TLV’s Kerem HaTeimanim, Shuk HaCarmel Among Time Out’s 50 Coolest Neighborhoods

The central Tel Aviv neighborhood of Kerem HaTeimanim and Shuk HaCarmel (Carmel Market) have been named to a list of the 50 coolest neighborhoods globally by the worldwide edition of Time Out magazine. The publication by the Time Out group also has regional editions in cities like Tel Aviv, Barcelona, London, Lisbon, and New York.

As part of the Time Out Index 2019 survey, the media group asked more than 27,000 city-dwellers across the globe about “the best, most overrated, and most undervalued neighborhoods in their home town” and then turned to Time Out editors and contributing writers in those towns to identify the neighborhoods with the most buzz.

“We wanted to know: are there great new venues opening? Can most people still afford to live there? Is it a place where travelers can discover the best of a city’s up-and-coming art, culture, food, and drink? And most importantly: does it instinctively feel like a neighborhood whose star is on the rise?” wrote James Manning, Time Out’s global projects editor.

The list includes recommendations for eating, drinking, and accommodation in each neighborhood.

Time Out calls Keren HaTeimanim (The Yemenite Vineyard) a “progressive hotbed of sun-chapped surfers, strolling Filipino caretakers, hungry foodies, global nomadic types and ageless Yemenites hawking home-cooked deliciousness straight out of their ground-floor kitchens.” The magazine explains that while the location’s smattering of quaint one-story buildings have been swapped out for sleek apartment complexes, “the Kerem’s authenticity has remained, flanked on one side by a glittering stretch of Mediterranean Sea and on the other by the sprawling Shuk HaCarmel: Tel Aviv’s best known market and the neighbourhood’s coolest hangout.”

The magazine recommends grabbing some “bourekas sartanim,” a puff pastry filled to bursting with blue crab meat, at HaBasta (The Stall), throwing back shots of arak at HaMinzar, and checking out the Nachalat Binyamin Artists’ Market on Friday, which is parallel to the area.

Nadav Neuman, the deputy editor of Time Out Tel Aviv, recommends staying in Hotel Nordoy, a stunning location built in 1925, which displays the White City’s pristine Eclecticist architecture and features a rooftop spa and a “killer Israeli breakfast.”

The overall list’s top spot went to the Arroios neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal, which earned first place for its diversity and historical treasures. Ranked as the second coolest neighborhood in the world is Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa neighborhood, which “packs a hip vibe, a countercultural legacy of underground cool and a whole lot of street cred.” In third place, the historic district of Onikan in Lagos was touted for being an “architectural catalog of the city’s history.”