at the casual neighborhood favorite.
Ha Salon
Possibly overpriced (but tons of fun), celebrity chef Eyal Shani’s fourth venture is as tomato-focused as his earlier efforts and becomes a dance party after 10 p.m.
Stay:
The Norman
The centrally located boutique hotel, near the city’s Rothschild Boulevard, has all the comforts you’d expect in two charmingly restored, circa-1920s buildings.
Shop:
Levinsky Market
Five blocks of spice shops, bakeries, fish stores, marzipan factories, dairies and more in southern Tel Aviv. Don’t leave without a boureka from Penso and a soda from Café Levinsky 41.
Carmel Market
Open air shopping near the hip Neveh Zedek neighborhood.
ACRE/ HAIFA
Eat:
Uri Buri
Creative seafood along the Mediterranean from one of Israel’s most pioneering—and conscientious—chefs, Uri Jeremias.
Tishbi Estate Winery
About an hour from Tel Aviv in the Haifa District, the family-run winery produces about a million bottles annually. Go for a tour, chocolate-and-wine tasting and a leisurely lunch served al fresco.
Stay:
Efendi Hotel
Uri Jeremias’ 12-room boutique hotel in the middle of an Arab village offers Ottoman design, views of the Mediterranean and easy access to Uri Buri restaurant a few steps away.
JERUSALEM
Eat:
The Eucalyptus
Chef Moshe Basson’s acclaimed kosher restaurant, on a cobblestoned street in the city’s Artists’ Colony, serves cuisine based loosely on foods of the Bible—wheat, barley, olive oil, figs, honey, pomegranates, freekah. A must: Basson’s famous makloubah, a rice, chicken and vegetable casserole with saffron and almond yogurt.
Stay:
Mamilla Hotel
Luxury lodgings where old Jerusalem meets new, with a rooftop restaurant and bar featuring wines chosen by the country’s youngest sommelier, Oz Korenberg.
Shop:
Machne Yehuda
Take a tour or workshop, or just spend hours browsing the stalls full of spices, cheese, baked goods, fresh produce and more.
