Lily & Bloom Hotel

It sounds like an English garden, or something from Martha Stewart Living. But if you know Tel Aviv, you’ll get the reference: Lily & Bloom is a smart boutique hotel on Lilienblum Street, that downtown thoroughfare of cool cafés, bars and shops. Indeed, Lily & Bloom isn’t a greenhouse, but a retro architectural gem.

The historic building, which dates from the 1930s, originally served as a branch of the one the city’s oldest banks. These days, after thoughtful renovations with the French owners at the helm, it feels more like a small design museum — one with a special Bauhaus exhibit — especially on the lobby level, where you’ll be hard-pressed to choose which impossibly sleek piece of furniture you’d like to sit on. But you’ll have opportunities to try out both that mod armchair and the plush green sofa if you stick around for one of Lily & Bloom’s frequent social events, from hosted happy hours to film screenings to lectures on art or philosophy.

Upstairs, 37 guest rooms and suites are stylish but practical, with parquet floors, built-in furniture, and crisp white linens. A few details, from framed artwork to duvets covered in geometric pattern, circle back to the Bauhaus theme. Nespresso machines, flat-screen TVs and free wi-fi come standard. None of the guest rooms at Lily & Bloom are particularly enormous — this is the beating heart of Tel Aviv, so you’re trading off the square footage for the location.

Head to the rooftop terrace for sweeping views over the city skyline and the Mediterranean Sea. Come for a complimentary yoga class, or just relax with a cup of tea or a 1930s-style cocktail from the hotel’s petite watering hole, Le Bar: take it from us, you might want to save your energy for everything else that's waiting for you just outside the front door of the hotel.