Why Choosing a Hotel Near Ben Gurion Airport is Not Necessarily the Best Idea

Tourists who come to Israel and especially those who do this for business purposes often tend, while they are about to book a hotel in Israel, to search Google for the term "Hotels in Israel near the airport."

This is of course the logical thing to do if you arrive in New York or Chicago or London and want quick access between your hotel and the airport knowing that you are coming for a short time and especially for work purposes. But it is a bit less logical in the case of Israel.

Israel is a very small country and geographically narrow. This is in fact a coastal strip along which the majority of the population is concentrated, with a niche in the Jerusalem area and less condense areas in the Galilee and the Negev. Israel's first international airport (there is already a new airport in the Arava near Eilat) is located close to Tel Aviv and not so far away from Jerusalem – the two largest cities in Israel.

Only 40 minutes' drive is required if you are staying in Tel Aviv. In less than an hour you can check in. And that's when you don't search for "Close to Ben Gurion airport…"

So it is true that there is a hotel called "Sadot (Fields, in Hebrew), Ben-Gurion Airport." Despite its name, the hotel is not actually at the airport, but a 15 minute drive within the jurisdiction of Beer Yaakov and the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. This is a beautiful hotel with relatively high ratings from guests, but one should wonder whether this is the right place to choose even if quick access to the airport is a must.

As mentioned above, the distance between Ben Gurion airport and a hotel that meets the immediate definition "close to the airport" is only 20 minutes more. It is worthwhile to spend this time figuring out your plans while in a taxi or train on the way to a hotel in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

Of course, in both big cities the supply of hotels is much larger and more impressive. Some 300 hotels await you in Tel Aviv, some on the beach in areas with many tourists, others in commercial and business areas, both will make you feel a lot more in the business.