How do I pay for buses and trains in Tel Aviv?
Israel's public transport runs on the Rav-Kav smart card. Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality says you need one to board buses, and its tourism site describes the anonymous version most visitors use as "a one-time payment of 5 NIS". The municipality also lists four apps you can pay with instead: Moovit, Pango, Cello and HopOn.
There are three ways to get started:
A personal Rav-Kav with your name and a discount profile is a different product. Egged says it must be collected in person at an "Al-HaKav" station with a valid photo ID, and the ID types it lists are Israeli documents, so a short-stay visitor will normally use the anonymous card.
What does a ride cost, and is a day pass worth it?
Visit Tel Aviv says a bus ride within Tel Aviv costs 8 NIS, and that with that fare "you can take as many buses as you like within Tel Aviv as long as you don't exceed a 90-minute time frame". Rav-Kav Online, a licensed card-loading app, lists a city day pass at 17.50 NIS without trains or 23 NIS including trains.
The municipality's older public-transport page still shows 5.90 NIS per ride. The two tourism pages and Rav-Kav Online all give 8 NIS, so budget for 8 NIS and check the amount your app or the validator shows.
Combining the per-ride fare, the 90-minute window and the day-pass price gives a simple rule:
| Your day | Pay-as-you-go | Day pass | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Out and back, each leg within 90 minutes | 2 × 8 = 16 NIS | 17.50 NIS | Pay as you go |
| Three separate outings | 3 × 8 = 24 NIS | 17.50 NIS | Day pass |
| Two bus trips plus a train ride within the city | 16 NIS plus the train fare | 23 NIS (with trains) | Day pass with trains if the train fare is more than 7 NIS |
Rav-Kav Online describes these as passes for travel within the city, so do not assume one covers the airport train, which Visit Tel Aviv lists at 13.50 NIS. Pay that journey separately; see Ben Gurion Airport to Tel Aviv.
The Red Line light rail
The Red Line is the backbone of the city's new rail network. NTA, the company planning and building Tel Aviv's mass transit network, describes it as 24 km long, with 12 km in tunnels and 34 stations. It runs from central Petah Tikva through Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan to Arlozorov, then along Begin Street past Azrieli and down through Jaffa to Bat Yam. NTA quotes a train every 3.5 minutes.
The same Rav-Kav or app works on it. Like the mainline railway, it does not run on Shabbat: Visit Tel Aviv says service "stops on Friday afternoons, and resumes on Saturdays after sunset".
What runs in Tel Aviv on Shabbat?
From Friday afternoon to Saturday evening, Israel Railways trains and the Red Line stop, and airport bus 445 does not run either. Tel Aviv fills the gap with free weekend buses, and sheruts and taxis keep going. Which one fits depends on the hour.
| When | Trains and Red Line | Free weekend buses | Sheruts | Taxis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday before about 17:00 | Winding down, check the last departure | Not yet running | Running | Metered, standard rate in daytime |
| Friday 17:00–02:00 | Not running | Running, about every 30 min | Running, a few shekels more | Metered, 25% more |
| Saturday 09:30–18:00 | Not running | Running, about every 30 min | Running, a few shekels more | Metered, 25% more |
| Saturday after sunset | Resuming | Finished at 18:00 | Running | Metered, 25% more at night |
The municipality runs the free weekend buses on Fridays from 17:00 to 02:00 and on Saturdays from 09:30 to 18:00, at roughly half-hourly intervals, on lines 705–717, 721–723 and 729. Food and alcohol are not allowed on board, but water is.
Sheruts are shared minibuses on fixed routes. The municipality says their fares are "similar to bus fares", that they operate on Friday nights and Saturdays with fares "a few shekels" higher, and names lines 4 (Central Bus Station via Allenby and Ben Yehuda streets) and 5 (Central Bus Station via Rothschild Boulevard and Dizengoff Center).
Taxis run throughout the weekend. Visit Tel Aviv says fares are metered and that night, Saturday and holiday rates are 25% higher.
Heading to or from the airport on Shabbat
With no trains and no bus 445 on Shabbat, most visitors take a taxi from the official rank at Ben Gurion. Our airport transfer guide covers the taxi rank, the train timings either side of Shabbat and a newer free Saturday route. If you are driving instead, see Highway 6 tolls in a rental car.