The bustling Carmel Market, the fashionable Nahalat Binyamin pedestrian mall and the Yemenite Quarter all start in Magen David Square, where Sheinken and King George connect with Allenby. It’s an area rich in history and offers diverse culinary and shopping experiences.

The market-pedestrian mall combo that is Carmel Market and Nahalat Binyamin (nicknamed Nahala or Ha’Nahala) is a wonderful mix of the old and down-trodden with the old and refurbished. The Yemenite Quarter feels as though it’s a century away from the beach, the nearby Allenby Street, and the rest of Tel Aviv altogether. These three attractions are best explored together, even though you can surely spend here more than one day.

The Carmel Market goes straight down from Allenby all the way to the Carmelit bus station near the sea. In the surrounding alleyways and streets you can find market stalls and niche shops selling eastern food, meat or spices.

Nahalat Binyamin is basically a two-part street, one is a pedestrian mall (Ha’Nahala) filled with a-la-mode cafés in charmingly designed old buildings and some absolutely superb gourmet restaurants. The atmosphere is jovial every day, but especially on Tuesdays and Fridays (10AM-5PM) when the ever-popular Crafts Market takes over and street performers entertain the passers-by. The other runs all the way south to Florentin, where you can go if you want to have a drink.

The Yemenite Quarter (nicknamed Ha’Kerem, short for the quarter’s Hebrew name: Kerem Ha’Teymanim) is a living breathing piece of history, one of the few truly old TA quarters that have not been gutted and replaced with newer buildings.

It all start in Magen David Square. This square can be nothing more than a space people walk through to get to one of the aforementioned destinations, but it can also come alive when people huddle around some singer songwriter who had known better days or young street artists who are looking for a break (and for a few of your spare shekels).