Vibrant, brash, cosmopolitan Tel Aviv - Jaffa, Israel's major metropolis and country's business center. "The Hill of Spring" did not even exist until 1909, when a group of Jaffa residents moved north to build a new city on the sand dunes.

With its sidewalk cafes, fine museums, lovely parks and beaches, concert halls and theaters, elegant restaurants, chic shopping malls and boutiques, Tel Aviv was made for strolling and browsing. You can walk for miles along the beachfront promenade from the north of the city down to Jaffa passing Tel Aviv's luxury hotels and the striking new Opera Tower shopping and entertainment center.

The Carmel Market in the Yemenite Quarter is one of the biggest open air markets in the Middle East. Art galleries and craft centers abound, offering the finest in local and international creative talents.

Tel Aviv's cosmopolitan life-style is mirrored in the enormous number and variety of restaurants, from fast-food eateries to European-style coffee houses, from sidewalk cafes to elegant restaurants. Known as "the city that never sleeps", Tel Aviv offers visitors a host of evening options. Many of the clubs, pubs, discos and piano bars stay open till very late.

South of Tel Aviv is Jaffa, a city of the shores of the Mediterranean, today part of Greater Tel Aviv. Tradition has it that Jaffa was named after Japheth son of Prophet Noah (pbuh), who built the town.

The old city of Jaffa is today a truly eclectic mix: the traditional Mediterranean market town, the port (known for its fine fish restaurants), art galleries, up-market stores, the flea market - all comfortably coexisting only a stone's throw from Tel Aviv.