Two Israeli hotels have made it into Travel + Leisure magazine's 2014 It List, which introduces the 70 most promising new hotels in the world: The Ritz-Carlton in Herzliya and Alma Hotel & Lounge in Tel Aviv.
According to the magazine, the $180 million Ritz-Carlton opening, five years in the making, has "upped the ante on luxury in Israel ’sSilicon Valley, delivering a level of white-glove service that’s seldom found in the Holy Land…
"Inside the 197 rooms you’ll find Frette linens, Studio Gaia tubs, and mini-bars stocked with Max Brenner pralines. Head for the rooftop pool deck, where locals sip spice-infused cocktails while watching the sun dip behind the country’s largest marina."
Alma Hotel. 'Stylizes rooms, each designed with quirky objects' (Photo: Ziv Reinstein)
Alma Hotel was described as Tel Aviv’s coolest new boutique hotel, "an elegantly renovated townhouse of 15 stylized rooms, each designed with quirky objects such as leather-drum coffee tables and deer head wall sculptures made out of seashells.
- "Its celebrity chef, Yonatan Roshfeld, concocts Mediterranean tapas for the hotel’s buzzy restaurant, Alma Lounge: He’ll also conduct a cooking class upon request."
Travel + Leisure's It List is compiled every year by the New York-based magazine's writers and editors to include the "70 coolest new hotels that are changing the travel landscape."