David Intercontinental Telaviv Tel Aviv

I stay at the David Inter everytime I go to Tel Aviv on business, which is quite often. The hotel works quite well for business. It's a 5 minute walk to the Israel's budding "financial district", and in front of the Mediterranean. This is a business hotel, though, meaning that if you are self-sufficient, don't require major organizing and assistance during your stay, and are up early and back late, you should have no problem. The rooms tend to be spacious, the beds acceptably comfortable, and bathrooms adequate. Recently, however, I went with my family and I quickly discovered that this is not a great relaxation hotel.

Breakfast on Saturday morning ends at 10 AM, but they try and stop people from coming in at 0945. I got in on the cusp and when I ordered coffee was told that they had shut down the machine because it was after 10! When I suggested that as they had let me and my daughters in they should provide full service, the waitress started arguing with me, to the point where the manager came over.

The pool closes at 1900, which in the summer, is ridiculous. This is perhaps the best part of any Eastern Med day, when the sun is low in the sky, it's nice and warm, and kicking back on a chaise longue is just a great way to end the day. No. Not at the David.

The "gym" - faggedaboutit! The machines are old and crammed into a long, narrow room which is glass plated on to the corridor leading to the pool and the spa. This is perhaps the only gym in the world where there are bowls of salted nuts in the reception area!

Despite the drawbacks, the location of the David is great. It sits across from two great beaches - Alma beach to the left, where the restaurant "Manta Ray" is located. Manta Ray is a great place to brunch, lunch or have dinner - but make reservations especially on Friday and Saturday nights! To the right of the hotel begins the unending stretch of the TA beachfront, with its succession of cafés and restaurants stretching 4 KM north to the Hilton. The David also sits at the entrance to the "Neve Tzedek" neighbourhood, one of TA's coolest areas - designer boutiques, cafés, bars and restaurants dot the back alleys of the city's oldest neighbourhood.

What Tel Aviv needs is a great vacation hotel. I would argue that the so-called 5 star hotels in TA were built at a time when people were perhaps willing to settle for less because "this is Israel", but those days are over. Tel Aviv hops. Tel Aviv is cool and trendy, and there's lots of money flying around - why can't there be a hotel to reflect the city's and the country's evolution??

Stayed at this hotel for 5 nights. Most, if not all, rooms have a view of the Med. Rooms are very spacious and well appointed. Bed was extremely comfortable. In-room safe and mini-bar. Large bath, with separate tub and shower. Directly across from the beach.

Highly recommend the club level rooms; there is constant food and drink. When I arrived on a Saturday evening, I was able to essentially eat dinner in the club lounge, which was good considering the restaurants didn't open until 8 p.m. due to the Sabbath. There is also breakfast, drinks in the evening, newspapers, and free interent access.

The pool is very nice. They give you one towel but, if you ask for 2 per person, you can get them. The gym looked to have up-to-date equipment.

The staff was very pleasant and all spoke excellent English. They are also very security conscious, but in an unobtrusive way.

Highly recommend this hotel for business travelers. Also saw honeymooners (wearing wedding attire), so this is probably a good hotel for tourists as well.

We stayed at David Intercontinental hotel 2 weeks ago for 6 days. The hotel is easy accesable by car and with the directions given from the hotel we had no problem driving there from the airport. Its a huge modern building just becide the beach road. The lobby is nice and the reception stuff was very welcoming, although no one offered to hepl us with our luggage. We had to change room as we were given a non spoking but quite smelly room on the 19th floor. In the other room we were given we had to complain about the mattress as it was in a very bad condition. Luckily the changed it immediately with a brand new one ! Overall the room was quite spacy, clean and spotless but the carpets were alittle shabby. Bathroom was nice too. Be aware that they charge for everything you moove in the minibar so check your room bill before you pay ! The breakfast buffet is excellent with alot of choices unless you want something with meat (like ham). Following the Judish tradition they don't serve meat with milk no where in the lobby !!! The most annoying thing for us (as we are both smokers) was that there wasn't any smoking area in the breakfast lounge so we had to take our cups of coffee and go out in the pool area. Plus they don't permit to take your coffee just 2 steps becide, at the bar where you can smoke but you have to order a new one and pay for it !!!

Security was high to all entrances of the hotel.

Generally its a good 5* hotel more proper for locals and business travelers than tourists.

Stayed here for one week's holiday at end march.Very much a business hotel giving impression of not being really interested in tourists. Swimming pool shut, nowhere to sit outside, very little room to sit inside unless you want to buy drinks or food.

Nice room with balcony but no chairs on balcony and street below very noisy.Breakfast okay but not very imaginative, restaurant looked very expensive but lots of reasonable restaurants nearby.

Near Jaffa end of Tel Aviv and good public beach across main rd.Probably as good as you can get in Tel Aviv, perhaps Herzlia better for holidays.

We stay at the Intercontinental David whenever we are in Tel Aviv. The hotel is immaculate, the rooms exceptionally well appointed, and the staff is friendly and professional. Security is visably vigilant. This hotel offers great value for the price, and it is worth spending extra to stay on one of the 'club' floors. The club on the 24th floor is outstanding.

I travel all over the world for business, see hotels of different styles and levels, but sometimes it's those little, personal touches that can set a stay apart... The Intercontinental is gorgeous, rooms are great, breakfast TO DIE FOR, and the staff couldn't be nicer. But to top it all off, it was my birthday while I stayed there, and I came back to my room from a long day of work to a bottle of wine and a box of delicious cookies with a card wishing me a Happy Birthday. Someone took the trouble to check the registry for birth dates, and with no prompting to give me a token that made my day. You know I'll be back...

We've stayed in the David many times, and we love it. Everything is top-notch, rooms, pool, staff, public areas, food. Only complaint is sometimes they run out of hot water for a little while, and you have to wait to take a shower. Oh, well, nothing is perfect.

The David is a good hotel - you won't go wrong. WiFi users note the hotel has many rooms in dead spots. No WiFi in the floors below 11. The connection in general is very slow, definitely NOT worth $20/day. Bring your dial up connection.

An excellent hotel just meters from great walking areas, restaurants and the seafront. A much better location overall than staying "downtown" and every time I have stayed there it was practically empty.

The staff is hugely friendly as was the staff running the shops within the hotel. The service in the jeweler is world-class. Everyone just gushes helpfulness, but you can see the strain in their eyes. They try desperately; telling you to pass on the great experiences so people will again come to Israel as tourists. They tell you about the safety but you can see in their eyes that even they don't believe it. Just far enough out from the center to be quiet and charming and just near enough for convenience.

I was in Tel Aviv on business in March '04 and stayed at the David Intercontinental. The Hotel was half empty - as are a lot of the Hotels at present - but it was very clean and comfortable. The Hotel is located about 5-10 minutes cab ride away from the financial district but is all the nicer for it. Great views from all rooms over the Med and about two minutes walk from the sea itself. There are a number of seafront restaurants within 5-10 minutes walking distance (located towards Jaffa) and a really excellent Chinese restaurant about 3 minutes walk away from the Hotel. The hotel had armed guards on the ramp up to main reception and visible security inside the hotel as well. All in all, a good, modern hotel and it was a pleasant stay. I'd recommend it for people who do not want to stay in the financial area itself.