Hertzeliya's New Tayelet

Hertzeliya is like a second home to me.  It’s where I remember spending long, hot days reading and lazy evenings eating and watching TV with family over the summers.  Its beaches are the ones I frequented as a child, eating Glidat Ariyeh (an Israeli ice cream chain) and splashing in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.  I remember walking to my uncle’s house, which was nearby, to play with my cousins.  I still have images of being woken up by my parents outside my grandmother’s apartment after long car rides from various places.  The nostalgia is almost overwhelming.

But thankfully, nostalgia is not the only sensation I feel when visiting Hertzeliya.  On a recent visit, I had the chance to visit the new tayelet (pedestrian walkway).  It was refreshing and rejuvenating to see the beautiful addition to the already amazing town. Not only is the tayelet attractive and fun, but so are the seemingly endless new restaurants and bars that line it.

Bars along the new tayelet in Hertzeliya

I liked the tayelet so much that I ended up visiting it three times in two days.  After the initial visit, I re-routed my running course so I could run along it and then decided to visit a bar that sat alongside it later that same evening.  It was all perfect… the first visit full of wonderment and excitement at the new construction, the first run along it which felt less rushed and hectic than my runs in busier and more crowded Tel Aviv, and the first experience at a bar on a cool Israeli eve.

Picking a bar wasn’t too difficult—Doug and I spotted our evening destination (whose name I can’t remember!) earlier during our run and chose it because it had lush and comfortable-looking seating.  We snuggled up on a cozy cabana facing the ocean and ordered a couple of beers.  The bar played relaxing, mellow music, a pleasant change from the over-loud club music often played in city bars.  We talked, laughed, and dozed (well, I dozed, anyway), simply enjoying the chance to relax while watching the waves break and crash ashore.

Snuggled up on a cabana

Despite my love for Tel Aviv and the fact that I’m a city-girl at heart, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d be willing to hop on a bus from Tel Aviv to Hertzeliya any day of the week simply to visit the tayelet and frequent the establishments along it.