Tel Aviv District Travel Forum

There you go again! Yes, I'm going to Tel Aviv and the direct flight fare jumped 200euros in just a second and I'm now looking at cheaper alternatives. There's a flight between paris and tel aviv that would make me arrive at 3am. Do you know how much a taxi costs to go to RAhanana?
Are there cheap motels I could book in advance?
Worst case scenario, can i stay in the airport and wait for my sister to pick me up?

Thank you again!

Never took a taxi form the airport to Rannana, but a taxi to Tel-Aviv is around 100 shekels. So, it would probably be around 150 shekels to Raanana (around 30 euros). If you are willing to wait a little, you can take the train from the terminal to Tel-Aviv at 5:15 am. From Tel-Aviv you can either take a bus to Raanana. Or take a train to Kfar-Saba which is the town right next to Raanana. From where your sister can pick you up.

If you arrive at 3:00 am, it would probably be around 4:00 am by the time you're done with customs, passport control and baggage claim. So, you don't really need a motel.

Kfar Saba Railway Station and Sokolov Railway Station is one and the same station according to this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kfar_Saba_Sokolov_Railway_Station

You can find RaŽanana and Kfar Saba on eMap http://www2.emap.co.il/eng_index.asp

The website of Israel Railways: http://www.rail.org.il/english/

Moshe BARAK - Special Taxi Service All Over Israel: http://www.israel-taxi.com/site/detail/detail/detailDetail.asp?detail_id=489599
Regards Jesper

It's not allowed to hire a taxi to take you FROM the airport as they have franchise. You can take any taxi you want to the airport and these taxis can pick a passenger from the airport on thei way back. But, they mustn't go empty to the airport to take a passenger. Anyway, there is a taxi service in the airport and the taxis should charge according to the formal price list.

In my experience, it's cheaper to have the meter running and not pay the fixed price.

There is no need to force your sister to drive all the way to the airport. As mentioned, take the train. The question is: To where?
You have 3 options:
(1) Take the train to the University station. This is the station closest to Raanana without having to transfer trains. It takes about 20 minutes.
(2) Same as (1), but transfer to train to Herzliya (one stop). This takes you closer to Raanana and makes it easier for your sister to pick you up. Add another 10 minutes to option (1).
(3) Same as (1), but transfer to train to Kfar Saba. This station is the closest one to Raanana, but the trip takes about one hour - and you may have to wait a bit between trains at that early hour.

The advantage to (1) is that you don't have to transfer trains, but it makes it a little more difficult for your sister (however, at that hour, traffic shouldn't be a problem).
The advantage to (2) is that it makes it a little easier for your sister.
The advantage to (3) is that it makes it *much* easier on your sister, as she only has a 5-10 drive *and* she can get up about an hour later.

Choose which is best for the both of you. :)

Hi and Shalom:
It is an easy drive from Rahanana for your sister, have her pick you up instead of spending all that money on taxi's/trains, not to mention the time and effort if your are handling both a baby and luggage.
We often drive up from Arad (2 hours each way) to pick up friends arriving at the airport, from Rahanana its easy.
If you are staying with your sister, why the hotel/motel?, and where are you looking for a hotel, in what city/area?
Martin

Martin is the only one with sense here!

Of course you should wait at the airport for your sister to pick you up. No way are you going to want to deal with luggage, a baby and trains.

The airport is open 24/7. You are in a protected place with drinks/food available.

Relax! Remember if you get uptight, your baby is going to get upset too!

The train station in the airport is right in the terminal. It's really easy to get there, even with luggage. As written above, all options are feasibles and it's up to you to decide how much would you like to trouble your sister and how much trouble would you go through.

Hahaha, thanks unaS, at last someone sees the truth...^O^
But sorry can't really take credit for being more sensible, just more experienced, we have traveled with our daughter since she was 3 months old, doing trips of up to a month with her. From this we know the difficulties of handling luggage AND a child. As Gil said it can be done, it will just not be easy. Much easier for a friend or sister to help out.
Martin

Agree experience is the greatest teacher. I am an old granny and am aware of the same problems :)

A reply indicated that it is illegal for a taxi to go empty to the airport to pick up a passenger. That is untrue. Twice a year I have a cab from Netanya pick me up at the airport. He comes in, pays the required fee and waits for me. I know he does this because on our way out, we have to stop at a little booth and he has to hand in the paper that proves he paid his fee. It IS illegal for him to take a passenger OUT of the airpor, when he takes me for my return flight, t because of the aforementiond franchise. ( except when the airport is so busy that authorities try to get any cab to take passengers out)

The fee he pais is for getting out of the airport. All taxis should pay that. Like I said, a taxi shouldn't come to the airport to pick up passengers unless it brought passengers into the airport. In this case, the taxi is not required to go back empty and can take passengers. Of couse, there is nothing in the way of a taxi driver to go into the airport empty and then take a passenger. Nobody can tell whether or not he just dropped a passenger or not. The faxt that something is done doesn't mean it's legal. A related example, there a re lot of unlicensed vans picking passengers from Tel-Aviv to Natanya, Haifa, etc. Sometimes they are caught by drivers of the licensed cabs and buses, but most of the times they are not.

And, make sure that you are not paying double the price for asking a taxi driver to come and pick you from the airport.