Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv was planned to be a quiet suburb. No shops, no restaurants, no alcohol. One kiosk, permitted to close early. Today, the area where that kiosk stood is the beating heart of the city's pub and club scene, where no one goes to sleep before 4am.

That improbable arc from sand dunes to UNESCO-listed White City to Startup Nation is what makes Tel Aviv so exhilarating – and so hard to navigate on your own. There's Neve Tzedek, Israel's first neighbourhood, cobblestoned and quietly elegant. There's Jaffa, whose port was already ancient when Greek mythology named it. There's Rothschild Boulevard, where Ben-Gurion declared independence in 1948. Each one is a different city.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours are your way into all of them. Follow local storytellers – including the descendants of Tel Aviv's founding families – through Bauhaus boulevards, Ottoman alleyways, and Gan HaHashmal's buzzing design district. When the Mediterranean heat demands a swim, just hit pause.

Download the app. Put in your earbuds. Let Tel Aviv surprise you.