Hi there!
I was thrilled to be invited to a seaside trip, courtesy of Ashdod’s Tourism office. It was full of activities, amazing food and fun so I’m happy to share it with you.
Trip Itinerary Options
Breakfast at Aramis on ‘Lido Beach’
Group Tour of the Port of Ashdod
Surfing at Lee Gal on ‘Lido Beach’
Yacht sailing tour from the Marina
Municipal Project ‘Hofix’ for Teenagers
Touchable sculptures on ‘HaKshatot Beach’
Lunch feast at ‘Vox RestoBar’ on ‘HaKshatot Beach’
Trip Anchors
Port of Ashdod
The “bad news” is that you can only visit the port as part of a group bus-tour. The “good news” is that the Municipality organizes group tours once a month and the Port itself organizes a group tour every Sukkot Holiday (Feast of the Tabernacles usually around September), which you can register for. The group tours are suitable for ages 9 and above and you’ll need to bring photo ID.
The visit takes about an hour and includes an introductory meeting at the visitors’ center with a film and a number of interactive games that demonstrate different aspects of the port’s functions followed by a bus tour of the port itself.
Ashdod Tourism Phone: 08-9568242
Port Visitors Center: 08-8517568
Surfing at Lee Gal, Lido Beach
If you want to take a surfing lesson with two first place surfing champions in Israel, you are welcome to visit the siblings Gal Dahan and his sister Shiran Buchbut Dahan, owners of the Lee Gal school, club and café in Ashdod.
Lessons are suitable for children aged 6 and above who know how to swim. They also teach sailing on SAPs and do kayaking. If you live in Israel, they even have summer camps for children teaching all of the above. They are open daily including weekends. The café is open on weekends and serves kosher food without a kosher stamp of approval (i.e. no seafood etc.).
Yacht Sailing Tour, Marina
Captain Jackie Savag offers yacht tours like the one we took, group tours on a bigger boat called ‘Israel-1’ suitable for big groups and extreme sailing on banana boats.
Boat Rentals Phone: 052-3271774, 052-841944 and 052-8361980
Additional Options
Although we had a delightful breakfast at Aramis, just meters away from the sea, I was under the impression that it was no less charming for evening entertainment. Now that the FIFA world cup series is ongoing, you can sit, preferably outside in the breeze, and watch the games, while having a Mediterranean style meal. Roman Kabilov, one of the "musketeer" partners welcomes you!
Municipal Project ‘Hofix’ for Teenagers, All Beaches
‘Hof’ in Hebrew means beach. The municipality has a special arrangement that both employs and serves teenagers aged 14-18 on al the beaches. In short, it’s a cheap rental service of beach chairs, sunshades and equipment. Each piece is rented at 2 NIS.
The Hofix kids are located next to the lifeguards’ huts. We even visited the lifeguards who told us about their work. Ashdod has seven lifeguard huts throughout its beaches that all meet an international standard for declared beaches. The standard defines a number of criteria for proper management including safety and cleanliness. Most importantly, all the beaches in Ashdod have free entrance and free parking.
Touchable Sculptures on HaKshatot Beach
This is a new artistic project for the public that was organized by Ashdod Tourism. Sculptors were given the leftover tetrapods that were used to build the piers for decoration. These were then placed in a number of locations in the city. We met one of the central sculptors at work, Eliasaf Miara who told us about the technical challenges of painting objects exposed to the salt and weather conditions on the beach. Despite the difficulties, I think they were able to create a delightful arrangement perfect for selfies and playful children. You’re not only allowed to, you’re invited to touch them!
Lunch Feast at Vox RestoBar, HaKshatot Beach
I’m calling it a feast because that is the lavish experience that we had. Vox RestoBar is a local restaurant that specializes in Georgian and European cuisine. It has two leading chefs each responsible for one of the cuisine styles. The photo below depicts the manageress in the middle, the two lead chefs and our attentive waiters. In addition, as its name suggests, the place has Karaoke nights on Thursdays and Fridays.
Our meal began with a sample of regular starters: salads, a beef carpaccio, paté de fois gras and caviar blintzes.
It continued with Georgian starters: Emroli (a cheese filled pie), Sambusiki (cheese dumplings), Hinkali and Chiburiki (two kinds of meat dumplings) and Khachapuri (an egg and cheese boat).
It moved on to the main course - a terrific mixed grill:
and concluded with mouth-watering desserts:
Food
This post is all inclusive.
Accomodation
I am linking the following hotels: ‘West Boutique Hotel Ashdod’, ‘Leonardo Plaza Ashdod’ and ‘Sur la Mer Boutique Hotel’’.
My Timeline
This trip took a day.
This is what it looks like on the map:
Best,
Talma
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