Is Tel Aviv LGBTQ-friendly?

For a couple, the best base is the grid between Rothschild Boulevard and Neve Tzedek, where most evening plans are a 15-minute walk away. Hotel Montefiore on Montefiore Street has about a dozen rooms above its own brasserie, so an anniversary dinner needs no taxi. Brown TLV on Kalisher Street has a rooftop bar and markets openly to gay couples. The entry rooms are tight, so if you want space for two open suitcases, pay for the next category up. Both hotels sit a short walk from the Carmel Market, which matters when one of you wants a slow breakfast and the other wants to be out the door by 9am.

The split day works best on a weekday. The food lover takes the Carmel Market at opening, when the stalls smell of cumin, wet fish and warm pita, then walks south to the delis on Levinsky Street for pickled lemons and borekas. The history lover rides north to Ramat Aviv, where the Eretz Israel Museum and the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot are about 10 minutes apart on foot, near Tel Aviv University. Two museums, one taxi. Then meet on the northern beach described above, before sunset. On 19 October the afternoon was 25.5°C and partly cloudy, warm enough that the sand still held its heat at dusk and the sea sounded louder than the traffic on Herbert Samuel.

Choose dinner by mood. Port Said, beside the Great Synagogue on Har Sinai Street, is loud, plays vinyl and serves charred cauliflower and grilled meat on the pavement, elbow to elbow with strangers. Bookings there are hard to get, so arrive before 7pm. For a quieter meal, the brasserie under your Montefiore Street hotel earns its place, with window tables that suit a slow anniversary dinner. Cocktails across the centre cost around ₪60, about $19 at the mid-October rate of 3.09 shekels to the dollar. After dinner, take the bar from the scene list for a drink where you can hear each other.

Two honest caveats. Pride week in June fills every boutique room and brings stag-party energy to the beach, so couples planning a quiet anniversary should come in October or April. Tolerance stops at the city limits, too: Jerusalem, 60 km east, is far more religious, and at its 2015 Pride march an ultra-Orthodox man stabbed six marchers and killed 16-year-old Shira Banki. Go on a day trip, but save the hand-holding for Tel Aviv. Public buses stop from Friday afternoon until Saturday night, so plan Shabbat around walking, rental bikes, or the city's free weekend Naim shuttles.