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Paul Goldman / NBC News Producer
A runner enjoys Tel Aviv beach's six-mile long promenade that runs from Old Jaffe to Sde Dov airport.
TEL AVIV – Israel doesn’t usually conjure up images of fun in the sun, but Tel Aviv’s beach front sure does.
The white sand beach, which runs about six miles long, from Old Jaffa to the Sde Dov airport in the northern part of the city, must be one of the most beautiful, interesting and bizarre beachfronts in the world.
For starters, it’s a runner's and biker’s paradise with a dedicated path running the length of the beach. It’s a kid-friendly, safe place that allows visitors to enjoy every sea sport imaginable including, kite surfing, wind surfing, surf boarding, kayaking and sailing.
But all the above can be found in most beach front cities around the world. What makes this beachfront so amazing is its unique and bizarre attractions.
One of Tel Aviv's landmark sites is the Gordon swimming pool built in 1956. It just went through a major renovation and is situated right next to the boat marina overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The Olympic-size open air pool has a unique feature – the water is drained daily and then refilled with fresh sea water pumped from one mile deep in the Mediterranean.
Paul Goldman / NBC News
The Gordon Swimming Pool at Tel Aviv's beach was recently renovated for a more modern look. The pool's water is drained and refilled daily from the depths of the Mediterranean Sea.
But the real action happens on the promenade.
How about dozens of men and women dancing the hora, a traditional folk dance where people hold hands and spin in a circle while loud music blasts over loud speakers, every Saturday right.
Not far away from the dancers you can hear a strange popping sound which gets louder and louder as you get closer. Here men and women are playing Israel's unofficial national sport called “matkot.” The game is similar to beach paddle ball. It involves players hitting a small black ball back and forth with wooden paddles without letting the ball touch the ground. The simple, but adrenaline-pumping sport is as great to watch as to play.
Paul Goldman / NBC News
A sign outside Tel Aviv's religious beach says, "Welcome to a public authorized separate swimming zone." It lists which days of the week men and women are allowed to swim at this section of beach and asks bathers to "Please keep modesty at the beach."
Continue north and you’ll see something else you are unlikely to find elsewhere. The Hilton beach has a closed off section dedicated for religious men and women who want to swim at the beach separately.
If you ask me, that is sort of contrary to why I go to the beach, but Israel has religious Jews who believe in modesty – so they have separate days for men and women to swim. Women have the beach to themselves on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday; men can swim there on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
While the beach is beautiful and the long promenade is accessible, clean and safe, my favorite part may be the people watching.
And Near Jaffa, right next to the crushing waves, I spotted two refugees from Sudan. One was sitting on a rock and the other was standing above him holding a razor giving his friend a haircut.
Paul Goldman / NBC News
Two Sudanese refugees take advantage of the scenery of the beach front near Jaffe to get a haircut.
I also saw a father and son holding a long rod with a circle at the end of it. Turns out they were holding a metal detector in search of valuables left behind by sun seekers.
Never mind the section of Hilton beach marked off just for dogs – and it's hysterical to watch the dogs cooling themselves in the Mediterranean.
And Tel Aviv just launched its own large-scale public bicycle-sharing system, like the one in Paris and other international cities, called Tel-O-Fun. There are 10 bike stations along the beachfront making it very easy and cheap to tour the coastline.
This past Saturday I ran the Tel Aviv half-marathon which started and finished on the promenade near Jaffa. The race had an incredible turnout – 25,000 runners came out to enjoy perfect weather in the race which included a full marathon, half marathon and 10K runs. That’s a huge number given the fact that Israel's population is about 8 million, with 400,000 residents in Tel Aviv.
Paul Goldman / NBC News
Sunset on Tel Aviv's scenic beach.
And I forget to mention another great feature Tel Aviv has to offer: its food. There are dozens of small quaint and independent restaurants and coffee along the shore line. Making the options endless for where to stop to eat or sip your favorite cappuccino.
Here’s to you, Tel Aviv.
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Yeah....big difference from the Gaza strip, that's for sure!
White sand vs White Phosphorus
For which the Gazans can blame themselves. Next time they vote perhaps they're better off electing a party that doesn't call for the annihilation of their neighbors.
ajax johnson, there is a huge difference between people who use suicide bombings of mentally challanged people and cut throats of innocent families, and people who protect themselves from these animals. You should EDUCATE YOURSELF and stop making sarcastic remarks.
onesmartcookie1 you do realize that you are stereotyping people from Gaza. Not everyone in Gaza are bad and not everyone in Israel is good. Israel doesn't try to have good relations with their neighbors instead they force Palestinians out of their homes and call them their own.
I think that is a very cool thing to have. I would love to go there some day.
Come to Israel where you have a 1 in 500 chance to be accidentally blown up in one of our many open markets targeted by suicide bombers on rare occasions. Don't worry, be happy.
or you can stay home like a scared little girl, live to be 150 and say, gee i've never done anything remotely exciting but at least i lived to 150.
i'll be there some day. count on it!
It is sad that people don’t get to see just how beautiful Israel is. I have been there a few times and I always came home wanting to go back. From parasailing to swimming with the dolphins there is something for everyone. Just the history of the country makes the trip worthwhile . Everyone should see this wonderful place. I will go back again.
Yeah, what a glorious history - 64 years of paranoia, hypocrisy, intolerance, and nearly continuous warfare. An embarrassment to the moral sensibilities of Judaism. The ultimate entitlement (and a catchy song lyric) : "God gave this land to me". Who couldn't make a similar and equally absurd claim?
@Eric the Well-Read: An obvious misnomer.
How about 64 years of being attacked form all sides by enemies seeking to wipe you off the face of the earth. Paranoia? I thought you said you are "well read". Imagine living in a house where your neighbors on all four sides attack you with bombs on an almost daily basis. Do you think you might be a wee bit suspicious of their intentions? Paranoid? Not in the least. Intolerance. Really? Again "well read" is about as far from reality as can be. Arabs in the Knesset. Ethiopians brought from the African continent to live among the other inhabitants of the country. Sudanese escaping slaughter to live in safety. All religious sites open to all people regardless of faith. Can you say the same when part of Jerusalem was under Arab control? Didn't think so. And I'll finish with your last claim. If you believe in the Bible then you know full well Israel was "given" to the Jews. Can you name me one other country where it is written in their history, or the history of billions of others, where God has given them land? I'll wait.
If you want to look the fool, keep posting idiotic statements like these. If you want to appear intelligent, keep your mouth shut and your hands off the keyboard.
@Eric the Well-Read
I have no problem with what you've said....but please change your name. You are not entitled to that moniker.
That is the last place on earth I would venture to see. I'd rather visit our own correctional penitentiary facilities here in the USA !
I would love to vist Israel. A number of members of my wife's family have been able to do so. I am well read on their history, having majored in that section of the world in my college studies, and being a student of world and religious history. On the comment of the religious and historical sites open to all people, that is true, unless they are a mosque, in which case then only the muslims can enter. I find that a shame, since the Dome of the Rock sits on a site holy to the Jews, (and the muslim claims that Mohammed went up into heaven from there are suspect, being too distant from his home at the time for any successful "night ride" he claimed to have made). At the end of the 1948 war, and again in the 1967 war, the Israelis did not force the local Palestinians out, they left because of propaganda on their own side, and the nations around them made them into permanent refugees. I realize some of you want to blame the Jews for the entire mess, but if you are honest with history, you simply cannot.
Justiceforall-3257287 I hope you get the opportunity to visit and stay in your correction facilities for a very long time. Your ignorance would be well suited for such a visit.
Onesdumbcookie1 the one that is blindly ignorant is yourself. Your Israel "does no wrong" mentality when the rest of the world thinks they do is proof enough of your bias and lack of knowledge. I am from that area, so I am the last person you want to lecture about the realities of living there. Keep smoking your pipe and wearing your horse blinders.
Justice, I suppose your Israel "does no right" mentality is does not prove "bias and lack of knowledge". BTW, where are you from? Just asking.
Sadder by far any that anybody could claim any humanity (I realize you don't say you do claim anything so noble of course) and yet you quietly ignore the dreadful inhumanities your ashkeNAZI governance imposes on the million-plusplus long-suffering human merely beings you lock up just along the beach at Gaza.
Gazans are every bit as much entitled to liberty.... but your 68 years of entrenched political myopia have sentenced them and yoursillyselves to prison for life.
When the Day of Reckoning arrives, your government will order the IDF to fire on you the citizens as well as those wretched folk in Gaza
@Xbonz its a little more like living in neighborhood where Israel has guns pointed at one neighbor (gaza) and then they steal one of their other neighbors houses(west bank). Israel doesn't want peace. They could get it if they really wanted
On Tel Aviv's anniversary, I mentioned on the webb what a nice place it is for young people (when bombs aren't going off of course). Someone commented that it is evil and that God should destroy it.
So there are many different perspectives. Mine is that it one of the most fun places in the world for people in their 20's (I was much older when I visited - several times - so not quite as much fun for me - but still very pleasant).
Maybe they can find a Jewish Snookie: Jewsie Shore.
And don't miss Jerusalem...where the Muslim call to prayer and the Christian church bells make beautiful music together.
I've gone for a run on that stretch between Jaffa and the beachfront restaurants. Day or night, it is an absolutely beautiful run.
I wonder if they have ammo stores along the beachfront?
No. Jews come there to get some rest from everything, including shooting. And for Arabs it's BYO suicide belt.
I attended an international conference in Israel, on the Eastern Mediterranean Tectonics, in 1976, in Hayfa.
I was impressed by the way Israel was claiming soil from rocky basalt fields by crushing the rocks and forming extensive citrus orchards and flower fields.
I visited The communal self sufficient communal farms; I was impressed with the land use law and agricultural research being carried out; highly integrated with US.
A new country being borne by scientific research and highly planned development programs; a unique being in formation. Technically with all her problems answered but one important problem confronted the new being, which was the social problem of integration with Arab population in Israel .
In my recent visit to Israel, I noticed that communal farms were privatized, land use law liberalized, Jewish state established as ethnic state.
Israel is an important political player in Middle East.
At the end of WWI, Middle East was restructured by Britain, France, Italy.
At the end of WWII, the new world order required the new structuring of the Middle East.
Israel is an important player in the new formation.
Hopefully it all works well and much desired global unity be created.
I do not not know where you got your Phd Doc, But you are missing one big element in your trash talking...
What happened to all poor palestinians? All the improvments you are talking about were made possible by virtually massacring palestinians and putting the rest in concentration camps.
Let me guess; You got your phd in online university? In about 2 weeks of study?
Abdallah, You're the only one talking trash here.
When you visited your promised land, my good doctor, I hope you didn't just turn a blind eye to the land that the chosen effing Few are still systematically stealing from the neighboring countries from which their (?your) ancestors stole an entire nation starting with Balfour at least 92 years ago. Your chosen land is armed with the latest in US WMD technology.... makes them and you every bit is inhuman as the US Govt itssillyself.... you and they have lost all our hearts and minds....and yours if you every had any.
If ever Israel finds its humanity, the world might start to listen
I love tel aviv so much. I am hoping to continue onto graduate school at Tel Aviv University, they have a great environmental science program.
Israel is one of the coolest places on Earth. What the Israeli have done is amazing. They have made oasis's out of the desert and grow just about any fruit and vegetable on earth with amazing results. The cutting edge technology used is being employed around the world helping people to feed themselves. The medical profession is also astounding too. People all over the middle east, including Iran used the medical facilities because they are some of the best on the planet. If you have not been to Israel then you should. It will amaze you what a country of 8,000,000 people have accomplished. Israel's land size is about the same size of New Jersey. Population is less that New York City. Just an awesome place.
"Libyans flock to beaches once preserved for Gadhafi elite" - msnbc
I see Israelis are not the only ones enjoying the water.
Should have known that this story will bring all Jew/ Israel haters running. If tomorrow they run a story that Israel has cured cancer and developed cheep, endless energy they will still screetch from the shadows "Damd Jews". But that's ok, we will still go on living and enjoing life. That is our ultimate revenge on all you haters out there.
Not true.. Israelis are good people behaving badly.
And bad behaviour usually draws criticism..
HELP!
The Tel Aviv Municipality has started a project to widen the promenade which will in fact take areas from the sand. The project has already started between Gordon and Frishman Beach. Much Concrete has been poured and a protest is arising to stop this madness from cutting the beach in half all the way to Dolfinarium beach.
Here is how you can help: like these pages : (hebrew )
Engllish:
come to the protest walk about every friday at 14:00. We meet at Frishman beach and walk towards the Dolfinarium.
This is ultra important.!! If you have any connections, think you can help - please do ! If you can write to the municipality or Mayor - That would be great.
This protest is also going to need the funds in order to go to court, so if you want to help- send a message to the facebook page. Thanks :-)