Get to and From Your Short Term Apartment Tel Aviv on a Bike!

If you are interested in renting a bike while visiting Tel Aviv, it is much easier these days than it used to be. First of all, there are public bikes near your short term rental apartment, so if you know you will be using a bicycle a lot, you might want to keep that in mind.

Also near your holiday rentals, there are a few bicycle rental companies in central Tel Aviv, such as O-Fun, located very close to the beach (as well as many hotels) on Ben Yehuda 197. You pay 60 shekels to rent a bike for a whole day, or 30 shekels for an hour.

But back to the public bikes and your short term apartments. In May 2011, the city of Tel Aviv also started a project inspired by public rental bikes available in many European cities, such as Amsterdam and Barcelona. The project is called Tel-O-Fun, and you can read more about it on the web. The project works pretty well as far as we can tell, mostly because there are many, many Tel-O-Fun locations all over Tel Aviv, and you do not need to book a bike in advance. Basically there is typically a rack near most Tel Aviv apartment rental. You leave your short term apartment, just pick one up when you feel like it. You can buy both daily, weekly and monthly subscriptions, depending on your needs. You will need to be at least 18 years old, however, and have a valid credit card of your own. Residents of Tel Aviv get a discount.

The terminals you use when renting the bikes have instructions in both English, Hebrew and Arabic, so using these terminals should not be a problem even if you are not fluent in Hebrew. All of the Tel-O-Fun bikes are suitable for men and women alike. And riding to and from your short term apartment in Tel Aviv is easy. Tel Aviv is rather flat (unless you go deep into Jaffa), which makes it great for bicycling. Even some of the most attractive areas of the city, including the beach as well as the Ha Yarkon park, are great places to bicycle since they are very flat. Bicycle thefts are however pretty common, so keep an eye on your bicycle if you end up renting one.