Staying at the Carlton on the beach in Tel Aviv

We stayed at the Carlton for a few days as Ann was attending a conference/celebration for ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation and Training). This is a charity that was founded in Tzarist Russia to give people a useful trade when they emigrated to the US. We have given quite a bit of money to ORT over the years. The conference lasted from Thursday Oct 18 through Sunday Oct 21.
 
The Carlton is a five star place.  One of the reasons for this rating is the views.

The first image is a view from our room which faced west. You can see the skyscrapers of eastern Tel Aviv and western Ramat Gan.  The buildings closest to the hotel are of 60s vintage and pretty shabby on the outside but based on our view, they are nice on the inside.  

I tried to find out information about the tower that looked like Gumby but couldn't. We did have a view of what is called 'Crazy House'. I purposely left an image of this off my blog because I think it's ugly and stupid, but you can follow the link in the previous sentence if you want to see it. 

Another reason for the five star rating is because the Carlton has a rooftop swimming pool and hot tub. The second image shows the pool at the Carlton with the Mediterranean Sea in the background. 





The third image shows me looking north (literally) up the coast. It is taken from the roof pool garden of the Carlton. The Hilton, which takes up much of the view is of mid 70s design and 80s construction and inspired when architects thought concrete buildings should emphasize their concreteness.  It is sometimes called the brutalist period.  

There are some beach areas between the Hilton and the Carlton. I swam in one of them. The water was comfortably warm, probably about 80F and the temperature was in the mid 80sF during that day.  A few days after we left the Carlton for Ramat Gan there was some rain, and it cooled off quite a bit.



The fourth image shows me looking south (again literally). It is also taken from the roof of the Carlton. Between the hotels and the beach is the Tel Aviv to Jaffe promenade.  

  The promenade was, at the time of our visit, about 4 miles long. 

 In the background (near the top of the part of the image below the sky) is the Jaffe prominence which is the south end of the promenade. Just north of the Hilton is the north end of the promenade.

There are joggers, Segway users, bikes, electronic scooters, etc. on the promenade at various times.  These devices are also on many streets and sidewalks and it makes being a pedestrian more of a challenge than it used to be.

Our breakfasts were on the ocean side of the promenade rather than in the hotel so we had an even closer view of the Mediterranean while we ate.  
 
The breakfast was big and fancy and include both Champagne and Vodka for those who wanted that for breakfast (fifth image is from the hotel's web page).

One of the amusing things at the hotel was the sabbath service I attended. It was a sefardi bar mitzvah and the 'friends' of the bar mitzvah kid brought about a gallon of candy to throw at him. As it was a rather small space, the kid had difficulty protecting himself and was pummeled thoroughly. I did get some of the candy and it was soft so it may not have hurt.  Irritatingly, some of the people attending took took cell phone photos during the service (including while the bar mitzvah was reading the maftir) but I don't think I was in any of the photos. 

A funny thing happened at check out. Motzei Sabbath we had a supper at the hotel restaurant.  The total of our charges (we also had other charges than just that supper) was $135. At checkout, the bill for this line item was only $85.  So I asked what happened. The checkout clerk went through the items we had for dinner but left some out. I asked, "so you didn't charge for the cheese." The clerk said, "You were such nice guests that the cheese is free for you."

After researching this, I found out that we got a $50 discount on anything we bought (it actually says this on the overlay of the fifth image) since we had a 3 day stay at the hotel but, anyway, kudos for the quick thinking desk clerk.