Last update - 00:00 09/07/2007
New British guide to Tel Aviv published by Phaidon and Wallpaper
By Ira Rosen
Phaidon publishing house, in cooperation with the prestigious design magazine Wallpaper, has published a new City Guide to Tel Aviv in the series of pocket guides called "The fast-track guide for the smart traveler." The guidebook, which according to the publisher's Internet site is aimed at the design-conscious "discerning traveler who wants a true taste of the best a city has to offer," is divided into nine sections that are a bit out of the ordinary. One of them, for example, suggests how to spend 24 hours in Tel Aviv, starting with breakfast at the Manta Ray restaurant, through a visit to Neveh Tzedek, a lunch of organic humus at Abba Gil, the obvious tour of the streets of the White City and, to end the day, coffee at Cafe Pua in the flea market.
The guidebook is very handsome and easy to use. Despite its modest dimensions (16 X 11cm) it contains a good 100 color photos of sites that are described. The front cover opens to an impressive panoramic photo of Tel Aviv, on which street names and major sites are marked to make getting around easier. The back cover also opens, to a map of the city between Old Jaffa and the Tel Aviv Port, which presents the Dizengoff area on a more detailed map.
The guidebook focuses on eight major areas of Tel Aviv, each of which has a color of its own. In this way tourists who are not familiar with the city (and also people who aren't tourists) can easily figure out in which area a site is located and what other sites are nearby. In addition to information about shops, interesting buildings and nightlife, the British guide has some essential information like the phone numbers of embassies and car rental companies and average estimates of the cost of living in pounds Sterling (which look a bit too expensive): For example, nearly NIS 20 for cafe au lait; it could be that the authors of the book are preparing visitors for the "tourist prices" they might be paying at some places). At the back of the book there are, as usual in other guides and day-planners, empty pages for writing notes, sketches and other information that comes the tourist's way during the course of the visit.
"Wallpaper Tel Aviv City Guide" can be purchased for NIS 57.50 at Soho stores, which appear in the book in the category of design shopping.