Gay Bars In Tel Aviv

The architecture of your evening out in Tel Aviv may progress from sundowner drinks to dinner to drinks at a smaller bar to drinks at another bar to dancing at a club or two before getting back to your hotel in time to turn off the alarm clock and pull the drapes against the rising sun. The “walk of shame” isn’t carrying your shoes at dawn after debauchery like in other cities—it’s getting home before dawn that is cause for embarrassment.

While nightlife is an integral part of the Tel Aviv identity, getting drunk is not. There is also a great deal of socializing in one another’s homes where groups of friends gather for dinner parties instead of hitting the clubs night after night. Much of the cast of characters you’ll see at gay bars is younger kids—those who haven’t yet moved out of mom and dad’s place and have no personal space of their own.

It is very easy for foreigners to crack the scene. Israelis love to talk to tourists. Bars with ironic names like “Rosa Parks” and “Betty Ford” are de rigeur here, so it’s no surprise that the scene is pretty irreverent as well and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Partiers spill out onto the sidewalks in most clubby neighborhoods and knots of friends drift from one bar to the next catching a pleasant buzz before the longer night ahead.

Tel Aviv doesn’t have many gay-specific businesses, but one bar/pub that has stood the relative test of time while others come and go, is understated little Evita. Its white painted brick walls and upholstered square panel décor exudes basement rec room familiarity, and the same pop music videos you’ll find in any bar in any city play while groups flop on couches and at tables in the glassed-in front patio. The staff is extremely helpful and will give you the rundown on where to go next. EVITA always has something going on, like a Eurovision Night on Sundays, karaoke on Mondays, drag shows on Tuesdays and more.

Elsewhere you can get gay hip hop or other beyond-pop genres at Ashmoret (Rothchild 10) or somewhere like Laika (Nachlat Benyamin 29) offers up a trendy mix of Berlin-chic, rivalling East London for arty projections and hipster disco.

Indeed, if you are looking for a gay map, advice or just to chill, check out the state-of-the-art LGBT Community Centre in the Gan Meir park, complete with excellent café-bistro.

Bears love BEEF (@ Triple Club, 58 Hamasger Street) on Thursdays. Boyling (@ Minus 1, Nahalat Binyamin Street 52) is a packed club on a Friday, the main night out in a Jewish week. And there are frequent Saturday parties at TLV Club (Old Port) with its two dance spaces and outdoor area.

To let off excess steam, visit Sauna City (Hashmonaim 113) or (Allenby 75). For outdoor fun by day try the gay bit of Hilton Beach, by night stroll in the cat-teeming Haatzmaut Garden, just north of the Hilton.

Grab a drink at Mishmish, a non-descript cocktail lounge with low-slung booths, DJ-spun music that ranges from 70s and 80s hits to current alternative rock, and good, solid drinks. It feels very covert and hidden away as you sink back into nooks to tipple. The polar opposite has to be Nanuchka, a loud, tchotchke-filled, Georgian-themed resto-bar where there is a line out the door, a bouncer wielding the velvet rope, and men and women jumping up on the bar to gyrate and dance to the music so loud the fillings will rattle in your teeth. It is a scenester haven with thrift shop mod style and crazy signature bar concoctions with too many sweet ingredients, assuring the laughing raucous crowd gets plastered quickly.

Cafe Lin on Ben Yehuda street is a favourite in the gay scene. Fancy some beach side fun, check out Chick beach bar on Gordon beach thats a good place to meet new friends.For a quiet drink and bite before (the menu is exclusively appetizers and desserts), or after the rest of your evening (they’re open until 4A.M. or “until the last customer is full and ready to go home,” says the chef/owner), Frida Kahlo is steps away from the bulk of bars and clubs in the Rothschild neighborhood. Deep red walls and deeper flavors make this cozy spot a nice way-station. Their signature drinks are wild with plenty of infused alcohols (jalapeno or pomegranate vodka and tequila anyone? Maybe both, mixed, with tiny peppers floating as a garnish?).

Up by the North Port, you’ll find bar after bar after lounge along the boardwalk. One of the most popular is the Whisky a Go Go, like most clubs it has a mixed clientele, gay/straight/men/women with a multi-level bordello vibe and a chain-smoking, hip shaking crowd. With nowhere near enough dance floor space, groups of friends just dance where they stand.

Let's Go Clubbing - Tel Aviv Gay Clubs

While there aren’t a lot of permanent, seven-nights-a-week GLBT spots, there are long-standing club nights at different locales any night of the week. Some happen weekly, some once a month, and all are well attended with lines out the door.

The scene revolves more around what the locals call ‘Party Lines.’ These are recurring Gay Nights thrown by individual party promoters at straight clubs. Held usually at Oman 17, 1bar and TLV Club. PAG is a very popular one. These usually run on Friday and Saturday nights.Every night, the party moves to a new hotspot, and the result is a feeling that it’s always “the best night of the week.”

Some of the most popular Lines right now are Big Boys (for men over 30), Beef Jerky and Shirazi/FFF Group which hosts international celebrity DJs at one of Tel Aviv’s megaclubs, Ha’Oman.

For bigger, clubbier places try Zizi Tripo (Karlibach 7) which has a gay night featuring pretentious electroclash performances and a joyously unpretentious pop room or
Tel Aviv’s first bear club night, Beef (Triple, Hamasger 38) where the buff leather clad boys serving drinks, and a darkroom, reel in a hirsute crowd. Among the many choice phrases we picked up in Hebrew, it‘s worth learning the terribly polite “Slee-kha” for “excuse me”. Then, if you’re lucky, you might hear it followed up with “Ma slee-kha, teet pashet”, which is more or less “what excuse me? Take off your clothes”.

Every other Thursday night, Pop Ring is a pop music dance club for queers 18 and over while the same producers present Big Boys, often with famous DJs, for those aged 29+. Both these popular parties happen at the Theatre Club, a big open theatre space with the seats removed, a balcony, lasers, projection screens, smoke machines, and two bars. Changes of season bring an ebb and flow for club nights, and locales for most others change regularly, so you’ll want to stop into the gay center or check online resources before you jump in a cab to be sure things are open when you plan to party.

Club Barzilay is another alternative space that hosts clubs every night with lots of gay nights sprinkled through their calendar. Any given week you’ll find LGBT club nights in Tel Aviv as well as a roster of mixed club nights as long as your arm.

One of the higlights of the season are Friday Nights at Tel-Aviv’s Hilton beach – notoriously known as the gay beach – for a crowded underground party. A spontaneous queer gathering that has been known until recently only to only a small group of people.

The nocturnal beach parties have been running for more than four years.It started out as a birthday celebration but it was too much fun to keep it only to ourselvesnow has grown into a must-do party when in the city. The gathering starts around midnight, everybody is obliged to donate alcohol for an open free bar, people bring their own mats and towels, swimming is at your own risk (naturally no lifeguards are around at this hour).

The absence of any music or significant party atmosphere makes this party stand out among the busy gay scene of Tel-Aviv. It is very sexy but yet very naive. People actually have a chance to converse with each other, while out in the water the talking quickly evolves into acts. This is Oren and Cleo’s idea of an ‘alternative’, although they stress that sex isn’t the main theme.

The Hilton parties are exactly what makes Tel-Aviv so cool. They always seem effortless, they celebrate the city’s most astonishing public domain and attract very handsome guys from different ages and nationalities, in their tight speedos. One participant recalled that the general atmosphere is as if ‘everybody came to the beach and someone turned off the light’. For more details look for Oren & Cleo’s group on Facebook: ‘Midnight beach party of Tel Aviv‘