Rehovot

Introduction

Rehovot is a city in the Central District of Israel, sitting about 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. Its position makes it a straightforward base for exploring the central part of the country while staying outside the bigger city.

Before you go

Rehovot is an academic city, home to the Weizmann Institute of Science and to the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment of The Hebrew University. Founded in 1890 as one of the first modern Zionist settlements, its original core sits in central Rehovot around the junction of Herzl and Binyamin streets, where a number of historic sites remain. Herzl Street is still the city's main road, lined with shops and restaurants serving pizza, falafel, schwarma and Yemenite food.

Plan your days around three areas. West of the old city you'll find the shopping mall, which also serves as the central bus station and hosts weekly food festivals in summer, with the local fruit and vegetable market just outside on Bilu Street. Further north, Herzl Street reaches the two academic institutes and a developing hi-tech industrial park with many restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs; the train station is here too, just north of the Weizmann Institute across the tracks.

Getting there

The train is the easiest and fastest way into Rehovot. The line links the city with Ashkelon, Ashdod and Yavne to the south, and with Lod and Tel Aviv to the north; a normal ride to Tel Aviv takes about 25 minutes. Change at Lod or Tel Aviv for connections to other major destinations. Keep in mind that trains do not run on the Jewish Sabbath, from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening.

Various bus services also connect Rehovot with other major cities in the area. The central bus station is reached directly from the shopping mall, and most bus lines make additional pick-ups along Herzl street.

Getting around

Rehovot is a small town, and practically every place within it is reachable on foot; if your plans centre on the main commercial streets and the central area, walking is a genuinely viable way to get around rather than a fallback. Some destinations, particularly toward the edges of the built-up area or outlying neighbourhoods, will realistically require a car or a bus. Cycling is also part of how people move here, and a bike can extend your range beyond the central streets without much effort.

Public transport is bus-based. Egged runs a set of internal lines, some of them infrequent, so check schedules rather than assuming a bus will appear shortly; other companies serve the city too, with intercity routes linking Rehovot to Jerusalem and Beersheba. The busiest stop is Police/Herzl, a useful landmark for orienting yourself, and the central bus station is reached directly from the shopping mall. Many lines also pick up along Herzl Street, so you may not need to go all the way to the station. Paying is by Rav Kav, the standard card, on which monthly passes are available; don't expect to hand cash to the driver as your main method. The city's train station connects southward to Ashkelon, Ashdod and Yavne and northward to Lod and Tel Aviv, where you can change for the wider national network — but trains do not run on the Jewish Sabbath, from Friday afternoon until Saturday evening, so plan rail legs, including airport transfers, around that window and fall back on buses, taxis or a car.

Where to stay

Rehovot has a small choice of places to stay, so it pays to sort out your bed before you arrive rather than leaving it to chance. The options in the source are limited to a guesthouse-style stay at Vital's house and the Leonardo Boutique Rehovot hotel, so you can expect a quiet, low-key base rather than a wide spread of accommodation.

• Vital's house – a house-based stay, with phone and fax contact and an email address for enquiries.
• Leonardo Boutique Rehovot hotel – a hotel in the city, bookable through its own page.

Because the list is short, book ahead if you are travelling at a busy time, and confirm your reservation directly with the property using the contact details provided.

Food & drink

Most of the city's eating is concentrated in the northern hi-tech industrial park, where you'll find a cluster of restaurants covering a range of tastes. For meat, there's MOO v MOO, a steakhouse and barbecue spot of very high quality, alongside Black Burger and Hamburg, two similar meat restaurants (Black Burger is the pricier chain option). If you'd rather something else, try Papardella for Italian, Cezar for elegant French-style dining, or New York Bagles, a decorated bar. Arcaffe and Caffe-Caffe are the bar-cafe chains here, the latter a famous Israeli chain in a mediocre price range. The shopping mall also holds many fast food branches, including McDonald's.

For drinking, head to Herzl Street near the Weizmann Institute. La Morse is an Irish pub pouring a wide variety of Belgian ales on tap, drawing a mix of young locals and Weizmann Institute students and scientists, with alternative rock, classic rock and blues on the stereo. Cafe Ma is a slightly more high-brow bistro-bar with an extensive, high-quality food menu, while Vinona Wine Bar sits directly opposite the institute, offering a fine wine selection and a small menu of good food in a calm atmosphere. Herzl is a two-floor cafe with a relaxed feel. Up in the northern hi-tech park, Bira Nekuda is a versatile beer pub with dozens of taps and high-end beers, and Belkind Bar is a neighbourhood spot with good food at standard prices.

What to see and do

Rehovot's most distinctive sight is the Ayalon Institute, a secret underground bullet factory that operated in the years before Israeli statehood when the British authorities barred Jewish weapons production; the ammunition made there went on to be used in the 1948 War of Independence, and the site is now a museum that requires an advance reservation. History of a different kind awaits at the Josephson House, the first house in Rehovot, and at Ohel Sarah synagogue on Binyamin Street, the town's first synagogue, built at the top of a hill and worth seeing from the outside. The Minkov Citrus Orchard Museum tells the story of citrus growing in Rehovot and Israel as a whole, on the site of the town's first orchard.

For a slower pace, Smilansky Garden is a small park that feels more like a botanical garden, with a wide assortment of labelled herbs and trees in a cosy setting. Gan HaMeginim, known as Airplane Park, commemorates soldiers from Rehovot who have died: a Mystère fighter-bomber is mounted in memory of a pilot who stayed with his plane to bring it down away from populated areas, a memorial to fallen soldiers stands in the northeast, and an indoor memorial building in the south is worth a look through the front door even when closed, for the sunlight through its stained glass. On the Weizmann Institute grounds you can visit the Clore Garden of Science, a science museum with signs in Hebrew and English whose outdoor exhibits, the majority of the collection, close during the hot summer afternoons, and the Weizmann House, the former home of Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, now a museum.

Three days in Rehovot

Day one: Start in Rehovot itself, in the Central District of Israel, and get your bearings along Herzl Street, named for Herzl and part of the city's original plan. Notice the Yemenite character of the older streets and the way Binyamin and Bilu Street fit into the layout. As Friday turns toward the Jewish Sabbath, plan around the fact that various places close for Saturday, so keep the day simple and walk rather than relying on public transport.

Day two: Turn to the Weizmann Institute and its work in science, and to the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, which connects the city to the Hebrew University. Rehovot was founded in the Zionist period, and the institutions give the day its shape. If you want to move further out, Egged buses link the city with Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Yavne and Lod, so you can treat Rehovot as a base for the wider region.

Day three: Keep the pace easy and use cycling or public transport where it suits you, remembering that the Sabbath changes what runs on Friday and Saturday. Fill the time with the streets you have not yet covered and with the everyday side of the city rather than a checklist of sights. If you need help or directions, the police are on hand, and the central location makes a final loop back through town straightforward.