When I asked a colleague for a recommendation for a hotel where my wife and I could celebrate our 36th(“double chai”) wedding anniversary, my colleague didn’t hesitate. “The R48,” he replied. “It’s probably the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at – not just in Israel but anywhere in the world!”
After a recent stay, I would have to concur.
The R48 Hotel and Gardens, located at 48 Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv (hence the name) is an 11-room boutique hotel with a meticulously designed interior ensconced inside a classic Bauhaus-style building that had been for many years an abandoned eyesore used by drug dealers and the homeless.
No more.
In 2012, Canadian Jewish billionaire couple Heather Reisman (founder and CEO of Indigo Books and Music) and Gerald Schwartz (chairman of private equity firm Onex) bought the building, which is one of 4,000 or so boxy Bauhaus structures across the city that have earned Tel Aviv UNESCO world heritage status along with the nickname “the White City.”
Reisman and Schwartz already owned the building next door, housing the HESEG Foundation, which provides free university tuition to Lone Soldiers in Israel. But they’d never run a hotel before, so the Canadians partnered with Ruti and Mati Broudo, owners of the R2M Group, a key player in Tel Aviv’s tourist and culinary scene.
R2M operates restaurants, bars, live music venues and other properties including the Montefiore boutique hotel, the Norman and the Poli House.
The R48, which took ten years to refurbish and opened in 2022, is the crème de la crème of the growing R2M hospitality empire “The idea was to feel like you were going to your best friend’s house,” Reisman told Azure Magazine in 2023 – that is, if your best friend’s house sports rooms that start at around $2,000 a night.
The R48 experience starts before you even arrive. “Send us a WhatsApp 10 minutes before you get here and we’ll wait for you on the street,” Arielle, the cheery front desk manager who made aliyah 15 years ago from North America, wrote to us. And indeed, Arielle and valet/bellman Max were there to take our car and luggage – a nice touch given there’s no parking on Rothschild.
Arielle didn’t just check us in and point our way to the elevator; she walked us to our suite and explained all the high-tech devices we’d need to operate.
That included iPad screens throughout to control the lights, air conditioning and blackout shutters; instructions on how to “cast” one’s laptop or iPhone to one of the two flat-screen TVs; and how to operate the piece de la resistance – the suite’s Japanese toilet. Open the bathroom door and the toilet lid automatically rises as the unit gives itself a quick rinse. The seat is heated; when you’re done, there are three settings of spray, pulse and air dry.
To top it off, there’s also a second bathroom – if you’ve ever had to fight with your spouse over who gets to use the toilet in a normal hotel room, this is truly the height of luxury.
The minibar was more a maxibar – three drawers stuffed with drinks and snacks. Two of the most delicious blueberry muffins were waiting for us on the dining room table in addition to a bottle of wine, a tray of finger sandwiches, olives and some tasty slightly pickled cucumbers.
We stayed in the Garden Suite, a mid-level room for the R48. But there was nothing “mid” about this room, which at 80 square meters, was larger than our first apartment in Israel. At NIS 6,400 a night – equivalent to a month’s rent – it’s more than the Bauhaus Suite (at “just” NIS 3,500) but less than the penthouse (starting at NIS 10,500).
The furniture in the suite – and throughout the hotel – is from the French Studio Christian Liaigre and featurestulipwood, assamela and walnut. The tranquil garden outside the front lobby was helmed by Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, who also planned New York’s High Line elevated linear park.
When we visited, it was in the midst of the nerve-wracking “waiting period” before Hezbollah’s and Iran’s declared retaliation following Israel’s targeted assassinations in Beirut and Tehran. We debated for days whether it was prudent to take a vacation in Tel Aviv, the presumed epicenter for any attack. Our compromise: to stay close to the hotel and its bomb shelter. Rather than explore the city, we lounged around the foliage-rimmed rooftop pool – both the day we arrived and afterward.
For breakfast, don’t expect a classic Israeli buffet with endless fish, cheese and eggs. Instead, the buffet is served to your table. There were more of those delectable muffins, various kinds of bread and rolls, and omelets with a mound of smoked salmon on the side. Even without the all-you-can-eat ambiance, we still walked away stuffed.
It’s not that often that an elevator is a tourist attraction, but the R48’s is something special. When the team at AN+ Architects was working on the design, one of the original stairwells was beyond repair. In its place is a 360-degree glass lift that’s essentially an entire room complete with a couch to sit on and an enormous book of Annie Liebowitz photographs. The hotel is peppered with local Israeli art from well-known artists including Ori Gersht, Tal Shochat and Anis Ashkar.
If I had to come up with any complaints, there was but one; the windows weren’t particularly soundproof in our suite, so the sounds of the city crept in (and every garbage truck sounded to me like an air raid siren).
So, is the R48 “the best hotel in the world?” It’s certainly at the top of my list. For your next visit to Tel Aviv, it should be on yours, too.
My review of the R48 appeared in The Jerusalem Post.
Photo credits: Brian Blum and the R48 Hotel and Gardens.
