Rishon LeZion, Rishon LeZiyyon or just Rishon (Hebrew:ראשון לציון) is a city in Israel on the Coastal Strip, just south of Tel Aviv. Rishon is Israel's fourth largest city with a population of 221,500. Its name translates as 'first for Zion' suggesting its importance as, along with Petah Tikva, the first Zionist settlement in Israel, founded in 1882.

Get in

Map of Rishon LeZion

By bus

Buses number 19, 129, 174, 201 and 274 reach Rishon LeZion from Tel Aviv (30-45 minutes).

By car

Rishon is located on the crossroads of several major highways and roads. On the western side, highways 20 and 4 cross through the city. On the south, it's bordered by the relatively new highway 431 that provides an easy connection to Jerusalem. Also crossing through the mid-section of the city is road 412 which connects to Rehovot on the south and Beit Dagan and road 44 on the north.

By train

Rishon is connected to the Israeli Railway system via two stations

• 1 (Ha)Rishonim (הראשונים). located at the southern edge of the city, on the crossroads of highway 431 and road 412 
• 2 Moshe Dayan" station. a new station, located near the western industrial zone, on the crossroads of highway 20 and the Moshe Dayan boulevard 

Get around

Inside Rishon Lezion, Egged operates 9 internal buses that serve most parts of the city. Bus 21/21א is a seasonal bus that mainly operated at summer only but also can be operated on other school holidays. Most Egged and Dan buses that go to nearby cities like 19, 20, 85, 129, 174, 201 also can be used for internal service inside Rishon LeZion.

See

"Be'Ivrit" Garden

• 1 The Great Synogogue, Rotchild and Pinsker street corner. 
• 2 The Water Tower. in "Gan Ha'ir" garden, close to minucipality building 
• 3 Carmel Winery, Carmel street (in front of municipality building). 
• 4 City's history museum. 
• The administrative center of Edmond James de Rothschild, now a soldiers' memorial.
• The Well
• Beit Sefer Haviv, the first Hebrew School.
• 5 Gan Be'Ivrit (Garden in Hebrew). Largest garden (68 dumans) at the eastern side of the city, dedicated to the Hebrew language. Build on land that used to serve as military base. 

Do

The beach

• 1 Superland. Amusement park within an hour's drive from Tel Aviv. It is in the city of Rishon LeZion and is often visited by people from Tel Aviv seeking better thrills than the ones at Luna Park Tel Aviv. While it has fewer rides, the rides it has to offer are often bigger and built more for the thrill seeker in the family. The park has two rollercoasters. 
• Beach (Western end of 441 road). It would take you about 10 minutes by car from the city center to reach Rishon's beach, which is quite nice, if crowded on weekends. Further south is "Palmachim" beach. 
• 2 HaRova (הרובע, The quarter), Barshevski and Beker streets intersection. Nightlife center of eastern part of city 

Buy

Sculptures of mamouth and other creatures at the entrance to Cinema city

Rishon was known for many years for it's vast selection of malls and shopping centres. Most noticeable are:

• 1 G Rothschild Mall (Hebrew: קניון ג'י רוטשילד). Located at the very centre of the city on Rothschild boulevard 
• 2 Kenyon HaZahav (Hebrew: קניון הזהב). The city's biggest shopping mall located in the western industrial zone 
• 3 G Cinema City and G2 (ג'י סינמב סיטי וג'י 2), Moshe Dayan 32 (Near Kenyon Hazahav (the Golden Mall) and Mitcham G), ☏ 1-700-70-22-55NOCC. A shopping mall combined with a large movie theater. Includes many restaurants and more. Also it has 26 movie theaters, screening mostly American movies (in English) with Hebrew subtitles. And most importantly, features life-size dinosaur statues in the entrance. Be warned, though: it's usually very crowded and parking is scarce, especially at nighttime. Open at Friday night and Saturday too. 

Eat

• River - Asian kitchen
• Isadora - Chef's restaurant
• 1 SoHo, 5 Moshe Beker st., ☏ 03-965-8395NOCC. 10am - Last of gues. Sushi bar 
• La Familia & Francheska - Italian food
• Loft,Agadir,Black - Meats restaurant
• Cafe Polla - Coffee place with great breakfasts
• Max Brenner - Chocolate Bar
• Sunflower-. Quality Chinese Cuisine 
• 2 Cinema City (סינמה סיטי), Moshe Dayan 32 (Near Kenyon Hazahav (the Golden Mall) and Mitcham G), ☏ 1-700-70-22-55NOCC. A shopping mall mall combined with a large movie theater. Includes many restaurants, such as Japanika (Japanese cuisine), Giraffe (Asian), Teresa (pasta bar), Cafe Cafe Beach, Moses (American cuisine), Temple Bar (Irish pub) and more. Also it has 26 movie theaters, screening mostly American movies with Hebrew subtitles. And most importantly, features life-size dinosaur statues in the entrance. Be warned, though: it's usually very crowded and parking is scarce, especially at nighttime. Open at Friday night and Saturday too. 

Drink

• 1 Katza, Jabotinski 48 (Katzanelson street corner) (eastern end of Katzanelson street), ☏ 052-9128244NOCC. 
• 2 Barca, Herzel 34, ☏ 03-9643171NOCC, barcapub@gmail.com. 19:00-05:00. Pub dedicated to Bacelona's soccer team. Sunday's special is unlimited bear for 45 NIS (till 24:30). 

• 3 Sunflower, Jabotinsky 44 (Tarmav 32 coner), ☏ 03-9666871 / 03-9692026FORMATNOCC. Quality Chinese Cuisine 

Sleep

There are no hotels in Rishon LeZion but you can stay at the hotels in the cities Bat Yam and Tel Aviv that located north of Rishon LeZion.

Go next

Routes through Rishon LeTzion

Haifa ← Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, Petah Tikva ←	N  S	→ Ashdod, Ashkelon → Beer Sheba
Tel Aviv ← Holon, Bat Yam ←	N  S	→ Beer Sheba
Tel Aviv ←	W  E	→ Modi'in → Jerusalem