WALKABOUT TEL AVIV: TEL TO TOWERS

From ancient port to global hotspot, Tel Aviv is a city built on layers—of history, architecture, culture, and flavor. Join renowned tour guide Gila Levitan for an eye-opening four-part virtual journey that takes you far beyond the guidebooks. Each session uncovers a different dimension of Tel Aviv’s evolution, blending past and present with stories, sites, and street-level discoveries you won’t find on your own.

 

History – Jaffa: Belle of the Seas

Wednesday, August 13, 7:00 pm ET (online)

Perched on a hilltop overlooking the Mediterranean, Jaffa has enchanted conquerors, pilgrims, and poets for millennia. Shai Agnon once called her “the belle of the seas,” and from the ancient Egyptians to Richard the Lionheart to Napoleon Bonaparte, rulers across time have vied for this coveted port city. As we wander Jaffa’s cobblestone streets, we’ll uncover layers of history etched into stone, alleyway, and arch, from the bustling Flea Market to the hidden courtyards and secret passageways that whisper of centuries past.

Yet Jaffa is not only a relic of history, it’s alive with vibrant change. As gentrification reshapes its ancient contours, we’ll explore how the past is woven into the present through modern design, art galleries, and urban renewal projects like the light rail. From the Greek Market to the Maronite churches, Jaffa remains a multicultural crossroads, an ideal launch point for our journey into Tel Aviv’s soul. Let your curiosity lead you through its labyrinthine alleys, where every corner may reveal a treasure or tale you didn’t expect.

 

Culture – Foundations: From Colonies to City Streets

Wednesday, September 17, 7:00 pm ET (online)

As residents of 19th-century Jaffa grew restless within the city walls, they looked outward—and began building the future. Our path traces the earliest breakaway neighborhoods: the serene charm of the American and German Colonies, with their red-roofed houses and tree-lined lanes, to the artistic enclave of Neve Tzedek, the first Jewish neighborhood established outside Jaffa.

This session captures the essence of Zionist vision: the dream of building a Hebrew city by the sea. We’ll walk the path of the early
aliyot (Jewish immigrations) and track the founding of Tel Aviv on April 11, 1909, a date that would mark a turning point not just in city planning, but in Jewish modern identity. Inspired by Herzl’s utopia “Altneuland” (Old New Land), Tel Aviv became a physical and symbolic embodiment of old hopes and new beginnings.

We’ll follow the footprints of poets like H.N. Bialik, who once described Tel Aviv as “a small town with few people,” and trace how it evolved into a buzzing center for startups, street food, and creative culture. Traversing Park HaMesila, the former Ottoman railway line turned green promenade, we move through eclectic Florentin and bustling Levinsky Market until we arrive at Rothschild Boulevard, the pulsing heart of the modern city. This is Tel Aviv in motion: layered, expressive, and unapologetically alive.

 

 

Architecture – Built to Tell: Tel Aviv in Architecture

Wednesday, October 22, 7:00 pm ET (online)   RESCHEDULED

Tel Aviv’s skyline tells a story if you know how to read it. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city boasts over 4,000 Bauhaus-style buildings, earning it the nickname “The White City.”  But the architectural narrative begins even earlier, with the eclectic architecture of the 1920s, which blended European styles with local materials, Middle Eastern arches, and ornamental flourishes.

In this session, we’ll trace Tel Aviv’s built identity from its earliest stylistic experiments to its modernist aspirations. We’ll visit icons like the Rothschild kiosk, the site of everyday interactions and coffee-fueled conversations; the former municipality building in Kikar Bialik, a relic of civic pride; and the wide boulevards lined with clean, functional Bauhaus façades, influenced by European émigrés fleeing fascism.

We’ll also explore Tel Aviv’s later embrace of modernism and new urbanism, where glass towers now rise beside low-rise heritage homes. Architecture here isn’t just aesthetic, it’s political, personal, and prophetic. Each building is a window into the dreams and dilemmas of a city that’s always looking forward, yet grounded in its past.

 

Flavor – Markets & Migrations: A Taste of Tel Aviv

Wednesday, December 3, 7:00 pm ET (online)

They say you can’t truly know a city until you taste it—and Tel Aviv proves that food is its most eloquent storyteller. In this flavorful finale, we’ll explore how immigration, innovation, and cultural fusion have created a vibrant culinary mosaic.

Our journey begins in Sarona Market, a sleek food hall nestled within the restored buildings of the German Templar colony of Sarona. Here, we’ll trace the legacy of European settlers who brought new farming techniques, architectural styles, and a vision of utopian community life. The contrast between Sarona’s historical roots and its contemporary gourmet revival highlights the city’s genius for reinvention.

Next, we’ll cross the Ayalon Highway to the Hatikvah Market, less polished, more authentic, and utterly bursting with life. This market tells the stories of Jews from Yemen, Iraq, Turkey, Bukhara and beyond who brought their spices, recipes, and resilience to Israel’s shores. With every bite of kubaneh, lachuch, or sambusak, we’ll trace the migrations that built Tel Aviv’s neighborhoods and identity.

This session is a sensory celebration, a chance to experience history through aroma, texture, and flavor, and to understand how food unites us, roots us, and keeps our stories alive.

 

About our guide, Gila Levitan

After moving to Israel in 2005, Gila Levitan pursued her career in Physiotherapy and also studied for a Masters in Public Health from Hebrew University. After working in Health Policy Research she decided to become a licensed tour guide in order to pursue her passion for exploring and travelling around Israel. Gila loves to travel all over the world and brings the knowledge and experience of a well seasoned traveller to her explanations. Gila is very curious and likes to know all the little details and being a guide enables her to teach people about a place that she loves. Gila has a passion for languages, not only does she speak Hebrew fluently but has picked up bits and pieces of Arabic to understand local culture better, she also has basic French. Gila loves to add touches of local culture to her tours, off the beaten track places and local delicacies -the best way to travel she believes is to taste new flavors and make new friends. Gila is proud to have been awarded the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for the past five years in a row.

 

 

Tel Aviv Series Flyer

 

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