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Written: 1 december 2010
Travel time: 12 — 19 november 2010
Who does the author recommend the hotel to?: For business travel
Your rating of this hotel:
7.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 8.0
Service: 6.0
Cleanliness: 8.0
Food: 6.0
Amenities: 7.0
We stayed at this hotel in November 2010.
The hotel is positioned as the best in Tel Aviv.
The hotel is really good, but there are a few points to consider when planning a trip.
Arrival. We did not plan to book a luxurious room and chose a room for $ 370 per night, i. e. average in price. I want to say right away that it was better to pay a little extra and live in a room with access to VIP services. So we lived in Eilat - and everything was fine. But we went to Tel Aviv for treatment and thought it was worth saving.

Check-in - a kind girl at the reception offered us a room with or without a balcony. We agreed to have a balcony. We went up to the room - it was built at an angle, the balcony was ugly, separated from the others by a glass partition... We looked at the hotel's website on the Internet - this room is cheaper than the one we ordered for several hundred dollars. They did not scandalize - they returned and said that such a number would not work. We settled in the booked room without a balcony, but much better than the first one. But the unpleasant aftertaste from the deception of the staff remained.
The second - at the reception upon check-in, they demand to block $ 1.050 on a plastic card as a deposit. We offered, as in all hotels, a cash deposit, but the administrator insisted on a card. As a result, more than a week has passed since the return to Russia, and the money on the card has not yet been returned.
Another point that we appreciated already on the first day - all hotel rooms overlook the sea, but between the sea and the hotel is one of the busiest highways in Tel Aviv - until late at night you can hear the noise of cars and sirens of emergency services, and double-glazed windows do not save.
If you want silence overlooking the sea, choose hotels located to the north along the promenade, where the road leaves the sea and passes behind the hotels.
To the sea from the hotel you need to walk 300 - 500 meters. Municipal beach - sun loungers and an umbrella for 10 shekels. (Roughly, we considered the shekel equal to 10 rubles, i. e. for 2 - 300 rubles. ). The sea in November was 25 degrees - the Jews no longer swam - it's cold for them. In general, in November it starts to rain in Tel Aviv, but we were lucky with the weather - it was sunny, the air temperature was about 30 degrees during the day.
If you choose the David InterContinental hotel for your vacation, keep in mind that it is positioned more as a hotel for business tourism. Of course, there are eccentrics, like us, who wear shorts for breakfast and jeans for dinner, but the main part of the public came to work - all in suits and outfits from famous couturiers. How comfortable it will be to relax among such an audience - decide for yourself, or adjust and take costumes so as not to stand out in the crowd.

Meals at the hotel are kosher - no meat for breakfast, no dairy for dinner and lunch. Another touch - at breakfast in the restaurant there are a lot of Russian-speaking staff - they will prompt everything and help in the choice, although why prompt at the buffet (which is no different from other five-star hotels). But for lunch and dinner, you either need to know English, or stock up on a phrase book. There is not a single Russian-speaking staff in the restaurant, the menu is in Russian, too, there are no pictures of dishes (as in Thailand). Everything is more expensive in the hotel than in the city by 1.5 times.
We ate dinner and lunch at the hotel three times - the rest of the days we ate on excursions, in the hospital or in restaurants near the hotel. About a kilometer north of the hotel, on the beach, is the London restaurant, which has Russian-speaking staff and a menu in Russian. Nearby are several restaurants where they speak Russian.
The hotel is located near Jaffa - about a kilometer south along the promenade. If you go to the city center from the hotel in 3 blocks - the oriental bazaar. We bought several kilograms of pomegranates - brought them to Russia - a third turned out to be spoiled (with rot and worms), the rest were unripe. And they looked great on the counter.
However, other fruits were of good quality and at a normal price.
Prices in Israel for everything are 2 times higher than in Russia and Europe. Shopping is not recommended. Bring only souvenirs from Israel.
Excursions - a sightseeing tour of Tel Aviv is interesting, but depends on the guide and ends at the diamond exchange. Since we were interested in serious stones, we met one of the owners of this business. If anyone is interested, we can tell you more. . .
Excursions to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea - you need to visit once, the second time is no longer interesting. We thought it was a wasted day for us.
There are many monuments in Tel Aviv. Near the hotel there is a stone in memory of 21 young people who died at a Russian disco in the early 2000s, during an explosion arranged by the Arabs.
Arabs are a different story. There are many of them, but they are quiet. We were during the Kuyram-Bayram holiday. Along the entire embankment, the Arabs made sacrifices and grilled meat on the grills. Very interesting, and if you come up, they can treat you.

Near the hotel are the Arab quarters. On the evening of the first day we went for a walk and got lost there. Feeling like in a horror movie. There are no people, the area, as if extinct. Peculiar architecture. Indescribable smells (we ended up in the bazaar area). Extreme.
Summary. The hotel is decent, but there are some drawbacks. If you want to relax, it is better to go to Eilat, Tel Aviv is not very suitable for tourists, it is called the business capital of Israel and corresponds to this name.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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