Tel Aviv, the Nonstop City, this year gained another less welcome epithet: the world’s most expensive city. But for visitors looking to enjoy Tel Aviv’s striking diversity, its ceaseless energy and its unique vibe on a limited budget, there’s a solution to hand. The Spot Hostel in north Tel Aviv offers modern, comfortable, clean and remarkably low-cost accommodation in the very center of the city.
“Our thinking was that people come to Tel Aviv to experience the city, not for the mini-shampoos, bathrobes and complimentary slippers,” says The Spot ’s marketing director Naama Shviki. “So we’ve dispensed with the standard hotel extras and provided a place where singles, couples, families and small groups can lay down at night, after experiencing the joys of the city .”
In practice, this thinking translates into 89 rooms of different types and grades — private single, double and family rooms, dorms that accommodate four to 12 people, and individual pods or capsules — all with lockers, air conditioning, WiFi, USB and power outlets (EU). Shared facilities for The Spot’s 250 guests include a lobby which operates around the clock, work space, kitchen and laundry room, screening room and stage, a hip bar serving 40 different kinds of beer, open each day from 4.00 pm to both guests and locals, and an enormous outdoor terrace on the banks of the Yarkon River with room, where over 150 people can gather comfortably.
This, says Shviki, is what you leave each morning and return to each evening. “The Spot’s location marries old and new, city and nature, and has something to offer something everyone.”
Just steps away from it are Dizengoff Street, shopping and entertainment, bars and restaurants, culture and family-friendly attractions. There are beaches — for the whole family, for the LGBT community, for dog-lovers, gender-segregated, and more. There’s Tel Aviv’s answer to New York City’s Central Park, the Yarkon, with its river, bikers and walkers, babies in strollers and dogs on leashes, barbecues and picnics, bird sanctuary and petting zoo. And there’s the beautifully restored Tel Aviv Port, one of the city’s hottest spots, replete with restaurants, cafés, bars, nightclubs, concert and event spaces, playgrounds and shopping, and a covered market showcasing Israeli produce and prepared foods.
And this is no more than the beginning. Try TLV Nights, a 3- to 5-hour Thursday pub crawl, in which The Spot’s guests visit some of the best nightlife spots around and connect with locals and other tourists. Or sample the twice-weekly Story of a City graffiti tour, which combines original work by leading Israeli street artists with augmented reality technology to tell the stories of the people who have made Tel Aviv what it is today. Sign up for a gold-smithy course or cookery workshop, a shuk-eat culinary tour in the Carmel Market, paragliding, Segway riding or surfing, bike tours or urban climbing, an ArtSpace Tel Aviv artist studio visit or a Bauhaus exploration.
Or, smiles Shviki, you can just stay close to home. “The preserved building which houses The Spot began life as a concert hall in 1936, where the Palestine Symphony Orchestra (later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) played Brahms, Rossini, Schubert and Mendelssohn under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, hailed by many as the greatest conductor of all time, in its first ever public performance on December 26.”
The Spot’s latest incarnation as an upmarket hostel dates to 2019, a week before Israel hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. “We were immediately booked solid,” says Shviki. “Ten wonderful months followed — until on March 15, 2020, the COVID pandemic shut down all Israel’s hotels. By the time we reopened three months later, the tourists were gone. So we reimagined The spot as an temporary living solution , Some guests came for a month or so…others for the whole time.”
In late spring, as the tourists returned, The spot reverted back to a hostel, for guests from all over the world , from age 18 to 90 . when we opened the hostel on May 2019 “We expected our clientele to be in their late teens and 20s,” says Shviki, “but to our surprise guest from all ages choose to stay with us. The majority of our guests come from Europe, where hostel travel is a more familiar idea. All in all we’re buzzing!”
The Spot, it seems, has resoundingly hit the spot as a sleek, trendy and cool accommodation option in one of the world’s hottest (and costliest) cities.
Partnered with spot hostel in tel aviv
