I only lived in Tel Aviv for two weeks but I developed a routine similar to my time spent living in Medellin, Colombia. Or the time I lived in London. Instead of green mountains surrounding my apartment I lived 50 meters from the beach in Tel Aviv.

At times I worked from my balcony overlooking the beach but in reality it never worked that well. The view and weather was just too distracting.

Instead of playing tennis like in Medellin, I rented a bicycle for the week where i’d ride up and down the boardwalk down to the old city of Jaffa.

The scene was always interesting.

The specifics:

• I rented a furnished, short term one bedroom apartment in the low season for US$65/day.  Its normally advertised at US$90 in the low season and as much as US$120 in the high season. The location was 50 meters from the beach but it also lay directly on the border between good and bad Tel Aviv. As in, I was a 2 minute walk from four star hotels but also a five minute walk from a strip club.  The apartment came with air conditioning, cable TV,32 LCD, DVD, Wireless internet, full kitchen with utensils, double stove, microwave, refrigerator, electric hot pot, bedroom with one full bed for two people, and a convertible sofa to full bed for two people.

• Other costs were my 2 week bike rental which ran about US$150 for a nice bicycle. If you’re smarter you’ll buy one but time equals money.

• While I was able to cook I mostly ate out which isn’t cheap. Budget US$5-$30 a meal for cheapies like schwarma and burgers to sit down meals at sit down restaurants.

• Nights out can get really expensive without the right connections. Figure in a US$10 taxi ride to the port for the cities best taxi and your spending $20/night alone just for transport. If you’re lucky enough to be let in a nice club you’ll be out another US$10 entrance at least. Then figure US$5-9 per beer. I was lucky. A few of my local friends would pick me up from my apartment and we’d get into a handful of clubs for free which they were always on the guestlist for.

My spending is very difficult to track for my two weeks but I would estimate my expenses at US$100/day.

Sample Daily Routine:

Below is sample of what I do each day. Of course I don’t do these things every single day at the exact same time and I only actually stayed for two weeks. But on a longer term basis it would look like this:

• 10AM – Wake up naturally without an alarm
• 10-11AM – Shower/drink coffee/read emails
• 11-12AM – work
• 12-1PM – Go out for a quick lunch
• 1PM-2:30PM – Ride bike along the beach
• 2:30-5:00PM – work
• 5-6PM – Go out for dinner
• 6-7:30 – relax (TV, wander outside, etc.)
• 7:30-1AM – socialize (hang out with friends, bars, clubs, etc.)

That’s just a sample no frills day. Sometimes i’d go exploring a bit in Jaffa’s old city while another day I might hang out with friends during the day. It was pretty unpredictable because I hosted different friends for most of those two weeks. It was a great couple of weeks after non-stop travel in Israel.

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