I travelled from Hastings to Gatwick by train, there is a train station integrated into Gatwick making it very easy to move from one to another with your luggage. Gatwick to Riga and Riga to Tel Aviv on Air Baltic. This is one of those airlines that charges extra for everything 35 euro for a 20 kg suitcase, 12 euro for a meal and there is no entertainment system at all but there was plenty of legroom. At Tel Aviv immigration they did not stamp my passport but gave me a small card as a 3 month visa, it has to be carried with your passport and shown when you leave the country. There are a few ATM’s at the airport and you will need cash to buy your train or bus ticket. Do not buy a SIM card here, they are 3 times the price of an identical one you get in the city. There is a train station in the airport and the fare into the city is 13.50 shekels, all the machines speak English.

Tel Aviv – second largest city in Israel with a population of 435,000. It is a mix of Middle east and western cultures, some parts of the city are old and some new and modern. Jaffa is the original city and the Arab area, it is now part of Tel Aviv. The best part is the stretch of coast from the old Tel Aviv port area to Jaffa, a distance of about 5 km which has been developed with boardwalks, beaches and parks. The first shock you get is when you see the prices on a menu, this is an expensive city on par with or more expensive than most European cities. The sabbath starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday, everything is closed including public transport, no trains or busses. SIM cards are quite reasonable NIS 100 on the “019” network for unlimited calls and SMS and 9 GB data, it started working immediately. 10 shekels is approximately $3.