Luna Park, Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv’s Lunar Park is possibly the ultimate destination in the Holy Land for kids. No, it has nothing to do with the moon despite being called Luna, it is in fact the biggest and best amusement park in Israel. It’s impressively big, for Israel, and has an impressive number of rides and attractions, surely enough to keep the littluns, and bigger littluns, busy for a few hours.

Located on the northern outskirts of Tel Aviv it’s very easy to get to, either by public transport, or by taxi. There really is a ton of options - for further details of how to get there, check out the Luna Park’s website. The Luna Park is open on weekends and holidays, and also some evenings but this is mainly in the summer I believe (the website isn’t so clear on this, so maybe call them to confirm, 03-6427080).

You should probably allow a few hours for your visit. Don’t worry, there are plenty of places to have a break and a snack. And if you fancy getting out for some peace and quiet, just across the road from the Luna Park is Ganei Yehoshua (Yehoshua Gardens), where you can chill out, have a picnic or even a BBQ.

My last visit to the Luna Park was a couple of years ago when I was forced to offer offered my babysitting services to my wife’s two little nephews. My lesson: never ever let kids know in advance they will be going somewhere exciting, they will never let it drop. Never.

Anyway, the kids enjoyed themselves, which is the main thing. I took some pictures of some of the rides, including the two below. The first picture shows a ride that I didn’t go on, being tossed back and forth and then hurled upside down just didn’t grab me, especially after a big schwarma. The charmingly crap hip hop music that went with the ride didn’t help. The second picture is of the “Hearts and Diamonds”, or “the Plate” in Hebrew, where the force of gravity takes over as you spin crazily round. And round, and round…again, not recommended after a big, juicy shwarma.

Some of the old classics can be found in the Luna Park, such as the Bumper cars and Ghost Train (long, long queues), which is still scaring the little ones, quite amazingly considering the amount of crap their little minds are subjected to these days. Also, the Pirate ship which rocks back and forth to reach an alarmingly high angle scares the hell out of everybody, especially if you sit at either end of the ship.

Save your best ride for last, the Anaconda. This is quite a decent roller coaster ride, and to be honest, for 1 minute and 48 seconds it had me hanging on for dear life, though probably wasn’t quite as scary as I thought it would be. But those G forces don’t half do some things to your body. This ride is also perfect if you want a little nephew to learn new expletives in English, a compact 1 minute 48 second lesson in how to express yourself in times of stress…

Highly recommended for the kids.

Address: Rokah Boulevard, opposite the Ganei Yehoshua parking lot
Telephone: 03-6427080