Vegan Voyage The Holy Land
Thank you for joining Vegan Voyage The Holy Land where we tour Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and some awesome surrounding areas!
We, Seyka and Brian, are on a 21 country vegan voyage over 5 months to enjoy vegan food from all parts of our planet, connect the vegan community, spread the vegan mission, report plant based news, create ethical consumer guides, and have a blast while doing it.
Country eleven was Vegan Voyage Egypt.
Country twelve is The Holy Land!
Country thirteen is Hungary!
Vegan Voyage The Holy Land Overview
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were easy to be in, very fun cities with lots of energy, there are people having fun around every corner, they are vegan friendly, and relatively expensive. Jerusalem has incredibly meaningful history that is important to people from all over the world. It has deep meaning and historical sites that have even atheists reporting feeling a deep spiritual connection while they are there.
Cost
The cost of living in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are quite high. You can use credit cards almost everywhere this is not a cash culture.
Getting around The Holy Land
Tel Aviv
There are electric scooters (like Lime and Byrd and other brands), rentable bikes, and public transportation. If you want to get out of the city away from public transportation there are daily car rentals that you can use as well.
Between TLV and Jerusalem
There is a cheap, fast bus that takes you between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. You can book this by googling “bus from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem”. It was a nice enough bus.
Jerusalem
Most of the things that we wanted to do in Jerusalem were walkable, outside of a tour that we did to awesome local sites like the Dead Sea and Masada that I’ll tell you guys about soon!
What to Wear in The Holy Land
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are incredibly diverse cities. It feels like there are people from every religion, skin color, background, and home country. The dress is very casual. Some people are covered from head to toe, but mostly people are walking around in tank tops, crop tops and shorts in the hot months.
In Jerusalem it is useful to bring more modest clothing that you can wear to holy sites, but even if you don’t have your shoulders or cleavage covered they have covers that you can borrow for free to enter the sites.
Vegan Voyage The Holy Land Lodging
Hotels in Tel Aviv
We booked our hotel a bit late for getting to TLV. I recommend booking a while before arriving so you can get a great place. The prices were pretty high when we visited, so we opted for a budget hotel that still had all the amenities we needed. We booked at Residence 26. We were impressed with the room. The service was pretty bad, but we didn’t need to interact with the employees too often so it wasn’t horrible.
The location of Residence 26 was a concern as we read reviews saying that there were “druggies” in that area but they weren’t dangerous. We found that to be incredibly accurate. We witnessed very strange things like people doing hard drugs on the street, but they never bothered us or caused any trouble. We felt odd but safe. A few times I saw a child walking alone or a single young woman casually walking by herself at night. Seeing locals in those people groups feeling fine in this area made us feel even more safe, too.
Hotel in Jerusalem
We made a crazy decision and decided to get weird with our Jerusalem stay. We booked a cube at CapsuleInn Jerusalem. It was crazy, that’s for sure. The cubes themselves are pretty cool. You have a shared bathroom. My biggest concern was that there wasn’t a great secure area for our stuff. You can rent a locker with a key for an extra fee, which does the job. But the capsule’s don’t lock well and there isn’t any extra room for your luggage in your capsule if they did lock well.
You can’t beat the price or location though. So for a fun story and a unique experience, check it out.
Vegan Voyage The Holy Land Food
This was heaven. Strap in for a long list of heavenly food! These are not in order of favorites, they all have different styles so are great for different vibes.
Tel Aviv
416 is an AMAZING restaurant. I beg you to experience it. Each piece of the restaurant experience is designed as an art. The walls, the plants inside, the art, the music, each pieces that makes up the atmosphere is exquisite. This is a higher end restaurant great for date night, birthday celebrations, going out with the girls, going out with the guys, or any other time you can make up an excuse.
Cocktails (and mock-tails) are designed by real mixologists who put high quality ingredients together to create delicious drinks. They have homemade organic sodas as well.
Their menu is remarkable. When we were there they had a steak that they design and cook in house. It’s a tempeh dish cooked three ways and tastes fresh off the grill. The Caesar salad would win non-vegan awards.
I feel very confidant that this restaurant will exceed your expectations and I recommend that you bring your non-vegan friends so you can wow them with plant based options.
Another show stopper of a restaurant! Meshek Barzilay has so many delicious things on their menu we were in heaven! We also went back three times. Vegan cheeses, plates from around the world, mind blowing desserts like their award winning cheesecake, and so much more.
Meshek Barzilay has a grab-and-go bakery next door to the lovely sit-down dining restaurant. You can take lunch to go or relax on their indoor-patio.
This restaurant was also the very first vegetarian restaurant in Tel Aviv. It is now completely vegan and organic. We just love Meshek Barzilay.
Have we all died and gone to heaven? Nope, still alive, just heaven on earth with a completely vegan sushi restaurant with a full crazy menu of sushi rolls, appetizers, hot dishes and more.
We are totally in love with The Green Roll and would be back probably once a week if we lived in Tel Aviv. BRB, drooling.
This is the best pizza I’ve ever had. Should I stop right there? I probably don’t need to say more but I will:
This is a great place to go with a group of friends, or as Brian and I did, for a romantic greasy date night. They have two types of cheese, I recommend getting both cheeses on your pizza, but then again, other people enjoy going with the one-cheese pizza more. You pick your favorite toppings, and in a short period of time, you have cheesy-heaven on your plate.
Vivida Vegan
Vivida Vegan is a new restaurant in Tel Aviv and really worth the stop. People talk about Tel Aviv being expensive all the time. Vivida aims to bring healthy, wholesome, home made food to the community at a reasonable price.
The Vivida menu changes daily and rotates weekly. You can come in for a beautiful vegan meal that has been designed with nutrition in mind – each meal is looked over by a dietician! So the meals are nutritionally complete but don’t let that fool you into thinking that it doesn’t taste good – this is phenomenal food.
Vivida makes moves towards sustainability too – bring in your own to-go containers and you get a discount, no one-use straws, and more.
You can also buy some fun vegan items in a mini store that Vivida has so you can cook yummy plant based goodness at home too!
We ordered the Cheese Plate and Spicy Soba Salad at Anastasia. After we ordered we were told by multiple people these are the best dishes. And boy were they amazing!
If you are looking for a fun, relaxed environment with delicious vegan food, head over to 24 Rupee. It is a vegetarian restaurant with a vegan menu. They have fun Indian dishes and a rotating menu. You can grab a seat on the floor cushions and eat with your legs criss-cross applesauce.
Fun vegan fast food with a healthy twist – nothing is deep fried. They have great burgers, bowls, fries, and desserts!
This isn’t one restaurant – it’s a fun, social tour of many restaurants. We not only REALLY enjoyed the food, we also made friends, enjoyed a very entertaining evening of conversation, walked around Tel Aviv, and learned about other restaurants to visit outside of the tour.
We cannot recommend a tour more highly. This is an exceptional part of our trip to Tel Aviv and we are SO glad that we did it.
Kristof’s Creations
Kristsof has a food truck and much influence in Tel Aviv and in Budapest! In Tel Aviv you can contact him on Instagram @WhiteCityBoy and @YafoCreative for vegan cooking and eating experiences.
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is not the vegan haven that Tel Aviv is. There are some vegan friendly options at many restaurants. You can find them on Happy Cow!
We did not get to try Annamaja Foods but wish we had! It is a vegan homestay where you can enjoy incredible homemade meals!
Vegan Voyage The Holy Land To-Do
Tel Aviv
We had the magical experience of a class by Brielle, the owner. This was the best yoga class I’ve ever taken. I’m serious. The vinyasa flow hit all my needs: clear instruction, guidance through movement, breath, and spiritual experience, lovely music that complimented the speed of the exercise, and a great energetic experience in the room.
When you visit Tel Aviv don’t miss this studio.
When you are looking for an even sweatier workout, look no farther, Bikram Tel Aviv will make you drip, drip, drip. We went to a lovely class. It was taught in Hebrew and English. We loved this studio for hot yoga!
Entertainment plus dinner (and really, come hungry) – it’s a fun, social tour of many restaurants. We not only REALLY enjoyed the food, we also made friends, enjoyed a very entertaining evening of conversation, walked around Tel Aviv, and learned about other restaurants to visit outside of the tour.
We cannot recommend a tour more highly. This is an exceptional part of our trip to Tel Aviv and we are SO glad that we did it.
Tourist Israel Architecture, Vegan Food, Street Art Tour
We took a 6 hour tour with Tourist Israel where we looked at the architecture of this interesting city, nibbled on vegan food from the bustling market, and studied street art. This was great entertainment and we had an absolutely fabulous guide!
Jaffa Beach
A fun beach to lounge on, run by, play paddle board on, or jump in the water.
Walk down Rothschild
We spent so much time walking, biking, scootering down Rothschild. There are often people sitting on the grass talking, drinking coffee, eating a picnic lunch, playing with dogs and more. This is a fun, social, lovely part of Tel Aviv.
Meet up with Activists
Reach out to activist groups before you get to Tel Aviv to see if there are meetups that you can join. I recommend Vegan Tel Aviv Facebook group. We attended a Cube of Truth event and made some amazing friends. After holding a demonstration we all went out to get vegan pizza at The Green Cat! So happy we got to go to The Green Cat twice.
Jerusalem
Abraham Tours: Mt. Masada, Ed Gadi, Dead Sea
This tour with Abraham Tours was amazing. We highly recommend the Mt. Masada sunrise tour. You have to get up crazy early which isn’t fun, but the hike before sunrise is a really special experience, as is watching the sun rise over Masada and the Dead Sea.
Ed Gadi provides another place for a strenuous hike though not nearly as difficult as Mt. Masada. Brian and I are avid hikers and really enjoyed both hikes. Some people in our group were so tired from the first hike they skipped the second hike.
The Dead Sea is amazing. We heard some people saying that it is over rated and couldn’t disagree more. There are some locations to enter the Dead Sea that are better than others. The entry that Abraham Tours took us to was amazing. We got to lather up in the famous Dead Sea mud which is full of minerals that you can’t find anywhere else on the planet!
This is a fun filled day of hiking and seeing remarkable sites. The Abraham Tour did not provide much spoken guidance. I recommend either getting a guided tour or reading up on the sites before you get there!
This is a powerful and painful museum that describes the Holocaust. We spent 4 hours in it and easily could have spent many more hours or days there. Bring tissues and prepare for self care afterwards.
Free Walking Tour with Sandeman
We look into free walking tours in each city that we go to and often really enjoy them. You tip what you feel appropriate at the end of the tour.
Right in the downtown main area of Jerusalem where many of the stores, the bars, the high energy party place, shopping, etc. is, there is a fabulous nail salon called Nail Queen Express. You can make an appointment with them online or walk in to get your nails done. I’m so glad I went.
After The Holy Land we went on to country fourteen: Vegan Voyage Hungary
Stay in Touch with the Vegan Voyage
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For the sake of goodness,
Seyka & Brian
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