When transgender singer Dana International became the first Israeli to triumph at the Eurovision Song Contest, she managed something the world’s great foreign policy strategists have still failed to achieve.

Thanks to an irresistible pop nugget called Diva, she brought Orthodox Jews and Palestinians together: both sides agreed her success was an affront to decency.

Not content with one slice of glory in Birmingham in 1998, Dana returned for more Eurovision action in 2011. Sadly, the self-penned Ding Dong didn’t ring viewers’ bells.

Yaran Cohen (as she was formerly known) is celebrated in the Western-gazing city where she cut her garters.

“The city rejoiced when she won,” says Liam Azordegan, a Baha’i who lived up the coast in Haifa back in the late 1990s and remembers the celebrations.

“Everybody waved flags and danced in the street. Not so different to any typical Friday night.”

The singer is a good motif for modern Tel Aviv. The capital is a secular city with a young (more than half are under 35 years old) and open-minded population.

The shabby chic bars, smart cocktail joints and hip nightclubs start late and finish early the next morning. Even on Fridays – the Shabbat, which runs through till three stars are in the sky on Saturday – an international and liberal crowd will be knocking back the local brew, Goldstar.

Bars such as Jimmy Who, a Soviet-style windowless bunker with a good-looking crowd in self-conscious vintage; Nanuchka, run by Georgian immigrants for 20 years and always rammed for dinner or dancing, and Betty Ford, a 1950s-themed place with an artsy crowd, are huddled together around the lower end of Rothschild Avenue.

The tree-lined boulevard named after the Jewish financiers is a place to stroll during the day. At its lower end is the city’s first house, which is now a “vice bar” and where the locals joke you can find a wife for the night. At number 16 is Independence Hall where, in 1948, Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel.

Just up the road is a commemorative monument to the 66 Jewish families who were the first inhabitants of a new town laid out to English urban planning principles next to the Arab port of Jaffa, built by Meir Dizengoff.

Head up to the northern end of Rothschild Avenue, past the New York-style coffee pods serving espressos and salads, and on to the rows and rows of impressive and surprising Bauhaus houses in mixed states of upkeep. There are more than 4,000 houses in the style and the area, nicknamed white city, is a UNESCO world heritage site.

It’s a walkable city and bustling and lively Carmel Market is 20 minutes south. Its artery, HaCarmel Street, is less a stroll and more a visual feast, with giant vats filled with dried fruits, nuts, hot breads and spices. Behind the stalls are bolt-hole cafes where you’ll find falafel and hummus, the country’s specialities.

Food is fusion. By day, the bakeries dish out potato and kosher cheese bureka pastries, which reveal the Ottoman influence. Try Bakery Said Abuelafia And Sons in Yeffet Square, opposite the clock tower.

Dr Shakshuka’s in Beit Eshel Street in Jaffa is the sort of place where the noise and heat from the kitchen in the evening matches the enthusiasm on the floor. It could be anywhere on the Mediterranean, and the chaos is its charm, with sharing plates of stuffed vegetables, fish, couscous and grilled meat flying back and forth.

It is the Med that meets the city but the long stretch of sand running for 6kms is more Miami. It goes from Jaffa port to the recently revamped Namal Tel Aviv port, which last year was the second most visited tourist site in Israel thanks to its wooden boardwalk and Friday Farmers’ Market.

The beach turns Tel Aviv from being a gateway to Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Red Sea into a city-break resort destination in its own right.

Early in the morning, surfers of all ages are out catching surprisingly sizable breaks before roller-blading bikini-clad fitness freaks and matkot (beach tennis) players arrive.

Then come promenaders and impromptu gatherings, who perch under the orange sky in front of the rows of high-rise hotels, including the unmissable Art Deco rainbow facade of Dan.

Away from the beach is a collection of distinctive neighbourhoods. Neve Tzedek, the first quarter to be built in the new city in 1887, has narrow streets and sun-bleached walls.

In Rokach Street is the Nahum Gutman Art Museum. It celebrates the Russian-born Israeli painter, sculptor and author who rebelled against European influences to form the first Israeli style. Gutman’s work educated generations of Israeli children about the country’s history and is an off-beat introduction for novices.

The artist called oranges the sweet gold. And up the hill to the old port of Jaffa, where the oranges flowed in and out and made the world’s oldest harbour tempting to imperialists and pilgrims en route to the Holy Land, is where the story of Tel Aviv begins.

A hundred years ago if you’d looked across Tel Aviv bay from Jaffa’s HaPisga Gardens you’d have seen rows of orange groves in the distance.

Today the view is of a modern Jewish city which calls Jaffa, with its quaint art galleries and antique shops in dusty cobbled streets laid by Egyptians more than 3,000 years ago, a neighbourhood.

The facts:

  • El Al offer flights from London Luton to Tel Aviv from £360.40 per person or from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv from £390.95 per person. To book, call 020 7121 1400 or visit www.elal.co.uk
  • For stopovers in London, Tune Hotel Kings Cross offers double rooms from £95 per night. To book, visit www.tunehotels.com
  • Dan Hotel Tel Aviv offers rooms from £257 per person, per night. To book, visit www.danhotels.com
  • For more information about Israel, visit www.thinkisrael.com