Israel Stay Hotels

The 18 Best Hotels in Israel (2026)

Updated July 2026 · 18 picks

The best hotels in Israel in 2026 include the Royal Beach in Eilat, The Norman in Tel Aviv and Beresheet over the Ramon Crater. Israel is small enough that you can stay in a restored Ottoman mansion, a Bauhaus townhouse and a desert lodge inside a single week. Below are eighteen hotels worth building a trip around.

The list at a glance

Royal Beach Eilat North Beach, on the promenade
The Norman Tel Aviv Nachmani Street, off Rothschild, Tel Aviv
Beresheet Mitzpe Ramon, Negev
The Jaffa Old Jaffa
Orient German Colony, top of Emek Refaim
Royal Beach Tel Aviv Seafront, north of the marina
The King David Jerusalem
Carmel Forest Spa Resort Carmel Forest Reserve, above Haifa
Mitzpe Hayamim Upper Galilee, between Rosh Pina and Safed
Mamilla Hotel Mamilla, Jerusalem
Kayma Ein Bokek, on the beachfront
Gomeh Sea of Galilee shore
The American Colony East Jerusalem
Publica Herzliya
Daroma Mitzpe Ramon
Efendi Hotel Old City, Akko
Ayala Galilee
The Scots Hotel Tiberias, Sea of Galilee

1. Royal Beach Eilat — North Beach, on the promenade

Israel's benchmark resort hotel — the one the rest of Eilat is measured against.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Families · Couples

The Royal Beach is the hotel most Israelis picture when they picture a domestic holiday: a large five-star on the Eilat promenade with a pool complex that has been copied across the country and never quite matched.

It earns its place on a national list less through luxury than through consistency at scale — several restaurants, a proper spa, and a standard that holds through the busiest festival weeks.

For a visitor building a trip around one resort stop, this is the Red Sea entry.

Good to know: Pair three nights here with a desert night at Mitzpe Ramon — the drive is two hours and the contrast is the point.

Google Maps Website

2. The Norman Tel Aviv — Nachmani Street, off Rothschild, Tel Aviv

Two restored 1920s townhouses, and the best-run luxury hotel in the city.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Solo

The Norman occupies two meticulously restored 1920s buildings on a quiet street just off Rothschild Boulevard, and it has been Tel Aviv's benchmark luxury hotel since it opened.

It is small by luxury-hotel standards, which is the point — the service is personal, the rooms are individually shaped by the buildings rather than laid out on a grid, and the rooftop pool and garden feel private rather than institutional. The location puts you in the middle of the city's best eating and walking without being on the noisy stretch of Rothschild.

It is expensive, and it is the hotel most people who know Tel Aviv would choose if someone else were paying.

Good to know: Ask about the rooms in the second building — they are quieter and several have private terraces.

Google Maps Website

3. Beresheet — Mitzpe Ramon, Negev

Israel’s best-known desert hotel — private plunge pools over the Ramon Crater.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Families

Beresheet sits on the rim of the Ramon Crater, and the rooms — many with private plunge pools — look straight out over it.

It is the property that made Mitzpe Ramon a luxury destination rather than a stop on the way to Eilat, and the desert setting does most of the work: gazelles on the paths, near-total silence, and some of the darkest skies in the country.

It is expensive and books out far ahead for weekends and holidays.

Good to know: Pay for a crater-view room with a plunge pool — an interior room here misses the entire point.

Google Maps Website

4. The Jaffa — Old Jaffa

A nineteenth-century French hospital and chapel, turned into a remarkable hotel.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples

The Jaffa occupies a converted nineteenth-century French hospital complex in Old Jaffa, complete with a preserved chapel that now serves as the hotel's lounge, alongside a contemporary wing designed by John Pawson.

The contrast between the restored stone and the new build is handled unusually well, and the excavated Crusader remains in the grounds are part of the hotel rather than an exhibit beside it. The pool courtyard is one of the more beautiful spaces in any Israeli hotel.

Jaffa is a fifteen-minute walk from central Tel Aviv and a completely different atmosphere — older, quieter and more layered. Staying here rather than on the seafront is a deliberate choice worth making.

Good to know: Have a drink in the chapel lounge even if you are not staying — it is worth seeing.

Google Maps Website

5. Orient — German Colony, top of Emek Refaim

The design hotel in the German Colony, built into restored Templer houses.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Groups

The Orient sits at the top of Emek Refaim in the German Colony, built around several restored nineteenth-century Templer buildings grafted onto a modern hotel.

It carries indoor and rooftop pools, a spa and Old City views, and the heritage rooms inside the original houses are the ones worth asking for.

The German Colony position means restaurants and cafes outside the door, with the Old City a short taxi ride rather than a walk.

Good to know: Ask specifically for a Templer-era heritage room — the modern wing is comfortable but ordinary.

Google Maps Website

6. Royal Beach Tel Aviv — Seafront, north of the marina

Isrotel’s Tel Aviv flagship — seafront, spa, and the business end of the chain.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Groups

The Royal Beach is Isrotel’s flagship in Tel Aviv, on the seafront with rooms looking over the Mediterranean.

It carries the facilities the chain’s top properties are built around — a full spa, a gourmet restaurant, a business lounge and event spaces — in a city where many hotels of similar price offer considerably less.

It is a short walk to the marina and Gordon Beach, and within reach of the Port on foot if you do not mind the distance.

Good to know: Sea-view rooms carry a real premium here; the spa is open to guests regardless of which side you face.

Google Maps Website

7. The King David — Jerusalem

Jerusalem's grand hotel since 1931, and still the address that carries weight.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Families · Couples

The King David opened in 1931 and has been Jerusalem's most prestigious hotel ever since, hosting most of the heads of state who have passed through the city. Its pink limestone facade and 1930s interiors have been maintained rather than modernised away.

The garden looks across to the Old City walls, and the whole place has a formality that has largely disappeared elsewhere. It is a hotel with a genuine sense of occasion, which is not something you can build from scratch.

It is not the most contemporary hotel in Jerusalem and does not try to be. If you want history and gravity, this is it.

Good to know: Ask for a room on the Old City side — the view is the reason to stay here.

Google Maps Website

8. Carmel Forest Spa Resort — Carmel Forest Reserve, above Haifa

Israel’s best-known adults-only spa resort, inside a forest reserve.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Solo

Carmel Forest sits inside the Carmel Forest Reserve above Haifa, and it is the spa resort most Israelis name first.

It is built entirely around the spa: an extensive treatment list, workshops and lectures, pools, and gourmet meals as part of the stay rather than as an add-on.

It is adults-oriented and deliberately remote — you go for the treatments and the forest, not for anything outside the gate.

Good to know: Rates usually bundle meals and some treatments — compare the full package, not the room rate.

Google Maps Website

9. Mitzpe Hayamim — Upper Galilee, between Rosh Pina and Safed

Farm-to-table spa hotel in the Galilee, with its own organic gardens.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples

Mitzpe Hayamim sits in the Upper Galilee between Rosh Pina and Safed, surrounded by orchards and gardens that supply its kitchen.

The farm-to-table restaurant is the reason people book, alongside a spa and a heated indoor pool, and the hotel has a long-standing reputation that predates its acquisition by Isrotel.

It is a driving base for the Galilee and the Golan rather than a hotel you stay inside all week — though plenty of guests do exactly that.

Good to know: The gardens are open to guests — walk them before dinner to see where the menu comes from.

Google Maps Website

10. Mamilla Hotel — Mamilla, Jerusalem

Contemporary design a few minutes' walk from the Jaffa Gate.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Groups

The Mamilla Hotel sits at the edge of the Mamilla district, a short walk from the Jaffa Gate, and it is the most convincingly contemporary of Jerusalem's luxury hotels — Piero Lissoni interiors, stone and glass, and a rooftop restaurant facing the Old City walls.

The location is the strongest of any hotel in the city for exploring on foot: the Old City in one direction, the city centre and Mamilla's shopping street in the other. For a short Jerusalem stay that is worth more than anything else.

The rooftop is open to non-residents and books out, so reserve it early in your stay rather than leaving it to the last night.

Good to know: Book the rooftop for sunset on your first evening — it orients you to the whole Old City.

Google Maps Website

11. Kayma — Ein Bokek, on the beachfront

The newest luxury build on the strip — suites, infinity pool, private beach.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples

Kayma is Isrotel’s newest Dead Sea property and the most expensive of the group’s three there: an all-suite resort with a seaside infinity pool, a spa and its own stretch of beachfront.

It is the only genuinely new-build luxury option on a strip where most hotels date from an earlier era, which is the whole argument for it.

Rates sit well above the neighbouring hotels, so it suits a short indulgent stay more than a week.

Good to know: Private beachfront is rare at Ein Bokek, where most hotels share the public shore — that is what the premium buys.

Google Maps Website

12. Gomeh — Sea of Galilee shore

Modern build on the Kinneret with a beach next door.

₪₪₪ UpmarketBest for Families · Couples

Gomeh is Isrotel’s hotel on the Sea of Galilee, a modern property with a beach adjacent to the grounds.

It is the newest-feeling option on a shoreline where a lot of the accommodation is dated, and the kitchen is a cut above what the Kinneret usually offers.

It works as a base for the Galilee, the Golan and the Jordan Valley, all within an easy drive.

Good to know: Kinneret water levels shift the beach considerably between seasons — check before booking for the swimming.

Google Maps Website

13. The American Colony — East Jerusalem

A nineteenth-century pasha's palace, and the most atmospheric hotel in Jerusalem.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples · Solo

The American Colony occupies a nineteenth-century Ottoman pasha's house in East Jerusalem, and it has spent more than a century as the city's most atmospheric hotel — a neutral meeting ground for journalists, diplomats and everyone else passing through.

The courtyard, the cellar bar and the gardens have a lived-in quality that no new hotel can manufacture, and the building itself is worth the stay. It sits slightly outside the tourist centre, which is part of its character.

It is a hotel with a long institutional memory and a genuinely distinctive atmosphere. If you have read anything written about Jerusalem in the last hundred years, some of it was probably written here.

Good to know: The Saturday brunch in the courtyard is a long-standing Jerusalem institution — book it.

Google Maps Website

14. Publica — Herzliya

Business hotel in Herzliya with a rooftop pool and bar.

₪₪₪ UpmarketBest for Solo · Couples

Publica is Isrotel’s Herzliya hotel, an urban business property with spacious rooms and an international guest mix.

The rooftop pool and bar are the leisure end of it; the rest is built for people working in Herzliya Pituach’s tech district.

It is a sensible base if your reason for being in Israel is north of Tel Aviv rather than in it.

Good to know: Herzliya’s beaches are quieter than Tel Aviv’s and ten minutes away.

Google Maps Website

15. Daroma — Mitzpe Ramon

The plain, affordable way to stay at the crater.

₪₪ Mid-rangeBest for Families · Solo

Daroma is the simplest of Isrotel’s desert hotels, sitting in the Ramon Crater landscape close to the area’s attractions.

It exists to make Mitzpe Ramon affordable — there is no attempt at the design ambition of Beresheet, and the rate reflects that.

For a trip built around hiking, stargazing and the crater itself rather than around the hotel, it is the sensible booking.

Good to know: Fine as a base if you are out all day — spend the saving on a guided night-sky session instead.

Google Maps Website

16. Efendi Hotel — Old City, Akko

Two Ottoman palaces restored over eight years, inside the walls of Akko.

₪₪₪₪ SplurgeBest for Couples

The Efendi is the result of an eight-year restoration of two Ottoman-era palaces inside Akko's walled Old City, carried out by Uri Jeremias of Uri Buri with conservation specialists.

The detail is extraordinary — painted ceilings, restored frescoes, a Turkish hammam in a 400-year-old Crusader cellar, and a rooftop looking over the sea and the Old City rooftops. There are only a dozen or so rooms, each different.

Akko is an under-visited UNESCO site an hour and a half north of Tel Aviv, and staying inside the walls rather than day-tripping is what makes it work. Combine it with dinner at Uri Buri, a few minutes' walk away.

Good to know: Book the hammam and book Uri Buri for dinner — both are a short walk and both need reserving.

Google Maps Website

17. Ayala — Galilee

The quiet, straightforward option in the Galilee.

₪₪ Mid-rangeBest for Families · Couples

Ayala is the plainest of Isrotel’s Galilee hotels, built around comfort and service rather than around a spa or a signature restaurant.

It suits travellers who want the chain’s consistency as a base for touring the north without paying Mitzpe Hayamim rates.

Expect a comfortable, unshowy stay and a location that puts the Galilee’s sites within reach.

Good to know: The saving over the Galilee’s spa hotels is large — worth it if you are out touring every day.

Google Maps Website

18. The Scots Hotel — Tiberias, Sea of Galilee

A converted Victorian mission hospital on the shore of the Kinneret.

₪₪₪ UpmarketBest for Couples · Families

The Scots Hotel occupies a nineteenth-century Scottish mission hospital on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias, built in black basalt and set in gardens running down toward the water.

It is by some distance the most characterful place to stay on the Kinneret, and it makes a much better base for the Galilee than the resort hotels along the lakefront. The gardens and the historic buildings are a genuine pleasure to spend time in.

Tiberias is a practical centre for the whole Lower Galilee — Nazareth, the Golan wineries, the Jesus Trail sites and the lake itself are all within easy reach.

Good to know: Ask for a room in the original stone buildings rather than the newer wing.

Google Maps Website

Frequently asked questions

How expensive are hotels in Israel?

More than most visitors expect. Israel is an expensive country and its hotel market is small, so rates in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are comparable to Western European capitals. Prices spike sharply around Pesach, Sukkot and Rosh Hashanah, when domestic demand is at its highest, and drop noticeably in winter outside Eilat and the Dead Sea.

Are Israeli hotels kosher?

The large majority are, including nearly all the well-known ones, which is why hotel breakfasts in Israel are dairy and dinners are typically meat. It also means the kitchens close for Shabbat, with meals arranged in advance. A handful of boutique hotels, mostly in Tel Aviv and Jaffa, are not kosher.

When is the best time to visit Israel?

Spring, roughly March to May, and autumn, September to November, are the most comfortable. Summer is hot and humid on the coast and genuinely severe in the desert and the Dead Sea. Winter is mild on the coast, cold and occasionally snowy in Jerusalem, and the best time for Eilat and the Negev.

Should I stay in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?

Both, if you have the time — they are an hour apart and completely different cities. Tel Aviv for beach, food and nightlife; Jerusalem for history, the Old City and the museums. Splitting a week between the two is the standard approach and it works.

Do Israeli hotels include breakfast?

Almost always, and the Israeli hotel breakfast is a genuine feature rather than a formality — an extensive dairy buffet of salads, cheeses, fish, eggs, breads and pastries. It is substantial enough that most guests skip lunch, which is worth factoring into a day's planning.

1. Royal Beach Eilat — North Beach, on the promenade

2. The Norman Tel Aviv — Nachmani Street, off Rothschild, Tel Aviv

3. Beresheet — Mitzpe Ramon, Negev

4. The Jaffa — Old Jaffa

5. Orient — German Colony, top of Emek Refaim

6. Royal Beach Tel Aviv — Seafront, north of the marina

7. The King David — Jerusalem

8. Carmel Forest Spa Resort — Carmel Forest Reserve, above Haifa

9. Mitzpe Hayamim — Upper Galilee, between Rosh Pina and Safed

10. Mamilla Hotel — Mamilla, Jerusalem

11. Kayma — Ein Bokek, on the beachfront

12. Gomeh — Sea of Galilee shore

13. The American Colony — East Jerusalem

14. Publica — Herzliya

15. Daroma — Mitzpe Ramon

16. Efendi Hotel — Old City, Akko

17. Ayala — Galilee

18. The Scots Hotel — Tiberias, Sea of Galilee

Frequently asked questions

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