Chasing the Fionist Dream

Hey friends. It’s great posting again! We know it’s been a while. Life gets in the way. It’s been a busy summer, full of camp, daytrips, and spending time with family and friends. This summer, Finn’s dad, Sabba, offered to fund a family trip away for a few days, similar to the one we did in Haifa two years ago. All we had to do was arrange accomodations, food, and activities for 9 people for under 15,000 shekels. (Thank you, Sabba. We love you.) As always, make sure to read to the end to find out how much we actually spent.

Despite the heat, we originally chose Eilat, since Finn’s sister and her family had never been. We booked a villa with a pool and looked forward to essentially living in it. Then cirucumstances and dates changed, and Eilat became less feasible. Someone mentioned our Sukkot trip to Bat Yam four years ago, and we thought “why not?” and booked two nights in a penthouse on the Bat Yam boardwalk. While it had no private pool, it was on the beach and even had a hot tub. 🙂

So, what did we do? What was it like? And how much did it all cost us?

Day 1 – Jewish Heroes, jacuzzi, jumping and climbing

We got off the train at the Tel Aviv Univeristy station around 10 am. We hopped on a bus for two short stops and met Finn’s dad and sister and her family at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People. We love this museum and had been there together two years ago, but we had never taken our kids there. It was a great first stop on this trip because it had a luggage storage room, which was perfect for us since we could only check into our Airbnb that afternoon.

We spent about an hour wandering around the museum’s regular exhibits.

We learned about how the Jewish people were kicked out of Israel and ended up all over the world.

The kids particularly liked the Jewish cooking exhibit, where they got to virtually prepare Jewish foods from around the world.

We then stopped for a snack before heading into our pre-booked main event – a special exhibit for kids about Jewish heroes throughout history.

They got to swim like Mark Spitz, shoot down enemy planes like Lydia Litvyak, decipher code like the great Jewish spies of history, as well as many more activities.

Next, we headed down to the museum cafeteria for lunch, and then hopped on a bus to Bat Yam. We relaxed in the jaccuzi, admired the view, had pizza for dinner and put away our grocery delivery.

We ended the evening with a visit to the same huge playground we visited back in 2022.

Day 2 – Up, down, and around: Water, ice, and water again

As the saying goes “There is no such thing as vacationing with children, only parenting in a different city.” Just like in 2022, we started the day with an early breakfast and found ourselves at the beach at 7:30 am, along with all of the local retirees. 👵

We then quickly rinsed off, got dressed, and hopped on a bus to the 10:30 slot we had booked at Ice Peaks in Holon. Our family had skated a year ago in Cyprus, but the best part by far was seeing Sabba elegantly glide across the ice with a big grin on his face. Apparently his last time ice skating was 30 years ago in New York. We couldn’t tell. 😉

When our slot ended, we headed out to nearby Park Peres and wandered around. The kids played in the playground and we enjoyed our packed lunch. We found some cute amusement park rides and those who were interested got on.

From there, we headed back to the apartment, spent some more time in the hot tub, more time in the park, and ended the evening at Ruben Bat Yam, another branch of the same chain we enjoyed in Haifa.

Day 3 – Illusions and money in Tel Aviv

After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of our Airbnb. We took the light rail into Tel Aviv (Sabba marveled that it reminded him of the New York Subway) and jumped on a bus to the Tel Aviv Museum of Illusions at the Tel Aviv Port. Many of the exhibits were similar to the Paradox Museum we visited in Limassol, but others were different. We also had a great time posing for picures with our extended family.

After returning to reality, Finn’s sister and her family headed home and we continued to explore the Old Tel Aviv Port. We stopped at one of the two large playgrounds and enjoyed our picnic lunch. After that, we visited a free temporary exhibit run by Bank Hapoalim designed to teach kids about money. The best part was that it was airconditioned and we parents got to sit on a balcony and drink ice water while we watched friendly guides lead our kids through the exhibit below. Our kids learned all about how to earn money and then spend it. We were a bit disappointed that they didn’t seem to learn much about saving or investing, but…. 🤷‍♀️Our son loved it so much, that he kept asking to go back to Tel Aviv again just for that.

Costs

Our luxury 5 bedroom penthouse on the beach (with a jaccuzi) was the largest expense by far, at 9,206 shekels for two nights, including VAT.

We spent 1,392 shekels for activities for 9 people. We didn’t pay full price for anything and purchased all tickets through various discount clubs.

We spent 1,506 shekels on eating out and 705 on groceries.

In total, we (or rather Sabba), spent 12,809 shekels on this trip, with about 3/4 of that cost going toward our accomodations.

Conclusions and takeaways from the trip

This was a short and sweet trip, and not too far from home. We enjoyed exploring the Merkaz and making memories with family who we don’t get to see often enough. We recommend any of these activities as standalone day trips, which would bring the cost of exploring the Israel’s center way down. We had a great time.

What are your favorite activities in Central Israel?

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