Nightlife in Israel

Israel after dark is caffeinated, Mediterranean, and stubbornly late. In Tel Aviv, the thump of house music seeps into Rothschild Boulevard from basement bars until 5 a.m.; in Jerusalem, stone alleyways echo with oud strings and clinking arak glasses. The country runs on a Thursday-to-Saturday party pulse, Thursday is the unofficial start of the weekend, so expect streets to fill around 11 p.m. and empty only when the first light hits the seafront. What ties the whole country together is the smell of charcoal-grilled meat and cardamom coffee that drifts out of every late-night kiosk, and the sound of Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English all arguing over whose turn it is to buy the next round. Interestingly, the nightlife clusters rather than sprawls. Tel Aviv hands you a dense grid of bars between Florentin and the port; Haifa spreads along the lower city's German Colony; Eilat corrals tourists into marina-front clubs that throb against the Red Sea. Jerusalem keeps its drinking discreet, look for the unmarked doors in the Armenian Quarter or the rooftop terraces above the shuk where you'll smell jasmine and hear distant church bells mingling with bass lines.