Tel Aviv shopping ranges from many old-fashioned traditional small workshops, such as tailors, to the latest high-tech merchandise to the height of designer fashion. Popular purchases include clothing, leather goods, souvenirs, artworks and paintings, fine silverware and jewellery, Judaica and antiques, especially on Ben Yehuda, Allenby and Dizengoff Streets.

As there is no distinction between tourist and residential areas, shopping venues are generally aimed at locals and are therefore reasonably priced. These range from outdoor markets selling food and clothes to chic European and Israeli designer boutiques.

There is something of a struggle going on at present in Tel Aviv between shopping streets and purpose-built malls. An effort is being made to revitalise Dizengoff Street, once the epitome of Israeli style but now sadly neglected in parts. The Dizengoff Centre at Dizengoff Square and the Azrieli Center on the Shalom junction are both styled on the traditional American mall, providing indoor shopping, dining and a cinema complex. The layout of the Dizengoff Centre, which crosses the street in overhead walkways, is confusing.

Designer names such as Gucci, Prada and Versace are concentrated on the huge circle of Hamedina Square, while Sheinkin Street (between Allenby and Rothschild) is the ‘trendiest' street, where many fashionable Tel Avivians buy their clothes and just hang out. For more upmarket shopping, the Diamond Exchange, 1 Jabotinsky, Ramat Gan, is one of the world's principal marketplaces for diamonds and precious stones.

Visitors seeking a more unusual shopping experience should venture to one of Tel Aviv's daily markets. Carmel Market (see Further Distractions) is located a few minutes' walk from the southern part of the beach. It is an ideal place to soak up the smells and sounds of the city's cultural diversity. Alongside it is the colourful craft market of Nahalat Binyamin.

Shuk Hapishpeshim, Jaffa's flea market, sells a fantastic assortment of second-hand items which it is hard to imagine anyone wanting - odd shoes, faulty electrical equipment, broken furniture and damaged jewellery! Yet among this eclectic collection, visitors may spot genuine antiques. Local gifts include hand-blown glass, ceramics, wood carvings and watercolour paintings.

Most shops open Sunday to Thursday 0900-1900 (some close 1300 and 1600). Markets are open Sunday to Thursday 0630-1900. Both shops and markets close early on Friday afternoons (often 1400) for Shabbat (the Sabbath), opening again on Sunday.

Value Added Tax (VAT), at a current rate of 15.5%, is quoted in the price of all goods and services. Tourists buying most goods at shops listed by the Ministry of Tourism (they display a sticker in the window) may be entitled to claim the tax back, provided the purchases at any one store cost US$100 or more, payment was made in foreign currency, and the items are exported in their entirety. Shoppers must obtain a special ‘Tax Refund Invoice' at the time of purchase. The shopkeeper should place the goods together with the special VAT refund invoice in a sealed and transparent nylon bag. Note that certain goods, including food, drink and tobacco, are not included in the scheme. The form must then be submitted at the airport or seaport on departure and the refund is generally issued after you have passed through passport control.